The Texas Film Hall of Fame
March 11-13, 2009, Austin, Texas
Larry Hagman was inducted into the Austin Film Society's Texas Film Hall of Fame on March 12, 2009. His friend and Dallas co-star Linda Gray presented the award to him. This was an event not to be missed for a Hagman or Gray fan! My friends Kimberlee (Linda Gray's #1 fan) and Barbara (a Larry Hagman fan since childhood) were my fellow adventurers on this trip.
We stayed at the Four Seasons. If you ever want to treat yourself, that is the place - expensive, but the staff and the food are absolutely wonderful! It makes it hard to go back to reality! There were many stars going to the Hall of Fame event - Billy Bob Thornton, Dennis Quaid, Keith Carradine, Powers Boothe, Luke Wilson, Brendan Fraser, Thomas Haden Church, director Catherine Hardwicke, the cast of Friday Night Lights and, of course, Larry Hagman and Linda Gray! The stars were all staying at the Four Seasons, which really made the trip for us. What fun just running into them!
We arrived Wednesday afternoon, and were in the lobby talking. Barbara spotted Luke Wilson, then Maj, then Larry, who walked off, leaving his wife holding his hat. Billy Bob Thornton walked by and said hello to us. I went up to Maj, and started talking to her, then my friends joined me. Linda Gray was there, thrilled to see Kimberlee, recognized me and was happy that we were all there to go to the event. When Larry walked up, I hugged him and he announced "This is my number one fan, she goes to all of my events!" I can't argue with that!
We all talked for a while, then Larry asked, adorably, "Does anyone want something signed?" as if he'd be disappointed if we said no! Naturally, we all had something on us! We went over to a large desk, where he sat down. Linda and Larry both signed our items, then I asked if we could get some photos. He patted his leg and asked me to sit on his lap! He didn't have to ask twice! All three of us got photos sitting on Larry's lap, taken by Linda Gray!
I wish I had a wide angle shot of the scene: In the lobby of a five star hotel, Linda Gray taking photos of each of us on Larry Hagman's lap!
Linda, Larry and Maj then left for a VIP party with the other stars. We were eating a late dinner at the bar when they returned, and got to say goodnight to them.
It was raining the entire time we were in Austin, and the locals kept apologizing for the weather, which had been in the 80s and 90s the week before! The weather worked to our advantage, however, since it was so unpleasant to go anywhere, it made sense to hang out at the hotel. We were drinking tea and coffee and chatting downstairs when Kimberlee got up and ran into Linda Gray in the lobby, talking with a friend. I heard her, and as I was walking up to join them Larry and Maj came around the corner from the elevators! We spoke for a short while, then Linda, Larry, Maj and Linda's friend went out, telling us they would see us later that night.
We honestly didn't expect to see them again until that evening, but a series of events right out of a movie happened a few hours later. "The Girls" were in three different places at one point: Kimberlee in the hotel room, Barbara in the hotel shop, and me in one of the offices using a computer. There is only one set of elevators leading to the rooms, at the front of the hotel. All within minutes, unprompted, Barbara sat down in a chair in front of the elevators, I finished what I was doing and headed for our room, running into her. We chatted for a short while, then spotted Larry, Maj and Linda pulling up to the front door! They came around to the elevators, spotted us, said "Hi," spoke briefly to us and headed upstairs. Up on the eighth floor, Kimberlee left the room and as she approached the elevators, ran into Larry and Maj, who were on our floor! She came downstairs, and while we were exchanging our experiences, the elevator doors opened, and out popped Linda Gray! She absolutely adores Kimberlee, and spoke to us for quite a while before leaving to have her hair done.
We then got ready for the big night, and arranged for a cab to take us to Austin Studios. We knew something was off when we started going through some seedy neighborhood with boarded up houses! We pulled up to one run down house. "Where is the red carpet?" we joked! The cabbie thought the address said "10th street" instead of "51st street". He took us to the real address shortly afterwards, in a much nicer neighborhood!
The media lined the red carpet, and I found a spot near the end of it. The staff at this event, with a theme of "A Red Hot Party," was wonderful, and didn't bother me or any of the other attendees as long as we didn't get in the way. Kimberlee and Barbara walked outside then down the red carpet again to join me in our wait for our favorite people. As they walked, someone said, "Get them, They're Somebody" and all the photographers went crazy shooting photos, me included!!! I have to be honest, they both looked beautiful, Kimberlee in a red and black dress, and Barbara in an all red dress!
Larry, Maj and Linda arrived, slowly, very slowly walking down the red carpet. They were interviewed every step of the way! Finally, they came to the end and I got many photos of them. They spotted us and hugged us. A really annoying guy who we strongly suspect crashed the party tried to barge in and get photos with Linda. She, with her arm around Kimberlee, told him "her girls were getting pictures first"! We got some nice group shots. They then mingled at the cocktail party. The party was nice, featuring an open bar and high tables scattered throughout the room. At one point Linda signed our badges and got Larry to do the same. We met some other stars, including Brendan Fraser, Billy Bob Thornton and Dennis Quaid. Many people recognized us from the Four Seasons!
We headed into next room for the dinner and awards ceremony. The dinner, catered by The Four Seasons, was delicious: steak, mashed potatoes, green beans and mushrooms. We had a table at the back but still had a decent view of the ceremony. The cast of Friday Night Lights auctioned off several very expensive items, then the Master of Ceremonies, Thomas Haden Church, came out. He was very funny! He spoke about the poster for The Graduate which features Linda Gray's leg, and imagining the "heiney attached to that leg." When Linda came out and they passed each other, she grabbed HIS "heiney"! She gave a wonderful speech about "Mr. Hagman" as she refers to him (she is "Ms. Gray"), calling him a consummate actor, funny, adorable and her best friend.
They showed clips from Larry's career, starting with I Dream of Jeannie, followed by several of his movies, Fail-Safe, Mother Jugs and Speed, Superman, S.O.B, Nixon and Primary Colors. Next came more TV, Nip/Tuck and lots and lots of Dallas mostly with Linda Gray, of course!
When Larry Hagman came out, to the Dallas theme, he got a well deserved standing ovation! He thanked Linda Gray, introduced his wife Maj, talked about how many people have never seen Dallas but everyone has seen I Dream of Jeannie. Earlier, Thomas Haden Church mentioned something about residuals from I Dream of Jeannie, so Larry straightened that one out, saying they got none, and blasted Ronald Reagan, who was president of SAG and didn't believe in residuals, in the process! He praised fellow honoree Catherine Hardwicke's movie Twilight, and encouraged people to contribute to the Austin Film Society's goal of having more movies filmed in Texas. He then threw his "Hagman money" into the audience!
We decided to call the cab early, having been warned it takes up to an hour to get one. It only took 20 minutes, so we had to go. We went up to Linda and Larry's table in between presentations and said goodbye. Linda thanked each of us for coming, and Larry waved goodbye.
Back at the hotel, we hung out in the bar, and saw the actors come back. Larry, Maj and Linda were intent on going up to their rooms, moving quickly. We saw them, but they didn't see us. Other actors drifted in, surprising some of the other hotel guests. Dennis Quaid was at a table with a group of women not far from us. Powers Boothe walked by. Brendan Fraser said hello to us, remembering us from the event. Eventually we needed to stop stargazing and get ready for the next day, our last in Texas.
On Friday morning, we had tea and coffee at what had become "our" table. Linda Gray came down first, walking up to the concierge. We waited in the lobby, not wanting to interrupt her. Larry and Maj arrived, "Hi girls, how are you doing?" he said, then headed towards Linda. We followed, and told them that all three of them were on the cover of the Austin American-Statesman. They got some papers.
Barbara had a saucer in the same Franciscan Apple pattern of the dishes used on I Dream of Jeannie. She had wanted Larry to sign it and finally got the opportunity during our last few moments with him. When she showed the saucer to him, he said, "Where did you GET this?!" She asked him if he knew where it was from and he said, "I think I had these dishes as a kid." She told him that he used the dishes for all five years of I Dream of Jeannie. "No kidding?", he replied. He obviously had a pleasant recollection of the dishes, although he wasn't one hundred percent sure why. She hugged him.
We all hugged and kissed Maj and Larry, who said to me "Bye Darlin', have a good trip back. It was GREAT seeing you." He's so cute!
Larry and Maj left, but then Larry came back in - to get more Newspapers with them on the front page! Barbara talked to him about the space shuttle launch, which was to occur on Wednesday night, but got cancelled at the last minute. I told Larry what a great time I had. We all hugged and kissed Linda goodbye, with Linda saying to Kimberlee "I'll miss you, I'll see you! I love you! You are so beautiful!" Larry said "Well, I guess we better go" and they were off.
What a WONDERFUL experience this was!! Linda was so warm and friendly, as usual, but also genuinely happy that we were attending the Hall of Fame ceremony. Larry was charming and funny, and Maj was so sweet to us. Larry is so lucky to have her!
For the complete story of a series of Larry Hagman events, see About This Site.