Bewitched and Beyond: The Fan Who Came to Dinner (8 page)

It was also around this time that Kasey began writing a column for
Modern Cycle Magazine
called “Powder-Puff,” as well as a motorcycling column for the now defunct
Los Angeles Herald Examiner.
Kasey remembered, “I had to be very careful. The article had to be a certain number of words. It would stop right where they said it would. So if your article came in just one word too long…”

She loved every minute of it, and had a great story she liked to tell. “One day I was practicing out on the track, wearing white leathers, a white jersey, white helmet, and black boots. And no chest protector! We didn’t have them like they do now… And this big bike came up behind me revving its engine. So I let it go around, and then the rider really pissed me off because he gassed it, and I started getting pelted by all these rocks! So I finished my lap, pulled off the track, and took off my helmet so I could catch my breath.

All of a sudden, the rider of the bike that shot around me drove up, pulled off his helmet, and said, “Kasey!! Oh my God! I didn’t know it was a girl. I didn’t know it was
you
!” That driver was Steve McQueen!”

Kasey and Steve knew each other because they had worked together a few times on his TV show,
Wanted: Dead or Alive,
and had recently gotten re-acquainted around the track, as Steve was one great racer, and had two kids that used to race with Mike.

Kasey loved that story, but the “girl” comment always stuck in her craw. She felt that girls could race just as well as guys, and should be taken more seriously in the sport.

By 1974, Kasey proved just that by establishing the PURR (Powder-Puffs Unlimited Riders and Racers) Association and later that same year, the first Powder-Puff National.

A year later, she approached the promoter of “the Superbowl of Motocross” to allow ten of the top women in racing to compete in a Women’s Invitational Trophy Dash. The man agreed and the event was a huge success, having been witnessed by some 80,000 spectators in the Los Angeles Coliseum. And one photo in particular of Sue Fish, wearing a halter top and leathers astride her bike went “viral” in a 1970s sort of way putting the event and women in moto-cross on the map!

Kasey also planned and organized the International Women’s Motorcycle Championship, a successful race that boasted over 350 women from all over the United States.

I always relished listening to Kasey when she talked about her Motocross days because you could see the excitement and passion in her eyes — much more than when she’d talk about her film and TV career.

Every now and then, we used to go down to the Glen Helen Race Track when they were having motocross races and I’d practically have to hold her in her seat because she wanted to get back out there on a bike!

Kasey was a monumental pioneer in the world of Women’s Motocross Racing, and of all of her accomplishments, whether it was working with the big names of the day like Alfred Hitchcock and Frank Capra, or starring in two of the most successful television series ever made, motocross racing was her most beloved accomplishment.

Kasey in 1971 astride her first motorcycle: a Honda 500 IV Original.

Chapter 8

My Big Move

In February of 1992, Kasey came to Atlanta to conduct an actor’s workshop that I helped set up with local friends and actors. Instead of staying at the hotel where the class would be held, she ended up staying at home with my parents and me. Mom and Dad loved Kasey and the feeling was mutual. To say we had a blast was putting it mildly.

Finally, one night before heading back to L.A., we were sitting in my Dad’s car and after an hour of chatting, Kasey looked at me and said, “Mark, if you ever want to get this
Bewitched… Again!
thing off the ground, you need to be in Hollywood.”

“But I can’t afford to be in Hollywood,” I replied.

“Well, come and stay with me for a couple of weeks.”

Needless to say, that was all the invitation I needed.

On March 8th, 1992, I arrived in Los Angeles

Two days later I picked up a harried Kasey at LAX. She had been on another teaching gig in Texas that had been a huge bust. She badly needed some cheering up, so we went out to dinner and then home.

I never left. And there you have the title of this book: The Fan Who Came to Dinner!

This was taken in June of 1968 as the Stars of Screen Gems got off the plane in Mexico City for a Junket that Kasey and her then husband Bud Lewis hosted for all the shows of ABC.
Left to Right:
Vito Scotti, David White, Sally Field, Barbara Eden, Alejandro Rey, Hayden Roarke, Agnes Moorehead, Macdonald Carey. Also present was the cast of
Here Come the Brides,
Screen Gems president, Jackie Cooper and many others. Elizabeth Montgomery and husband Bill Asher did NOT attend as their relations with ABC and Jackie Cooper were always a bit off.

Chapter 9

Wink

Kasey had a dog named Wink. Wink was a tiny, white Maltese who had a Napoleon complex… as he loved to pick on anything bigger than himself and often did. Wink’s thinking was that he could win any fight. The other dog’s was “Hors d’oeuvres”!

I had never had a dog before I inherited Wink. Winker. Winkmeister. Winkums. You name it, that’s what we called him! I was so blessed. This dog worshiped the water he thought I walked on and I loved that little guy with all my heart.

Kasey used to joke that before I arrived, Wink had been
her
dog, because the very first night I was in the condo, he jumped off her bed, ran into my room, and never went back! That dog and I were as inseparable as Kasey and I had become. My first ever dog!

Within days of my moving in, I remember noticing little droppings between the dresser and chest of drawers in my room that certainly couldn’t be Wink’s, and it was then I realized we had a little “visitor” running around! Kasey and I went to the store and bought one of those tiny mouse traps to set out. That night, I remember telling her, “If I hear that thing go off, I’m coming to get you no matter what time it is!”

About 1:30 AM I awoke to a “snap.” I lay there thinking, “I’m not going to wake her up… I am NOT going to wake her…” I couldn’t stand it. I went to get her. KR quickly grabbed a brown paper grocery bag and a yard stick to scoop up
the remains.
Slowly, we peered between the two pieces of furniture.

There was the trap.

There was the cheese.

But there was no mouse.

However, as we both slowly turned our heads, there, under a small rocking chair in my room, lay the biggest RAT you’ve ever seen! (No kidding at least 18” from tip to tail!!!)

Moving?
Nope.

Dead?
Who knew?

Kasey slowly pushed the chair. The rudder of the rocker tapped it, but it still didn’t move.

So, bag in hand, Kasey and I moved closer. She was going to flip it into the bag with the yard stick.

The very moment she touched it, that damn thing took off like a shot and flew down an open hole in
my
wall where a cable switch plate was missing.

Now, imagine if you will those old
Tom and Jerry
cartoons where the lady sees the mouse and jumps up on a chair holding her skirt around her thighs, and begins screaming at the top of her lungs.

Yeah, sad to say, that was me!

Finally, we stuffed the hole with a plastic bag and put packing tape to cover it but all through the night, I could hear the crunching of little teeth on plastic!

That April, only a month into my new life, Kasey and I made contact with former
Bewitched
stars Erin Murphy, Dick Sargent, and Sandra Gould. We held an impromptu
Bewitched
Reunion in Kasey’s acting studio, The Hollywood Underground Network in North Hollywood, which once sat on Weddington Street, right next to the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. In recent years it has been demolished to make way for more apartments, condos, and a railway station.

It was a great little reunion! We played a video about
Bewitched… Again!
that I had made in Atlanta with me playing Adam. Afterwards, I was highly praised by all. Talk about walking on air! AND, all said they would be right in there pitching with us to get the new series idea on air! I have no photos from this BUT recently I found a video that captured a short burst of this momentous occasion, and I am so glad that I have it.

Kasey and I soon began visiting all the “touristy” places together. On our first evening in Hollywood we parked the car right next to Snow White’s star on Hollywood Boulevard. (A cartoon character received her own star, yet it took seventeen more years to get one for Elizabeth Montgomery?!)

We ventured to the Renaissance Faire, Calico Ghost Town (a manufactured town that used real buildings from the Old West), and Universal Studios. I remember on one of our many trips there, we went on the Jurassic Park ride, which was new at the time. We sat in the front as planned because on the big drop, you can duck and all the water gets splashed on the guy behind you!

Unfortunately, all that planning proved futile as Kasey froze and forgot to duck!

When I looked up, I saw that her entire face had been washed clean and her hair was drenched! But always the good sport, she just went to the ladies room and blew herself dry with the hand drier!

One passion of mine was to visit all the different cemeteries and take my photo with ALL of the famous dead people I could find.

Mark and Bette Davis

Mark and Tyrone Power

Mark and Marilyn Monroe

Mark and L. Frank Baum…

We finally made a scrapbook and called it “Mark’s Book of the Dead”!

I figured the closest I’d ever get to any of them was six feet
above
… unless of course, they had been interred in a vault!

Which brings me to my next story…

This was taken in the lobby of the famed Ravenswood Apartments. It was here that Mae West lived most of her adult life.