The Vegas Voice 2-21

Play Dates
By: Beverly Washburn / Hollywood Memories
After speaking with publisher Dan last week,
he suggested that I might share with you
the many “dates” with celebrities I have had way
back in the 60s and 70s. At the risk of being a “name dropper” here is a
list of some of the dreamy guys I “dated”:
Tony Dow (Wally on Leave it to Beaver) Paul Petersen ( Jeff on
The Donna Reed show) Bobby Rydell, Bobby “Boris” Pickett
(of The Monster Mash song), Mike Clifford (Close to Cathy popular
song), Don Grady, (My Three Sons), Bobby Diamond (Fury TV
show), Trini Lopez (singer); wait, there’s more.
Randy Boone (The Virginian) Peter Duel (Alias Smith and
Jones TV show) Dean Torrence (half of Jan and Dean duo) Johnny
Crawford (The Rifleman) Dennis Wilson, (one of The Beachboys),
Dack Rambo (Guns of Will Sonnett, Dallas TV shows and he also
played my brother on The New Loretta Young Show) Jimmy Hawkins
(Tagg on Annie Oakley TV Show) and Bill Bixby.
Pretty impressive, right? Well, now for the “Real” Story - they weren’t
“Real” dates!
You see back in the 60s and 70s there were many movie magazines:
Modern Screen, Photoplay, Teen Beat, Tiger Beat etc., and…
What they would do, is take pictures of various actors and actors
posing at different functions with the captions saying things like
“Tony Dow was seen out with
Beverly Washburn at the circus”,
or “Paul Petersen was spotted
with Beverly Washburn having
a late night dinner at the Brown
Derby” , or “Bobby Rydell was
seen holding hands with Beverly
Washburn at a party”, and so on.
All “staged and posed.” A
complete “planned set up!”
Bummer, huh? Well the good
part is that I have actually stayed
friends with some of them. Tony
and Paul even wrote separate
Forewords for my book.
The attached photo was a sample of one of my “dates.” I spoke to
Tony recently and the funny thing is neither of us can remember where
or when this photo was even taken!
But there we were - on a “date!” Ah showbiz - you gotta love it!
Until next time...Remember kindness is the language the deaf can
hear and the blind can see.
Beverly Washburn graced the silver screen as a child actress and
is the author of Reel Tears. You can contact Beverly at: bjradell@
hotmail.com.
By: Adrea Nairne-Barrera / Senior Moments
When you’re an adoptee, you learn to be
patient when doing a search for birth
parents. Given my age, records have been sealed
for years and people who may have known about me have long since
passed.
After an exhaustive search in the
‘80s, I found my birth mother and
two half-brothers. It was just good
old fashioned research and amateur
detective work.
I knew her for a few years until
she died and also built a relationship
with my brothers, only to lose one a
few years later to cancer.
I still have a relationship with my
remaining brother on my mother’s
side, his wife and two children. We
are on opposite sides of the county
but we visit every so often.
Then along comes DNA! And best of all, it’s available to ordinary
people through websites, family trees and doing genetic research.
Records are limited obviously because if your sibling hasn’t submitted,
14
The Search is Finally Done!
February 2021
you won’t match up.
So about four years ago I had two very close matches that popped up
as first cousins or closer and I actually met one of them. We tried and
tried to figure out where the connection was but no luck.
Then suddenly last month, another researcher who came upon
me because I am related to her husband, followed the DNA trail and
discovered my entire story.
She was able to reconstruct
my birth father’s history down to
dates and locations, marriages and
children and - lo and behold, my
first cousins are actually my brother
and sister. When I presented her info,
my cousin, now brother, confirmed
that everything lined up perfectly.
My message to anyone out there
searching is to never give up! Things
happen in the most unexpected ways
and though I would follow trails of
people, I was completely off course as it turned out and they were right
there in front of me.
The circle of my coming into the world is now complete in my 70s. I
started getting curious in my 20’s and here we are. The search is over.
Adrea likes to opine and find the lighter side of life as a senior.