Bewitched and Beyond: The Fan Who Came to Dinner (12 page)

Sandra always kept plenty of hand written notes around, and one day when I was organizing her office, I discovered that some of these hand written notes were on the
backs
of old
Bewitched
scripts! I was absolutely mortified! She could have cared less and asked me if I wanted them… What do you think I said??? Unfortunately by that time, the only two scripts that were still salvageable were
Mary the Good Fairy
and
Weep No More My Willow.
(I made sure that she and Bernard Fox signed that one!)

One memorable evening, we were getting things ready for a dinner party when I noticed ANTS had made their way in and were crawling all over the kitchen counters and sink. Worrying that guests would be arriving any minute, I yelled, “Sandra, there are ants all over the place!” Not the least bit concerned, she said, “Those aren’t ants. That’s just pepper!” To which I replied, “Pepper doesn’t crawl through the sink!” Almost immediately guests began arriving, so all we could do was laugh… and squash!

Another occasion she allowed me in her kitchen was at a Labor Day cookout in 1996. She had a pot of plump hot dogs boiling on the stove, and every few minutes she would run over, stab one with a fork, pull it out, and wave it around while hollering, “Nobody I know!” “Nobody I know!”

Several times, Sandy wanted my help with a bit of redecorating. She needed a bookcase in her living room, so we decided to enclose the left side of her free-standing fireplace, which was only about two feet wide. This little project turned out great and it made a great open bookcase for her many “tchochkes.”

Once I made her a shower curtain out of some fabric we happened upon that exactly matched her bathroom wallpaper. Another one of our projects included building an “L” shaped storage bench under two windows in her bedroom. It turned out nicely, but oh that bedroom!! She must’ve had THIRTY YEARS worth of National Geographic Magazines stacked up in the corner. The sad thing is that when we tried to get rid of them, no school — no library — no one wanted them, so we ended up just throwing them out.

Every year, Sandra would come to our Hallowe’en parties at the condo. She had an incredible memory, noticing the smallest of details. If something wasn’t in the exact spot it was in at the previous year’s party, she’d ask me about it!

She was a whiz at remembering names, and when she met someone new at our parties, she had a knack of getting their life story out of them in ten minutes, and would always remember it when she ran into them again! “Oh, you’re Alex from Texas!”

Sandra liked to know
everything
that was going on and constantly insisted that Bernard Fox tell her how much he made at the autograph shows they all did together. It really got her goose, because he’d never tell!

With first husband CBS exec Larry Berns gone, Sandra was happily married for the second time to director Hollingsworth Morse. If the name sounds familiar, you’ve probably seen it on countless TV credits throughout the years;
Lassie, Marcus Welby M.D., The Dukes of Hazzard, The Fall Guy,
etc. And for those of us that remember Saturday morning TV, his name can also be found on the credits of
H.R. Pufnstuf, Isis,
and
Shazam!

Kasey was always proud of the fact that she had played a small part in getting them together. One day on the
Bewitched
set, Sandra was chit-chatting with Kasey in between scenes. Sandra told her, “I don’t know what to do. Hollingsworth Morse has been pursuing me, is very interested in me, and has asked me to marry him. I just don’t know what to do!” Kasey immediately said, “MARRY HIM!”

So she did!

Hanging in the middle of their home was a huge oil painting of Freddie the Flute from
H.R. Pufnstuf,
with a mat signed by all the people on the show.

Sandra, also a fantastic artist, had many of her own paintings hanging throughout the house. One I remember in particular was a colorful carnival scene she painted from the actual carnival used in an episode of
Bewitched
called “
Tabitha’s Very Own Samantha.
”

The day after the ’94 earthquake, Kasey and I called Sandy to see if she was alright. She laughed and said everything was alright with the exception of a pot of spaghetti that had been cooking on the stove and was now all over the ceiling, counters, and floor. I have to admire her. There she was standing with noodles hanging down over her head, but she was still able to laugh about it.

Bewitched
fans will find this fun. Sandy’s kitchen stove was the exact model used on the show; a Frigidaire Flair, complete with burners on a sliding drawer that could be pulled out and pushed back in. She loved it so much from the show that she went out and bought herself one just like it!

Sandy decided that she needed to redecorate her kitchen. She hired a guy named Ralph to do most of the work. Ralph had no front teeth, but was a lot of fun. One day I was over helping Sandra clean out the pantry. I was digging through all the jars, cans, and boxes when I unearthed a jar of Cheeze-Whiz, which is usually bright orange. Well, not
this
jar! It had turned to moldy
gray.
Then

I noticed an expiration date of 1974 (20 years!)! Needless to say, that unearthed treasure went right in the garbage.

Continuing to dig through all the clutter, I discovered a tin of Oreo cookies that I later found out had been given to her by Joan Rivers as a present for being on her show. When I opened up the tin, I found a mound of half-eaten cookies entirely covered in
webs
! It was
completely
webbed over! That got tossed too.

Also in Sandra’s pantry were cans of
corn.
There had to be at least FORTY of them and most of them were bulging! She was working

in another part of the house, so every time I would come across another can of corn, I’d yell “CORN!” Then Ralph would yell “CORN!” and then Sandra would chime in from way down the hall, “CORN!!” I sometimes think if I’d kept digging, I might’ve found Jimmy Hoffa… there was never a dull moment with “Mrs. Kravitz”! I miss her so very, very much.

This is neat: On the top of Sandra’s refrigerator sat the cake topper from her wedding to “Holly.” It still had the now brown frosting caked around the plastic bottom. Even the bride and grooms feet had frosting remnants on it. I remember meticulously cleaning the frosting off so that it could be put back on top of the fridge. It still had the original price tag, $1.39, on the bottom. Many years later, long after Sandy had gone, I was in a thrift store with my friend Darlene near her house. Honest to God there it sat. I bought it and still have it!

In August of ’97, we were having a pool party at our friend Scott Awley’s. Sandy attended and changed her clothes, putting on a black sundress that she wore to get in the pool. Suddenly I realized a chance of a life time… So I snuck into Scott’s spare room, put Sandra’s panties on my head and fastened her bra around my chest. Then I sauntered out to the pool…

If you thought Sandra could scream “Abner!” you haven’t
lived
until you’ve heard her scream “MAAAAAAAARRRRRK!!!”

Once I accompanied Sandy to the Comedy Awards and got to meet Jim Carrey and Tom Hanks! I also was NOT prepared to go and being last minute I ended up wearing one of Holly’s old sport coats and my jeans to a formal affair! Sandy made up a silly story that I had just flown in and the airlines lost my luggage! Yet another time, she coerced me into accompanying a young lady-friend of hers to the Thalian’s Ball.

It seems this gal’s date had cancelled on her that very day, and she called Sandy in a panic. I was at her house at the time and Sandy told her, “Don’t worry! I have someone for you!” (She didn’t even ask, although I would’ve gone anyway.) Again, the only trouble was I had no tuxedo and had to go in a suit and tie. Kathryn, the young lady I escorted, was dressed like “Columbia” from the Rocky Horror Picture Show: sequined jacket, leotard top, and bow tie. It was a very strange evening, but I did meet Michael Feinstein and Liza that night.

At one point, while waiting outside the restrooms for Kathryn, I found myself standing next to Jayne Meadows who was impatiently waiting for her husband, Steve Allen. Suddenly, BOTH Gabor sisters (Zsa-Zsa and Eva) came out of the ladies room bitching at each other up one side and down the other, until they noticed that others were watching. Abruptly they stopped, acted as if nothing happened and skipped off together into the ball room.

A few other
Bewitched
memories from Sandra include the Hallowe’en episode where she was sharing a scene with a goat in the Stephen’s kitchen (“The Safe and Sane Hallowe’en”). The goat’s actual name was “Louise” (!) and took quite a liking to her.

Sometime later, Sandra did an episode of
The Brady Bunch
(“Getting Greg’s Goat”) and that
same
goat was on the set and still kept following her around, even to the restroom! In fact, the goat would follow her right into the stall!

And here, I’d like to set the record straight about something… If anyone reading this ever saw the interview Kasey and I gave at the time of Sandra’s death to The Globe, we were NOT, as stated in the article, all gathered around her bedside as she passed into the great beyond.

What really happened was that our dear friend Pete Trujillo once worked for that tabloid and wanted to make sure Sandy’s passing was duly noted. Unfortunately, the only way they would mention it was if the situation was made it into this epic demise, so the article was greatly dramatized. Sadly, Pete is no longer with us either. He passed away in his early thirties just months before Kasey.

One last Sandy story… One evening she and I were coming home from a shopping trip and were both very hungry. So instead of going out to dinner, she offered to make us something at her home, (steak and peas) and we ate at the small kitchen table that sat next to the door to the backyard and pool.

I mostly remember how her home seemed dark and quite lonesome without the usual crowd and I really sensed that Sandy was very lonesome.

That might explain why she never missed an opportunity to put on her sequins and feathers and go out to what she referred to as the “Disease-of-the-Week” ball.

She was constantly on the go until the very end when God came calling on July 20th, 1999.

Me taking a picture of Sandy in her backyard on what we later found out was her 80th birthday, July 23rd 1996.

Left to right:
Me, Pete Trujillo, Marla Gibbs, Sandy. Pete worked for the
Globe
(yep, a scandal rag!) and we adored him. He died much too young from weight related heart issues. Marla Gibbs is incredible… so funny and yet soft spoken in reality.