Reel to Real

Part I: A Celebration of Cool

It was truly a pop cultural historic event. There I was Monday night, Aug. 18, at a private reception on the 23rd floor of Milwaukee’s historic Pfister Hotel with members of the Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley cast, including Henry Winkler, Marion Ross, Tom Bosley, Anson Williams, Don Most, Erin Moran, Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams. And let me not forget the show’s creator Garry Marshall and producer Bob Boyett.

The cast members were brought to Milwaukee, the setting for the shows Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley, to celebrate with Winkler as his adopted hometown dedicated the bronze statue of his iconic TV character, Fonzie, from the show. Happy Days was co-created by executive producer Thomas L. Miller, a Milwaukee native. 

I was up close and personal with the cast for almost two days of remarkable events, which concluded Wednesday, Aug. 20, when Henry and I had some quiet reflection time together for breakfast before he departed for Canada for several personal appearances. 

The statue project was patterned after the other TV Land Landmark statues (with funding support from TV Land).

It started with me spending a wonderful day with Anson Williams and Cindy Williams on Monday, Aug. 18. 

Anson portrayed Potsie Weber on the show and brought to Milwaukee his daughters, Hannah, 19 and Jessa, 9. Cindy came solo to Milwaukee. Monday started with a special trip with Anson and his daughters to visit Discovery World on Milwaukee's lakefront to take a tour of the "Les Paul House of Sound" exhibit, a tribute to the legendary musician who hails from the Milwaukee suburb of Waukesha. Anson and Jessa "jammed" with Paul through the technology of a green screen and a state-of-the-art television studio. The family also toured the undersea aquarium exhibits. 

The next stop was the new Harley-Davidson Museum. The Museum opened earlier this summer and serves as an interactive tribute to the iconic American motorcycle company. Our visit concluded for lunch at Motor, one of the restaurants at the Museum. 

Cindy, who portrayed Shirley Feeney in "Laverne and Shirley," the "Happy Days" spin-off, could not have been sweeter. As girls working in a fictional Milwaukee brewery, it was only appropriate that Cindy make a stop at Miller Brewery Company. As an act of real generosity, Cindy attended an award's ceremony with about 300 brewery workers and took the time to sign autographs and chat with the workers.  

While Cindy was sampling a few brews, Anson and the girls paid a call on a Milwaukee Boys & Girls Club. Anson presented the Club with a boxed DVD set of the first three seasons of Happy Days, an appropriate gift; because it was safe to assume that these young kids had never seen Happy Days. Anson's daughters decorated cookies with the kids and just cavorted with them. 

On Wednesday, the day after the dedication, Erin Moran, who portrayed Joanie on Happy Days and her husband Steve, took to the waters of Lake Michigan in search of the elusive salmon. Erin was ecstatic when she called me to tell me about her amazing catch – an 18 lb. Chinook Salmon!