This story goes back to the early ’70s. My mind gets a little bit hazy. I always thought I’d remember everything, but it turns out, you forget. So much other stuff happens. Older events get pushed back behind all the new stuff. We are like old computers. We need a faster operating system, more memory and bigger hard drives.
I’d just come into Oak Bluffs aboard the Island Queen ferry. It was the first or second year of nearly twenty summers I’d spend on the Vineyard, sharing a home with a small group of other Boston TV friends and colleagues. Our first summer home was in Edgartown, off Tilton Street. We laughingly called it “The Tilton Hilton.”
I’d been on Channel 7 for maybe 2 or 3 years at that time. My face was just becoming familiar. I was also starting to get used to being recognized in public. This was a long road for a shy kid from Long Island in a short period of time. I was becoming me.
I had just turned thirty, the end of “kidhood” and the start of being a man.
As I was getting off the ferry, I noticed a familiar-looking elderly gentleman. I couldn’t quite place his name. As I started towards a cab, the gentleman stopped me and said something like, “Hello, young fella. I hope you don’t mind me you interrupting you. I’ve watched you on television and just wanted to say I enjoy your work”.
I looked more closely and the face was suddenly and immediately familiar. He said, “I used to be James Cagney. Now I’m just another old guy.” We both laughed. We shared a bit of small talk about the weather, the ‘touristas’ coming to the Vineyard for the weekend, then more about the weather. People in New England spend an too much of time discussing the weather. It’s a thing.
There was an awkward silence and James Cagney said, “Would you like to have a beverage and some doughnuts. My place is just down the street a bit.” I knew he had a house on the Vineyard, but I was shy about personal — non-work meetings — with celebrities, especially Hollywood people. I was ( still am) a serious fanboy. I loved old movies and admire the stars. I grew up with them. I wanted to be them. I settled for reporting, but it wasn’t, as it turned out, such a big step after all.
I stammered “Ye-Yes, thank you.”
We laughed again and walked away to Cagney’s “cottage” which was a respectable residence covered with the light green or gray Vineyard paint color required for all cottages. Really, it was a small farm, but that would have been bragging. He didn’t brag.
Inside, it was a bit sparse. Neat. Just a few paintings and pictures, all depicting Vineyard and Cape locales. No Hollywood stuff. Cagney saw me staring and smiled, “Yeah, I dabble a bit but I’m really just a hack.” In the kitchen, over tea and cookies, we had a long, rambling conversation. I was talking about my then relatively brief career and James Cagney talking about his very long career. He called them “jobs” or “shows.” That’s how I learned how most working actors and techs described movies.
I wanted to ask so many questions, but he persisted in talking about the “working part” of filming his pictures. He was “wet behind the ears” when he did “Public Enemy,” the film that shot him to stardom.
Originally he had been a supporting player. The director liked his feisty brashness more than the star’s blandness, so the roles got switched and show biz history was made. We went on for two or three hours, swapping stories about the “suits” we disliked.
Our bosses. His studio bosses. The Warner Brothers and my news directors and general managers. I told Cagney about the suit I worked for at Channel 18 in Hartford before I came to Boston. My news director used to sit in the dark, mumbling to no one, like a punch drunk fighter. Cagney cracked that familiar laughter and told me about working with directors he liked and didn’t like. He said he always focused on getting the job done, using the basics. Show up on time, meet your mark. Know your lines. It sounded like what Spencer Tracy always said. Cagney nodded in agreement. Just before parting, I told him about my love of westerns.
He grinned, saying, “No way, I’m gonna tell ya about the ‘Oklahoma Kid.’ Bogie and I detested that show. We felt like idiots, kids playing grown-ups but I enjoyed riding. I love horses. I have a farm and horses. The invite is open if you want to come riding.”
I wasn’t much of a rider at that point. I did learn to ride later, but I had no experience then. I should’ve accepted James Cagney’s invitation anyway. I wish I had.
That’s a wrap. It was a wonderful afternoon. Talking. No business. No cameras. A summer afternoon on Martha’s Vineyard. Two guys, cookies, and tea.
Categories: #Photography, Celebrities, Garry Armstrong, Hollywood
Awesome story, Garry!
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Becky, thanks. That was quite an afternoon. Don’t think it could happen today because of social media tentacles.
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Social media has changed everything!
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You have lived a magic life, Garry. Not only meeting Cagney but spending time with him in his home? Magic! I love your stories and each time I get online, which isn’t very often lately, I look forward to more from you and Marilyn. Wow, actually spending time with James Cagney!
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Angel, this story has ‘legs’. It’s been re-posted a lot but I enjoy the reaction from folks who haven’t heard it. That was a magical time for me. Embracing MY new celebrity while meeting a number of old Hollywood legends. I guess I was like the kid in the candy store. All these years later, I still can’t believe that James Cagney stopped to chat me up.
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Garry, how did you do that? I know absolutely nothing about either that actor or any of those films, and yet I was raptured (?) by your tale right to the end. Great memories. Thank you for sharing.
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Kiki, it’s hard to describe my reaction to meeting JAMES CAGNEY. He was, yes, a regular fella who enjoyed the freedom of Martha’s Vineyard. The “Vineyard” has long been the vacation home for celebs who just want to relax and avoid fans. This was BEFORE social media. I am not sure celebs enjoy that same privacy these days.
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I love that story. What a wonderful experience to have.
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Tas, thanks. I loved being around in that era where you could still share private time with legendary stars. Nowadays, there would be ‘selfies with the stars’. So, it was a time of innocence in many ways.
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I was never one for autographs if I was lucky enough to see someone I admired. I was too shy to approach them even if others were doing so. I would be the same with selfies. Celebs just accept it because it’s part of being a celebrity I suppose but I would rather a casual meeting where you could interact as two human beings any day. Sadly that must be almost impossible now.
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Me too. Which is why I don’t have a single autograph and why Garry has almost no pictures of him with those stars he talked to. We both felt funny about asking, so we didn’t.
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Tas, yes – such an encounter would be almost impossible these days. People would be flocking around taking pics with their phones. So, again, I had timing, place and opportunity. Remember, Mr. Cagney approached ME and I was still a newbie on Boston TV. Still so hard for me to believe. Despite my opportunities to meet these legends as a local TV news reporter and the cherished “down time”, just hanging out, I could never ask for autographs or pictures. Too embarrassing. I was lucky to have a cameraman friend who sometimes took pics but those were rare times.
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That was the coolest part of the story I thought. That he approached YOU.
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I thought it was amazing and only wished I’d been there. I’d have definitely said yes to the horses!
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Tas, YES, he approached me. Way cool!
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Wow, Garry, this is so cool! I’m so jealous. I just love hearing all of your stories about the celebs you met during your career!
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The celebrity interviews were high points in a career that mostly dealt with death and violence. I suspect that is why they remain so memorable.
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Yes, Marilyn, I don’t have many cherished memories about the murders, fires – arson and accidental, and the other tabloid stuff we chased. Most of the moaks didn’t have the “it” of folks like Albert DiSalvo.
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Carol Anne, thank you. My Vineyard encounter with James Cagney came just a year or two before he was one of the first recipients of the “American Film Institute–Lifetime Achievement” Award.
Cagney offered the “I NEVER have said ‘You dirty rat’ line” that has been coined by impressionists over the decades. I smiled and told him those were the first words said by my Godson (Now my STEPSON). Yes, I was embarrassed but James Cagney just smiled at me.
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that sounds almost like a long dream sequence, but how cool that it was real!
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I can’t believe he turned down the chance to go riding with Cagney. I suppose it was before he learned to ride. I’d have been on that horse in a heartbeat.
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absolutely )
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Marilyn, I was still dazed by the afternoon meeting with JAMES CAGNEY. Yes, I shudda gone for a ride. I probably wudda fallen off and felt like an idiot. Quien sabe?
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Beth, it does sound like an old dream sequence BUT I can still see it in my sense memory. Frankly, it is hard for ME to believe. But I was lucky to have numerous old Hollywood legend encounters. Right time, luck and opportunity for this old movie maven.
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and you’ll never forget them –
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Such a lovely story. I heard that Cagney used to host soldiers at his house in LA during the war.
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I wouldn’t be surprised. He was a generous man with a heart of gold.
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JT, I believe that WW 2 story is true. Mr. Cagney was a most amiable fella. If you recall the old Cagney-Pat O’Brien films of the 30’s, Cagney was always the boisterous, hard living guy while O’Brien was the sober, somber straight laced guy. In reality, it was just the opposite. So it was, James Cagney told me.
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I heard that story was a veteran of WWII
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Cagney and Bogie…my two favorite actors. Cagney sounds so down to earth. What a visit that must have been for you, Garry.
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I think he had a second round with Cagney later on. If the man had lived longer, it might have become a friendship.
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Marilyn, that would’ve been way cool.
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Lois, it was a HOOT.
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