BIGGEST Little City by Zach Spencer
Q & A with Harry Spencer V
Hello again readers, my name is Zach Spencer and this is a continuation of my interview with my dad Harry. Z. When we finished up last month you were telling me about the “hijack” of the Russian Press Corps during the 1960 Winter Olympics. Any other Olympic news?
Z. Any other celebs you can think of? H. Well, one of them would have to be Art Linkletter, who was big on TV at that time. Z. What did Linkletter have to do with the Olympics?
Z. Did you ever see much of the Olympic Games yourself?
H. When Walt Disney was put in charge of the opening and closing ceremonies and the nightly entertainment for the athletes, he immediately chose Linkletter as his right hand man. Consequently, Art came up numerous times prior to the Games and always stayed at the Mapes. I had the pleasure of showing Art Linkletter him around Reno and visiting with him about show business. I stayed in touch with him for some 25 years after 1960.
H. Only on one occasion. That was when Mapes and I watched the hockey match between the USA and Russia.
Z. You keep saying 1960 was Reno’s greatest year. What happened after the Olympics?
Harry Spencer
H. Yes, since I made it a practice of going up to Squaw Valley each day I would usually take celebrities such as Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh, Barbara Rush, Sammy Davis and Mickey Rooney as well as a couple of hotel staff. While the celebs were watching the Games, I would visit Walter Cronkite who was covering the event for the first time the Olympics had ever been telecast.
H. I didn’t think we could top the Olympics, but several months later I got a call after midnight from the manager of the Mapes. He asked me to come down to the hotel immediately. I asked, “Couldn’t it wait until morning?” He said, “No, it’s too important!” When I got to the hotel, he was waiting for me in the lobby in his overcoat. I asked him where we were going and he replied, “Over to the Holiday Hotel.” When I asked what was over there he answered a couple of guys with their luggage. I asked, “Couldn’t you send a bellboy?” He answered, “You’ll find out why.”
The US team won the men’s ice hockey competition. Here we see some of the team members celebrating their success on the final buzzer.
Z. What was the result? H. The USA won and it was a big upset because most of our guys were young amateurs playing a bunch of older professional Russkies. After the match I guided Mapes to the rear entrance to the Russian dressing room which had been revealed to me by one Gordon Butterfield, and an Olympic publicity guy. Once inside we were at first not welcome, but when Mapes began handing out small binoculars to members of the team the mood changed.
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February 2021 // www.SeniorSpectrumNewspapers.com
When we arrived at the Holiday we met two individuals. By name they were Doc Ericsson and Tommy Shaw. We helped them pick up their bags and return to the Mapes. After we checked them in, we went to the Coach Room for a couple of drinks and I found out they were advance men for a motion picture to be shot in northern Nevada that summer. The flick was to be called, “The Misfits” starring Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, Montgomery Clift, Eli Wallach and Thelma Ritter. The director was to be John Huston and the writer of the screen play was Arthur Miller, who happened to be Monroe’s husband at the
