MEETING MARGO KIDDER

As a kid, one of my favorite films was "Superman: The Movie" in 1978. I was 11 and I still remember going to the Plitt Cinemas in Harlingen, Texas excited for the films release. It was toward the end of what I felt was the grand days of the movie theater, where a new film opening was an event and people stood in a line around the building to get a taste of Hollywood's latest.

In those days, there wasn't the answer of "I'll just wait for it to come to video". You saw it in the theater, or cross your fingers as seeing it edited for television. Otherwise, you missed it! And I remember "Superman" having an overture at the beginning and an intermission in the middle, just like the old days.

I think I saw "Superman" 11 times in the theater. I remember going over to the music store and seeing the big glossy double album of the Superman soundtrack lined up, costing a whopping 9 dollars. It would have been the closest thing I could see in having "Superman" in my home.

For years I kept the nice Superman ring they sold at the theater as well as the Superman pin. I actually still have the pin to this day. I also still have my Superman lunchbox from the film. It holds my Superman collector cards.

So now you could understand my excitement when I heard that Margot Kidder (Lois Lane in Superman) was going to be acting in a film at BYU. I guess Brigham Young has some new program where films are produced through an outside source to allow students to have a more "real world" experience with film making, something I wish we would have had when I was there 20 years ago. Somehow, they were able to get Margo to come play a role in a film I think is called "Robbing the Dead".

Ann Ross, a friend of Stephanie and I, told me about it and got me to come on set for a short while. I wish I could have spent more time there, I literally only got 5 minutes with her. But she was very sweet and obviously not prone to the "leave me alone, I'm Margo Kidder" syndrome. But she did seem older then she really was. I don't know if she had some stress or smoking or what, but I looked up that she is only 61, but looks like she is 71.

She was impressed with the BYU facility. Interestingly, after I left, I remembered the old film in 1977 produced by The Church right there in the same location called "The Phone Call" which starred Marc McClure, who was also Jimmy Olsen in the same Superman series.

I can check that off of people I hoped to meet before they pass on. Now on to William Shatner.