This month Steve asked me if I had ever met Henryk who does hair and wigs for Stage West. He has been at Stage West over 25 years and worked with so many celebrities. A master of his trade, I must say I was ashamed to admit that I had yet to meet the infamous Henryk. So it was a great honor when he agreed to meet me. I grabbed my trusty assistant T, and together we sit down face to face with Henryk Rajner.
"I’ve been at Stage West since day one....Kira and I will be there till the day we die," he says. He pulls out a stack of personal photos and memorabilia, and to my delight we begin to peruse picture after picture of him with renowned thespians and Hollywood stars.
I had to ask, "You’ve worked with so many celebrities. Any favorites?"
"There’s something nice about everyone." With that said, he flips over a picture of himself with Dolly Parton and her sister Stella and admits ..."here’s a favorite".
L: Dolly Parton?
H: Yes! But I didn’t work with her. I worked with her sister. Dolly was in town with her and I told Dolly, some day I am going to write a book about all the famous people I’ve worked with. She pulled a comb out of her purse and said, "Comb my wig a little...so you can say you did mine too!" She is one of the nicest people you could ever meet.
L: I don’t doubt that at all. Tell me more!
H: We were sitting, eating, and I am with my lover of 15 years, he’s very hoity-toity. You know, every knife in place...and me, I’m just a plain old country girl. As I pick up the food with my fingers, I get the dirtiest look from him. I looked at Dolly and said "Sorry I’m Polish." She grabbed the food with her long nails and said, "Thank God, I’m a Hillbilly!"
L: Did you ever see what Dolly Parton REALLY looks like?
H: When we went to Banff she never wore the wigs. No one knew who she was. Without the wigs, with her own red hair, she has the biggest privacy. She can jump in her truck and go to a MacDonald’s and nobody knows who she is.
He shows us more pictures, more celebrities, and then...
L: There’s you with Sandy Dennis. That must have been something! She’s famous for -
H: She won the Oscar for "Who’s Afraid of Virgina Wolf". She’s wild!
As I catch my breath....
H: Here’s a picture of one of my favorites. JM J. Bullock. He’s great. You know, "Too Close for Comfort".
As he sees the look on my face he laughs. "I worked with them all. Over 300."
Then, he passes me a picture of, unbeknownst to him, one of my personal favorites, Cloris Leachman! I’ve loved her since the days of Mary Tyler Moore, when she played Phyllis.
L: WOW! What was she like to work with?
H: She is very, very, what you call a perfectionist...you either do it right or you don’t do it at all. Many people don’t like working with her, but I loved it .I worked with her twice. I went to visit her in Toronto when she was doing Showboat. She’s amazing! The only thing Cloris hated was when you called her Phyllis. ...
LH: Why?
HEN:I don’t know. I called her "Clitoris", "Clitoris Cleechman". When I went to see her in "Showboat", again, in Vancouver, I left a note backstage and during the performance she kept giving me the Carol Burnett ear-tugging signal. As I go backstage, a guy comes up to me and says "Are you the one that calls her Clitoris? She’s in the green room."
As Henryk gives me a wink, he says, "I worked with 4 playmates too...and I had more tits than they did!"
We all laugh our heads off., and he continues to amaze us with another Oscar gem. How many people can boast about meeting an Oscar winner, never mind working with two!
H: Here’s a picture of me with George Segal, the other Oscar winner of "Who’s Afraid of Virgina Wolf", with Christina Pickles from Friends (the mother of Ross and Monica).
Here’s a funny story of when I met Christina the very first time. When I came to Canada, I was learning English by watching Another World, and she was on it. She played Iris’s biggest rival, the Countess Elena. Do you remember that?
L: Of course! The Countess Elena dePoulignac
H: I’m sitting in the rehearsal hall when they said "Henryk, I’d like you to meet Christina Pickles." I said, "That’s not Christina Pickles. That’s the Countess Elena!!" She just cracked up laughing. We became friends and to this day we send Christmas cards to each other. She’s a doll.
We excitedly rifle through some more photos and then I see my "Greatest American Hero", William Katt.
H: Here’s me with two of my favorites. William Katt and the daughter of Bing Crosby. Mary Crosby. You know her as "The woman who shot JR."(Dallas)
L: What was she like?
H: She’s a sweetheart. We went to a restaurant and she almost died laughing, ‘cause she says to me, "Do you like mussels?" I said, "only on the men."
As I look over at a pile of magazines with articles on Henryk, I see Alberta Report.
LH: No way! You were covered in Alberta Report, the most redneck magazine in all of Alberta?
H: I almost died laughing. I couldn’t believe it myself. And the idiot, if you read the article, wrote that I babysat for John Denver. I never met John Denver, I babysat for BOB Denver from Gilligan’s Island.
He follows with, "Linda, have you seen Dreamgirls?" No offence, but that’s like saying to me "Are the Kennedys gun shy?"
L: I love "Dreamgirls"!
H: Ok, here is the girl who wrote the book ...Mary Wilson of the Supremes. And that’s her in her original Supremes gown. People should know, Mary Wilson is coming to Calgary, May 25th at the Silver Dollar.
Not to be outdone the very next picture was of him with an old time favorite.
H: And here’s Elke Sommer, from the original Pink Panther. She’s amazing! She’s an artist. She paints. She has a television show in Europe called "Painting with Elke."
And she gave me two of her original paintings. For the last ten years, every two years, she sends me her Christmas lithograph, and the last one she dedicated to GAY Europe! Phenomenal.
L: Have you ever been star struck by any of these celebrities?
H: NO, as a matter of fact I’ve been told I make them nervous...I ask them, "Can I ask you a personal question?" And they go "yeah, what is it?" I say..."Would you still love me if I wasn’t such a sex symbol?" And it usually breaks the ice.
Just as I’m trying to get my composure back Henryk asks, "Linda this picture? Who does she look like?"
With a patch on my left eye due to surgery, I say, "Ok, sorry, but as you can see I am working with only one eye."
"She’s a very famous person..." he prompts me. Thank the powers that be, T jumps in - Streisand , Barbra Streisand! "You know Linda, the one you’ve always said you would crawl bare naked over 30 miles of broken glass just to smell the exhaust of the truck that takes her laundry away!"
"Too much information, T," I laugh.
"That’s not Streisand.....that’s her sister," says Henryk. In unison we laugh and I say "Rosalind Kind", finally redeeming myself.
H: Yes, and I met Barbra Streisand , too. ...And, Linda, she was the exact opposite of Dolly... and I don’t want to say anything more.
As I’m wondering how to get the dirt about Babs out of him, he turns to me and says...
H: Linda with you going through eye surgery I must tell you, I too recently had eye surgery. My doctor said I can drive in two days and go back to work in two days, but for a week you can’t lift anything more than 5 pounds! I said, "then you’re going to have to send a nurse home with me...so I can go to the bathroom!"
Jokes and laughter aside, I am so astonished to be in the presence of someone who has worked with the greatest show people, the best of the best - even Cyd Charise, and Ginger Rogers. So I had to ask who was his least favorite.
H: Mickey Rooney! He’s a fucking jerk, a bigot. He said to me "Do you have any niggers working here? Do you have any faggots working here?" As I towered over him, I said "you have a problem with faggots?" He said "Nope!" And , I said "Good!"
L: What’s your favorite city to work in? You’ve been all over the world.
H: I like Calgary! Calgary’s my home! I’ve been offered a number of opportunities but I am at the age where you don’t need new enemies. I’m at the age, if I was to have a sex change, my first name would have to be Ann and my last name would have to be Tique! Or my first name would be Dyna and last name Saur. There’s even a bio on me that tells the story...
"Did you hear that lately they found some new pyramids in Egypt? After a few years of digging around they finally broke in. They were amazed at all the jewelry, all the gold statues, and all the money lying around. They just stood there freaking out....until one mummy got up and started walking towards them.... They all got up and started screaming and running back and the mummy says, ’Don’t run away, don’t be afraid of me, I won’t hurt you. I just want to ask you one question. Is Henryk still working at Stage West?’"
Thankfully for Calgary, the answer is YES!!