Well, dear readers, I suppose you’ve all heard the news by now that my wonderful, beautiful Cindy Williams passed away. I was alerted last Thursday of a rumor that she’d passed but it wasn’t confirmed and as the days went by with nothing, I was praying the rumor was fake. Alas, it wasn’t. It was, to put it mildly, a difficult day yesterday, but I did my best not to bathe in it because that is the opposite of what she would have wanted. She’d want a celebration of her life, she’d want laughter. That’s who she was. But of course, that thought of never seeing her again is horrible and unthinkable. When we wrapped her scenes in Sami in November, she made me promise her that I’d help her with a project she wanted to do this year and of course I promised instantly. Having her do Sami was such a wonderful thing and I think she had a really good time doing it and she’s wonderful in it, as you’d expect. I’m so grateful for having that final adventure with her. I met Cindy in September of 1965 when we both began at Los Angeles City College. For me, it was love at first sight and remained that way right up until now. We adored each other, “got’ each other, did plays and scenes together, ate together, and had hilarious misadventures, all though college. When I came back from my year in New York, of course we got together immediately and when I told her about my idea of a spoof of nudie movies, she absolutely loved it and wanted to do it. She’d already made her film debut in a Roger Corman movie and had done the big film Travels with My Aunt. We all knew it was only going to be up from there and it was. We were hanging out a lot all during 1972 and 1973. Then she got her breakthrough role in American Graffiti followed by The Conversation. By the time we got the money to do Nudie Musical she was established pretty well, but still she had the chutzpah and guts to do the movie, which was incredible when you think about it. Same thing with The Creature Wasn’t Nice – no big deal, I wrote it for her and I and she did it. I guested on her show three times but spent countless hours gabbing with her on the phone when there’d be problems on the set of Laverne and Shirley. We did four guest shots on The Donny and Marie Show together, she guested on the CBS summer series I did, and on and on and on. There was a long period where we weren’t in touch much – mostly from the mid-80s, throughout the 90s, when she was raising her kids and I was at a low-ebb, and then the heyday of record producing, I didn’t really see anyone for quite some time. But then we began seeing each other sporadically in the early 2000s and talking on the phone and stuff. She came in and took part in the DVD release of Nudie Musical, doing the documentary and commentary tracks, and much later, four years ago, the commentary tracks for The Creature Wasn’t Nice DVD. She asked me to write her a piece of special material for her one-woman show, which I did and which worked out really well for her. And then when I created Sami, I wrote the role of the grandmother especially for her and there was not a single moment of hesitation when she said she’d do it. Filming with her after all those years was just so much fun and she was still sharp as a tack and hadn’t lost an iota of her brilliant timing. I’m blessed to have had her in my life for close to sixty years. On her final day of shooting, we joked that we’d probably be doing this when we were a hundred. I will miss her, oh, yes, will I miss her terribly. I wrote her a line of dialogue that no other actress would have dared speak in 1975, but not only did she speak it, it was her favorite line and she insisted on repeating it several more times throughout that scene. Anyone who has seen The First Nudie Musical knows the line I’m speaking of. She was one of a kind and we will not see her like again, I’m afraid. I love you, Cynthia, from here to eternity and it’s not much of a secret that you were one of the loves of my life.
Yesterday was, of course, a difficult day to negotiate. I got eight hours of sleep, answered e-mails, ordered my pasta dish from the Cheesecake Factory, began proofing, food arrived and I ate it and it was fine, kept proofing until I heard the news about Cindy, and then had to take a lot of phone calls and texts, but kept proofing and now there’s only about thirty pages left to proof. And now, I am sitting here like so much fish, trying to honor my friend by NOT being sad, but it is very difficult.
Today, I’m doing two back-to-back Zoom interviews about Cindy, those are in the morning, and then I can finish proofing the book. I’ll eat, hopefully pick up some packages and perhaps two important envelopes, and then I’ll begin entering my fixes for the book, eat, and then watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, I’ll start doing the proofers’ fixes, and I have a meeting with the publicist of Sami and we’ll show her a couple of episodes so she can see exactly what she’s selling. The rest of the week is more of the same and another meeting and meal, and hopefully seeing episode ten.
Let’s all put on our pointy party hats and our colored tights and pantaloons, let’s all break out the cheese slices and ham chunks, let’s all dance the Hora or the Twist, for today is the birthday of dear reader Michael Shayne. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.om birthday cheer to dear reader Michael Shayne. On the count of three: A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO DEAR READER MICHAEL SHAYNE!!!
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do two back-to-back interviews, finish proofing, hopefully pick up packages and two important envelopes, eat, enter fixes, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: Easy – what are your favorite performances of the one and only Cindy Williams? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, grateful to have had such a beautiful soul as Cindy Williams in my life for almost sixty years and to have been close as close can be.