Linda drove 1000 miles! -

"The Rifleman" was one of my favorite TV shows and as a little girl and young teenager. I had a crush on Johnny Crawford who starred in the show. When I heard that Johnny Crawford was performing in a play in Kentucky in June 2008, I thought this might be the closest he’ll get to New York and I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to see him perform. I’d only been waiting since 1958 to meet him – I'd say that was long enough!

So I plugged in my GPS, picked up my friend, Margie, and headed to Danville, Kentucky! It was a long drive, but worth every mile. We met with some wonderful friends in Kentucky, who also travelled quite a distance to be there.  It’s always more fun to share something this good with friends. We had tickets to the Friday evening performance. Although we didn’t have to be at the theater until 7:30, we drove over early so that we would have time to shop in the gift shop. We were told that Johnny’s new CD was for sale and we wanted to make sure we each got one. Well, getting there early was a great idea. We started to walk around looking at the Pioneer Playhouse which is quite an interesting place. Part of it was the set for the movie "Raintree County" which was filmed in Danville in the 1950’s. A lady who volunteers at the theater greeted us and asked where we were from. I told her I’d driven down from New York just for the play. Because we were early, she offered to show us a special display they had on the "Raintree County" movie and led us through the dining area into the room with some memorabilia. As I followed her, I noticed Johnny sitting at a table having dinner with some people. I almost said "there he is" - I couldn’t believe he was right there! But I was very cool and didn’t bother him while he was eating. We just walked casually across the room –just taking little glances as we walked! We took our little tour and then started back to the ticket office to pick up our tickets and CD’s;but before we left the display area, we peeked out the doors to the dining room to make sure Johnny wasn’t there so that we wouldn’t look like we were just walking past to gape at him. As we were standing on the ticket line, I noticed Johnny driving past us in a car. We were ‘this close’ again – another tease! I was so hoping that we’d really get the chance to meet him during the evening. We picked up our tickets along with our copies of Johnny’s CD – which were autographed – a very nice bonus.

We went into dinner which was really good. They served a barbeque dinner in an outdoor dining area. The food was good; the people were nice, and we had a lovely time. During dinner, a man came over to speak to us. He was the director for the play and the son of the man who founded this theater. He said he heard some people had driven down from New York for the play. I told him that was true and that we came to see Johnny Crawford. He asked us if he could announce that we were from New York from the stage, which he did before the play began. Some people applauded us for that.

The Pioneer Playhouse is an outdoor amphitheater and we had seats down front in the second row. The play was a comedy and very funny. All the actors did a great job, but Johnny was terrific! I kept reminding myself that I was really seeing Johnny Crawford in person!! It was hard to keep concentrating on the play when I kept checking to make sure Johnny was still on the stage.  His character occasionally played the guitar and sang a little song - totally charming!

When the play was over, the entire cast lined up at the top of steps of the amphitheater and you had the opportunity to shake their hands and comment on the performance as you left. Johnny was the last one in line. Because we sat so close to the stage, we were almost the last ones to get to the receiving line. Just when I got up to Johnny, the director walked over and told him that we were the people who "drove 1,000 miles" to see him. Johnny looked very surprised. He had just taken my hand to shake it when he was called away for a picture with the entire cast. I couldn't believe it! I thought he was gone! He said, "I'll be right back" and I said, "I'm waiting right here!" He did come back.

When I handed him my program to sign, he asked, "Who do you want this signed to?" The question kind of surprised me. Like an idiot, I said, "Just to me." He looked up and said, "To me?" I said, "I mean Linda." I think he looked amused, but he signed my program without laughing at me. I guess he is used to fans having momentary lapses in cognitive functions! He then chatted for several minutes. I asked him if he would ever bring his band to New York and he said he'd love to. He'd like to play Carnegie Hall. That would be a dream! He did talk with me for a couple of minutes more and then to my friend who was standing next to me. She’ll have to tell you her own story but she looked as happy as I was. After the autographs and conversation were over, my friends and I started to walk toward our car and we heard Johnny say to some other people, "Excuse me, but these people drove 1,000 miles to see me. I’m going to talk to them for a few minutes." He walked over to us and talked with us for about 20 minutes. At different points, he spoke to each one of the four of us. When he talks to you, he looks right at you and listens to you when you speak. He is charming, polite, friendly and just a real gentleman. He reminisced about The Rifleman a little bit; talked about his new CD and commented on a special website that is all about the Rifleman that my friend, Margie, created. He told us about having his picture taken with Chuck Connors for the cover of TV Guide when The Rifleman was on and how he never told his mother that he was going to be on the cover. He wanted to surprise her. When it came out, she came home waving the TV Guide totally surprised her son was on it! He was just wonderful and easy to talk to. I was really nervous before I said ‘hello’ to him,but after we started talking I felt amazingly relaxed.

Soon a cast member walked over and asked Johnny to come back into the theater for an "open mike" event. This is where all the cast members do little skits or stories or songs. We started to say Goodbye but Johnny invited the four of us to join him inside and so we did. He sat with us during the performance until it was time for him to do his part. He sang a cute little song with some special sound effects like whistling and making a "buzzing" sound.  While he was singing, one young actress who was sitting in front of me said to her friend, "Isn’t he wonderful? Don’t you want to hug him?" I wanted to say ‘Yes, I do!" I know just how she felt!

The evening was over right after he finished his song and we had to head back to our hotel. It was a perfectly wonderful evening and one I will long remember.

Johnny Crawford is as gracious and elegant as his music. I have never asked anyone for an autograph before. I think I was always a little bit afraid I might be disappointed in the person. No such problem with Johnny. He is worth a 1,000 mile drive and I’d do it again in a heartbeat!  Of course, on the way home, I had Johnny's music to serenade me all the way!

Johnny doing his improvisation song after the play Friday night.