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CINEMA SEEN - "Tossed To The Lions!" By William Margold This page is warmly dedicated to Milt Davis, who passed away a few weeks ago. He was a gentleman who made an indelible impression on quite a number of boys and girls who lived in Vista Del Mar during the late 1950’s. During that period, he was an All-Pro defensive back for the Baltimore Colts. But for me having the honor of knowing him simply proves that life is really just a series of unique coincidences. Milt Davis was originally signed to play pro football by the Detroit Lions. ******** It all began with a football card. And for well over 50 years, being handed that tiny piece of cardboard in the fall of 1956 has caused me considerably more heartbreak than happiness. But despite all of the pain...the minimal pleasure, or dare I say "the pride" or occasional ecstasy of being a Detroit Lions fan, has been worth every bit of the agony. In October 1956, I was shipped from Los Angeles’ Central Juvenile Hall to Vista Del Mar, a home for troubled kids of the Jewish persuasion in Culver City. Trying desperately to "fit in"...I was hanging around the locker room in Cottage 33 one cold and rainy Saturday November afternoon (thus justifying our being inside), watching a couple of the older kids flipping football cards against the wall. Eventually the floor was covered with brightly colored 2 by 3 inch images of professional football players. Being too lazy to pick-up the pile of cards that he had just won, one of the flippers told me that he would give me a card if I picked up his winnings and gave them to him. I eagerly did as I was told, and in exchange for the neatly stacked pile that I presented to him, I was handed the Topps card of Bobby Layne who played quarterback for The Detroit Lions. A few weeks later, I was in that same locker room listening to a radio when I heard that Layne had been injured severely during a game against the Chicago Bears. I rushed to my locker and looked at my Bobby Layne card, and felt a symbiotic twinge, not just for him, but also for his team: The Detroit Lions. I attended The Pro Bowl in January 1958 that was played in Los Angeles’ Memorial Coliseum, and saw a defensive back named Yale Lary intercept a couple of passes. It was then that I really started to feel attached to "my team." After all... with Layne, Lions, Lary...there was some unmistakable "linkage" that demanded to be appreciated. (Lamentably..."losses" also starts with the letter "L"...but at the time, that concept never entered my mind.) And when I finally saw "my team" play against the Rams in The Coliseum on October 26, 1958 (50 years ago this Sunday)...and they won 41-24, my faithful fan fate was sealed..."Forever!" Yale Lary would become my first sports idol. I always sought him out first in the tunnel at The Coliseum after the game to get his autograph. Yale retired after the 1964 season and was elected to Pro Football’s Hall of Fame in 1979. My next idol was a supremely gifted defensive back named Lem Barney, who played with the Lions from 1967 through 1977, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1992. Meanwhile in 1965...a fellow who lived out sports fantasies named George Plimpton had written a book called "Paper Lion" which detailed his attempting to play quarterback for the Detroit Lions, and featured in the book was Yale Lary. By the time the book was filmed and released by United Artists (with Alan Alda playing Plimpton) in 1968, Lary had retired, but one of the players featured in the film was Lem Barney. I was writing for The Santa Monica Evening Outlook in 1968, and I sent my suspiciously "way too glowing" review to the Lions, and was invited to see them practice at Hollywood High when they came out to Los Angeles to play the Rams in November. It was there that I met their PR man, a very gracious man named Lyall Smith, who said, "If you are ever coming to Detroit, I’ll set you up with tickets." And in the fall of 1970, I took him up on his offer, and was privileged to sit in the Lions’ press box on a Sunday in November, as they beat the 49ers on Sunday, and then defeated the Raiders on Thanksgiving Day. Thanks to Lyall Smith, who said to call him whenever I wanted to "see a game," I began to travel all over the United States, catching up with the Lions in Houston (1971), Philadelphia (1974, and again in 1986), Washington DC, and of course, besides seeing many games in Los Angeles, I also went up to San Francisco and Oakland throughout the next couple of decades. And in recent years, I’ve even seen "my team" play in Phoenix. In 1988, the Lions drafted a ferocious linebacker named Chris Spielman, and I adopted him as heir to being idol worshiped...following in the cleats of Lary and Barney. In October 1993, in an experience that I’ve said was "like losing my virginity for the second time"...I was given an enormous still camera and was snuck onto the Lions’ sidelines in Anaheim (hopefully pictured on this page as my "football card") to see them play (and win, 16-13) against the Rams. And in January 1997, during an adult industry convention in Las Vegas, I had the humbling pleasure of meeting George Plimpton, and while I was trying to tell him that I had been him ("playing a different kind of game on a different kind of field") in the X-rated world for 25 years, he noticed that my famous "God Created Man...William Margold Created Himself" business card were the same colors (Silver and Blue) as "our team." He called me later that year, and we spoke for over two hours (with much of what we discussed winding up in a Men’s Journal article). During our conversation we shared the mutual depression(s) brought on by "our team." But in the end...we both fully realized that we were "Lions fans...’Forever!’" No matter how in the Hell long "Forever!" is. end NOTE: Originally published in LA Xpress, October 23, 2008 issue. |