An Iconic Moment with an Iconic Star

Anikka Abbott didn’t get a ticket for the ’s evening with Julie Andrews last Saturday night. The aspiring operatic soprano got something better — the chance to meet and chat with the star she credits with inspiring her to sing.

Andrews was in Gig Harbor Oct. 15 to accept the film festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously for her husband, Blake Edwards, who died last December.  Besides Abbott, some 300 people turned out at the to see her.

Most were ticket holders for the film festival event, which included the award presentation and Q & A session with the star, followed by a screening of Victor Victoria, one of the seven films that Andrews worked with her husband. The others came with friends or their children, from as far away as Seattle, just on the hope of catching a glimpse of Andrews and possibly getting an autograph. One thing that everyone seemed to share was that they all had their own Julie Andrews memory that made them feel a personal connection with the star.

“I grew up on Mary Poppins. It was my first VHS and we ran it out watching it everyday,” said Alayna Benoit, 25, who waited with three friends from the Galaxy parking lot for Andrews to make an appearance.

Stu Jacobson, a 2010 Jefferson Award winner in Washington for public service work helping kids, got to meet President Obama during a recent visit to Seattle. But the 58-year-old Bellevue resident indicated that seeing Andrews in person resonated on a much more personal level.

“She’s iconic. She’s part of my childhood,” said Jacobson, who hoped to get his parents’ 1959 Playbill from My Fair Lady signed by Andrews. There aren’t many people still alive from that generation, a time when movies were family oriented, when celebrities weren’t always in trouble and you actually had a sense she was a person of humanity. So even though I matured and raised my own family, when I heard she was coming here I thought, ‘Oh, my gosh.’ I had to come.”

For 18-year-old Abbott, news of Andrews' visit brought back memories of watching The Sound of Music with her grandfather when she was six. Those moments fostered a passion for music, singing and ultimately her desire to pursue a career in the opera.

Abbott relayed this in a thank you note to Julie Andrews, which she attached to an email to film festival Executive Director Marty Thacker, asking if it would be possible to meet Andrews. Thacker forwarded it to the star’s agent, who in turn invited Abbott to the press conference just before the award presentation.

“Marty Thacker brought [Andrews] over and introduced me and she said, ‘Oh, I’ve heard about you.’ It was wonderful,” gushed the freshman music student at Pacific Lutheran University. “She told me never stop singing for the rest of your life.”

Andrews then autographed the video of The Sound of Music that Abbott had so enjoyed with her grandfather, who was “positively giddy” when his granddaughter gave it to him following her encounter with the star.

The other fans milling about weren’t quite as lucky. Andrews was quickly ushered into and out of the Gig Harbor Film Festival office, where she met with the press. She left the Galaxy just as Victor Victoria started to roll to attend a VIP gathering of film festival sponsors at the Gig Harbor home of Gene and Evie Lynn. Andrews overnighted in a guesthouse on the property before leaving by private plane the next day.

Even so, no one appeared too disappointed. "I understand she's a private person," Jacobson said. They’d had a brief moment in the presence of a childhood icon, and in the end, that was thrill enough for them.