A NOTE FROM STEVE MCQUEEN by Tony Piazza

I discovered a small treasure amongst my parent's papers. When they had both died, we gathered them up and packed them away for our move to the Central Coast. It wasn't until some months later that I got a chance to go through them, and this is one of the gems that I found. It was a note from STEVE MCQUEEN after the location 'wrap' of the movie, "Bullitt." Many stories back in the 60's indicated that Mr. McQueen was a rebel and difficult to work with. Knowing the man as I did, I very much suspect that these rumors may have been created by his own PR people…remember rebels were very popular in the 60's…or, else he mellowed by the time I met him. As I mentioned elsewhere, he always made time to visit with me when I came down to the set, and took an interest in what I had to say, and what I was up to. I was into drawing at the time, and he even invited me down to do sketches on the set. Doesn't seem like a rebel to me! However, I think this note is further proof of his humble nature, and great thoughtfulness as a human being. That is why I share it with you today.

This note accompanied a beautiful wicker picnic basket purchased at Abercrombie & Fitch. It was a gift to my father for his hard work on the production. As I mentioned my father's biggest headache was the chase in the film. He had many sleepless nights during the time that they were shooting it. He was responsible from the city's perspective, and with cars racing through SF residential districts at 100 miles per hour (at times), you can imagine what a heavy burden he had to bare! It went fine…and that chase is part of cinema history.

Tony Piazza is author of the 1930's Hollywood murder mystery novel; "Anything Short of Murder," which had its roots on the TCM fan website. His next novel is due out early 2012. He was an actor/extra during the 1970's and worked with such legends as Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, and Karl Malden.