Arthur Bradford - The Quest for Chad

 

 

Okay, I’m kneeling on the floor of a cheap roadside motel somewhere in western Tennessee. And next to me, leading me in prayer, is a middle-aged man, a large man with cerebral palsy named Ronnie Simonsen. He says, "Bless my mother, my brothers and sisters, and my pastor back home in New Hampshire, and God bless Bob Hope and Cher and all three of Charlie’s Angels, especially Jaclyn Smith, especially her." And then, Ronnie says, "And Lord, please help us get to California quickly, where I know I’m going to meet my spiritual brother, Mr. Chad Everett, the star of CBS’s drama Medical Center." And here I interrupt Ron. I say, "Ron, you know, we might not meet Chad Everett. You know, we’re not sure that’s going to happen." And he says, "Yeah, I know, but keep praying. Keep praying."

 

I first met Ronnie about eight years before that. I was working at a summer camp for people with disabilities, and I was a counselor there. I had brought along a video camera, because I was also interested in making films. Ronnie was drawn to that camera. He came right up to me and wanted to talk about movies and TV. He had cerebral palsy in his legs, but he also had an interesting combination of mental conditions, autism and obsessive-compulsive. It manifested itself in this extreme fascination with television and movie stars from the 1970s, which is, when he was a kid. He spent most of his childhood in hospitals, and he became particularly obsessed with the people that would play doctors on television. He took comfort in their calm voices. There was one man above all who he held as like a God, and that was Chad Everett, who played Dr. Joe Gannon on CBS’s medical drama [chuckles] Medical Center. 

 

I really liked Ron. He was really fun. He was great on camera. He loved to be on camera. We made lots of videos together at the camp. Some of the most popular videos were these newscasts we would do. We made our own news show, and Ronnie was fantastic at that, especially when we would go downtown and he would interview people on the street. He was this large man, and when he would talk to people, he couldn’t stand up for too long, so he would lean on them for balance while he was asking them questions. He would get them to do skits. He had this really real ability to bring people out. These films that we made, they had this underground popularity. And eventually, I was able to get some funding to make a film outside the camp. The idea was we're going to drive across country with five people with disabilities from the summer camp, we were going to go from their houses in New England all the way to Los Angeles, California. 

 

Everyone on the trip had their own hopes and dreams for going to California, a place they’d never been. But Ronnie’s dreams overshadowed everybody else’s. To him, California was the Holy Land. It was the place where he was destined to meet Mr. Chad Everett, his spiritual brother. It was his biggest dream. He told everybody, "It’s my biggest dream." He took this biggest dream mission very, very seriously. It stressed him out. In fact, as we went on the trip, he had this skin condition as well called psoriasis. He would get these rashes on his arms when he got stressed out, and he would itch at them. I felt like this whole situation was mainly my responsibility as the director of this ridiculous film. 

 

I decided I would be Ronnie’s roommate across the country. And so, every night in these hotels, I would help Ronnie apply the medication to his rashes, and then we would say a prayer. And that’s how I end up in this hotel room in Tennessee, praying with Ronnie Simonsen. And as Ronnie prays, I say my own little prayer. I’m not a very religious person. I had never really prayed much before. I’m 29 years old. But this is the first time I pray in earnest, and I say, "Please help us get to California safely. And please, when we get there, please give me some guidance. Help me to solve this problem that we’re going to have, this mess when we get to California." 

 

Because I have this secret that I haven’t shared with Ron. I probably should have shared it with him, but I just can't. And that is that I’ve gotten in touch with Chad Everett’s agent before we went on the trip. And I’d asked, "Could we set up a meeting between these two people?" I knew it was going to be a fantastic moment on film. His agent made me understand that Chad Everett was a very busy man, and that he wasn’t going to have time for something like that. In fact, he didn’t really want to encourage this obsessive fan that apparently, he had. I probably should have told Ronnie that, but he didn’t take disappointment very well. I’d helped Ronnie write letters to numerous celebrities over the years. We had written to Chad Everett. 

 

One year, he called me up. He was so excited, because he got this headshot in the mail. It was a smiling picture of Chad Everett. Ronnie memorized every word that Chad Everett had signed on this picture, which was on his wall. It said, "To Ron, life’s not meant to be lived in reruns. Watch me in the new Love Boat. [audience laughter] Walk in the light.” Signed, Chad Everett. And so, all the way across the country, as we're driving across Texas to the Grand Canyon, Ronnie would go over the contents of that letter with me. He would say, "What does that mean, life’s not meant to be lived in reruns? And what does that mean to walk in the light? I’m walking in the light, right?" And I would say, "Yeah, Ron, you’re walking in the light." 

 

When we reached California, it was a really wonderful moment. We all go swimming in the ocean. Everybody’s really happy, except for, of course, Ron, because he’s on a higher mission. And so, Ron and I come to this agreement. Everyone else involved with the film is going to fly home, and he and I are going to stay in Los Angeles and we’re going to spend a few more days. I don’t know what we’re going to do, we’re going to hang out there in California. And so, everyone goes home, and Ronnie and I end up in this hotel room together, putting on his psoriasis medicine. I have no plan at all.

 

Along the trip, someone who I believe was very well-meaning in giving Ronnie this advice, had said to Ronnie, "Hey, Ronnie, you shouldn’t be so self-conscious." And Ronnie, for about the 150th time that trip, asked me, he says, "What does that mean, self-conscious?" And I tell him, "Well, Ronnie, to be self-conscious, that means to worry about yourself too much." And then, he says, for the 150th time, he asked me, "I’m not being self-conscious right now, am I?" [audience laughter] I’m fed up at this point, I just want to say, "You know, by definition, you asking me that question, that means you’re being self-conscious, right?" But I don’t say that. I know better and I say, "No, Ronnie, you’re not being self-conscious at all."

 

On our last day in California, we hatched this plan out of desperation. We go to this town near Malibu out in the hills where Ronnie had heard that Chad Everett lived. We go to a shopping center. Ronnie gets really excited, because he interviews this kid who apparently had bagged Chad Everett’s groceries. [audience laughter] And then, someone else tells us that they know the street that Chad Everett lives on. And so, Ronnie says, "I just want to see what his house looks like." So, we go up, and then we get to this gate. It’s a gated community. And then, I find myself sneaking past as the guard’s not looking. And then, we get to what we think is his house, and Ronnie says, "I just want to take a picture in front of his house." And so, Ronnie gets out. 

 

It’s not until we’re hiding in the bushes, and we’ve been there for over an hour that I realize that this is a terrible idea. [audience laughter] Why are we here? What did I think was going to happen? I had this crazy idea that Chad Everett would see Ronnie, and he would understand that this was someone that he should get to know. But of course, if Chad Everett walked out of that house, Ronnie was going to rush towards him and someone was going to call the police, it was going to be a disaster. And so, it was with a certain sense of relief that I felt when a security guard came up and told us that we had to leave, and so we did leave. And that film ends with Ronnie kissing Chad Everett’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 

 

It’s a good ending, but of course, it’s not the ending that Ronnie and I wanted for that film. As we took the film to film festivals around the country, Ronnie became like a little bit of a celebrity. It was funny, because that didn’t mean anything to him to be a celebrity himself. All he cared about was he would ask anybody in the audience at the festivals if maybe they knew a way to get this film into Chad Everett’s hands. [audience chuckles] And throughout that year, Ronnie would just call me up and he’d say, "You need to send a tape to this person, because they might know Chad Everett’s daughter." 

 

I was starting to get annoyed, to be honest. I was like, “Man, we went all the way to California. Why can’t he just drop this whole thing?” I was annoyed with myself, too, because I had become tethered to this dream of Ronnie’s. And on top of that, I had a version of the dream that was a nightmare for me, which was that Ronnie would somehow meet Chad Everett and I wouldn’t be there. That kept me up at night. [audience laughter] If Ronnie were to meet him and I wasn’t there, I didn’t think I could live with myself for the rest of my life. I honestly felt that way. I was in this state. 

 

And then, one day, I got a phone call. There was a deep voice on the other end of the line, and it said, "Hello, this is Chad Everett." And I said, "No, it's not." [audience laughter] And he said, [laughs] "Yes, it is." [audience laughter] It was Chad Everett, and he had seen our film, and he liked the film. He liked it a lot. In fact, he agreed that if we could get Ronnie to California, he would meet Ronnie and he would do an interview with him. And so, I hung up the phone, and I drove three hours to Ronnie’s house. And I said, "Ronnie, Chad Everett saw the film and he wants to meet you." And Ronnie said, "Oh boy." And for two weeks straight, Ronnie just couldn’t sleep. All he could do was call me up and talk about exactly what was going to happen. 

 

Eventually we got on a plane and we flew out to California. The whole way, Ronnie’s clapping his hands and rocking back. Everyone he meets, he tells them that he’s going to achieve his biggest dream, he’s going to meet Chad Everett. The filmmaker in me planned this out. So, I said, “We’re going to do this on a beach, because it’s wide open. It’s a big, wide-open space, and there’s lots of room.” I thought that was a good plan until we get to the beach. I’m walking with Ron on the sand. At this point, Ronnie’s legs are really giving out, and he can hardly walk on solid ground without assistance. And the sand, he can’t even stand up on. I realized it was a bad idea to do this on a beach. We sit him down on a beach chair, and I’m trying to think like, “Where else could we do this?” when this convertible pulls up and the license plate says, "SIR CHAD." [chuckles] [audience laughter] 

 

And down at the other end of the beach, this handsome older man steps out and he starts walking across the beach. And Ronnie spots him. He’s 100 yards away, and Ronnie spots him and says, "Is that Chad Everett?" And Chad Everett says, "Yes, it is. You betcha." Ronnie hoists himself up out of this chair, and he starts running across the beach. [audience laughter] I’ve never seen Ronnie run ever in my life. He is running across the beach. He’s kicking up sand, he’s going, "Chad Everett. Chad Everett." I think he’s going to fall and wipe out. And Chad Everett’s going, "Slow down, slow down, slow down." And Ronnie’s running towards him, and he looks like a little boy. He does. He looks like a little boy. When he reaches Chad Everett, he throws his arms around him and he says, "Chad, I’m so happy to see you." 

 

They have a wonderful time. They do skits together on the beach. Ronnie interviews him, and they say a prayer. It’s a wonderful meeting. We take the red-eye home that night. And Ronnie, he’s exhausted. He’s a man who hasn’t slept for weeks, it seems, and he says to me, "Well, Arthur, we did it," and then he finally goes to sleep. After that trip, I didn’t hear from Ronnie for quite a while. That was strange, because he would call me so often. 

 

When I finally did hear from Ron, he had some bad news. He had been diagnosed with leukemia. His mother told me privately that he only had six months. He was given six months to live. And Ron said to me, he said to me, "Look, I know that Chad Everett’s a really busy man, but do you think you could tell him about this?" And I said, "Sure, Ron. I can let him know." And so, I did. I told Chad Everett. An amazing thing happened then. Chad Everett called Ronnie every Sunday, and they would talk and they would say a prayer. Without fail, he called Ronnie every Sunday. Ronnie outlived that diagnosis by months and months. He lived for over two years. In fact, he went back to California, and saw Chad, and had a party to celebrate. [audience laughter] And eventually, he did die of that disease. 

 

After his death, I thought a lot about the lessons that I had learned from Ronnie Simonsen, about the importance of having a biggest dream, no matter how silly it is. I often wondered, did I spend too much time chasing this other person’s dream that wasn’t really my dream? And then, recently, we were putting together this compilation of these tapes that we’d made with Ronnie, and the editor called me up and said, "Hey, I’ve got this audio track I want you to hear. I think you’ll find it funny." And so, he plays for me this audio track, and it’s this person just breathing really like [heavy breathing] It sounds like it’s like someone who’s going up the stairs or really out of breath. And then, I hear my voice going, "Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God." 

 

It’s the audio track from my camera as I’m filming Ronnie running towards Chad Everett. I’d never heard that. I’d always heard Ronnie’s mic, not my mic. And I’m saying, "Oh my God. Oh my God." And as they hug, I swear you can almost hear my heart beating out of my chest. I’m so excited by this meeting. In hearing that track, I realized that Ronnie’s dream really had become my dream, too. And those moments of excitement and joy that you have are really worth something. They’re awesome. I just have always wanted to thank Ron for sharing that with me. Thanks.