A film festival, The Sandlot and the weekend we hung out with Art Lafleur.
Art by Pete Whitehead
RIP Art LaFleur 1943-2021
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Story performed by: Aaron Calafato
Audio Production: Ken Wendt
Original Art: Pete Whitehead
Music Contributor: thomas j. duke
Podcast Coordinator: Cori Birce
Creative Consultant: Anthony Vorndran
Story Consultant: Jon Wagner
TRANSCRIPT
HeroesGetRememberedbutLegendsNeverDie.mp3 - powered by Happy Scribe
You're listening to 7 Minute Stories with Aaron Calafato. Visit our website 7minutestories.com. That's the number 7minutestories.com to see the awesome new merch available this season. Choose from stickers, cuzzies, T-shirts, tote bags, and more. I have to say the tote bag is my favorite. This episode Heroes Get Remembered, but Legends Never Die.
My friend John and I were running out of time. It was 2005. It was my senior year at Bowling Green State University; I think it was John's last year, too. And we had just given ourselves titles. I was the vice President; he was the President of the university film organization, a small but mighty little organization at our school that had put on a film festival the year before, which was our first ever film festival.
And it was pretty successful. We had some people from the industry come in. We really set a precedent. So for our senior year, we wanted to take it up a notch. And so we had a Treasurer, my friend Dave.
And I remember Dave saying, we have a limited budget. I think we only had $3,000. But you have a little bit of money, and we needed to bring in somebody that was going to be a huge splash.
And so John and I, I remember sitting in this small, moldy little university room. There's a small desk, a little phone, and a broken down chair. And we're just kind of pacing, going, "Who are we going to bring in?" And now you have to remember at the time, there wasn't the proliferation of social media like there is today. You couldn't just tweet somebody, and maybe they would get back to you.
There were layers between you and these other folks, especially in the movie industry. And so there was web sites. Sometimes people had websites; sometimes they didn't. You'd have to Google search the agent's phone number or their email and then just cold call them. You might write them a letter.
This is really what it was. Because it was very rare that you would have their AOL instant messenger handle. That was the other way that we communicated. And Facebook had just started and was really just a small network for college students.
So it was a lot of work. And of course, I think we waited until the last minute. So we're stressing out. And we're putting names on a board. And we're like, "Okay, who do you bring in?" John had picked Christopher Lambert, the actor from The Highlander series. If you haven't seen that, I would recommend that you do, classic series. Kind of a reach, but John's a dreamer.
So I was like, "Let's put them on the board." And then I was like, "What about Richard Dean Anderson, the guy who plays McGiver?" So we put him on the board. And I think we also put Robert Patrick, who was T-1000, I think, in Terminator 2. And then we put Michael Keaton. I mean, were we just listing names.
And then we're going through and trying to get a hold of people. And sometimes we couldn't get through. We were getting no's because of scheduling issues, and money, and all this stuff. So we're crossing names off the board. And the festival is just around the corner, and we didn't know what to do.
So I'm just going back into my memory and I'm thinking, "What really sticks out in my head, who could we bring here or who would say yes to a couple of morons like us who are trying to do this thing?" And all of a sudden, this face just popped into my brain. And it was the face of an actor playing Babe Ruth from this movie, The Sandlot.
Now this actor's name is Art LaFleur. I didn't know that at the time when I was thinking about him, but I had just had this very intense memory of this scene he was in where he played Babe Ruth. It was iconic. And he comes into this kid's room, and he gives him an inspirational pep talk, and it lives in so many people's memories. And all I could see was this guy's face, Art's face. And it just was so welcoming, iconic.
And then I realized that his face had been in a lot of other movies. I mean, he was a pretty prolific character actor. And so I just blurted out to John, "Hey, we should just bring this guy, Art LaFleur. Let's see if he'll do it." And John was like, "All right, let's give it a shot." And I don't know how John did it, but he got in touch with Art's agent and Art said, yes, that he would be the special guest of honor at our second annual film festival.
And I remember John and I driving in my broken down, used Oldsmobile through the cornfields from Bowling Green to Toledo Airport and picking up Art. And I remember him. The guy looked like a football player. I didn't realize how big and bulky he was, strong. And he kind of walks to the car where we pick him up.
And he's like, "I'm a little stiff. I'm not used to flying commercial," and we're like, "Welcome." I felt like such an idiot. But he was so generous. And we just talked to zero off the whole drive back to Bowling Green.
And when we got back to campus, he was so generous with his time, talking with us, talked with all the kids in the university film organization, answered questions, gave advice, told stories, was gregarious, he went to different classes and gave speeches, and just hung out with us all day. It was awesome. Look, to us, he was a movie star. Maybe not in the traditional sense, but to us, he's a movie star.
He's a guy from the Midwest who did something creative with his life, took a chance, and ended up making memories for people with his performances. What more can you ask for that? If you're a creative, making one memory for somebody to carry with them in their lives? To us, he was a huge deal.
But I realized it wasn't just us because as we were going around on this campus tour prior to the film festival, kids all over campus were coming up to us and recognized him from The Sandlot. I'm talking lots of people on the street, in the bars, in the restaurants. They're coming up to them asking for autographs. It was a scene. It was crazy.
And I didn't even realize this, but we had inadvertently dove into the ocean of nostalgia. Because of our age, we were in our early 20s, and we grew up in the late '80s, early '90s, and most of the kids on campus saw the movie The Sandlot, and it held an important part in their childhood and their memory. And he represented that. And here's this guy right walking around campus.
And so it was a chance for them to interact with him. And it was this beautiful collage of events that happened. And I remember sitting next to Art in one of the restaurants and just seeing him smile.
And I'll tell you something. He told me. I haven't told a lot of people. He just looked at me and he said, "Aaron, in Hollywood, you don't get a lot of people coming up to you talking to you and praising you because of your work, especially when you're a character actor. It's pretty lonely. You're kind of out there just walking on your own. But this is different." He goes, "This is one of the best weekends of my entire life. This is really special," and he meant that.
The cool thing is, even after the festival, which was a success, Art maintained a relationship and even worked professionally with some of the students who graduated and went into the film industry. I don't know, John never got to meet Christopher Lambert, but I do know he got to work on projects with Art LaFleur.
I moved out to New York, and I lost touch with Art over the years. But what I wanted to do for this episode was I wanted to tell you this story and then follow it up with a 7 minute interview with Art. I know he would appreciate that. And I even got his updated contact information for my friend Jay. And Jay told me, "Hey, you should reach out to Art soon because he's just not acting like himself." And I was like, "Yeah, I'll reach out to him in a couple of months, and we'll get them booked out in the New Year."
And I wish I hadn't waited because Art passed away recently. He was privately dealing with the disease I didn't know about. But I regret not reaching out to him. So since I can't talk to art in person, I figured I'd share a quote on his behalf that I know he's very familiar with. "Remember kid, there's heroes and there's legends. Heroes get remembered, but Legends never die."
7 Minute Stories is created and performed by Aaron Calafato. Audio Production by Ken Wendt. You can connect with Ken or inquire about his audio production services at media216.com. Original artwork by Pete Whitehead. Find out more about Pete's work at petewhitehead.com. Our creative consultant is Anthony Vorndran and [inaudible 00:08:26] is our production assistant. Special thanks to our partners at Evergreen Podcast. And lastly, I'm Cori Birce. Make sure to tune in next week for another story. .
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