I Sold a Watch to Albert Brooks

 By Bruce Shawkey

Some time in the 1980s, I sold a watch to Albert Brooks. I was in my office on North Sherman Avenue in Madison, and the phone rang. Albert had spotted one of my watches on the Internet and wanted to purchase it.

I found out later he was (and presumably is) a vintage watch collector, and perhaps a gift-giver. He told me he has a fairly large wrist, and wanted to be sure that both the watch and the bracelet were large enough so they didn't look ridiculous on his wrist. I forget what the watch was, but it wasn't very expensive, perhaps an Elgin.

I didn't wish to fawn over Mr. Brooks, but memories of him go way back to his first appearance on the Ed Sullivan show where he played a bumbling ventriloquist. My favorite movie of his is Broadcast News, where he stars with William Hurt and Holly Hunter. His portrayal of Aaron Altman is both hilarious and filled with pathos as he attempts to woo Ms. Hunter, and at one point develops a case of the flop sweats when he attempts to anchor the evening news to substitute for Jack Nicholson's character, Bill Rorish.

In a follow-up, Holly Hunter asks William Hurt if the Altmaan's sweating was unprecedented, to which Hurt replies, "Not if you count Singin' in the Rain."

I see that Brooks has made a documentary with long- time friend Rob Reiner in the style of "My Dinner with Andre." I hope to catch it some day. Brooks has a website ... a very funny one with clips of his stage performances. It's located at https://www.albertbrooks.com/.

I've met other celebrities over the years. One was Loretta Swit, who played Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan on the TV series MASH. I carried her luggage for her at a jewelry trade show in Chicago. I'll talk about that in another blog entry.

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