67A Buena Vista Terrace.  The home address of Kerwin Mathews, who starred in the 7th Voyage of Sinbad often pops into my mind for no apparent reason. Interestingly enough I Googled it today and see that there is a new Zillow listing with the property for sale.   

Although I had previously written to Kerwin and received some autographs through the mail, when I moved into the Haight Ashbury District of San Francisco, down the street from Buena Vista Park, I realized that he was my neighbor. I asked a friend of mine who was always up for an adventure to join me in knocking on Kerwin's door. 

He was home. He answered the door and he was super gracious, asking us to come inside.  It's so trippy that I can see pictures of the empty house now that it is currently for sale as I write this, and my memories are triggered. One thing I specifically remember was his partner forcefully reminding Kerwin that they had to get to the Orchid show. This was clearly his way of breaking up our visit, and I will get to our chat in just a moment. But it's just on point that the Zillow listing highlights the fact that there is a greenhouse in their unit. "Lower level apartment (#67A) is 1bed/1bath with enclosed sunroom and sole access to backyard with greenhouse"  

Kerwin was super delighted to invite us in to talk with him.  In retrospect I think that it may have been cocktail hour and he may have asked us if we wanted a drink but both of us would have declined since we didn't drink at the time. I just remember that he was super friendly and talkative and a gracious host. 

Now keep in mind that I only knew him from the 7th Voyage of Sinbad and hadn't seen anything else, so I'm pretty sure that our discussion was around Sinbad. What I recall most vividly though is a story that he mentioned about working with Tina Louise. I don't remember exactly how it came up, but he was recalling, with much laughter, how Tina had makeup on the INSIDE of her nostrils. This seemed to amuse him greatly.  (I just now had to look it up and the movie was The Warrior Empress from 1960.) 

Kerwin was quite talkative and very accommodating in signing some autographs for me.  The autographs in red ink were from that visit, and a couple of the photos were provided by Kerwin. His partner had been lurking in the background and gave off a Vibe of being irked since Kerwin was being so loquacious with these two younger male fans/Intruders. When he had had enough, or thought that Kerwin had had enough, he came into the room, dressed up, and announced that they had to get ready for the Orchid show. End of visit. Kerwin showed us out and thanked us for stopping by.  I'm pretty sure his partner was standing right behind him with a serious face, perhaps to make sure we were escorted out and not invited back...lol 

I can now say that I have also seen the three worlds of Gulliver, so I have seen exactly two Kerwin Mathews movies. But my memories and fondness for the 7th Voyage of Sinbad and my special visit with Kerwin encouraged me to track down his female co-star.  Princess Parisa was also a local, living less than 30 minutes away from me. But the former  Kathryn Grant was now the widowed Mrs Bing Crosby and lived behind formidable gates in a mansion.  So there was no knocking on her door at cocktail hour... 

Growing up I knew of Catherine Crosby from Bing's tv specials and Minute Maid commercials, but I don't think I had put it together that she was the princess in 7th Voyage of Sinbad when I sent her some pictures to sign in the mail in 1980.  I probably wrote to her just because I had pictures of her and knew her address.  Those are the autographs signed in ballpoint pen.  Note the photo of the BACK of the pictures with my handwritten notes to her as to where I got those photos. (a) As if she cared, (b) As my mom would’ve written to Kathryn Crosby in the 50’s (c) Apologies to the owner of Charisma for my sometimes-sticky fingers when I was a teenager. Contact me, Paul, and I’ll Venmo you.  Reparations and forgiveness.  Let us pray. (Personal P.S. – It just came to me … my one and only time acting on celluload was in a short film that the owner of Charisma made with me and some of my other friends.  It was totally goofy and supposed to be a comedy, but I remember it was so cringe at the time – I was insecure, hated the way I looked on camera and it was not funny.  I really should have asked for a copy, because older eyes look back on your youth with more fondness.) 

Anyway …years later, in 1995, Kathryn Grant Crosby was appearing at San Franciscos Golden Gate Theater in a production of State Fair. I was now better armed with knowledge of her career and a seventh voyage poster collage already signed by Kerwin.  The production also starred John davidson, Andrea mcardle, and Donna mckechney. I'll get to them elsewhere. 

I was really focused on meeting Kathryn because I had some nice things for her to sign.  When she came out I believe that I was the only person waiting for her and my first impression was how incredibly demure and soft spoken she was.  She seemed to like the glamor still that I had of her, but was a little taken aback when I asked her to sign it as Kathryn Grant.  I said something along the lines of.. since it was your professional acting name at the time of this photo.  There was a brief hesitation, no comment, and then she signed and inscribed to Bobby as Catherine Crosby.  She followed suit on the 7th Voyage of Sinbad poster collage, very politely handed me the blue Sharpie, smiled and got into her car. It was a very Stepford-esque encounter.   

Strangely enough, as recent as 2023 she signs autographs through the mail as Catherine Grant. I also have Catherine Grant Crosby from collection purchases. So I'm guessing it just depends on her mood as to how she signs.  At the time of this writing she is 90 years old, still with us, still representing the Crosby clan and still classy.  And she still lives about 30 minutes away from me in Hillsborough. 

Now we get to the Boy Genie.  Just like Kerwin sword fighting with a skeleton, the boy genies voice which sounded like it was coming through an echo chamber, is firmly embedded in my memory as favorite parts of the film.  It wasn't until I was researching a huge collection of signed cards that I had purchased, that I was delighted to find he was in my collection.  He is currently 79 years old and quite accommodating to autograph collectors. 

And now, the man who made the magic happen. The seventh Voyage of Sinbad wouldn't be the classic it is if it wasn't for the stop motion animated figures, like the sword wielding skeleton and the cyclops and dragon fighting on the beach, that were created Ray Harryhausen.  And I loved the work that he did in Clash of the titans, especially Medusa. And it wasn't until just now that I see that he was the recipient of an Honorary Academy Award I had never heard of. The Gordon e Sawyer Oscar is given to "an individual in the motion picture industry whose technological contributions have brought credit to the industry".  So there you have it, Ray harryhausen, special effects legend.    

In regards to the autographs – the B&W still from “Clash of the Titans” is authentic.  And the other signed card with a “Certificate of Authenticity” (uh-huh) is one of the reasons why you need to be very skeptical when buying autographs and understand that COA’s are often meaningless pieces of paper.  Luckily that one was just part of a collection where I paid about a dollar a piece and there were a lot more authentic than fake.  Buyer beware!