The motel had recently been renovated, and its owners, Stephen and Cindy Tuckman, eager to show it off, decided to have an open house—to be hosted by yours truly. The open house would be held in one of the upstairs units and the date was set for a weekday afternoon, to reduce the possibility of losing any rental income.
As a partner in the real estate firm North Coast Properties, Stephen Tuckman may well have been looking to win or retain a client or two with this open house. One of the clients he invited was Jean Auel, author of the recently published novel The Clan of the Cave Bear, which was on its way to becoming a major bestseller. I'd heard of Auel and her book but hadn't read it—and didn't have time to before the day of the open house. Not that it mattered, I thought; I was pretty sure such a famous person wouldn't show up for such an inconsequential gathering at such a podunk location.
I was wrong. Not only did Auel show up, but she was the only person to attend the open house besides myself and the Tuckmans.
When Stephen introduced me to Ms. Auel, I stuck my hand out to shake hers and lamely muttered something about how I hadn't read her book but was hoping to read it real soon. She returned a half-hearted shake, and while doing so turned her head away from me as if checking to see who else was there. I decided then and there not to ever read her book, as popular as it might be. And of course I had no idea at the time just how popular her "Earth's Children" series would become: between 1980 and 2011, Auel published six novels, selling 45 million copies in 18 languages. For her fourth book, Plains of Passage, Crown paid her an advance of $25 million. In short, she is one of the most successful authors—male or female—of all time.
And I knew her when, ha ha.
What does Laugh-In comedian Brian Bressler have to do with all this? He wasn't a guest at the open house, but he was a guest of the motel a month or two later. Having been a regular viewer of Laugh-In in the early '70s, I recognized Bressler immediately when he came to the office to register—and I told him so. At first he seemed a little chagrined that he had been recognized (he was on vacation, after all), but then he warmed up and started swapping bad puns with me. Shortly he was telling me more about himself than he probably wanted to, like that he was currently a salesman for Kensington Clothing—rather a steep fall, I thought, after being a regular on Laugh-In (as well as a one-time guest on the Johnny Carson show). Then he mentioned that he was planning to host a Monty Python video festival at his beach house in Manzanita (what the hell was he doing renting a motel room if he had his own beach house?), and asked if I'd like to attend. I told him I'd see if I could get away that evening, but couldn't promise anything since the motel business was so unpredictable.
I didn't make it to the party, but no matter: our paths crossed again about two years later, after I had moved to NW Portland and was working as a freelance writer and apartment painter. Bressler and some old acquaintances of mine from my years with Claymation producer Will Vinton—Michele Mariana, John Morrison, and Gary Adams—were performing together around Portland as the comedy quartet BAMM!, and I had written a review of one of their performances for a local paper, The Neighbor. One evening I invited the members of BAMM! over to my house for a Claymation movie showing and libations, and I made the mistake of asking them how long BAMM! had been together. Bressler's reply:"I can't speak for these guys, but I've been together my entire life."
It's too bad Bressler never wrote a book...
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| Brian Bressler on Laugh-In (circa 1973). |
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