The Journey of Christene "Cookie" Meyers: 50 Years of Celebrity Interviews and Travel

Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, New Year's Eve 2015. Cookie, Keller had ringside seats to ring in 2015!  They also saw Bennett and Gaga at his farewell concert in New York's Radio City Music Hall.

Bruce Meyers and the Kit Kat Girls. The actor and writing teacher was emcee in a 1977 production of "Cabaret" for which writer Christene Meyers was music director and head of the Kit Kat Band.

DANCING THROUGH LIFE, FAVORITE PLAYS AND PERFORMANCES, INTERVIEWS, CHANCE MEETINGS

STORY By CHRISTENE MEYERS

PHOTOS By

BRUCE KELLER (and newspaper archives, studios) "The Carpe Diem Kids"

Cygnet Theatre moved from its Old Town venue to Liberty Station, naming its primary theater after one of its largest donors, Joan Jacobs.

IN THOUSANDS of plays, concerts and star interviews, I've collected a steamer trunk of programs, playbills, ticket stubs, autographed photos.

Notes from chats with hundreds of stage and screen personalities. Film reviews. Observations on live productions. Notes for my annual Oscar predictions. Academy Awards reports. Scribbles on napkins from surprise meetings. Sitting by Christopher Plummer to watch his daughter, Amanda, in her Tony nominated portrayal of a young nun in "Agnes of God."

Harry Belafonte: activist, brilliant singer, played to a sold-out gala at the Alberta Bair Theater.

Orchestra seats across from Indira Gandhi at that same New York production, days before she was assassinated in India.

Getting a last-minute "okay" for a 10-minute interview with Sammy Davis Jr. at his final Sands performance in Las Vegas. Interviewing Harry Belafonte in Billings, Montana, and learning that Martin Luther King wrote his most famous speech while a guest in Belafonte's New York town house.

Meryl Streep, a delight to interview. I treasure interviews at world premiers with the greatest actress of our time.

Ditto, Gene Hackman, who gave me a private interview at "The French Collection" premier because he liked my questions at the round table.

Christopher Reeve as "Superman" before a riding accident changed his life.

Thoughtful, kind Christopher Reeve, a gentleman to all, gracious and intelligent interview, super "Superman" in so many ways. His humanitarian contributions and heroic dealing with a crippling horseback riding accident endeared him to me and millions of fans. Grace under pressure.

ROBERT REDFORD was our traveling companion on a Delta flight from Salt Lake City to New York. He sat in 2A, quietly reviewing the script for "A River Runs Through It." We didn't bother him-- we'd just interviewed him at Sundance. But we overheard him ask the flight attendant to switch his first class meal of tenderloin for the coach fare of fried chicken! "Can you bring me whatever they're having back there?" he asked. "It smells good."

LIFE WITHOUT performance, literature -- interviewing dancers, writers, painters and directors-- would be a dull proposition.

Sammy Davis Jr. sings to a sell-out audience in the Sands' Copa Room in Las Vegas.

Show Biz Journey of Christene "Cookie" Meyers: both sides of the footlights

MY MOST vivid memories are shaped by theater, books, museum visits, concerts and film -- drama experienced on both sides of the footlights. As a kid, I watched movies in the Erie Theater in Columbus, Montana. I saw hundreds of movies in my reviewing career, acted and played piano for many shows, interviewed directors, playwrights, writers, singers and dancers.

Barysnikov at the Kirov, Pavarotti in Milan-- each seen with a much loved late husband. "Cabaret," at Montana's Billings Studio Theatre. My first spouse, Bruce Meyers, was emcee; I headed the Kit Kat Band. Brilliant Skip Lundby directed.

Performance keeps me going. As my gran Olive said, "We can't choose the tune we're played. We can choose how we dance to it."

'MAN of La Mancha" is a treasured memory. I saw it first on Broadway with Richard Kiley as Don Quixote then performed it two dozen times at Der Schwartzwald Dinner Theater in Montana with Bruce Meyers in the title role, a fundraiser to "Save the 1931 Fox" I was musical director and pianist.

In San Diego, Cygnet Theatre's "La Mancha" evoked happy flashbacks via Sean Murray's sensitive "Don Q." I vieed this fabulous production with my third husband, Bruce Keller, in his hometown.

OTHER highlights of the show biz journey of Christene Meyers: Maggie Smith patting my nervous hand in 1969 when she knew I was nervous about the interview. Kind, gracious, talented "Miss Jean Brodie," only 35 herself then. I was a greenhorn reporter on one of my first big interviews.

Maggie Smith was gracious and kind at a 1969 interview for "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie." She wasn't honored as "dame" untiil 1990.

...Folies Bergere in Paris with mother Ellen and sister Robbie. Dame Joan Sutherland in concert at Sydney Opera House with my sailor turned play-going pal, "Keller."

A lively interview with writer Frederick Forsyth, working on his next novel, prowling Montana's backroads.

The Ahmanson Theater in Los Angeles is a regular part of Cookie and Keller's theater life, seeing and writing about an average of 100 plays a year. Disney Concert Hall is in the complex, too.

A FULL day spent at “The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby” in New York, with a brief break for wine, a nosh and quick interview with star John Howard.

I MET DUSTIN Hoffman in 1970 when I interviewed him on the Montana set of "Little Big Man." So seeing Hoffman’s Willy Loman in “Death of a Salesman” in London was exciting. But my most thrilling production of that brilliant Arthur Miller work was in a Beijing theater. Despite my limited knowledge of Mandarin, I was

mesmerized. This fine play moved its Asian audience as deeply as it does American fans. When Willy's widow, Linda, delivered her “attention must be paid” line near the end, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.

MY MARLON BRANDO interview wasn't the favorite in the journey of Christene "Cookie" Meyers. It was short. The brilliant actor was distracted, perhaps because he had gained weight. He was also having trouble with his lines on "The Missouri Breaks" set. This annoyed Jack Nicholson, who said the prompter was annoying.

Burt Bachrach's sell-out concert christened the renovated Fox Theater as the Alberta Bair Theater.

During 45 years interviewing stars at the old Fox now Alberta Bair Theater, two "ABT gala" interviews stand out: Burt Bachrach and Harry Belafonte. Both were gracious and loquacious in the renovated ABT green room, a far cry from its musty, decrepit Fox days.

I REMEMBER a favorite actress, Mary Tyler Moore, not just for her brilliance in two Emmy winning TV sitcoms, but for her Tony winning performance in "Whose Life Is It Anyway?" that searing, but warm and touching study of end-of-life questions. In 1980 I interviewed her at the premier of "Ordinary People." She portrayed a mother struggling with the death of a son, rejecting her remaining son's affection. (It was Robert Redford's directorial debut. Moore was delighted when I expressed

Mary Tyler Moore, at the world premiere of "Ordinary People," directed by Robert Redford.

my fondness for earlier work: "The Dick Van Dyke Show" and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show.") I also interviewed two of her longtime collaborators, Betty White and Cloris Leachman on the "MTM" set (and Leachman again at the world premier of "Young Frankenstein.") What a kick in my theatrical pants. Both White's and Leachman's impeccable comic timing had reporters in hysterics as the two actors bantered and ad-libbed one-liners. Leachman did a little curtsy at interview's end. White blew reporters a kiss.

Manhattan Transfer in San Diego's Balboa Theatre. Founder Tim Hauser, is second from left,

Great performances -- drama, concerts, ballet, on stage or screen -- move us as few other experiences do.

WHEN OUR family saw “Oliver!” in July of 1964 at the Imperial Theatre in New York, it left indelible marks on us all. We still sing “Consider Yourself,” “As Long as He Needs Me” and “Where is Love” at family reunions. Even the youngest remembers the lyrics to "Food Glorious Food" and Fagin's nimble dance as he sends his charges off. We tear up remembering our heartbreak when Bill Sikes murders Nancy.

We recall my dad hailing two yellow cabs from after the matinee, off to Sardi's for dinner, surrounded by stars’ portraits. Our orchestra seats were $4.75 each, taxi rides were $5 and we all dined splendidly for $128! Thanks to our theater-loving mother for organizing it all.

Cirque du Soliel's Beatles show, "Love," in Las Vegas. Cookie and Keller are Vegas regulars -- for shows of course, and perhaps a bit of gambling.

Fishtail, Montana, hosts Shakespeare in the Parks in July at the town park across from Fishtail Store .

I'VE SEEN our beloved “Oliver!” in London revivals – in 1984, in 2008 and again 2025. A few years ago, I took the family to "Oliver" at Venture Theatre in Billings, Montana. It was all I could do to keep myself off the stage. Seeing this revered musical with brothers Rick and Patrick and sister Olivia, who flanked me so long ago in the Imperial, was a treat. Now the tunes are beloved by my niece Aurora and great-nephew Connor.

...I've lost track of my Elvis impersonator shows -- dozens. I love seeing multiple productions, always a new twist.

I never miss "My Fair Lady," one of my childhood's Broadway favorites, which we've seen brilliantly delivered at Welk Resort, Cygnet, Ahmanson and at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival with two pianos instead of an orchestra!

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival's "My Fair Lady" featured two grand pianos instead of an orchestra.

I LOGGED three productions of "Sunset Boulevard," with Patti Lupone, Glenn Close and Betty Buckley. Each gave it her own unique spin. I saw Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Lovett in the original production of “Sweeney Todd,” then Lupone and three others. All fabulous, on both coasts -- New York and in San Diego. At the film version, I sat between nephews Kenji and Eric, clutching their arms as blood flew and Sweeney's razor did its job. Who’d have thought Johnny Depp could sing (he can) or that Helena Bonham Carter would be such a mesmerizing Mrs. Lovett (she is.) Stephen Sondheim is on my bucket list of most coveted interview subjects!

Cookie lands in Paris, heads for the Folies Bergere.

Cher's show featured this poster at Caesar's in Las Vegas. It sold out the Colosseum show room.

I'VE COVERED the Academy Awards, interviewed dozens of stars of stage and screen, previewed and reviewed hundreds of productions. I try to be kind, appreciating the energy and effort that actors, musicians, directors, dancers, designers, prop people and technicians give. I’ve done time on that glorious side of the footlights, conducting and playing piano to raise money to save our beloved Fox, in its reincarnation as the ABT.

When I took the helm of the “Save the Fox” endeavor, in Billings, spring of 1976, the future of the Fox was doubtful. Would the building be leveled? Would it be a parking lot? Helping save that gem is one of my proudest endeavors and led to many delightful interviews.

IN LAS VEGAS on the grounds of the venerable old Sands Hotel, now stands the flashy Venetian, with gondolas and glory. But this reporter remembers seeing a dozen headliners in the Copa, interviewing them in the Sands' elegant showroom. I heard the ghosts of the Rat Pack, honest!

I've savored a string of cabaret shows in the Carlyle Hotel in New York City's upper east side -- Bobby Short, Mary Martin, Rosemary Clooney, Debbie Reynolds, Judy Collins -- in cozy Bemelman's Bar cabaret.

Dolly Parton -- king, smiling, smart and gracious to reporters -- here in a black sequined top answering questions at the world premiere of "Nine to Five"

Dolly Parton remains a highlight. Warm, funny, sharp. She was gracious and kind -- completely herself -- confident and teasing at the premieres of "Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" and "Nine to Five." Her fellow stars spoke highly of her -- everyone loves Dolly.

At the Fairmont in San Francisco, "Bruce the First" and I saw Duke Ellington, Bernadette Peters, Liza Minnelli. We hit showrooms and concert halls in Vienna, Paris, Rio, Madrid, Buenos Aires, Milan. Many of my icons were backed by a full orchestra before taped scores became the norm. Dean Martin, Donald O’Connor, Liberace, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Bobby Short, Marian McPartland. Peggy Lee. I saw them all, interviewed them. I have the Playbills and notebooks to prove it!

Aerial view of tugboats towing a cargo barge through a Panama Canal lock. The canal is one of the world's great engineering marvels, worthy of inspection from travel lovers around the world.

UP NEXT: The Panama Canal. Transiting the canal's massive lock system is intricate. As your cruise ship enters the locks, columns of water lift or lower the massive vessel with pinpoint precision. You stand on the deck and watch the stone walls inches from the ship. Small locomotives, known as "mules," guide the vessel safely through the chambers and workers make sure all goes well. It's a wondrous experience.

This is just one stop on the journey find more destinations, itineraries, and travel tips at WhereIsCookie.com