for once and for all
 This is not Gretchen Corbett with the Bananas
by
Edward D. Collins
(Click on most of the photos below to view a larger image.)


 

Well, we can now put this little debate to bed, once and for all.

For quite awhile now (the past several years?) this photograph seems to regularly pop up on various social media sites, with the claim the women on the right, carrying the basket of bananas, is a young Gretchen Corbett.

For example, back in April of 2023 and then again in March of 2024 and then again in September of 2024, the photo was posted in the Facebook group THE ROCKFORD FILES unofficial fan appreciation site, a site dedicated to The Rockford Files television series.  (I've been a member of this group for a number of years and have contributed enough to be considered a Top Contributer.  Gretchen, of course, for four years, starred in The Rockford Files.  She played Beth Davenport, Jim Rockford's attorney.)

This "banana photograph" has also been posted with the same claim on other social media sites.

Usually when the photo is posted, it elicits dozens and dozens of responses, some of whom not only agree and believe it to be Gretchen, they insist it is!  Others will believe it and go along with it, simply because someone else claims it to be.

However, there are often an equal number of people who reject that claim... who don't believe the women is Gretchen.

And yes, I was always one of these people.  I'm a bit familiar wtih some of her early work (Out of It, Let's Scare Jessica to Death, guest appearances on Kojak, Ironside, Banacek, Columnbo, Gunsmoke, Hawaii Five-O, Emergency, to name just a few) and this women holding the basket of bananas just doesn't look like Gretchen Corbett AT ALL to me.		  

 

Anyway, I decided to settle the issue once and for all... I wrote Gretchen a letter and just flat out asked her!

I initially met Gretchen Corbett back in 1983 or 1984.  For two full years, from the summer of '92 until about the summer of '84, I was the manager of a small movie theater, on Hollywood Blvd in Hollywood.  My theater was called the Holly Theatre aka the Holly Cinema.

Here's a link to a wonderful webpage, showing many different photographs of this theater from when it first opened up back in 1931.  Below are two of these many  photos.

   

 

  This is a photo of me (on the left) in my suit and tie.  It was taken directly in front of the Holly, on the sidewalk, probably during the spring of '84.  (That's an Against All Odds movie poster in the background, in the poster display case.  Against All Odds, starring Jeff Bridges, Rachel Ward, and James woods, came out in March of that year.)

(I wish I knew who took this photo or who that young man is in the light blue shirt!)

 

And this is what the movie theater looks like today.  It's now a Harold's Chicken & Bar restaurant! 

Alas, the building was long ago closed down as a movie theater.  In fact, back in the early 2000s, the building was used as a Scientology testing center.  If you use Google Maps and enter the address (6523 Hollywood Blvd.) you can see images of what it looked like back then.

This photo of me in front of the restaurant was taken a full 38 years after I worked there.  It was taken during the summer of 2022.  My neice Christa, and her daughter, who all live in Colorado, were on vacation and spent several days in southern California.  We all spent one afternoon in Hollywood together.  On that day we had lunch here at this restaurant.

Once inside the building , there is no clue at all it was ever a movie theater.  In fact, the entire second floor, where the upstairs projection booth was located, is gone.  I also saw no access to a downstairs basement, which is where the manager's office used to be.		  

 

The Holly Theatre didn't get very many Hollywood celebrities... it just wasn't that type of theater. In fact, we almost never played first-run movies at all... we'd get these movie many weeks after they initally came out.

However, despite this, I was very fortunate enough to meet and chat with a few different celebrities during my two years here.  Dawn Wells and Teri Garr and Rona Newton-John and Marcus Allen come to mind.
And who should walk in the door one Monday afternoon, but Gretchen Corbett!

 

 


I recall smiling at her when she came in, nodded my head a bit, somewhat acknowledging I recognized her.  When she walked up to the counter to purchase her ticket, I believe I told her to just go inside, without asking her to pay, as a "courtesy" and again to acknowledge I recognized her.  (I can't remember doing this... but I hope I did.  It's certainly something I most surely would have done.)

After the movie ended and as she she exited the theater and into the lobby, and just before she was about to walk out the front door, I called her by name and chatted with her for a few minutes.  I most likely told her I was a fan of hers and of The Rockford Files. 

 

She was very gracious.  Alas, the only item I distinctly remember about our chat was that she told me this outing was the first time she had been out of her home in the past two weeks... because she had been recovering from the chicken pox!  Ha!  Having had the chicken pox several years earlier, I could certainly relate.

I asked her for her autograph which she gave me and of course which I still have to this day.		  

 

Anyway, I recently wrote her a very short letter!

I apologized for the intrusion, I reminded her about our chance encounter 40+ years ago, and I included a copy of the photo in question, of the two young women with the basket of bananas.  I told her about the ongoing debate that was often held regarding her and this photo, and I wanted to know if she would settle the question once and for all....  is that you or is that not you?

I wasn't convinced I would receive a reply... but I figure it didn't hurt to try!

So, can you imagine the look on my face when I checked my mailbox late one Saturday afternoon, about a week and a half later, and saw a letter addressed to me from Oregon??!!

A smile lit up my face and a warm feeling came over me like you wouldn't believe.  I was literally grinning from ear to ear.

I don't believe I know anyone in the entire state of Oregon!  So yes, I knew exactly who this letter was from, and why.

 

The letter was very short.. just half a page... and I found myself reading it with that same smile on my face.

First, Gretchen thanked me for my "kind and warm letter."

Second, she said this was not the first inquiry she has been sent regarding the photo of the two young women! Ha! So it seems others have had the same idea I had... simply ask her about it directly!

Third, and most importantly... can I get a big drum roll please... she said I was correct... that is NOT her!

"Yours is not the first inquiry I have been sent regarding the photo of the two young women walking together, the one with LOT OF BANANAS! You're right, that banana gal isn't me. And I agree she doesn't even look like me. Ha! Furthermore, I'm not big on bananas, so there we are!"

She closed with a single sentence and mentioned that I struck her "as a warm and caring human."  :)

She signed her name and yes, as you might suspect, her signature on her letter to me is identical to the signed autograph she gave me in person, in the lobby of my movie theater... a bit more than 40 years ago!

 

 

As Gretchen said, "So there we are!"  To the many of you who believed the woman was a young Gretchen Corbett, you are indeed mistaken.  (I've come to learn many people are not very good at recognizing faces... even when they think they are.)

Gretchen will celebrate her 80th birthday this upcoming August 2025.  I hope she is doing well and will continue to celebrate many more. 

Because of our chance meeting in the early '80s, and how warm and gracious she was, I will always consider her a favorite actress of mine. 

Thank you Gretchen!!  Our paths most likely will never cross again... but I'm glad they did that one day, so many years ago!