One of my most memorable
celebrity encounters in Las Vegas was with Cary Grant. I didn't actually
"encounter" Cary Grant, but I saw him all the time when I
was working at the Dunes. He was good friends with one of the hotel's
big owners, so everything in the joint was free: big suite up on the
top floor, meals in the gourmet restaurants, anything he wanted he just
signed for it.
I was walking out
of the coffee shop one afternoon, just as Cary Grant was leaving his
table. Didn't even leave the waitress a tip, by the way. I still had
a few minutes to kill before going back to work, so just for the hell
of it I fell in behind him. I'd wanted to be famous all my life, and
now here was my chance. He was walking toward the elevators, and I was
his shadow. Everywhere he went, I went.
I didn't want to
talk to him or anything. I just wanted to see what it was like to be
famous. Walking right behind him, I caught the expressions on everyone's
face as they passed him. And just for an instant, it was like I was
Cary Grant. Well, you wouldn't believe it. Every single person was saying
things like, "That's Cary Grant!" "Look, it's Cary Grant!"
"Honey, there's Cary Grant!"
Can you imagine?
This poor guy spent every single minute of every waking day hearing
the same thing over and over again. "Hey, there's Cary Grant!"
I never wanted to be famous after that.
Later I went to
work at Caesars Palace as the gaming instructor. One day I was teaching
the fundamentals of Pai Gow Poker to a group of bored students. Suddenly
a man with jet black hair and a fresh face-lift dropped a hundred dollar
bill on the table. "Sir, this is just a class," I said to
him.
"I know how
to play!" he answered impatiently, grabbing his money and heading
for a real game.
There was something
familiar about the man's voice, and then it dawned on me who he was.
Approaching the
table where he was playing, I asked him softly, "Excuse me, aren't
you Eddie Fisher?"
He smiled ruefully.
"I used to be," he answered.
