The Dating Game

She-who-must-be-obeyed was watching TCM's presentation of 1937's Between Two Women, starring Franchot Tone and Maureen O'Sullivan. I was in the kitchen, finishing the last few pages of the novel Bel Canto, standing at the side counter where I usually stand when I am eating and reading.
I thought I heard, "Did I ever tell you I had a date with Franchot Tone?"
I did not know what to do. I mean, she could not have had a date with Franchot Tone, unless she had dated him in his dotage, I suppose. So had I actually heard that? She must have had something important to say, and the best my ears could do was "date with Franchot Tone".
She probably had made an important statement about household affairs, and I had turned it into nonsense.

It turns out that what she had said was, "Did I ever tell you I was supposed to have a blind date with Franchot Tone's son?"

That was a relief, auditory acuity-wise and generally magna cum-a-general-with-it-ness, instead of being out-of-it and daft.

Then I was captivated by it all, the glitter of celebrity.

My attempts:

(1) Did I ever tell you I had a blind date with...     Mary Wicke's daughter?

(2) Did I ever tell you I had a blind date with...     Slim Summerville's granddaughter?

 

The idea is to have a name of a character actor that is somewhat obscure and not right on the top of peoples' minds, causing them to work a little at it. Then, there may be a jolt when they remember the actors or actresses in their funnier moments... and so on.

My personal favorite is

(3) Did I ever tell you I'm going to have a blind date with Elaine Stritch? (Now that's she retiring nearby.)

My mother knew her sister, Sally, back in the day.

Not that they were friends, actually. Sally taught dancing, and my mother was her nemesis...

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