Occasionally, when I saunter past the check-out counter at the supermarket and spy the scandalous front page exposes on John Travolta and his alleged sexcapades with a posse of handsome young studs, it triggers memories of innocent days when I first crossed the talented star’s path in a slightly anonymous way many moons ago.
Friends of mine owned an answering service in West Hollywood (A Professional Answer) which boasted celebrity clients such as Lily Tomlin, George Maharis, Hugh O’Brien, Alice Cooper, and – of course – heartthrob John Travolta.
On occasion – when Troy and Mike (the owners) were in need of a fill-in for the graveyard shift – I would pop in and take over the PBX Board.
Although I wasn’t a great telephone operator, I could manage well enough, since the calls were relatively few-and-far-between after the witching hour.
One night, the trunk line (a private line that employees and clients call in on) rang and I reached for it.
For some inexplicable reason, I thought it might be a friend of mine dialing in to chat me up, so I was tempted to hit him with a wisecrack when I spoke into the cradle of the phone.
“So, are we going to fuck tonight?”
On the spur of the moment, my inner voice advised against it, so I simply answered with the company name as usual.
"How are YOU tonight," a sexy male voice gushed on the other end of the phone.
I paused a moment.
The voice sounded familiar, but I couldn't quite place it.
I collected my thoughts for a moment before continuing.
"Who is this?"
"John Travolta," he uttered up.
OMG!
Fortunately, I didn't give the flip remark I originally intended, eh?
Or, just maybe, it was unfortunate that I didn't?
Depends on how 'ya look at it, I guess!
Over the next few weeks, whenever I was working that shift, the rising star would often call in and check for messages.
As I recall, John was pretty down-to-earth - and friendly - with no attitude.
A short while later, I gave up the part-time work when I began to earn bigger bucks in the performing arts in my chosen career.
The rest is history, as they say!
By the way, I've never met John in person to this day!
Life is curious, eh?
I answered a PBX Board like Lily!
(also a client at APA)
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