What do Richard Burton, Peter Frampton, Walter Mondale and G. Gordon Liddy have in common?

A few months ago, social media was all abuzz about The Queen's Gambit. I am always into the minutia in films with historical settings from my lifetime. I have come to accept the painful truth that there are historical settings from my own lifetime and try not to let that fact interfere with my enjoyment of the show.

Given my nearly obsessive interest in minutia in the background, I was thrilled to hear Richard Burton's voice (The Robe was on TV in the background). It brought to mind the time I ran into him and his then-love Elizabeth Taylor when they were being constantly stalked by paparazzi and fans.

Waiting for Liz and Dick outside the Broadway theater where he was playing Hamlet had become a sport. Hundreds of people had gathered daily to catch a glimpse of the star just passing by. Usually accompanied by Elizabeth Taylor.

My parents and siblings and I had just seen Hello Dolly when we ran into the couple. We were on our to a restaurant when Liz and Dick (no combo names back then) walked in front of us on their way into Sardis. I felt a little guilty that hundreds of people had waited for a glimpse of the couple and they walked three feet in front of me. A little.

Back then Liz and Dick could not make a move without the press in tow, but now his name and face just appeared in the background of a hit series without recognition.

Fame is fleeting.

I felt the same way about Peter Framptom.  A summer or two after HIS summer, I waited behind him in line to check out of a hotel in a Texas suburb. Houston? Dallas? Not sure. It doesn't matter. He was still touring but without a frenzy. He was alone, at the front desk.  Settling his group's bill?  I wasn't sure but I was sure I was the only one who noticed.

Fame is fleeting.

And, my favorite, Walter Mondale. A man who in the summer and fall of 1984 had been greeted by cheering mobs everywhere. This is an exchange I had in 1985. I only know the year because of the content.

Me: I ran into Walter Mondale at the airport yesterday. Didn't he run for president once?

Friend: Last year.

Fame is fleeting.

And, apparently, so is notoriety. 

I was once in line for the DC/New York shuttle behind G. Gordon Liddy of Watergate infamy. He walked away and left his ID on the counter. I stepped up and realized that I could see his home address and phone number. Fifteen years before that might have been worth a lot. But in the eighties? No one cared. The stigma of what he did might have stuck but as far as being the center of attention? He no longer was.

Notoriety is just as fleeting as fame.

UPDATE: April 2023. Shirley Temple’s name just came up online. When I saw her pulling her own suitcase through Dulles Airport sometime in the 1980s, I didn’t think about her early years when she would have been mobbed by fans. She was active in government service and well-known, but no one seemed to notice her. Probably a relief for her. 

NOTE TO SELF: You had actually seen Elizabeth Taylor at a distance earlier. Apparently, she had been with Richard Burton until he went on stage, left the theater and came back to meet him for dinner before his evening performance.

© 2021 Jane Kelly