A telephone conversation with Kathy Coleman, who is best known for portraying spunky teen tomboy Holly Marshall in the classic '70s live-action Krofft Saturday morning Jurassic Camp series "Land of the Lost," fulfilled a decades old fantasy.
Loving (and reviewing) recent Coleman autobiography "Run, Holly, Run" (title courtesy of co-star/'70s teen idol/surrogate big brother Wesley Eure) prompted reaching out to her. She awesomely immediately responded, and we gabbed the next day.
As readers of both "Run" and the sadly unavailable first Coleman (who prefers going by Kathleen) autobiography "Lost Girl" know, this natural talent is a survivor of a psychotically abusive ex-husband and decades of other horrific traumas. This on top of the celebrity curse of constant approaches by fans who feel entitled to invade her personal and emotional space reasonably make her a little guarded. However, her love of people and desire to delight them counters this by both making her very open about her life and a charming conversationalist.
The aforementioned candidness included Coleman stating regarding "Run" that she wanted that book to "open the curtains to the windows of my soul."
The "righteous dudette" moment that most Unreal TV celebrity interviews contain came after Colemen once more discussed how her life literally was an open book. This prompted showing a little reciprocity in sharing that a "Lost" episode with a wholesome element of sexuality regarding both Coleman and Eure was a favorite for that reason. Eure was shirtless and wearing cutoffs, and Coleman was wearing a Daisy Duke outfit complete with her own cutoffs.
Coleman awesomely replied with a story of common occurrences at fan events. She shared that she and Eure sit side-by-side and that a man walked up and said "I had a crush on you." Coleman then started talking to the man only to have him reply that he was speaking to Eure.
The next part of the story was a variation in that Eure would bat his eyes in response to other fans confessing to a crush only to have them state that they were talking to Coleman. Both stars having such a nice attitude regarding every aspect of that reinforces that what you see on screen reflects real life.
Portrait of the Artist as a Child Star
The accounts in "Run" on the early career of Coleman prompted asking about those years specifically and the life of a child star in general.
Coleman politely asserted that her mom was a stereotypical stage mother but that she "never forced me into the business; never took advantage of me."
The provided perspective was a variation of "Goldilocks" in the form of three siblings sitting in front of a television. One sibling was eating and not paying much attention to the program; the other one was watching the program, and the third one was dancing. "I [Coleman] was the kid who was dancing when I was watching TV."
Coleman added that she wanted to entertain people and that friends of her mother who saw both her zeal to perform and her talent encouraged a variation of "The Beverly Hillbillies" in urging the family to move from Massachusetts to Hollywood to allow Coleman to let her star fully shine. Folks who are familiar with "Lost" know part of the story of how that worked out.
This portion of the discussion included Coleman repeating a few times that her circumstances would have been roughly the same if she had worked delivering papers. This youngest in a family of 10 kids noted that whichever of those offspring worked contributed to the family to the extent feasible considering the employment.
Discussing whether Coleman ever engaged in obnoxious behavior based on her celebrity status earned the reply that her mother saw to that her daughter never got star treatment.
Hilarity ensued when Coleman shared that watching other kids in the business trying to cope a 'tude prompted her to try doing the same. She then laughed and stated that she was not as good at it. She noted that "to be a bitch is not natural for me" and added that she enjoyed making people happy.
Minor Consideration
A section in "Run" in which Coleman diplomatically discusses outreach by an unnamed group provided a personally golden opportunity to get the perspective of a former child star regarding an organization with which this site has a brief history. Anyone with any familiarity with the non-profit child star advocacy and support group A Minor Consideration could have deduced that that was the entity to which Coleman referred in "Run."
Online research years ago created a personal sense that Consideration (founded and run by former child star Paul Petersen of the 'Donna Reed Show' sitcom) was a bit heavy-handed; a subsequent interview with Petersen enhanced that vibe but did not create any desire to grind any axes. The chance to ask a former child star who seemed to receive unsolicited attention from that organization was a golden opportunity to obtain insight into the workings of what Unreal TV considers (and that Petersen agrees) is "the anti-Scientology."
Coleman began by saying that "I [Coleman] had my own experience with him [Petersen]." She added that she was "all for" the group if a current or former child star needed it. Her personal perspective regarding the challenges that members of that group faced was "I don't want to sit around saying poor pitiful me, show business did this to me."
This led to Coleman making the apt comparison to Alcoholics Anonymous in stating that not everyone realized that every person with a drinking problem needed to attend meetings of that group. She added that addressing her personal challenges related to drinking did not require hearing the experiences of other people who were facing comparable challenges.
Eure the Best
Coleman stating that she and Eure are "more like a real brother and sister than people can even understand." My referring to a hilarious story in "Run" in which Coleman tells of a fully clothed Eure jumping into the sleeping bag of an equally dressed Coleman and saying "Dad's gone" during a filming of a "Lost" episode elicited the exciting news that "Wesley still loves to tease me."
An example of this love extending to co-star Phillip Paley, who played the ape-boy like Cha-ka on "Lost" was learning that this trio had no objections when they had to share a hotel room while appearing at a fan event. Coleman stated that they would have a great time that included epic slumber parties.
Fans v. Fanatics
An early exchange in the conversation with Coleman illustrated her aforementioned valid caution regarding people who approach her. I told her that I interviewed Eure years ago after he replied when I sent him my review of the then-recent complete-series DVD release (complete with lunch box!) of "Lost." I also asked that she please tell Eure that he and I had spoken merely thinking that Eure might say "Hey, I remember that guy."
Coleman very nicely replied without a touch of anger that fans wrongly assumed both that they knew celebrities based on watching their shows but that that experience did not provide that intimacy. She added "it is an obligation to give back" and that she enjoyed doing so.
I did not take any offense and assured Coleman that I fully understood her persepcctive and appreciated the time that both she and Eure gave me and then tried to assure her that I was not a stray kitten who took being given a one-time saucer of milk as an invitation to move in. I emphasized that I never would have knowingly put Eure on the spot.
This led to discussing fans (such as your not-so-humble reviewer) as opposed to fanatics. The response of Coleman to being asked about her weirdest fan was "in the years that I have been involved in this whole thing most people only have good wishes."
Coleman added that fans have shared some of the most wonderful stories; the best of these involved kids whom the show inspired to be archaeologists and scientists.
One amusing bad experience was the tale of a man who aggressively requested an interview and squandered the minute allocated for that exchange to ask Coleman if his shirt made him look fat and then showed her his ginormous stomach.
Here and Now
The final section of "Run" discussing the making of a modern documentary on getting the band back together prompted asking Coleman about the complications associated with that project. She provided little reason to hope that that film would be released. The better news was that Eure had simultaneously filmed the group on his smart phone and MAY release that footage.
Coleman perfectly brought things full circle in sharing that her reasons for writing her autobiographies were fans approaching her with misperceptions regarding a movie star having an easy life. Coleman shared that (as her books showed) her life was far from that of the public image of Hollywood royalty and specifically that "my life has not been any easier because of my career."
She added that she had not appeared in any movie until recently filming one. This project is the 2017 indie production "Fault" on the underground world of betting on professional tennis. Coleman stated that she did not know whether that film would premiere theatrically or on television.
Thanks for the Memories
As mentioned above, the chance to converse with Coleman was a treat in itself; learning both that she is as caring as her public persona and is not a "I only want to discuss my current projects" type made my eon.
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