Fame on the Streets of New York

Sightings and Memories

The famous faces of New York,
That cross your path today,
Will offer you nod, a smile,
And in your heart will stay.

From my first month, even week, in New York, I spotted the well-known.  It seemed almost as a small reward for the hard-tack existence required of the newly-arrived.  Years before cellphone cameras, the famous strutted about, fielding the occasional stare – even the autograph seeker.  No one carried a camera with them around the clock, and even the concept of the de rigueur selfie hadn’t yet met the pen-and-paper carrying public.  Therefore most just looked on for that fleeting encounter.  Some celebrities were just there, somewhere in view to be acknowledged.

Sightings are now rarer now – the result of endless mobile cameras ready in a heartbeat to upload the latest sighting to the Internet as “news”.  Movies capture misbehavior and even end careers.  Everyone’s a TMZ now.  It’s a jungle out there.  You may quote me.

Nevertheless, I’ve often taken a little historical inventory of the well-known people I have seen – quite a few no longer here.  They inform little cultural markers for me.  I have gathered twenty-four names of people I once saw while out and about.  Since I have worked closely with the music industry, I am omitting all but people sighted in public places – most of them seen on the sidewalks of New York, each with a tiny story and an image in my head.  I’ll start with