14 February 2009 – Windsor, Ontario, Canada
Today, I met Barbara Eden, “Jeannie” of “I Dream of Jeannie.”
Much of the following account will not mean much unless you are an ardent fan of “I Dream of Jeannie” and/or Barbara Eden. However, I am posting it to record all my thoughts and impressions at this moment, while all the details are fresh, for those members of IDreamofJeannieFans.Net who were unable to attend with us.
This account is, obviously, biased toward my own recollections and does not include the details of what other people’s interactions may have been with Barbara this afternoon. This is in no way a slight against what they experienced, but simply I was likely taking photographs or looking at Barbara and everything else, at moments, was blur so I simply don’t remember those details.
Waking at 4am, (well, I woke, James stayed up all night working on a drawing) and headed up around 6am to Delphos, Ohio, to meet up with Brian Fetzer, Jeannie bottle artist and the owner and administrator of IDreamofJeannieFans.net at his home, so that he could touch up a small scrap I made in the paint on the lip of my bottle when putting the stopper in the bottle just after I had received it in July, 2008.
While I was there, I was able to see his room where he paints his bottles. While he touched up my bottle, I looked around the room, finding a few 1956 Old Grand Dad bottles and a first season bottle catching my attention.
Once touching up my bottle, we drove to a Flying J truck stop and had breakfast with Brian and his wife Mandy. Afterward, Brian played a claw machine at the truck stop, winning three teddy bears, one of which, an I Love Lucy bear, he gave to Nikki.
Leaving there, we drove up, via my parents’ GPS navigator, to the Macomb Center for the Performing Arts, where we again met up with Brian and Mandy, and later Nikki, her mom, Candy, and her husband.
After some chatting, we all headed into the theater, James and me finding our seats in the first row behind the orchestra pit.
The play, “Love Letters,” has a simple set up, two people, sit at a desk and, alternating, read letters they have written between themselves over their lifetimes.
When the play began, Barbara was seated on our side of the stage, in a glittering red dress by Bob Mackie, a large red bow in her hair. Don’t ask me what Hal Linden, her partner, was wearing; I hardly even looked at him. I think his tie was purple stripped, and his suit grey. I remember little else. As they exchanged letters, as Barbara, listening to the letter as it was read to her, would react to the letters as if reading them for the first time. I was amazingly comic, and heartbreakingly sad, as the play continued. When the play returned for the second half, Barbara’s hair was placed in an elaborate up-do, with a diamond necklace and earrings. Throughout the play, I couldn’t take my eyes off her. Her character, Melissa, is not “Jeannie,” obviously, but looking at her, divorced by 40 years, I couldn’t help but see “Jeannie.”
At the close of the play, Barbara and Hal came to the front of the stage, bowed, and, with a “blink,” the stage went dark, and they were gone.
Our small group congregated in the orchestra pit, and, since Brian was never able to find Barbara’s agent, who we suspect was not present at the event, we were told we would not be able to go backstage, as the usher, a mousy brown headed woman on a power trip, told us only Candy, a member of Barbara’s fan club, would be allowed to go back and meet Barbara. However, Candy told the woman to convey that she was in a group of 10 people, two of which flew over from Germany to see Barbara. I was honestly convinced we wouldn’t be allowed to go backstage, and started shaking and crying. Thankfully, I was wrong. After the message was conveyed, we were told we would all be allowed to come backstage and meet Barbara.
We were brought into the green room, where we found a few couches, a few recliners, and a dining table and chairs. Before we could all take our coats off and get out our cameras and what we would like to have signed, in walked Barbara Eden, sweet and demure as one could imagine, her hair in a simple up-do, in a pink cable knit sweater and dark blue jeans. She smelt like roses, and I mean that truly; she smelt of pink roses.
Things here are blurry. Brian was snapping photos with his new camera, James was snapping photos, I took a turn at snapping photos for Brian as Barbara signed his bottle case, and his grape-purple Jeannie bottle.
Nikki had a red glass bottle signed by Barbara, she remarked she “likes these colored glass bottles,” along with a glamor shot from the 50’s when Barbara, she said, was 18 at Fox.
Candy had Barbara sign her 2nd Season bottle from David Matson, and, I believe, a new 2nd Season bottle from Brian as well, along with a photograph taken ten years ago when she met Barbara once before.
I was either second or third in my turn with Barbara, I really don’t remember. I walked over to her with my bottle and my small poster from the pilot episode. Introducing myself, I told her I’d been a fan as long as I could remember, since I was 5, and I began to get chocked up, and lost the words I wanted to say, as she stared me right in the face, listening intently. Handing her my bottle, she signed it around the throat “Barbara Eden ‘Jeannie’.” I then asked her to sign my poster, and she asked if I would like it written to me, which I affirmed, and she spelt out my name before she wrote it. The poster reads: “To Austin! Love, Barbara Eden ‘Jeannie.’”
Thanking her, I asked for a photo, and James, Brian, and Candy all took photos, while Mandy videoed the entire thing.
Later, after Candy had her bottles signed, James had both a blank 1964 Jim Beam Decanter, the “Jeannie” bottle, signed in gold. Barbara asked if he wanted it inscribed to him, and since it’s my bottle, he looked to me for approval, which I quickly assented. The bottle reads: “To James, Barbara Eden ‘Jeannie’ ” along with his playbill, with the same inscription in black.
Brian gave Barbara a photo collage of her God niece, and showed her the new Jeannie bottle cases,which she very much recognized, telling her a bottle case will be sent to her at her home. She signed the case, in black, on the interior leather, and on his bottle as well.
The German couple (I unfortunately don’t remember their names) had a photo for her to sign, and she also signed a photo for their friend Timo, who’s met Barbara a few times in the past. They also gave Baraba a VERY large photo book of her old publicity shots.
After it was made sure everyone got all the photos they wanted, including one of Barbara, James, and I, and a few as a group, Brian asked Barbara to do a short “shout out” for the fan site, especially since Larry Hagmen has already made one.
Brian couldn’t remember the words he had written yesterday for Barbara to say, but I did, since he told me last night on the phone, so I told Barbara, the lines, “If you want to make your dreams come true, then just blink on over to “I Dream of Jeannie Fans.Net.”
So, she said the line for the camera, but messed up and we ran through it again, with her cheering, cutely, when she got it right the second time. We all thanked Barbara again for taking the time to meet with us, and she left, ushered out by her tour manager, who honestly tried to rush her through the whole meeting, although she seemed to do her best to ignore him.
Afterward, we took a few pictures of our bottles all together in the lobby before heading to dinner at Outback Steakhouse, where we exchanged impressions, and looked at each others photos. Thankfully, in reviewing the photos, I have one fantastic photo of Barbara and I, which I found while enroute to the resturant and made me burst out crying. I was so scared I wouldn’t have a good photo with Barbara, but it was just fantastic! I called my mother balling on the phone, I was SO happy!
That photo will soon become my avatar everywhere, just as soon as I can upload it, along with a few good ones of James and Barbara, among many other great photos!
Suffice to say, this Valentine’s Day… was one of the best days of my life, and for that, I have a lot of people to thank. First, to James for driving us up to Michigan, and further for putting up with my insane love of “Jeannie” on a daily basis!
To Brian for trying his damnedest to get us backstage, for contacting Barbara’s agent and setting up the entire meet and greet, and for touching up my bottle this morning so I didn’t have to show a, slightly, damaged bottle to “Jeannie” herself. To Mandy for videoing the whole thing and putting up with our collective insanity.
To Candace for insisting the 10 of us should be allowed to go backstage and not just herself as a member of Barbara’s fan club.
To Nikki… for just being you. You rock girl!
You all, together, made this one of the best, if not THE best day of my life. Thank you all SOOO much! I will never forget ANY of it!
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