This is going to be all out of sequence, time-wise I know but I'll drop them in here as I can think of them. All this has taken place over the past fifty plus years and Yup ... my memory is fading somewhat so bare with me please. On this picture I'll "fast forward" quite a few years to when I was a fresh young Patrol Officer on the O.P.P.. I was stationed out of No. 4 District Headquarters, Niagara at a Detachment Office in Cayuga and when I first got there was assigned to Highway Patrol. The main highway connection between Detroit and Buffalo then was No. 3 Highway as the Americain way was to go way down below Lake Erie which was a lot farther, consequently we had about 90% Americain traffic at the time. I had many occasion to either stop or meet a great deal of people during my Highway Patrol days and it was amazing how many famous people travelled through there.

Anyway ... regarding the picture above right ... I was stopped for a cup of coffee at "North's Restaurant and Service Station" at the corner of No. 3 Highway and 57 Hwy. I was at the counter drinking my coffee and chatting with a few folks in there when Mrs. North sidled up to me from behind the counter and whispered ... "Isn't that Tex Ritter sitting over there?" I had noticed this fellow and his wife sitting quietly at a corner table eating their sandwiches when I went in. He wore a "western" outfit with an open road Stetson Hat sitting on an empty chair. His clothes were not gaudy ... just had that "country flavour" with some piping here and there. I looked closer and it was indeed Tex Ritter and his wife! Mrs. North goaded me into asking him if he would mind being introduced to everybody, so I went over and asked him. Well I can tell you that those two folks were so nice! They went around to everybody in the place, shaking their hands and thanked them all for recognizing him! They left that place with the greatest smiles on their faces one could imagine ... Mr. Ritter turned at the door and again thanked everyone there. He said, "You see if you folks hadn't recognized me, I would have really been worried so thank y'all again!" What genuinely nice people they were. Tex Ritter, among other things was the singer of the theme for the Academy Award Film "High Noon" with Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly. As a matter of fact I shall be putting a piece in here about the time I met Grace Kelly too! Tex is dead now but his son John Ritter should be a familiar face to you as he is carrying on the family tradition in show business only not in Country Music.

In the summer of 1952 I was sent to Port Dalhousie, near St. Catherines to assist with the policing of the Henley Regatta which has always been the location of the "sculling" races. My assignment was routine crowd handling and some traffic point duty. The stands were full to capacity with a great overflow of people throughout the entire area. All the people were having a great time and there was no trouble at all as far as the Police were concerned. One of the contestants was a famous "sculler" named Jack Kelly from Philadelphia and many came to see him compete because of his high standing for trophies. Unknown to the crowd, his sister and a friend had taken some time off to watch him compete in the race. They were not noticed by the crowd as they were dressed quite normal with sunglasses, etc. on. Both of these girls were from Hollywood, one being Grace Kelly, movie actress ... Jack's sister! She had recently finished "High Noon" with Gary Cooper and was taking a break to attend the Regatta. I didn't know about her being there either ... that is until the Corporal came and asked me to bring a cruiser around to take two women to a certain address without drawing people's attention. Apparently someone had spotted her and word was spreading fast so to avoid her being "mobbed" she had to be quickly spirited away.

I brought the cruiser around, loaded the two girls into the back seat and set off slowly. It was just as I was leaving I was told that this was Jack's sister, Grace Kelly from Hollywood! My God but she was a beautiful woman and as normal a person as anyone else. No "highbrow" attitude, polite, pleasant and above all ... beautiful and charming! The main problem with that "assigment" was that it was too short but being quite young at the time and above all, a great movie buff, I really appreciated the assigment. Above left is a picture of her around that time and the picture on the right was taken from the movie "High Noon" with her and Gary Cooper. High Noon took the Academy Award that year too! As I mentioned above ... Tex Ritter sang the theme song ... "Do Not Forsake me oh my darling, etc." for the movie. It was a true tragedy when Princess Grace of Monaco was killed in 1984 in that car accident.

That's right people I did actually meet and talk to Marilyn Munroe in 1953 when she was in Niagara Falls making the Movie "Niagara" with Joe Cotton. She and almost the whole crew stayed at the then "Fox Head Hotel" next to the Sheraton Brock. I don't think either of these two hotels are still there or at least they are not called that today. It happened that I was a friend of the daughter (and her husband) of the City Manager of Niagara Falls, a Mr. Gracey and it was his "duty" to entertain and escort many of these people around during the filming. Well one day while visiting with the Graceys, they found out that the boys at the office had bet me I couldn't meet Marilyn so they arranged a short meeting with her through Mr. Gracey, which was really no big problem as he was in touch with her almost every day and often drove her places.

I did meet her just before a "shoot" that day and she was wearing a skirt that split right up the front to her ... well ... you know ... I'm afraid I found it rather "hard" to keep my mind or eyes on much else. I must say that although she was "game" as she knew about the bet and willing to go along with it, her language belonged more in a pool room than anywhere else. It did not impress me at all! How Di Maggio put up with that tongue has always mystified me yet the man simply adored her! As an added chuckle for you at my expense I have to tell you that I had completely forgotten that day that my wife and I were to go out that night to a special function. She had bought new clothes, had her hair done and was ready and waiting when I did get home. Well ... like a typical "idiot husband" I burst into the house raving about this blond "bombshell" with the split skirt and didn't even notice my wife's nice hairdo and dress. Want to know something? To this day ... almost fifty years later the name Marilyn Munroe is "verbotten." .... Women! :-(

Back in 1976 Joyce and I had bought a beautiful new 33' Master Coach Trailer and parked it near Shelburne at a small private trailer park called Maple Dell, which doesn't exist today. The picture on the right shows the exact trailer and site we parked it at. The Shelburne Old Time Fiddler's Contest is a world famous event, held every year and as we figured, perhaps there may be an abundance of "drunks" around that weekend, decided to spend the weekend there to sort of keep any possible vandalism of our trailer down. Every bit of space for miles around is taken up with the thousands of visitors that come for the Fiddle Contest every year. Although well Policed, a great deal of "drinking and hellry" goes on. A bit of "hell-raising is expected at this big a function of course.

Well it happened that my whole family came up with their campers and tents, etc and we all spent the weekend on the site. One evening after dark a big Cadillac stopped in front of our trailer and the driver wanted to know where a certain person could be found. I couldn't tell him but he seemed quite friendly and wanted to talk, which was okay by me except he had two young giggling girls in the car with him and I certainly didn't like the way they behaved ... sort of like they had been drinking or were on drugs.

I noticed that the gentleman stuttered very badly and that his license on the car was from Tennessee but it never "twigged" on me that I perhaps should have known him. He hinted awfully bad several times to come in and see our trailer (Americans loved the Master Coach as they couldn't get trailers as well made in the US) but because of the two silly girls with him, I told him the Grandchildren were asleep and we didn't want to wake them up. We chatted for the better part of an hour ... all this time he remained in the car. He was a pleasant man but the girls frankly were such a "pain in the ass" that I was hoping they would leave. When he did leave, he said in his wonderful southern accent, "It's been real nice talking to y'all and I thank you. Bbbby the wwway I'm Mmmmmel Tillis." I said that's nice and off he went. I hadn't paid much attention to Country Music for a few years and his name didn't mean a thing to me!

It was a relatively short time later that we were watching the Country Music Awards at our home in Toronto when I said to Joyce, "You won't believe this but there's the guy that was at our trailer a week or so ago." It was him ... Mel Tillis won the Award that year! Boy he must think those Canadians are a "cold" bunch the way I treated the poor guy.

A year or two later, we had the pleasure of meeting him again and apologized for our not knowing who he was. He laughed it off and in that beautiful but stammering "Tennessee accent" s s s said, "It makes no never mind." Actually he is a very nice person to talk to.

I met Hank Snow in the early fifties at the peak of his career. He and Red Sovine were putting on a show together in Toronto for a week and they "packed them in!" That's Hank Snow on the left above and Wilf Carter on the right above. The dashing fellow on the bottom right is Red Sovine out of Nashville, Tennessee's Grand Ole Opry. He was famous for his "tear-jerker" type songs and especially ones for truckers, like "Giddyup Go", "Phantom 309", "Little Rosa" and tons more of them. He unfortunately passed away in 1980 at age 62, a much younger age than Snow or Carter and it was a great loss to Country Music. The fellow on the left I am sure even the young folks should recognize, Hank Williams. He was really the "father of rock n' roll" when you get right down to it. I've met him but in not too good circumstances I'm afraid. In the early fifties I was registered in "Variety and BillBoard" as the agent for "Wonderland Ranch Enterprises", the agency that did most of the booking of all the Grand Ole Opry stars out of Nashville ... that is until the American Musicians Union came into Canada and "strong-armed" everybody into joining. We refused to pay protection to racketeers so we got out of the business. They ... the "recruiters" ... had a rather nasty habit of organizing fights wherever "non union members" were playing and they usually got hurt and their instruments busted up in the process! By the way, did you know that Al Capone's successor, Petrillo was the one that started the American Musician's Union? Comforting isn't it??

We booked Williams twice in 1952... once in Niagara Falls, Ontario and once in London, Ontario. He never showed up in London at all, forcing us to refund all the patrons money! Embarassing?! Another time we had him booked into the Arena in Niagara Falls, Ontario and a local band had to "cover" for a long time until we could locate Williams. We had several people phone every bar in Niagara Falls and Buffalo, New York until finally one said there was a guy there in a cowboy outfit pretty loaded with a girl on each knee. We told him to hold him there at all costs and sent a car to get him. Well when he got there we hung his guitar around his neck and pointed him at the microphone ... so what did he do? He staggered across the stage to the mike and fell right into the crowd! More money refunded! Needless to say we never booked Hank Williams again. He had been one a the finest in the short time he lived but seemed to be possessed with a "death wish" when he finally did make it big. He had just recently been banned from the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville and had to "hit the road" again in an attempt to make some sort of comeback. Unfortunately, he failed to show more and more and finally, on New Years Day of 1953 while sleeping in the back seat of his Cadillac while his driver was driving him to a New Years Day show in Ohio, he failed to show for the last time. He died in the back seat of his car.

In the beginning of 1990, Joyce and I went on a lecture tour through the U.S. in connection with a couple of business ventures we were involved in. Our engagements started out in Youngstown and Toledo, Ohio, then to Florida, on up the Panhandle to Texas, then over to Phoenix, Arizona. From there we went to San Diego and the very next night, Los Angeles. Our last engagement was to be four days after L.A. in Jackson Hole, Wyoming so we headed out of the mess called Los Angeles on I-15 East after dark. We couldn't stand the horrific traffic in San Diego nor L.A. so the sooner we got out of it the better we felt.Three hundred or so miles later and in the middle of the night, we were attracted by the lights of Las Vegas and drove down the "Strip" just to see it. As the crowds were "wall to wall" and we were very tired we decided to carry on and try for a quiet motel along I-15 past Vegas somewhere. Seventy miles later we came to a small town called Mesquite and checked into the Peppermill. Too tired to even notice that it really was a Casino and luckily our room was right near the entrance, we were not long "sacking out."

Well needless to say we fell in love with the place and booked two more nights there as we had lots of time to get to Jackson Hole. From that time on we went to Nevada several times a year but changed our living quarters to a new place called the "Virgin River Casino/Hotel" but kept our membership in the Peppermill as well. Why am I telling you all this? I guess it's a sort of confession that we too were smitten by the gambling bug somewhat but to tell you how coincidence can also work no matter where you may be. One night in 1991 (I believe) as I was sort of wandering from machine to machine in the middle of the night (Joyce always went to bed at the proper time), I couldn't help but notice this very distinguished looking man sort of going the same way I was. He was very well dressed in a business suit and I thought for sure I should recognize him. We often came alongside each other at the machines and exchanged pleasantries each time. As he eventually "drifted off" away from where I was I couldn't help but notice that there were six men dressed like "motor-cycle gang members" that were always around him at a respectable distance but they all moved in the same direction he did unobtrusively. Being a natural nosy type I sort of followed along the same way they did, watching carefully when one of the "motorcycle people's" leather jacket opened a little too wide and under his arm was one of those beautiful new "oozies!"

I had breakfast with Tom Post, Head of Security that morning and mentioned it to him, telling him that these guys were Secret Service or my name was Mudd. He was somewhat sore at them for not informing him about the man being on the floor without security. I told him that I didn't think he needed their help by the looks of the oozies. Tom told me that it was Dan Quayle, Vice President of the USA!! I thought I should have recognized him. He was there for a five day rest, being a friend of the owner, according to Tom. So you see ... even though I didn't know it at the time ... I can say I spoke with Dan Quayle, Vice President of the USA!! By the way .... he seemed to be a regular guy as far as I was concerned.

Now here's a fellow I've known for a very long time ... mostly through my cousin, Karl Mallette. They were both Councillors in Metro Toronto and later ... members of the Board of Control. Cousin Karl served the Burough of Scarborough and Paul served the burough of North York. Later Karl became the Chairman of the Toronto Transit Commission and Paul became the CEO/Chairman of Metropolitan Toronto where he served for many years. While there, he was personally responsible for getting both the Blue Jays and the Dome Stadium in Toronto.

After serving Toronto as Metro Chairman for many years, he left that and took over the Toronto Sun Newspaper as Publisher and CEO. This past year he turned the reins of the Sun over to "lyin Brian" Mulroney (Former "poor excuse of a Prime Minister of Canada.") Paul then became President and CEO of the Toronto Blue Jays and is to this day (15th April, 2001). He has received many of Canada's highest honours for his contributions to our country which were all rightfully deserved I might add. Paul is an "all 'round' guy" and a good family man. We need more Paul Godfreys in this country as far as I am concerned, otherwise with people like Chretien and his gang in Ottawa, our country would continue going where they are aiming it .... straight to hell in a hand-basket!!

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