Dale Patterson - Fifteen Minutes of Fame

Fifteen

Minutes

of Fame

D a l e P a t t e r s o n

Copyright 2013 Dale R. Patterson

eBook Copyright 2014 Dale R. Patterson

5 4 3 2 1

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of Red Deer Press or, in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from Access Copyright (Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency), 1 Yonge Street, Suite 800,

Toronto, ON, M5E 1E5, fax (416) 868-1621.

Published in Canada by Red Deer Press

195 Allstate Parkway, Markham, ON, L3R 4T8

www.reddeerpress.com

Published in the United States by Red Deer Press

311 Washington Street, Brighton, Massachusetts, 02135

Cover and text design by Daniel Choi

Cover image courtesy of iStock

We acknowledge with thanks the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Ontario Arts Council for their support of our publishing program. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund (CBF) for our publishing activities.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Patterson, Dale R., 1952

Fifteen minutes of fame / Dale Patterson.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-88995-481-6(pbk.), 978-1-55244-307-1 (epub)

1. Fame--Humor. 2. Celebrities--Biography--Humor.

I. Title.

PN6231.F29P37 2012 920.00207 C2012-901418-4

Publisher Cataloging-in-Publication Data (U.S)

Patterson, Dale R., 1952

Fifteen minutes of fame / Dale Patterson.

[448] p. : cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Summary: A humorous, fun-filled account of over 150 regular people who found themselves in the spotlight and became famous without planning to.

ISBN: 9780889954816 (pbk.), 978-1-55244-307-1 (epub)

1. Fame Humor. 2. Celebrities Biography Humor. I. 15 minutes of fame. II. Title.

920.002/07 dc23 PN6231.F29P377 2012

To my beautiful daughter Megan, the light of my life.

In the future everybody will be world famous for
fifteen minutes.

Andy Warhol

PROLOGUE

Fame.

Many seek it, few achieve it, but its often fleeting, and the result of luck.

Thats what this book is about.

Fifteen Minutes of Fame is about ordinary people and even some animals and places who through chance, timing, or just plain circumstance became very famous for a short period of time. In most instances they became famous (or notorious) for just one thing and in many cases through no real planning of their own. The premise of this book is based on Andy Warhols iconic 1968 quote, In the future everybody will be world famous for fifteen minutes. And it sure fits here.

Youll recognize many of the names.

Theres Abraham Zapruder, the Dallas dressmaker who was in the right place at the right time to shoot what has been called the most scrutinized film of all time: the Kennedy assassination video now known as the Zapruder film.

How about Max Yasgur, the upstate New York dairy farmer who rented out his field for a 1969 rock festival and became a rock n roll legend when that festival turned into Woodstock?

Who can forget parliamentary page, Brigette DePape, giving us a sign she didnt like the Canadian election result in 2011 right on the Senate floor?

Or lifelong Cubs fan Steve Bartman who just wanted to catch a ball, but instead earned lifetime membership in both the Sports Hall of Shame and the Fifteen Minutes Hall of Fame.

Remember the Balloon Boy? Falcon Heene will never live down the balloon ride he never took ... Theres Ken Jennings, who won 74 consecutive games on Jeopardy! ... Robert Opel who streaked the Oscars and Sacheen Littlefeather who refused an Oscar ... Or Roger Woodward who went over Niagara Falls and lived to tell about it ... How about Harry Whittington who popped up on the wrong end of Dick Cheneys very own weapon of mass destruction? ... Or Rosie Ruiz who found that winning the Boston Marathon can be no sweat ... And Chelsey Sully Sullenberger, who made a perfect landing on the Hudson River and become one of aviations greatest heroes... These men and women , and many more, are all here in Fifteen Minutes of Fame .

A few animals have had their Fifteen Minutes of Fame too they just dont know about it. Dolly was the first mammal to be cloned and is the worlds most famous sheep. Theres Checkers, the dog who saved Richard Nixons political career. Knut the Polar Bear warmed hearts all over the world as did the pandas LingLing and HsingHsing. We remember Martha, the very last Passenger Pigeon on earth. And Trackr the dog, hero of September 11. Read about it in Fifteen Minutes of Fame .

Places? Lewiston, Maine, hosted the second AliListon fight and for one night was the center of the sports universe. Grovers Mill, New Jersey, got its Fifteen Minutes of Fame for a Martian invasion that wasnt. Youll read the story of Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, First in the Nation since 1960. And well tell you how an amazing performance by Wilt Chamberlain made Hershey, Pennsylvania, famous for something other than chocolate.

Fifteen Minutes of Fame. For many of the folks presented in this book, their fame literally lasted fifteen minutes, or not much longer than that. For others, their names are no longer in the forefront of the news, but lurk like shadows in the background of history. But they all share one common bond they werent planning to become famous it just happened that way.

Those profiled in Fifteen Minutes of Fame come from all walks of life politics, sports, entertainment, business. Some are recent members of the Fifteen Minute Hall of Fame, some are from the distant past. Some youll remember instantly, others will jog your memory; many are pretty much forgotten now but were big news in their time. But all had their brief moment of fame.

And you wont believe what happened after they became famous! We tell you the complete story. Plus theres a chapter on the flip side of Fifteen Minutes of Fame, in Mighta, Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda those who just missed their moment in the sun.

Fifteen Minutes of Fame is a funfilled trip youll never forget, even if some of the subjects wish you could!

In the future everybody will be world famous for fifteen minutes.

Andy Warhol

BEHIND THE QUOTE

It was just a quotation in an art catalogue.

But from that humble beginning, Andy Warhols Fifteen Minutes of Fame excerpt has become one of the most famous passages of modern times.

From February 10 to March 17, 1968, the celebrated pop artist staged his first retrospective. Hosted by the Moderna Museet in Stockholmwhose entire exterior was covered in cow wallpaper for the ocassion - Warhols exhibition featured a massive catalogue titled Andy Warhol: Published on the Occasion of The Andy Warhol Exhibition at Moderna Museet in Stockholm February to March 1968 .

The catalogue features hundreds of pages of black-and-white photographs of Warhols life taken by his associates, plus silk-screened photographic reproductions of his paintings and other imagery related to Warhol. Many of the photographs were taken by Billy Name who was famously commissioned by Warhol to take photographs of his studio, The Factory and Stephen Shore, a pioneer in color art photography who was a frequent visitor to The Factory. Photographs by Rudolf Burckhardt, Eric Pollitzer, and John D. Schiff also appear.