Rant #2,294: Up the Junction

So, how was your weekend?

Mine was quiet, which is good. Quiet and busy, more like it, but the operative word is quiet.

I did have an opportunity to do some "prospecting" in my house, but like many of the old prospectors who looked for gold during the Gold Rush era 150 years ago, I came up with a lot of fool's gold, but not the real thing, not exactly what I was looking for.

I have told the story many, many times, and it is a funny story, but way back when, when I was a undergraduate student at the late Dowling College in Oakdale, New York, I was on the newspaper staff. I was the only person in the school to be on the newspaper staff during the full four years of my time there, from 1975 to 1979. Sure, others were on our editorial staff, but I was the only one who was on the staff during the entirety of those four years.

I learned a lot being on the staff of the newspaper. It was a time of turmoil at our school, and there was even a strike where the student body took over one of the buildings in protest.

Relations between the students, the professors and the governing body of the school were not good at all during those years, and at the newspaper, there was a lot of turmoil, too, but somehow, we put out issues during my four years there on a regular, monthly basis.

In 1976, I was assigned to cover a movie premiere on Long Island, and it ended up being my first celebrity interview ever.

And talking about bodies ... well, the interview had nothing to do with the governing body of anything but my then-19 year old male mind.

I was sent to cover the premiere of "Up!" a movie by Russ Meyer that featured enough breasts, buff and brutality to satisfy any male mind of any age group.

And my first celebrity interview? The beauteous star of the film, the absolutely gorgeous Raven de la Croix.

Way back in Rant No. 228, April 7, 2010, I spoke about my encounter with her and some old guy that I ran into during the interview.

"I was interviewing one of the stars of 'Up,' the ridiculously endowed Raven de la Croix, for my college newspaper in a movie theater that was showing the film to sold-out audiences.

I spoke with her for a few minutes, and then I asked her, "You told me you had a young son. How does he feel about his mom appearing in such movies?"

Well, before she could open her heavily lipsticked lips to utter an answer, out pops this old guy from a door that was behind me. He screams "Interview Over!" and leads the lady away from me.

I didn't know who this old fart was until I was later told that it was Russ Meyer himself! He had been monitoring the interview from behind this door."

And that is exactly what happened.

Of course, I didn't tell you guys much about the interview, which had gone along swimmingly prior to this particular question. de la Croix was actually a nice lady, very verbal and smart in her replies to me. I was almost as impressed with her mind as I was impressed with her very ample bosom, which was almost eye level to me, as she was wearing heels that made her maybe six or eight inches taller than she actually was.

Anyway, that was a great memory, and since then, when I was doing entertainment reporting, I have interviewed the likes of John Sebastian of the Lovin' Spoonful, Micky Dolenz and Mike Nesmith of the Monkees, and hey, I even interviewed then future Academy Award winner Jamie Foxx!

But it all started with de la Croix.

Fast forward to the present time ...

Going on 43 years later, and I have made my living as a writer, while de la Croix continued to act, raise her son, and is now sort of a new age type advisor.

I heard her in a podcast interview a few months ago, and the woman is as eloquent as she was all those years ago, and she seems to have kept her "nice" factor over all those years.

OK, so what does this all mean?

Let me tell you.

I have related this story of de la Croix being my first celebrity interview many times, and finally, the actress herself saw whatever I had written about it.

Through her own Facebook site, she put up a message asking me to try to find the interview and send it to her. She actually thinks she has it in a scrapbook that she kept of her career--I guess we must have sent a tear sheet to her of the interview, but I honestly don't remember--but she asked me to look for the interview.

Way back when, I used to cut out all the things I wrote for the college newspaper and put them in my own scrapbook, which I would bring to interviews to show prospective employers what I had written about for the school paper.

I honestly had not seen this book--a blue looseleaf--in years, and on Saturday, I started the process to try to find this thing.

I went through everything in the house, threw out piles of stuff, discovered things I barely remembered that I had--including some record turntables--but alas, I could not find this looseleaf binder.

I really did scour the house, but to my chagrin, I could not find this thing--but I did find another binder of articles I had from my time at the late, great Island Ear newspaper, where I freelanced for 11 years I think.

But no blue binder, and no de la Croix interview.

I am hurt, but not broken. There are two more things I can do, and one of them I have put in motion.

When Dowling College finally went under about two years ago, its vast collection of material would have gone to the dumpster if not for an enterprising Adelphi University staff member, who has become the so-called curator of Dowling College history.

He literally grabbed thousands of items from the school before it could go to the trash, including numerous copies of the school newspaper, which I think was called "The Lion's Voice" after our sports teams' name.

Perhaps he has the issue I am looking for?

With that in mind, I wrote an email to him, and while he was out of the office, he is set to return today, so perhaps I will hear from him this week.

And I also appeal to anyone who attended the college at that time--might you have the issue in question? It came out sometime in the fall of 1976, probably around October.

So right now I am betwixt and between. I still believe that that binder is in this house somewhere, but I simply can't find it.

Maybe I will stumble upon it in an unlikely place, but so far, I have not hit paydirt.

Maybe someone can help me.

And if someone can, I will be forever in debt to that person.

Let's see what happens. If anything does, I will certainly let you know.

And tomorrow, for certain, I will not be at this perch, because I have some personal business to attend to, so I will speak to you again on Wednesday.

Maybe something will turn "Up!" in the meantime.