Fan gifts memorabilia
SLIPPERY ROCK — Over the years, Norman Tuck has amassed a sizeable collection of movie and theater memorabilia.
Hundreds of videos, record albums, playbills, photographs and news clippings occupy his small apartment.
As of last month, a prized part of that collection — a comprehensive scrapbook on 1940s actor Robert Walker — permanently left the collection. But Tuck doesn't regret the loss.
"It was the greatest single day of my life," Tuck said.
Power of the Penn
Tuck began following Walker's career at age 13, after seeing the movie "Bataan" at the Penn Theater. The story, set during World War II, centered on a group of soldiers on the Bataan Peninsula destined to die for their country.
It was Walker's first starring role, playing a sailor who joined other soldiers in holding off Japanese troops.
"I was inspired by his performance and thought how wonderful it would be to have a brother like him," Tuck said.
"I adopted him as my brother, as the part he played was the way I felt: excited about my future."
Now 78, Tuck remains enthralled with Walker, who died in 1951 at age 32. Walker had two sons with Academy Award-winning actress Jennifer Jones. One son died in 2007. Jones died last year, many years after she and Walker divorced.
Four years ago, about the time Tuck arranged to will his memorabilia to Slippery Rock University, he began trying to contact Walker's son Robert Jr. His efforts included writing to Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, Calif. Jones was affiliated with the museum through her third husband, the late Norton Simon.
"Month after month, year after year went by — but no reply," Tuck recalled.
Last April, his wait was over. Tuck received a letter written on behalf of Robert Walker Jr.
Tuck's letter had been forwarded to Walker Jr. along with fan letters he still receives as a result of his own acting career, which ended in the early 1990s.
Walker Jr. said he initially overlooked the correspondence, since it coincided with a knee operation and arrived around the time his mother moved into his home, where she spent her final years.
Walker Jr. initiated the reply after his wife, Dawn, came across Tuck's letter and urged him to respond.
A friend affiliated with the his father's tribute website responded to the letter on Walker Jr.'s behalf after his attempts to call Tuck were unsuccessful.
The ensuing events led to a phone conversation in which Tuck and Walker Jr. arranged to meet in person, eventually spending nearly seven hours May 19 at Walker Jr.'s home in Malibu, Calif.
"I was absolutely shocked. I was so floored," Tuck recalled of that first phone call. "I told him 'You've got to have this (scrapbook). You may think it's something simple, but you have got to see this. I know that I know more about your father than you do,'" Tuck said, explaining Walker died when his son, now 70, was not yet a teenager.
The two arranged to meet at a market in Malibu, then caravan to Walker Jr.'s out-of-the-way home."I recognized him right away," Walker Jr. said, describing the encounter with Tuck as "a beautiful meeting.""His arms just lifted all by themselves. ... We met and embraced and it was like meeting an old friend.""It made me very happy to help make him so happy. It had a lot of meaning for him, and in the end it had a lot of meaning for me too."In the scrapbook, Walker Jr. can't point specifically to information he didn't already know, "but there were many things that I had never seen before. It was pretty well documented.""I guess (Tuck) told you Dad was like an older brother to him. It's funny, because now he's like my older brother," Walker Jr. said."It's a beautiful book: the way he put it together with such loving care. It sits on a table in our house," he said, describing a 12-foot pine table he recalls using for meals in childhood."It's been in the family all this time. The book sits there now, and it looks like it was made for it. It's truly found its home."
Robert Walker was featured in these movies before his death in 1951 at age 32.<B>1939</B>• Winter Carnival• These Glamour Girls• Dancing Co-Ed<B>1943</B>• Bataan• Madame Curie<B>1944</B>• See Here, Private Hargrove• Since You Went Away• Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo<B>1945</B>• The Clock• Her Highness and the Bellboy• What Next, Corporal Hargrove• The Sailor Takes a Wife<B>1946</B>• Till the Clouds Roll By<B>1947</B>• The Beginning or the End• The Sea of Grass• Song of Love<B>1948</B>• One Touch of Venus<B>1950</B>• Please Believe Me• The Skipper Surprised His Wife<B>1951</B>• Vengeance Valley• Strangers on a Train<B>1952</B>• My Son John
