In 1969, Fonda starred in Easy Rider, which made him a cult American icon. This film along with his award-winning role in Ulee's Gold allowed him to step out of his celebrated family's shadow, earning him recognition for something besides just being in the Fonda clan. He has had a long career and for his work was being awarded a special honor in a nearby town close to us. Peter Fonda along with Robert M. Young (writer, director, cinematographer) were scheduled to "meet the public" and this sounded like a perfect autograph opportunity.
Both of us gathered our photos and sharpies and were off. There were quite a few hiccups at first leaving town, but that's far too long to get into. After being about 35 minutes off schedule we were worried that we would miss the meet and greet. After about an hour drive we finally pulled into to town, but finding the hotel he was signing at was another story.
Rarely ever traveling in this town we found it almost impossible to locate the Hotel/parking, but we eventually found Waldo... er the place. We rushed into the hotel and figured there would be a huge line awaiting us. Instead there were only about 5 people waiting in line and Peter Fonda himself hadn't even arrived yet, whew!
As we were chatting Sterling noticed something over Earl's shoulder. No it wasn't a spider; it was the one and only Peter Fonda walking down the stairs. Sterling alerted Earl and we just froze in our tracks in front of this "Easy Rider" icon. He walked right by us and went straight to the table ready to sign. Now there was a buzz in the room and the line started to build some momentum. As we were making our way up to him we were delighted to see that he was such a gentleman. He enjoyed chatting with fans and signed whatever was put in front of him.
Our moment had finally come and Sterling was first to shake his hand. Sterling told him that he brought a picture for him to sign and Fonda marveled at the image. Peter told us about the day that particular picture was taken. He said his daughter was also in the picture but all you can see of her is her elbow in the left corner. Fonda said the photographer wanted the photo to look like he was in a conversation with Bridget and being distracted by the photographer. The photographer wanted this distraction to anger both of them and he think it turned out well.
Mr. Fonda then proceeded to sign our photos in gold and was also kind enough to switch sharpies to sign our index cards in black. Earl didn't want to waste this opportunity so he started talking to Peter about a film of his. Earl had just seen the film in his horror film class and we talked about this project ("Nadja") for a bit. After the film discussion, he allowed each of us to go behind the table and take a picture with him- which was cool. Both of us thanked him and were off to meet the man sitting next to him, Robert M. Young.
