Every Picture Story: Here’s Jack! — Los Angeles, CA (1998)

 

EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY:
HERE’S JACK!
LOS ANGELES, CA (1998)

One of the coolest things about working for the Turkish Embassy for seven years was traveling around the country, mostly attending cultural events and travel shows.

Tourism was (and still is) hugely important to the Turkish economy. The government invested large sums of money in promoting Turkey, concentrating on historical antiquities and even religious themes. Turkish tourism was an easy “sell” because it is indeed a fascinating country with many wonderful attractions. To this day, most Americans have a distorted view of Turkey, and one of our objectives was to alter and update those outdated perceptions through exposure to tourism. I’ve said before that I’ve only worked in jobs I thought were interesting. Well, this was a most interesting job.

So, what’s the connection to Jack Nicholson?

In 1998, we participated in the Los Angeles Travel Show, one of the largest travel conventions in the country.  It was held in downtown Los Angeles at the Convention Center. I attended alone, except that we had a new Turkish diplomat who had just been assigned to the U.S. and wanted to attend.  He flew in straight from Ankara to Los Angeles. He wanted to see the tourism show first-hand and review what we were doing.  Never having met him before, I picked him up at LAX and we went to the convention center.

Travel shows are always fun. They’re not like most conventions, which are boring. Travel companies have to get creative, so there are always lots of things to do and see. And the free giveaways are often spectacular. Back in 1998 was the middle of the dot-com boom, and every travel entity was trying to establish a foothold in the lucrative American travel market.

I forgot which company did it, but they hired celebrity look-a-likes. The celebs posed with show attendees. The show lasted three days, so seeing “Marilyn Monroe” walking around wasn’t a big deal after being there for several hours and already seen the schtick.

Anyway, my colleague arrived, and we headed straight to the show.  Over at the next booth was the man, “Jack Nicholson.” My Turkish colleague, this being his first time ever in the U.S. and now in the shadows of Hollywood, saw “Jack” standing there and couldn’t believe it. “Hey, that’s Jack Nicholson!”

I tried to explain that he was, in fact, an impersonator. Apparently, there’s no Turkish word for that or he didn’t understand. It was heartbreaking to crush his dreams. So, I asked “Jack” to come over and pose for some pictures for us and the Turkish National Tourist Office, and of course, he obliged. My colleague was happier than a Whirling Dervish. He even got some pictures with “Jack,” and probably sent them back to his family in Turkey. “Look, I’m here in Hollywood for an hour, and I already met Jack Nicholson!”

Later, he finally realized celebrities weren’t real. I think he finally caught on when he saw “Marilyn Monroe” show up. His dreams crushed and reality set in, he passed on the photo op with “Marilyn.”  No way the family back in Turkey would believe that one.