Hi all, I was a flight attendant for TWA for 26 years (now I'm with AA) and early one morning I found myself in the doorway of a L-1011 greeting boarding passengers when I notice a few musicians boarding. A minute later I see Frank Zappa and a manager heading down the jetway towards me. I greeted him by name which seemed to surprise him, that I would know who he was. I knew that he had performed the night before in St. Louis and was now flying with TWA to Kansas City for a another concert that night. Later on while in-flight I served them beverages and we chit-chatted and then while on approach to K.C. I was summoned to his seat. Other crewmembers had told him that a few of us F/As we were staying in K.C that night. He asked if I would be staying there, and promptly offered us tickets and backstage passes to that evenings show at Kemper Arena. Long story short, it was an amazing night, a GREAT and inovative show (we enjoyed it from the 3rd row center), and the highlight was being invited afterward to hang out backstage in their lounge while local K.C. radio folk and celebrities passed through to "meet and greet" with Frank and the band. Everytime we'd get up to leave to make room for others, he'd insist that we should stay and hang out. So we did and had a great evening and lots of fun memories. It was sad to hear that he had passed away, and I still have his autograph on his TWA boarding card as well as the backstage passes mounted under glass on the roll-top desk that I'm typing this e-mail from. This topic brought back some warm memories! I've flown a lot of celebrities, and quite a few musicians over the years, but none were more memorable than Frank! Bill Bowman |
Please note - During the past 17 years of operation, several gigabytes of
Vanagon mail messages have been archived. Searching the entire collection
will take up to five minutes to complete. Please be patient!
Return to the archives @ gerry.vanagon.com
The vanagon mailing list archives are copyright (c) 1994-2011, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the list administrators. Posting messages to this mailing list grants a license to the mailing list administrators to reproduce the message in a compilation, either printed or electronic. All compilations will be not-for-profit, with any excess proceeds going to the Vanagon mailing list.
Any profits from list compilations go exclusively towards the management and operation of the Vanagon mailing list and vanagon mailing list web site.