Posted on 11/05/2022 12:27:57 PM PDT by lowbridge
"This one little boy was 11 years old – terminally ill," the star recalled. "His wish was to meet the Fonz."
"Our habit was to get out of costume and makeup, completely put on our robes and our schleppy things, go over to the commissary, have dinner together and go back into hair and makeup. Henry would get out of the pompadour, out of the jacket. He would get into whatever he’d come to work in that day. This little boy was coming, and he was going to have dinner [with us]… And Henry comes in, but not as Henry but as the Fonz."
"I thought, ‘Well, that’s silly. What’s the deal? Just be yourself.’" the 67-year-old said. "What I failed to realize until I saw it in action was that Henry knew that this young boy was not coming to meet Henry. He wanted to meet the Fonz. And Henry was very clear on the difference between the two. So, we all had dinner with this darling boy and his father. And in this case, Henry had sprung for the rest of the family to be flown out at his own expense. He didn’t even tell us this, but we learned this later.
-snip
"As we’re sitting there… the Fonz was able to say things to this little boy that Henry wouldn’t have been able to say – sort of Fonzi-isms. You know, life wisdom of ‘Hang in there, dude. You’re going to be [OK].’ I had to turn away [because] the tears were flowing, most of us did. But Henry stayed strong, and he stayed on his mission and his task for that hour or so with this little boy to give him this treasured time of joy. That’s Henry."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Me too !!!!
Excellent reference points; I forgot about them.
Maybe, but this story was about how he treated a fan, a terminally ill child.
I always thought “American Graffiti” was one of the influences.
The Fonz character seems to be a carryover from the Lords of Flatbush movie.
Grease was more memorable to me because my sister was always playing the record, singing the songs, and going to the movie. When I looked up Grease, I found that Sha-Na-Na was an influence on that, and I took it from there. There was a leather jacket guy in American Grafitti, but the comic aspects of Fonzi may owe more to Bowser or Grease.
You're right, though. However big Grease the movie would be later, more people saw American Grafitti than Grease the musical, and Marshall must have seen it too.
Yes! Lots of cringey pathos... like in the "Scott's Tots" episode.
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