Paddy Chayefsky and ESP

A friend over at the Tony Isabella board was mentioning Paddy Chayefsky this morning and it got me remembering a very strange thing that happened about a decade ago.

I was working at Disney, Buena Vista Home Video to be exact, as a contract programmer when the company had a get together at the Academy Theater at the Academy of Television Arts & Science headquarters. This place was brand new as was the Hall of Fame out in front of the Academy Plaza. It's the same place where you will see a mammoth golden replica of the winged Emmy Award.

I think they bussed us to the theater to see previews of upcoming Disney films, products that in a few years would be our products. We saw a rough cut of about 10 minutes of Toy Story and scenes from Mr. Holland's Opus (which they assured us would not be called Mr. Holland's Opus when it opened) and Crimson Tide. They also had a few speeches and gave out gifts (I got a spiffy Lion King sweatshirt that day). The hall of Fame is a set of beautiful bronze statues that line the walkway leading to the theater.

The strange thing happened right after I arrived. I was standing with some co-workers outside of the Hall of Fame, so I was looking at the back of the heads of half the statues. We were looking at the statues across the way and pointing out who was who when I looked at the back of the head of a statue in front of me and I said, "Hey, it's Paddy Chayefsky." We walked around in front of the statue and it was Paddy Chayefsky! Only, I had never been there before, had no idea they had a statue of Paddy Chayefsky there and I also had no idea what Paddy Chayefsky looked like especially not from the back of his head.

So, how did I know it was him? I have no clue; I just knew.