Sunday, April 21, 2013

Sarah Jessica Parker's First Fan?

This is starting to bother me because I know I found it once before and now I can't find it.  Maybe one of you will know. But first the backstory — 

I was shopping for a baby gift in what I think was the basement of what was then the favorite Manhattan store-of-choice 
I was in the children's department where I saw a mom and her little, maybe nine-year old daughter also shopping. I recognized the girl.

Excuse me," I said looking at the mother but speaking to the girl, "weren't you in a movie about a young Jewish girl and her older brother who were in the Warsaw Ghetto and escaped through the sewers?"

"Yes," she said clearly with a smile breaking across her face but her eyes looking to her mom, a bit shyly and politely.

"You were terrific!" I gushed, "How did you do it — crawl through that dark tunnel with those rats?!  That was so scary!"

I don't remember her reply but I asked her her name.  She seemed self-possessed and yet completely poised in a nice way.

"Are you still acting? Doing anything now?"
www.barnesandnoble.com 

She sparkled as she answered. "I've been in the chorus of Annie but I'm going to take over the lead," she said with great pride.

"Well, that is wonderful!  You're on your way — I'm very happy for you!" I remember she said she had a lot of brothers and sisters and then that was that — we all said our goodbyes and she and her mom continued on.  At the time I wondered if I was the first person to recognize her for her acting.

Years later I would see that little girl grow up and appear in films and on TV.

It was Sarah Jessica Parker.

Now tonight when my husband and I are both seeing Footloose (for the first time) I'm surprised to see her as one of the secondary characters and I want to find the name of that movie I saw her in and try to see if it's on Netflix so I can watch it again — but I can't.

It's not listed — in imdb.com, Wikipedia, or any other source I Googled — not even in her entry in the Jewish Virtual Library! Which is crazy because she was in this movie and she was phenomenal!  It had to be pre-1977; I think her character's name was Rachel and I think it was black-and-white.  I even looked on what seemed to be SJP's official (possibly?)  website   http://www.sarahjparker.com — and it wasn't there either!  They listed no film credits before 1983 and when I tried searching to see if it was a made-for-TV-movie, that link said "Error - Page Not Found."

I may actually have been the very first person to recognize Sarah Jessica Parker  in public. Her first fan.

Anyone out there know the name of what I think was her first film ??

And wouldn't it have been great if I had asked her for her first autograph?

2 comments:

  1. First met Sarah Jessica while working inprocuction for Steve Horn on a soft drink spot....bunch of teens jumping off rocks into water on a bright summer day. The spot was for Sprite I beleive and Andy Langer was the Creative Director.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Carol...she's had a long and fulfilling career...lucky girl!

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