One weekend afternoon, when I was 12 years old, I was watching a movie on TV with my dad. It was called "The Last Survivors". We did not see the beginning of the movie. It was about a ship that sunk and about 10 survivors were in a little boat floating in the ocean, hoping to be rescued. There was not much food or water, so the captain had to ration it out to the passengers every day. As the food and water supply got less the captain had to make choices, so not everyone would die. An injured girl was left to float in the ocean with a life jacket on. A boy's dog was not allowed to have any food or water. The boy then gave the dog a little of his share of food and water. The survivors had to deal with sharks and other obstacles before finally getting rescued. At the end of the movie, there was a trial. The trial was for the purpose of deciding whether the captain made the right choices during the days at sea. I loved the movie. I would like to find that movie and see it again. I thought the actor who played the boy was cute. He was Leif Garrett. My love of Leif began after seeing that movie.

From the age of 13 to age 21, I collected everything I could on Leif Garrett. I loved him, because he is a great actor and singer. I thought he was very cute too. I knew so much about Leif. I spent many hours working on decorating my room with Leif pictures and working on my Leif scrapbooks.




After I read my magazines, I would cut out all the stuff on Leif. I would hang the posters. I would put the pinups in a notebook inside plastic protectors. I would cut up the articles, the pictures and text, and glue them onto the pages of my scrapbooks. I would cut out every picture, paragraph, sentence on Leif. Even his name and put them in my scrapbooks. I used graph paper as the pages of the scrapbooks, so I could use the lines to keep everything straight. I made Leif things for his birthday and sent them to him. I wrote him letters. I included my name, address, telephone number and a picture of me. I was hoping I would get some kind of response. I did get an autographed picture of him! I was so happy!




I had 22 Leif buttons. I would wear one every day. I drew a picture of Leif and sent it to him. I drew another one and kept it so I could hang it on my wall.




My locker at school had Leif pictures in it. I had a lot of repeat posters, pinups, pictures and articles of Leif. I would use these to decorate my room.






I got the repeats from trading with a few other people who were fans of another star. I would give them stuff on their favorite and they would give me Leif stuff. I listened to his music all the time.

It was sad when Leif stopped being featured in the teen magazines. He stopped making music too. I then stopped working on my scrapbooks, took down my posters, stopped wearing a button and basically I grew up. However,I kept my huge collection and knew I would never part with it. Once in the 80s, my sister called me up and told me Leif was in a movie on TV. The movie was "Party Line". It was a thriller, where Leif played a killer. He looked so different! He grew up too! About 3 years ago, a friend of mine told me about other movies Leif has been in. I did not know about them, because they were B movies; movies that did not do well in the theater, if they even made it to the theater. Leif's career did not end like I thought it did! He has been making films all along. So I started finding a few of these movies at video stores and on Amazon.com. My collection is growing still.




I was surpised to find out all Leif has gone through after watching his "Behind the Music" on VH1. As a fan, I did not know about his desire to make rock music. I did not know that his friend was paralyzed after the car accident in 1978. The teen magazines did not reveal that information. I did not know Leif was into alcohol and drugs. Back in the 70s and 80s stars had more private lives. Their lives were not plastered all over the media, like they are today.

After seeing that show I had to write Leif a letter. I had to let him know how important he was to me. I thought it would be cool if he responded, but I was not expecting him to.










After the "Behind the Music" aired, there was a new interest in Leif. The auctions on the internet were loaded with Leif stuff. I took advantage of that and bought several things. My favorite is the autographed picture of Leif that I won. It is a photo of Leif as a teen, but he signed it in 1999.




Leif is making music again and it is rock n'roll. I'm happy for him. He has had a great career and is still doing acting and music, his two loves.

Written on July 27, 2000

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