Celebrity Sightings in Marin

Truenative · Status: Offline

Celebrity Sightings in Marin

ClydeRiceRoni · Status: Offline

BobP wrote:
Back in the early to mid-seventies, there was a recording studio in Sausalito, the Record Plant (now the Plant). A friend of mine did quite a bit of carpentry work there (I believe he built an actual echo chamber) & I tagged along a few times. John Lennon popped in once or twice, as did Sly Stone and Buddy Miles.

-- Edited by BobP on Wednesday 29th of January 2014 12:44:27 PM

That building is for sale and the IJ reported that it would probably be sold and redeveloped. But basically all still there.

BobP · Status: Offline

Back in the early to mid-seventies, there was a recording studio in Sausalito, the Record Plant (now the Plant). A friend of mine did quite a bit of carpentry work there (I believe he built an actual echo chamber) & I tagged along a few times. John Lennon popped in once or twice, as did Sly Stone and Buddy Miles.

-- Edited by BobP on Wednesday 29th of January 2014 12:44:27 PM

ClydeRiceRoni · Status: Offline

I've seen Carlos Santana a couple of times around Mill Valley. Last summer I was stopped at a light on Blithedale at 101 and glanced to my left and there he was, waiting for his light, rocking out to some tunes, bobbing his head, wearing a fedora, I think.

Robin Williams a couple of times lately. He came into the coffee place in MV right before it closed and I just saw him from the side and recognized him right away. It must be tough to be a celeb...

Tim Lincecum late night in the Strawberry Safeway around Christmas a few years ago, probably picking up some munchies with his bros.

When I was a cashier at Goodman's this strange-looking couple came through my line. The man's eyebrows were waxed into horns and they both had various satanic looking rings and jewelry on. Always wondered if they were famous satanists or something. Very friendly.

JasonLewis · Status: Offline

goddess1

Status: Offline

Posts: 0

Date: Feb 24, 2009

Reply To: Celebrity Sightings in Marin

I thought everyone in Marin knew all the rock stars! I guess I was lucky then, growing up right up the road from Hun Sound and other studios, then later on it seemed like any musician going through a divorce, ended up at New Georges. We were right in there hanging with them. OK I was a rocker chick. That is kind of embarrassing to say now, but oh so much to do then! __________________

Jason

Status: Offline

Posts: 0

Date: Aug 7, 2008


Anyone attend the ceremony? What was he doing here? Why Marin? Here's a photo from the event. His sister was doing the serving... __________________

Pangolin

Status: Offline

Posts: 44

Date: Aug 4, 2008


I met Nixon at the San Rafael courthouse in '61. I was an infant and my parents took me along. I ended up on the news in the film footage of the event, but needless to say, I haven't gone out of my way to find the footage. __________________

Jason

Status: Offline

Posts: 0

Date: Aug 4, 2008


Here's a photo from a campaign stop at JC Penney's in San Rafael in 1961: If anyone has any more photos from Nixon's stop in Marin or was there and recall anything about it, please write in! Jason __________________

googuse · Status: Offline

My scariest Marin sighting was at New Georges. I don't remember what band I was seeing, but I was pretty well drunk and stumbled into the bathroom to relieve myself. As I turned around to leave, who should come busting out of the stall but Gregg Allman. Now, this in most cases wouldn't have phased me much, but i had JUST seen the movie Rush, in which Mr Allman played a bad guy, who KILLS A GUY AFTER BUSTING OUT OF A BATHROOM STALL. I totally screamed like a little girl and he fell out laughing after I told him I had just seen the movie.

Gael von Lackum · Status: Offline

In the early 70's I lived briefly on a houseboat in Sausalito. Next door was Sterling Hayden. His buddies included "Varda", Alan Watts and Alan Ginsburg. I barely knew who these people were at the time. About the same time I saw Art Garfunkel down town Tiburon in line in front of me at the ice cream parlor. Rumor was he was living in Tiburon. He didn't last long because he was desperate for anonomity, needed more seclusion. At the ice cream parlor in Summer he had a trench coat on with his collar pulled up like a mobster and some kind of hat on. I met Van Morrison through a then boyfriend who was a roommate in the same house in Mill Valley at the time. Later I saw Paul Newman coming across the crosswalk in my direction in Sausalito. I was a nanny for a family in Ross and my little 3 year old charge went to school with Sean Penn's son "Connor". Infact the two were friends and we all ran into one another in the woods and Sean and I kind of watched in silence as the two kids played a bit. I used to wait with him at the school to pick up our kids. We were all cool and let him be unknown to us as he would have been did we not know him from the movies. It's weird how one has to watch the urge to just blurt out a friendly "Hi Sean" which of course is obnoxious and what the poor man dreads. He rarely lifts his eyes from the ground when out and about. There are others, but these are the ones that come to me at the moment...

Hewett · Status: Offline

My girlfriend and I went into the Trident about midnite in 1969. Janis Joplin and a couple of her cronies came in a flopped down at the table next to us. She must have drank the town dry of Southern Comfort BEFORE she rolled in. They were wasted. My gal and I shared one of the Trident's "Health Shakes", and proceeded out to Muir Beach to spend the night in sleeping bags. That was the last "Health Shake" we ever had. Why, you ask? She got knocked-up that night (like I had nothing to do with it!). No more vitamins for this guy...........

SteveC · Status: Offline

Pause at 1:35 and you're looking at the end of 4th St behind Whole Foods which I believe was Alpha Beta at that time. A moment later, The street they show is High Street which was closed to traffic a long time ago. 60's maybe, anyone know ? The last frame is facing Mission St.

Sister Christian

-- Edited by SteveC at 15:46, 2007-10-16

JasonLewis · Status: Offline

jewels wrote:

I used to see Huey Lewis at New George's all the time. Also, I used to see George Lucas driving around in San Anselmo. My dad said that he was in Tiburon and stopped at the same gas station as Sammy Hagar, when he was driving that Ferrari of his. He actually went up and said hello. Once when I was walking down 4th St, I saw Neil Schon on his Harley. It was quite the experience living in Marin in those days... late 80s.
Oh yes, and can't forget the time Night Ranger made their Sister Christian video at SRHS. I was there and in the 9th grade. Got to meet all those guys. That was really cool.

Night Ranger shot the "Sister Christian" video at SRHS???? I didn't know that. Surely someone out there has a photo of THAT!

GrewUpinMarin · Status: Offline

Saw George Lucas at the B of A in Corte Madera across from the Town Center. Worked at the Good Guys in the Town Center (but I miss the old CMC) and we would have the boys from the Dead pop in or Carlos or Neil Schon and the surprising one was Robert Englund (Freddy from Nightmare fame). I sold a DAT player to Phil Lesh. Jerry would come in around Xmas and spend major money. Sean Hopper from the News would drop by frequently. And the big man Clarence Clemons was a frequent visitor.
We also got the infamous Mitchell brothers in the store alot. I remember right after one killed the other, a sales man in our video depratment was worried a big screen TV that was just delivered to one of them was going to come back. I don't think it ever did.

HowieCA666 · Status: Offline

More recently, I've seen Robin Penn a few times at the Half Day Cafe and the Woodland Market

jamberry · Status: Offline

I guess George and Huey get around, because like everyone else, they're the only celebrities I've seen in all my 30 years here and mostly during the 80s (Tamal Plaza Theater, United market, Marin General Hospital, and Chevy's come to mind). Ironically, I temped at Skywalker Ranch during the mid-90s and never saw George, though I did see Jodi Foster jogging. My parents ran into Huey at Hi-Tech Burrito once and he chatted with them for a while about music.

jamberry · Status: Offline

Patsy wrote:

I used to work at Lyon's in Corte Madera, in the 60's. I used to wait on Chuck Woolery, at the counter quite regularly.

Get out!* I was a Love Connection addict in the 80s, in no small part due to Woolery's good looks and charm. Every afternoon I'd come from San Rafael High and watch it (unless, of course, there was an ABC afternoon special). I had no idea he grew up in Marin.

*said Elaine style, a la Seinfeld.

Paul Penna · Status: Offline

A friend of mine has been a letter carrier in Belvedere-Tiburon since the mid-80s, and has met and talked with few famous folks, among them Robin Williams' mom, ubiquitous voice-over artist Paul "Boris Badenov" Frees, and once had a nice chat with Sterling Hayden. I'll keep bugging him to come on here and do a tell-all.

Paul Penna · Status: Offline

artlife wrote:

i used to see george lucas frequently at chevy's, with his kids

I was having breakfast at a cafe in Fairfax back in the 80s when George ambled in, planted himself on a stool at the counter and had a cup of joe. Maybe he had more, but I was too shy to go over and ask if he'd autograph my omelette.

Paul Penna · Status: Offline

Pangolin wrote:

Don't tell anyone, but when I was an infant my parents took me to a Richard Nixon campaign stop at the San Rafael courthouse when he was running against JFK in 1960. Apparently he made nice with the baby for the news cameras.

Now there's a pic that needs to be found and posted.

rob miller · Status: Offline

YOW!--Nixon! I won't tell... This isn't exactly a Marin thing, but an interesting tidbit anyway:
In the mid-70's, I was a bike messenger in the city for awhile, and one fine day I checked out a crowd gathering on Market St., maybe around the corner of 3rd. Got closer, and I discovered it was Good Ol' Jimmy Carter, standing on wooden box, on a street corner, "talkin' to the people".
Grass-roots level campaingning. Cool.

Pangolin · Status: Offline

Don't tell anyone, but when I was an infant my parents took me to a Richard Nixon campaign stop at the San Rafael courthouse when he was running against JFK in 1960. Apparently he made nice with the baby for the news cameras.

goTL · Status: Offline

I worked at Eduardo's Restaurant in Terra Linda in the mid Eighties. Huey Lewis, Mario Cippollina, and Chris Hayes would come by and order large glasses of fresh squeezed O.J. Their practice studio was right behind the restaurant. If I remember correctly, there were several warehouse type buildings back there and they used one of them. This was around the time that the album "Sports" came out.

Meadowsweet Rich · Status: Offline

Yeah, I guess it's time to get rolling, like Ellen used to say, "This is a house of work "

rob miller · Status: Offline

Hey Meadowsweet Rich-
Don't you think it's time to go to work???

Meadowsweet Rich · Status: Offline

John F Kennedy visited Marin while campaigning for president, the democratic party held a fundraiser at Mc Nears picnic ground, before it was county park. My parents attended & brought me along too, my memories are foggy, but I remember him speaking to the crowd, does anybody else remember that event?

cat · Status: Offline

Bill Graham!
I never saw him in Marin, but my husband and I had a little, uh, conversation with him. Actually it was just my damn fool husband! We went to see Bruce Springsteen at the Shoreline not long after it opened, and we were waiting in a huuuuuuge line for an hour to get in the place, and who drives by but Bill Graham, on his motorcycle.

My husband just SCREAMS at him, "Hey Bill, this place SUCKS!". Of course, that is when the line started moving, and Bill Graham does a quick u-turn and storms up to my husband yelling at him, how rude he was, and had he ever been to the Shoreline before? My husband said that yeah, it was rude, and that yes, he had been several times and got stuck in horrendous traffic in the parking lot, etc etc.
Bill Graham was really annoyed and huffy and told him to put the complaint in a letter. Then he rode off.
I hear we got off pretty easy compared to other people who confronted him....

Remember when they first built Shoreline, and the methane gas that leaked up from the old dump would be ignited by people smoking?

artlife · Status: Offline

i used to see george lucas frequently at chevy's, with his kids

it was a good place to take kids and get decent food, plus a drink for mommy

bill graham, driving around in that sidecar motorcycle

carlos santana, all over the place in the 70s

-- Edited by artlife at 03:22, 2007-03-09

jdvorin · Status: Offline

Huey Lewis at the Marin County Fair sometime in the '80s. George Lucas here and there throughout the years.

But I will never forget being a newbie stage manager in the Drama Dept. at Redwood High sometime in either 1986 or 1987 and officiously asking an adult who had walked in to one of our afterschool rehearsals what she was doing there. She replied, "I'm China's mom" and it was only after I'd made small talk with her for a minute and walked backstage again that I realized that she was Grace Slick.

SteveC · Status: Offline

I talked to Santana lead singer Greg Rolie at the market where Whole Foods MV is today.
He said he left and was starting a new band called Journey. Very nice man.

At the same market I used to see Michael Bloomfield, John Stewart, Mason Williams, and Tommy Smothers. I also chatted with Bob Johnston who produced Bob Dylan among others.

Another producer Narada Michael Walden who was probably the biggest hit maker of the '80s was always around, living in Tiburon and making all the records on E. Francisco Blvd. I saw Aretha Franklin being greeted by him outside his studio.

At Mill Valley Market, I used to see David Crosby and Pete Sears among other rock stars.

At Mama's Royal Cafe in their old location in The Port, Van Morrison was having breakfast at the next table.

And how about the Tam High band with two legends playing together; George Duke and Bill Champlin !

-- Edited by SteveC at 03:17, 2007-02-17

artlife · Status: Offline

robin williams used to scoop ice cream at old uncle gaylord's in mill valley

we'd go down there at closing time and be rolling on the floor with laughter at his jokes

he was a friend of mine at the time, and i did get to be in a hot tub with him, as well as have him come over to my house on panoramic during the 1976 snow event on tam

huey lewis at guasco's, also our kids went to school together some 20 years later

Patsy · Status: Offline

I used to work at Lyon's in Corte Madera, in the 60's. I used to wait on Chuck Woolery, at the counter quite regularly.

rob miller · Status: Offline

I, too, have memories of seeing Janis around. She drove a Porsche 911 or 912, all painted up psycedelic(sp?). She was in front of me in line at Madera Foods(remember that?), one day. Was buying a sando from the deli and a box of Tampax. Also, Keysey's bus was parked on Ward St in Larkspur for quite awhile. (You know, THE BUS. Named "Further". Merry Pranksters, Greatful Dead, etc...) If you still don't know what I'm talking about, read "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test". Those were the days, my friend...

Speaking of counter-culture era icons, when I was a Renaisance Faire employee, Owsley Stanley ran a food booth in the Red Barn, on the faire lot, just for the employees. He only cooked breakfast, more specifically, he only cooked ONE THING for breakfast. Huevos Rancheros. They were darned good, too. You could taste the love and soulfullness in each bite. >sidebar---Owsley also operated one of his infamous "labs" about half a block down the street from me, when I lived in Berzerkeley. If you're interested who this fine gent is, try http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owsley_Stanley-- Edited by rob miller at 03:19, 2007-02-01http://www.wikipedia.com

-- Edited by rob miller at 03:36, 2007-02-01http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owsley_Stanley

-- Edited by rob miller at 03:48, 2007-02-01

cat · Status: Offline

sightings by time periods...

In high school: Sammy Hagar, George Lucas

In college/ Lucky grocery worker days: The drummer for Huey Lewis and the News, Steve Perry from Journey (we had a conversation about clowns,for pete's sake!), George Lucas,

Whole Earth Access days: Kirk Hammet from Metallica, Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam, Too $hort, Les Claypool from Primus, Craig Chaciquo (I think he was with Journey and Santana), Oliver North (yikes!), I'm sure there's more I cannot remember.

Last 10 years: Sammy Hagar, George Lucas, Courtney Love, Huey Lewis. Ok, Courtney Love was at Book Passage, at a signing. Probably doesn't really count.

Sammy Hagar, George Lucas, and Huey Lewis are TIMELESS!

Dewey · Status: Offline

I ran into Janis Joplin at the 7-11 (Magnolia and CM Ave) in Corte Madera just before she died (1970?).

When my son was playing little league in Point Reyes about 8 years ago, a new kid joined the team. I wondered about his father: how could such a dorky looking guy have such a beautiful wife? Found out that he was Phil Lesh! (obviously I'm not Dead-savvy)

Saw and photographed Jake Gyllenhaal watching Manka's burn last month (see attachment).

Marin is so "cool" now, celebrity sightings are a dime a dozen...

jewels · Status: Offline

I used to see Huey Lewis at New George's all the time. Also, I used to see George Lucas driving around in San Anselmo. My dad said that he was in Tiburon and stopped at the same gas station as Sammy Hagar, when he was driving that Ferrari of his. He actually went up and said hello. Once when I was walking down 4th St, I saw Neil Schon on his Harley. It was quite the experience living in Marin in those days... late 80s.
Oh yes, and can't forget the time Night Ranger made their Sister Christian video at SRHS. I was there and in the 9th grade. Got to meet all those guys. That was really cool.

local · Status: Offline

There was a time a few years ago where I ran into Huey Louis a few times at the Chevron in Greenbrae. It was getting a bit awkward, I think he started recognizing ME.

I ran into Bob Weir, of Grateful Dead fame, in the checkout line at Goodman's Lumber. He was buying a Mop.

JasonLewis · Status: Offline

During the 50's through the 80's, what celebrities did you accidentally bump into around the county?