The Open House That Brad Maule Built

We had enjoyed a leisurely morning shopping, and not attending any GH events, when we arrived at the Sportmen's Lodge. It was about an hour until Brad Maule's open house. The more psychically sensitive of our twin pair had a flash. Brad's idea of refreshments was not going to be very nutritional. We stopped in the hotel coffee shop and ate lunch.

Brad's event was taking place right next to it, in Terrace Room One. (Which inexplicably is not on and has no terrace.) It's one of the little conference rooms by the pool. Aside from the organizers, we were one of the first to arrive. The front table, where we presented our credentials, was also where they were selling Brad Maule merchandise; tapes, t-shirts posters and inactive phone cards. As promised we were given a color 8x10 of Brad suitable for autographing.

As predicted, the refreshments were not a balanced representation of the four food groups. There were cookies, (Mother's variety bag, it looked like) and water. Well, they wouldn't be making them wash a lot of dishes at the hotel this evening. Eileen's (Benglesdorf, Brad's fan club president)husband was bringing in chairs, and her daughters and Brad's daughter were selling the raffle tickets. We bought some and sat down to wait. Other fans trickled in. We moved, when more chairs were set up, nearer to the microphone.

We had a look at the auction items and bid on a couple of things. One was the set visit, and the other was a prop, (the cast Tony wore after Jason broke his hand). We can't really name everything else auctioned off; there was a jacket and probably other autographed things.

Brad came in with a video camera and taped all the fans sitting around the room. He handed over the camera to one of his children, who then taped the entire event for posterity.

Brad started out with a little Q and A. (We cannot vouch for the accuracy of any spoilers contained herein, and would recommend that no one take them as carved in granite. Nor will we vouch for the accuracy of events recalled in song. End Disclaimer.)

Brad: Everybody's been writing me letters that they kind of hate me, but it's so much fun. They're going to try and make me a little nicer as I go along but just more like honest. You know the way Luke is. He calls it what it is. That's what I guess I'm gonna try to be. I have so much fun, and the crew said that "Brad, this is so scary, because it seems so natural." and I said, "Just don't mess with me then."

Fan: Do you think you're going to get a new girl?

Brad: Well, yeah. I'll give you guys some scoops. You won't tell anyone. Has the scene aired when I go with Tammy, the town kind of prostitute girl? She's been with Luke. She's been with Alan. She's the only hooker in town that nothing ever goes on with. We just talk to her.

Fan: Like a therapist.

Brad: Yes, she's like a therapist or a bartender. I call her and hire her and she comes over and the same thing happens. I'm like, "Can you just talk to me?" So, I pay her a lot of money to talk to me. But here's a real scoop, supposedly Alan and I are going to vie for her affections. She doesn't like either one of us, but we both fall in love.

Fan: Is Alan still on drugs at the same time?

Brad: I think maybe, or he has a slip-up or falls back or something. But it's supposed to be pretty funny. I think it's weird that the hospital has been run by two of the craziest people on the show.

Fan: But you've always been so stable.

Brad: But don't you find that those really stable nice guys something's wrong. They go postal on you. It all makes sense, because if you look at the backstory on Tony He came on the show, having slept with his Stepmother. I've come about full circle. He was always, I think a little bit jealous, even though he took care of Frisco. He was always jealous of Frisco having the girl. Frisco having the time, the fun and Tony always had to be responsible and do it the right way. And I think he snapped.

Fan: But didn't you take Tanya away from Frisco?

Brad: But that's what I'm saying. Tony's had these little... I mean he married Lucy. That's what I mean. Tony is so normal and so sane, and yet at the same time he steals his brother's girlfriend? Think about it.

(At this point the microphone was turned on. And we went to the musical portion of the afternoon.)

The Saga of Tony Jones

Brad: Now it's on. We can all hear better? Have you all heard the Tony Saga Song?

(Various yeses and nos, come back.)

Brad: Some of you have. Well, I'm going to get the guitar out and play that, and that way we'll catch everybody up. Also what I can do at some point, maybe right now, I can play that song I wrote for the 35th Anniversay show. Let's hope that I'm in tune. The reason I like today so much is because it's real relaxed. It's not like a show. You just talk and do whatever we do.

Brad: (Speaking to the kid with the camera.) Now Lily remember, we're not making War and Peace here. It's just a small little movie. You have to bear in mind that I haven't played this song in a while, so I may forget a few chords. But the music is not the important part.

Brad's Stories and Gossip

Brad: Why is it that everywhere I go, people say, "you're not near as short and fat as you seem on TV."? What is the deal with your TV? I know about the ten pounds. That goes on my jaws. Where does the other weight come from? Any clues? Do you people have short TVs or something? I don't mind being short and fat, but it's so weird everyplace I go people say, "It's so strange, you're tall and you're not near as old." They don't mean it in a bad way, but I... especially airline people. American Airlines is the worst. What is the deal with this.? (He was teasing a group of American employees in the crowd.) Do they never work? Do they just watch soaps all day long?

Fan: We have those little short TVs.

Brad: That's it. It must be. It has something to do with those monitors. Next year in the fan club kit, I'm actually sending out an adjustment for everyone's TV. Do you have any questions? Oh, it's filling up. Who went to the Quartermaine thing? Traitors. No, how was it, did you have fun?

Fan: It was really good.

Brad: Who all was there? The Quartermaines?

Fan: Well, all of Anna Lee's family. It was a tribute to her.

Brad: Oh, Jeffrey and all those. Good. And was Billy Warlock there. Do you like him as A.J.? I do. I think he's great. Please don't be shy. Do you have any questions? I've got a lot for you. Did you like the 35th Anniversary Show?

Fans: Yeah.

Brad: I wanted it to be longer. I thought it was an hour too short, at least. I think in a lot of ways they could use some kind of fan input from people who have watched a long time. But the other thing is, what would be neat is if, it was a continuing series. If you could do it once every six months or a year or something. Then it could become more like a documentary. Which would be great. I don't think this'll ever happen until they get an actual soap channel. Which they're gonna do I think.

But it would be fun to have a cable show that traced... Like you could trace Jessie life on one episode. She had a ton of them, to the point where she was just kind of wheeled out occassionally. That's the way I want to be on the show. I want to be one until you say, "Oh, crud! He's been on there forever. I remember when he was crazy."

That's the other thing. You know people still ask me on the street, "Are you still blind?" I'm like, wow, did you step into a time warp or something. It's amazing. They say, "I just watch it once a month or so." But I'm thinking, some things must catch in your mind at some point. Or maybe they just get nervous and they don't know what to ask, because they think I'm so short and fat. "Ah, are you still blind?! Because I hope you don't look at yourself."

Anyway, there's a hand finally. Hello.

Fan: I've watched GH for thirty-five years, since it premiered.

Brad: Where you from?

Fan: Houston.

Brad: I'll tell you Houston's got a lot of GH People.

Fan: I've been watching since the day it premiered and I always regretted not letting Emily McLaughlin and John Beradino how I felt about them, and that's why I got into the fan club. Do you have trouble?; I know a lot of fans belong in rubber room.

Brad: A lot of actors belong in rubber rooms.

Fan: I saw you in 96 in New Orleans. Sarah Brown was there I witnessed a woman coming up and calling her everything but a nice lady. And she meant it, like she really believed she was Carly.

Brad: That's rare. It happens but most...

Fan: How do you handle it?

Brad: Well, I can tell you how I handled it this year. Strangely enough. When I did the show in Vegas earlier this year,I was on a plane to Vegas every weekend. I guess that was that time. No, it was when I went to see Lee Ann Rimes, but anyway... I was on the plane. I was on Southwest Airlines and you know how they have those seats that face each other? We've got time, so I'll tell you the whole plane trip, which was only fifty minutes, so my story's twenty-five, okay?

I got on the plane and sat down and this guy sitting across from me, looked up and said, "How do you like my newspaper?" And I said, "Well, it's my newspaper, I bought it." And he went, "Oh, sorry, I left my newspaper in the airport, I thought it might be mine." "No," back to reading. And then he goes,"You're on GH,aren't you?" "Yeah," "Tony?" "Yeah," "I don't watch that show." "Okay."

But I couldn't keep my mouth shut, could I? I couldn't do it. Read my paper, still thinking about that statement. Couldn't do it. And he kept looking at me. And I said, "Just a question, how did you know it was me on GH, Tony, if you don't watch GH?" "What are you doing? Are you making fun of me?" "No. I just... I mean you recognized me and you asked me if that was my name, and you said you don't watch the show."

That was it. He just went off on me. He was like, "Gonna use irony on me are you? Gonna use irony. Let me tell you somthing. I teach children and I think you're an immoral yip)(*&^%$#@!bumbum." And what was weird was the other passengers around me, this was like a ten minute tirade of things that I was to the world, which was bad, and the other passengers around me were like, "Hey, c'mon he's just a working guy. He's got a job." And I'm like, "Well, It's not exactly. I'm on TV." And they're like, "No he's just a schmoe. It's a like a factory." And I'm like, "Well, it's not really!"

And the guy is saying, "No, no, no. This is the kind of reason America is going down hill, because of people like him. And I would never ever watch a show like that." And I couldn't keep my mouth shut. I said, "I personally would rather let children watch me than to have my children taught by somebody like you." (The crowd cheers.) Well you're doing what the other passengers did.

And then he's like, "All right, so what are you going to do, hit me?" I said, "No, I'm not gonna hit you. Are you gonna hit me?" "Yeah, I'm thinking about it!" Anyway, then we landed. I got up, and I couldn't keep my mouth shut. He was still yelling at me. I said, "Have a nice day. See ya." And he was still yelling as I got off the plane. And the flight attendant said, "We were about to ask the pilot to land the plane because of this disturbance and I really appreciate... I think you handled it pretty well." And she said, "Plus, do you know what it's like to have to find a place to land between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. We would have had to go back to Los Angeles or go to Las Vegas."

So anyway, that's my story. So yeah, I do have a couple of people who... It was wacky, you know. But it was my fault because I couldn't keep my mouth shut.

Fan: Did he ever answer the question, how did he know who you were?

Brad: No. I was using irony on him. That was my favorite thing. "Oh, you're trying a little irony, huh?" Yeah, I guess. Anymore questions?

Fan: Brad, when are you going to go over an appear in Las Vegas again?

Brad: You know, we basically have a standing invitation. And that hotel... I don't know if any of you went. Some of you went last year. The hotel, when I did it, was just opening up. So literally the five weeks I was there, the pool was landscaped, they opened up the pool. Now the place has twelve movie theaters in it. It's really a neat resort. It's got a bowling alley, wedding chapel for a Vegas wedding and all that stuff. The problem is, it's so hard to get people in Vegas to come to shows. I had on the average of one hundred and fifty, two hundred people per show on the weekends.

They just had a thing in Vegas where they brought all these stars in. And from what I understand, they sold sixty tickets. And it was a hundred and twenty five dollars, a hundred and seventy five. But then somebody that I knew that payed the full fee when he got there for the daily show they had reduced it to like fifty dollars or something. So he was upset. Vegas is a weird place. The hotel paid for it... (He paused to make an introduction.) There's my son and my wife also, Victor and Laverne. But anyways I can go back. It's just until I can do such a big production show that we have a lot of people there, I don't see the point in it. Because it was about to kill me last year, working during the week and then flying to Vegas and paying these cheese ball soap actors and I got nothin'. No, kidding. Kin Shriner loaned my money to gamble one night.

Fan: You've gone to super soap weekend in Florida. What about having something like that out here at Disneyland?

Brad: I think they're thinking about that. But there's a rumor. I think more than a rumor. They had some people on the set recently that were the Imaginarium, whatever thing for Disney, they create all the merchandising and all the rides and restaurants and things like that. And they were looking at the sets do a Soap Restaurant. Like Planet Hollywood or Hard Rock Cafe at the new Disneyland retail shopping area that's going to be like City Walk. They're going to do apparently a Soap Restuarant there. Memorabilia, you can get your Erica Kane dolls there. The Tony doll. (Makes "Psycho" knife noise.)

Fan: It just seems that everybody goes out to the East Coast. We would like to see some of the East coast actors here, but they rarely ever come out here.

Brad: Well, as far as a private promotion thing it's probably too much money to fly East coast actors out here.

Fan: Are you going to have another album out?

Brad: I'm so behind on that, but yes. But I just don't want to go there and do an album of anything. I want to get it right and I just haven't gotten it right yet.

Fan: How do you memorize all that dialogue?

Brad: Well, it's just like working out. You know, you work out and your muscles get bigger. You work out and your memory mind gets bigger. The weird thing is, which Debra and them found that day, when I was doing the long monologue at the Nurses' Ball, is that in rehearsal when I first started it I knew it fine. But the more I do something... That's why I like working on soaps. We usually do just one take or two. After that I start to forget it, because when I walk off the set after having done a scene, I could hardly tell you a word of what I did. It's like studying for a final and then forgetting it. That's exactly what I do. Because otherwise my mind, which is not that big, would be really cluttered with whatever I called the Quartermaine's that day, which was "disfunctional, social something or another, pariahs of the town." or whatever. (He launched right into his next song.)

Brad: Do you want to come up and do some Autographs now? Or do you have some more questions? I'm at your disposal. (No one volunteers.) And you can also ask questions when you come up here. Oh, that's right. Did they all tell you to bring a present. Cause I'm crazy!

This is a true story. I had a guy a couple of years ago that... you know you were talking about stalkers and things like this. This guy wasn't a stalker, I don't think. He was just a nice guy. But he sent me a picture of a Rolls Royce, a 63 Rolls Royce with a pink slip and keys to it, and a money order for transfer of title and he said he wanted me to give it to Vanessa. And that was his big mistake. Because if he'd given it to me, I would have never said a word. But when you want me to give a Rolls Royce to Vanessa, who has everything, you're crazy! And I'm gonna report you. No. Anyway. She didn't get the Rolls Royce though.

(Brad sat down to sign autographs.)

Brad: I'll move the microphone over here and continue to tell you outrageous stories, while I do this, because believe me I've got some.

(But Brad didn't have time for anymore stories.)

Brad signed autographs and accepted presents. We waited to get in line until it had died down some. We kept an eye on the silent auction items we had bid on. Eventually they started the raffle, while Brad was signing. The kids read off most of the numbers. As per usual, we won nothing. Zilch, nada, zero, not even one of the posters that Brad was willing to give away by the end of the event. And the auction... well, the Set Visit had soon soared out of our range. (It went up to one thousand dollars.) But we even lost the Tony cast when a last second bid was slipped in. We got in line at the end of the auction announcements.

We both spoke with Brad, who gave each fan a lot of personal attention. He asked us where we were from and if we'd just come down for the GH/PC events. No, we had been to Disneyland as well to inspect the new Tomorrowland. He thought that was good. We told him we'd decided to attend only one soap event and had singled him out for that honor on Saturday. He thought that was very nice and thanked us. We commented that the attendance was very good for his event and he agreed. We took a picture with him, bought a cassette tape, "Livin' It Up", which includes such classics as 'Cut Me, I bleed Country', 'I'm Goin' Rodeo' and 'Say Hello to Good-Bye.' We left for Santa Monica and The High Lonesome.

The Open House| The Saga of Tony Jones| Brad's Stories and Gossip| The General Hospital Song| Auctions and Autographs

Thanks for joining us on our GH/PC Weekend. These pages are copyright 1998 Teresa and Tracy Murray (T 'n' T). Information contained herein may be used wherever you like, so long as you give us credit. Photos (jpgs) may not be used without asking us first.