Large Scale Central

Public Backstory to post about Jay Leno

General Discussion
#1

Earlier this week, I posted a story with two photos showing Jay Leno running a large live steam locomotive on our track here at Los Angeles Live Steamers. Most of you seemed to enjoy seeing and hearing about Jay’s passion for anything mechanical and especially steam.

But last Wednesday, I received a Private Message through the LSC site from a member here. I was essentially excoriated for posting the photos and invading Leno’s privacy with “so-called” non-public information. That is about as far from the truth as is possible!

Last Thursday, I spoke with the young man (one of our younger members at LALS) who accompanied Jay on the tender of this engine (in the photo I posted). Jay was not that familiar with the various controls on this particular loco, but is very knowledgeable with steam controls in general. Note: He drove his own 1909 White steam car to the meet by himself. The young man asked Leno after the run if he could post some photos on his Facebook site and Jay told him “Not a problem. Maybe we can increase interest in the hobby”.

Leno was at the LALS facility on BOTH Friday and Saturday for the meet. He was also their to participate in a video being done as a documentary on the ride-on scale hobby. He VOLUNTEERED for this! And the various photos taken of Jay that day is on just about every site dedicated to the ride-on hobby. I guess he is less concerned about his privacy than his passion for promoting the hobby.

He visits the LALS facility at least a couple of times a month. Brings a car from his collection every time and just chews the fat with the guys for a few hours and goes home. These visits are ALWAYS made on a Sunday Run Public Day. The public loves seeing him. He just likes being around like-minded folks into “things mechanical”.

Anyway that is the whole story and I hope it clears up ANY misunderstanding about my post. BTW, I will post a photo of Jay and his White steam car later (of course, ONLY if it’s appropriate :))

#2

I thought it was a cool story, Gary. I fail to see what all the fuss was about.

#3

Gary, please do keep posting away fearlessly and often. We can’t make everyone happy. It’s a great story and Leno seems like a really okay guy!

#4

Gary Armitstead said:

But last Wednesday, I received a Private Message through the LSC site from a member here. I was essentially excoriated for posting the photos and invading Leno’s privacy with “so-called” non-public information. That is about as far from the truth as is possible!

Ignore it and post on Gary. If there was an issue BD (our host) would tell you so and I can assure you of that! It’s good stuff that we are enjoying.

#5

Gary I don’t think you did anything wrong. What a great guy(Jay) to help promote our hobby. It’s interesting how some folks try to silence others through there own free speech. Please keep posting. You add something productive to our little group. If Bob had any problem with what you posted I am sure he would have spoken directly to you. He’s a fair fella.

#6

deleted

#7

Gary,

You did nothing wrong. Its not like you took photos of him with his mistress on a secluded beach from behind a brick wall with a giant zoom lens. You took pictures of a public figure at a public event and you posted them on a related website accompanied by pertinent info.

If Jay didn’t want the publicity he could have stayed away, or rented the facility for a private running. Actually, I don’t believe he wanted the publicity, but I doubt he minds it. My guess is that he just wants to hang out with train guys do train things. I would also think that just like other train guys doing train things he won’t mind his picture being posted to a train website. None of the rest of of bitch when someone posts our pictures.

#8

This link is to an article to the Orange County Register, about Jay Leno and our 60th Anniversary Meet. Now you tell me if you think that Jay thinks his “privacy is being invaded”.

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/steam-717994-leno-live.html

Note his “entrance coming into the club” in this video. Is this low-key or just plain Leno “over-the-top”. This is the way we see him every time he comes out to play. Absolutely no explanation needed!

#9

Great looking car. It looks like Jay like to show it off.

All professionals, especially “public celebs” have a public and private life. If he wanted to hide his identity, it would become apparent pretty quickly. I’ve had the chance to work with many of them from my time in the USCG and also running a marina. Jay Leno puts himself in the public many times, when he doesn’t have to.

Thanks for sharing and more power to Jay for helping to promote what he and we enjoy.

#10

Don’t worry about it. Post what you want. Unless the person who sent you the message is Leno’s official PR manager, he should keep his opinions to himself.

#11

edited double post

#12

Thanks to everyone who posted comments about why I did the post on Jay Leno. AND I WILL continue to post items that I think will be of interest to this forum. I am sure that some will be about Leno…or other so-called “celebs” that are involved in our hobby.

I think what bothered (annoyed) me the most about the Private Message sent to me, was that it WAS private. If this individual felt that strongly about the privacy issue, I believe that he should have posted his feelings as part of a public discussion. This quote from the message is priceless to me: " I’ve heard rumor that he is a regular guy if you don’t idol worship him." Maybe there is a different connection here to “celebrity” in So. Ca. than there is on the East Coast or Midwest. I used to see the late actor Richard Crenna in a huge train store (Allied Model Trains) in West L.A. carrying out boxes of train stuff. James Doohan (Scotty in Star Trek) was always going to train shows in the area. The last time I saw him was at the Pomona Train Show and he had two pallet trucks filled with LGB stuff for his outdoor railroad.

The late Bob Hope used to walk-in to the same pharmacy I go to. He was always alone. People let him have his space. His life long home was in Toluca Lake (a section of Burbank/Los Angeles) and there is a restaurant in walking distance from his home called “Bob’s Big Boy”. It goes back to the late forties. He used to walk from his home and walk in to the Take Out line, order his Big Boy hamburger and fries. Wait for the order and walk home. He was always given his space. But then again, it’s common to see these folks on a daily basis. Not a big deal.

Thanks to everyone.

#13

Gary Armitstead said:

Thanks to everyone who posted comments about why I did the post on Jay Leno. AND I WILL continue to post items that I think will be of interest to this forum. I am sure that some will be about Leno…or other so-called “celebs” that are involved in our hobby.

I think what bothered (annoyed) me the most about the Private Message sent to me, was that it WAS private. If this individual felt that strongly about the privacy issue, I believe that he should have posted his feelings as part of a public discussion. This quote from the message is priceless to me: " I’ve heard rumor that he is a regular guy if you don’t idol worship him." Maybe there is a different connection here to “celebrity” in So. Ca. than there is on the East Coast or Midwest. I used to see the late actor Richard Crenna in a huge train store (Allied Model Trains) in West L.A. carrying out boxes of train stuff. James Doohan (Scotty in Star Trek) was always going to train shows in the area. The last time I saw him was at the Pomona Train Show and he had two pallet trucks filled with LGB stuff for his outdoor railroad.

The late Bob Hope used to walk-in to the same pharmacy I go to. He was always alone. People let him have his space. His life long home was in Toluca Lake (a section of Burbank/Los Angeles) and there is a restaurant in walking distance from his home called “Bob’s Big Boy”. It goes back to the late forties. He used to walk from his home and walk in to the Take Out line, order his Big Boy hamburger and fries. Wait for the order and walk home. He was always given his space. But then again, it’s common to see these folks on a daily basis. Not a big deal.

Thanks to everyone.

Gary,

Back in the mid to late 80’s I used be the service manager, sales person, floor manager and whatever else that needed to be done in a computer store in Harvard Square in the People’s Republic of Cambridge, MA. We had a few celebrities and political figures of the time come in and out of our store as we were near a couple of well known restaurants. For the celebrities part of the reason was the casting agency two floors above us. I always had a pot of coffee going in the service area and the few times they hung around on my side of the floor either before we officially opened or during business hours. I treated them no differently than anyone else except by letting them in early whether they needed to purchase something, wait for the casting agency to open or in the case of one person just hang until the rest of the retail stores in the Square opened. They did appreciate just being able to hang around. As I got everything going one to two hours before we opened or anyone else showed up I did appreciate the company. At the time a couple of movies were being shot in Boston. Never got a walk on role for anyone of them though the two store owners did. The owners of the casting agency didn’t appreciate my humor regarding the street crazies that came out when a movie was being shot in the square about street performers

LAO

#14

Thanks for sharing the original story.

I’d of enjoyed it if it was John Q Public driving up in a steam car and at the controls of a 3 3/4 inch scale steam locomotive.

No reason to censor it because it’s Jay Leno (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-foot-in-mouth.gif)

Ralph

#15

It was good that it was a private message. What was bad is that it assumed the this member knew everything about Jay, and moreso, felt he could speak for Jay.

The right thing to do (if one was determined to appoint oneself Jay’s spokeperson, an error to begin with) would have been to ASK, Hey Gary, I heard Jay was a pretty private person, do you think there’s any issue with posting this?

To which you could have replied, hey I asked him, he was fine with that.

Done and done. Easy, courteous, the the jerk that decided to harangue you would never have gotten any public attention for his mistake, and putting his nose in other people’s business.

Greg

#16

Greg Elmassian said:

It was good that it was a private message. What was bad is that it assumed the this member knew everything about Jay, and moreso, felt he could speak for Jay.

The right thing to do (if one was determined to appoint oneself Jay’s spokeperson, an error to begin with) would have been to ASK, Hey Gary, I heard Jay was a pretty private person, do you think there’s any issue with posting this?

To which you could have replied, hey I asked him, he was fine with that.

Done and done. Easy, courteous, the the jerk that decided to harangue you would never have gotten any public attention for his mistake, and putting his nose in other people’s business.

Greg

Greg,

There were definitely some very big assumptions made on the part of the author of the PM to me, which is why I thought “maybe” I should have provided a backstory to the original post. I DID make a similar post on MLS and got a half dozen replies and that post is now buried and is essentially DEAD. But no remarks anywhere near the scale of the PM here. I personally don’t know Leno and have no attachment to him whatsoever. He is just another individual (like ANY person on the street) that you see very often at your club and say “hi”. He doesn’t live in Burbank, but I can tell you he might as well live here. He attends the Car Show at Bob’s Big Boy in Toluca Lake (anyone living in Southern California knows this Car Show!). It happens every Friday night, every single week, from 4pm to about 10pm. At least 100 cars or more. Most of the cars are Barrett/Jackson quality! Remember, So. California is where this culture started and remains. Also Leno’s car collection is housed in Burbank. A couple of hangars/warehouses in the airport industrial complex. This is where “Leno’s Garage” originates from. He is just around the area all the time…he’s a “fixture” in the area.

If you saw the video attached to the Orange County Register site, just listen to Jay’s interview about the live steamers. “I just drove by the place one day and decided to visit. I’ve coming here now for over thirty years…”.

I think I’m finished explaining my position. It’s been “hashed around” long enough. It is what it is. I will say though that the author of the PM has NOT posted on LSC since sending the message. Must be hiding somewhere. :slight_smile:

#17

typical.

#18

I’m not in hiding so it wasn’t me … I don’t care how dry it is at 108 F it’s durn hot! I’ve been playin’ some in it.

After the Navy my dad did a year at the Beverley Hills Presbyterian Church, I went to church with Jimmy Stewart and Col. Klink! (Werner Klemperer)

There were others but, those two always had a smile and a wink. The younger kids soon learned the Col. was good for some candy… for the price of a quiet service.

John

#19

John, “its a dry heat”. (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)Yea, and so is an oven! (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-surprised.gif)

People sometimes forget that actors are people too. And most times, they are rather normal. Yes, there are many “off the wall” exceptions, but most of them aren’t off the wall.

#20

What would be really cool is to get Jay not only interested in the ride on scale stuff, but G scale live steam as well and join up. Rod Stewart makes no secret he is into model trains and even posts on some other forums from time to time under a screen name, those that know him, know when he posts. He is just a regular guy, like Jay, who just happens to be famous. But it was his fame from the tonight show that enabled him to persure his passion for steam. From what I hear, he is a great guy that loves to share his toys with others. Keep posting away. Mike