I see a Star……or two

by: Jenneke JR

As you could read on this familywebsite, I’m a big fan of the American actor and singer Don Johnson. In 1994 I took his (Dutch) Fan Club over from Yvonne van de Erve who started with another Fan Club then for Bobbie Eakes and Jeff Trachta of "The Bold and the Beautiful".

I’ll never forget the meetings Yvonne and I had in 1994 with these two stars. The first meeting with them took place on April 25, 1994 in a hotel in Amsterdam. When Yvonne phoned me earlier that week that we would be able to meet them, I was speechless for a moment. I never expected that that would happen so shortly after the blessing Yvonne received from Arcade in March 1994 to start a Fan Club for the two of them.

On April 25, Bobbie and Jeff were the guests in a Dutch TV program called the "5 o’clock" show to perform their hit "What’s Forever For" and answer some questions. Of course, we weren’t able to see this program when they broadcasted the program at 5 o’clock because we were on our way to Amsterdam then already, but we watched the program later that evening on tape.

Around 7 pm we arrived at the hotel were Bobbie and Jeff were staying. Bobbie and Jeff were in the middle of an interview when Dennis Erhardt of Arcade introduced us to them. Before we were so nervous, but when the "time" was there all our nervous were gone. Both were so friendly and interested. We gave them some flowers and then we had to wait at another table, till they finished the interview.

After the interview first Jeff and later Bobbie joined us and posed for photos and signed some as well.

What we didn’t know by then, that this wouldn’t be the last time that year that we met them. No it was just the beginning……

Only a couple of weeks later, Bobbie and Jeff visited Holland again. This time to receive a Golden CD in Holland for their album "Bold and Beautiful Duets" in the Dutch TV program "Wedden Dat…?" which aired here in Holland on May 28, 1994.

Thanks to Arcade, we were able to meet the two of them again on May 24, 1994. This time it would be possible to do a "real" interview (our first one, we both had never done such a thing like that before with a real star) so we started to write some questions down for both of them.

We entered the hotel around 11 am. They advised us to wait in the lobby, so we waited…..and waited. Other guests went in and out, but not the people we waited for. It’s a nice lobby so waiting wasn’t unpleasant. And then it happened! I looked upstairs and I saw Jeff leaving the elevator. It was such a surprise to see him there, that for a short moment of time, I was really speechless. Then I mentioned the fact to Yvonne who didn’t see him. At that time he was already gone. Till now, I still have no idea how he did it, but after 10 minutes he entered the hotel again. This time he took the entrance and was carrying some shoppings. No bodyguards were surrounding him (that changed during the years) and I’m still asking myself or there was nobody there in Amsterdam who recognized him. I guess not, because he came back so soon. Well anyway: when he saw us, he said: "Nice to see you again, but weren’t we supposed to meet at one?" We explained to him that, as far as we knew, we were expected between 11 and 1. Obvious we were not the only ones who thought that, because in the meantime some journalists joined us. Then Jeff told us that he wanted to get Bobbie as well and disappeared before we could say anyhting else and we started to wait again and talked to some journalist in the meantime. Yvonne told them about her plans for a Fan Club. Then Jeff showed up again, this time with Bobbie.

Together with Bobbie and Jeff on top we all(!) walked like father and mother duck with their children to the lounge of the hotel. Jeff asked us or we all belonged to the Fan Club. Of course, this wasn’t the case and Jeff told the journalists that they had to wait a little longer, because they wanted to talk with us first! You must have seen the faces of the journalists. They could have kiled us for that, but we walked to a table, sat down and a waiter brought us something to drink and we started with our interview.

It seemed if we had known each other for years. They were so friendly and answered all our questions with so much pleasure that we never realized that we talked with them for more then an hour(!). After the interview we took some photos, congratulated them with the Golden album and gave them some presents. We said goodbye to them with the words: "See you tonight" and they looked very surprised. This was only the beginning of another special day.

In the bus from Amsterdam to Aalsmeer, we hardly couldn’t believe what happened this morning. The busdriver told us that the bus didn’t go as far as the studios (we later found out that he did!) and that we had to walk the last part of it. It supposed to be a few minutes walk but it took us more then an hour, because nobody knew the location of the studios and we walked into the wrong direction more then once. When we finally arrived at the studios we decided to eat something first and then met a friend of Yvonne who came by car and would be our "taxidriver" later that evening after we joined the show together.

Luckily it was a very warm day and we walked around the studios for awhile, but then we decided to go inside and have something to drink. There we heard Bobbie and Jeff singing their song fronm a distance, but we were not permitted to attend the last rehearsels for the show. So very fustrated that was!

We also bought some sandwishes for dinner before the audience arrived around 6:15 pm almost one hour before the studio doors opened.

Thanks to a friendly hostess we’re able to sit in the frontrow. Luckily we sat down there already when the audience got inside. There was no holding back then. People were pushing each other aside to get the best seats. Unbelievable. It seems or everybody wanted to sit down in the frontline. One of the crewmembers of "Wedden Dat…?"" told us something about how to behave ourselves and told us that we could take pictures, but were not permitted to use a flashlight. Of course, we tried to take some photos during the show, but they didn’t turn out to be the best ones.

After this the host of the evening (Rolf Wouters) showed up and he announced the first guest of the evening. That was Darlene Conley, also from the Bold and the Beautiful, she was a member of the panel. After a second bet Bobbie and Jeff were announced and the roof of the studios almost felt apart. People really went crazy! They sang their song again and afterwards received their Golden CD from Darlene Conely and Rolf Wouters together with some flowers from Aalsmeer.

In the "commercialbreak" they were able to prepair another bet. Most of the people were only focused on Bobbie and Jeff and the two of them used the break to come over to the audience. First they were only two meters away from us, but when they recognized us, they came up to us and greated us like "old" friends with kisses etc. I still see the faces in front of me of all the other people in the audience who of course had no idea who we where and why they were so friendly to us. Jeff even gave his flowers to Yvonne. That really made her day!

Some other debts folowed. The last one, of Rolf himself, didn’t succeed., because it started to rain outside the studios in the meantime. For his debt he had to climb out a car, then to lay on the bonnet and then the car had to drive through a wall of fire. Later, when Rolf said goodbye to the audience already, he repeated his stunt. This time he had more luck.

Unfortunately, we weren’t able to talk to Bobbie and Jeff after the show, but it has been such a special day for us. And even then it wasn’t the last time we saw them that year!

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