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UPDATED: JANUARY 8, 2024
MY TRIBUTE TO DAVID SOUL
On January 4, 2024, David Soul, actor, singer, director, artist, husband, father....passed away at the age of 80.
I had the chance to meet Mr. Soul several times, once in California, and on the east coast of the USA, at events organized for Starsky and Hutch fans.
The first time I saw him, I was actually quite surprised, as I was sitting in the lobby of the event hotel in Los Angeles (2013) and a very striking blonde lady was pushing a fellow in a wheel chair, with a trench coat on and a large fedora style hat, but his face was unmistakeable, it was Hutch! There he was! This was a friday evening.
Around 7pm, we had a fan gathering in the lobby, and Hutch and his wife, Helen came down to greet us. It was fantastic to meet him, and for me, personally, took me back to my adolescence, meeting a hero. He was very friendly, answered alot of fan questions regarding S&H, his music, his life, his car project in Cuba, and then around 9pm, the gathering ended, and his lovely wife, asked me to push him in his wheelchair to the elevator, as she couldn't move the wheelchair on the carpeted floor. So, being a fellow subject of the Queen, I gladly obliged, and when we hit our floor, he was next door to me, I asked him about his health, and his reply, a la Hutch, said, "Well, I'm still here, aren't I?" We all had a good chuckle.
The main event was saturday evening, a dinner, small show, gift raffle (4 sweaters) and then shmoozing with both David and Paul afterwards, not to mention the silent auction for items donated by both Paul and David. The whole room was silent, when the band and singer covered David's big hit, Don't Give Up On Us Baby. David sat there, watching the band, and he was tearing up. He was not the only one.
On Sunday, we had a morning-afternoon of ride-alongs in a Torino, "donated" for the day by Wally Wingert. Paul drove of course, wearing one of my sweaters. This was all too surreal. even LAPD patrol officers stopped to watch what was going on, in front of Venice Place, Hutch's apartment building, which really had not changed much. I even climbed the stairs to Hutch's door, but alas, no key on the door frame LOL. Its actually a commercial building.
The 2 ladies who organized this event redid the same in 2014 in New Jersey, to which I attended again, and drove my Torino to the event, with a few other owners. It was a very similar event, but better. Antonio Fargas was there; I even had breakfast one morning with Paul and Huggy....like we were old buddies. The special guest star was the actress who played Hutch's girlfriend, Abbey, Ann Foster, and her husband. She even walked in with a big glass of some white colored beverage, like they drank on the show, I think it was a milk shake. And David drank it! Very well done.
Sunday again, more ride alongs, fans, shmoozing....all too surreal.
My sympathies go out to David's family. May his memory be a blessing.
DET. SGT. Ken Hutchinson, EOW 1-4-2014
