Remembering Spillane

I got this e-mail this morning from my friend Leigh Handal with Historic Charleston Foundation and had to share it:

Mickey loved the Lowcountry

"I couldn’t believe it when I read in this morning’s P&C that Mickey Spillane died. I truly thought he was invincible.

"Bill Thompson did a good job recounting Mickey’s literary and screen successes, but there was another side of Mickey that I recall during the couple of weeks I hung out with him in Murrells Inlet back in 1992. That was back at the peak of my tree-hugging (or in this case, beach-hugging) days when Mickey agreed to be our spokesperson for South Carolina’s annual Beach Sweep/River Sweep, which I was coordinating at the time. Mickey was doing a couple of free public service announcements for us.

 "It’s amazing how many days it takes to shoot three 30-second TV spots, but that was OK because we filled in the off-camera hours hanging out in Mickey’s marshside hut, swilling Miller Lites all afternoon while he talked about his love for the South Carolina coast and its people. He was the most sincere, unpretentious man, and he truly embraced those things make the South Carolina Lowcountry incomparable – from its coastal resources to its poor rural children who just wanted a place to roller skate.

"Though we spent a right good bit of time together that summer, there was something about my name that just would not resonate with Mickey. He kept wanting to call me Lynn or Lisa or Linda – he knew it was one of those L-words, but he just couldn’t get 'Leigh' to come out. So finally, after many retakes and a few more Miller Lites, he asked in his marvelously gruff way, 'Can’t I just call you Doll?'

"A decade of Alpha Female, career-driven professionalism melted immediately as I honestly admitted I couldn’t have been more flattered than to have him call me 'Doll.' Before we had finished producing the spots a week later, I had taken a dozen or so of my friends’ books out to him for autographs. In every one, he’d scribe 'To a real Doll…, Mickey Spillane.'

"Fourteen years later, Mickey's gone and I've moved on from hugging South Carolina's trees and beaches to hugging Charleston's historic buildings.

"Daddy warns me my public service, non-profit career path will never make me rich. Maybe not. But I do know that working with people like Mickey Spillane has brought a kind of richness to my life that I would never want to trade. They’ve made me aware of the wealth all around me here on the Carolina coast - in its nature and its people. So I'm going to miss Mickey, though not for his great writing and acting credits, nor even for his generosity with the Miller Lites. I'll miss him for reminding me what makes the Lowcountry special." 

Leigh (aka Doll) Handal

Director of Marketing & Public Programs
Historic Charleston Foundation