Friday, November 01, 2013

Deli Patron Serves Baloney

Our family was on a long drive from LA to the Bay Area to visit family when we decided to grab lunch in a roadside deli.  This was the early 1980s so the details in my mind are a little sketchy.  A portly man with a beard was holding court inside.  We sat near him and he said that he was John Black, a TV writer who had penned many movies, as well as episodes of Star Trek and Bonanza.  My brother Danny is a huge Star Trek fan, and we were excited to meet a Hollywood insider.
Mr. Black said that he was a Jewish Holocaust survivor, who changed his name when he entered the U.S.  He also dished stories about well known Hollywood figures.
Fast forward to a few months ago,  my brother, Danny who now lives in LA went to a lecture by John DF Black, who did write episodes for Star Trek.  He said the man that we met some 30 years ago was not John Black but an impostor.  He had done this many times and had irked the real Black.  In 30 some years, we accepted his stories as the truth and many turned out to be.  It provided context for the actors that he spoke about.  In reality, we stopped in for lunch and was served a baloney sandwich.

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