When I was on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," I correctly answered a question about documentary filmmaker Ken Burns. It was about the type of documentaries he had produced to that point in 2003, and it was relatively easy for anyone even passingly familiar with his work.
Fast forward about seven years and I'm sitting at the City Club of Cleveland listening to Mr. Burns speak. He was great, as were all of the speakers I used to go and see at the City Club back then.
(This, by the way, is one of the biggest things I miss about working in Downtown Cleveland. I became a member of the City Club just for the chance to attend these lunchtime gatherings they would hold featuring world-class speakers. It's amazing the array of people I saw there.)
When the session ended and everyone in the room headed for the elevators, Mr. Burns was surrounded by people wanting to say hello, shake his hand, ask him questions, etc. He was clearly in a hurry to get out, presumably because he had to be somewhere immediately afterward or was catching a plane or something.
I patiently followed the little blob of people gathered around him until I could briefly get his attention. I had to walk fast to keep up with him, but when I told him my Millionaire story, he stopped and looked at me.
"Really?" he asked.
"Yes," I said, "true story."
"And you got the question right?"
"I sure did."
"How much was it worth?"
I couldn't remember and told him so, though it was one of the early questions among the 10 I answered correctly.
"Huh," he said. "Being the answer to a question on a game show. That's a new one for me. Thank you for telling me about it."
And he meant it.
If you're not familiar with Ken Burns and his PBS documentaries on baseball, jazz, the Civil War, and a host of other topics, check out his IMDB page. He's a fascinating individual.
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