No LaserDisc Player, But....

So I bought on eBay my first, and probably only, laserdisc, even though I have no laserdisc player and don't intend to get one. Why? Well, the price was very good (only $4) and the photos, particularly the front one, were impressive. And the cover was autographed by actress Nancy Kwan. It was a great "deal" which I didn't pass up.

Laserdiscs were a big format years ago. The players were costly, but the resolution was impressive. Like long-playing records, which the disc resemble, one had to turn the disc in the middle of the play, as the continuation was one the other side. Because of cost and the need to play both sides, the format lost out, replaced by the growing phenomenon of a DVD and now by Blu-Ray. So laserdiscs were not very useful and generally discarded later, unless one was a collector.

The disc I bought was THE WORLD OF SUZIE WONG and the front cover had a photo around an important scene in the end, and the back had three smaller scenes from the film, of which one is shown here.

 The front of the laserdisc.

 One of the photos on the back.

But the autograph! Of course, there was Nancy Kwan's signature, but the "Jeff" was famous--in the San Francisco area. As the seller later informed me, the disc was acquired in an estate sale, and the "Jeff" was the Public Defender of San Francisco, Jeff Adachi, an important post in the government. He had a large laserdisc collection, of which SUZIE WONG was one.

Estate sale? As I quickly found out, Adachi died on February 22, 2019 from a drug overdose. The autopsy revealed that cocaine and alcohol were found in his bloodstream, as well as traces of barbiturates. His heart was already damaged. His death was big news understandably in that area. Here, in the East Coast, where I live, nothing much was heard. 

It saddens me to learn what this autograph means and who held the disc and probably played it. But sadness is not new, both in life and in cinema. One takes the sadness, but one has to move on, regardless.