Sitting across the table from your celebrity crush is something most people only dream about. But for Evalyn Van Allen-Shalash, that fantasy turned into reality the night Robert Redford came over for dinner.
It was April 1976. The Hollywood star and environmental activist was invited to Iowa City as the guest of honor at the University of Iowa’s Refocus Festival. Dubbed the “largest student run film, photography and video society in the country,” Refocus brought in a number of industry icons for its 10-day spring festival, including directors and actors, Mr. Redford among them.
Redford was there to promote his brand new film, All the President’s Men, and to discuss other political issues of the day. Before he was scheduled to take the stage at Hancher Auditorium for the Midwest premiere of the Watergate-era espionage thriller, Redford had some down time. He also needed a reprieve from local fans around town. That’s when Refocus Festival Director Jerry Jackson, who was showing the actor around campus, turned to the Van Allens for help.
“Jerry was very close to my parents,” Evalyn recalled. “And he asked my mother, ‘Would you like to have a dinner party for our special guest for Refocus?’ And she’s the consummate hostess. There's nothing she liked better than a dinner party.”
Evalyn was a senior at the University of Iowa at the time and was involved with planning the festival. Her older brother, David, was previously the festival director and was still involved that year. As Evalyn recalled, her mother and father happily accepted the request to entertain the guest of honor, even though, in her words, “they didn't know who Robert Redford was.”
Dinner with ‘Bob’
When Redford knocked at the door of the Van Allens’ home, Evalyn told her sister to answer it. Since the whole affair was kept hush-hush so as not to draw a crowd, not even Evalyn’s sister Marti was in on the secret.
“You couldn't get her jaw off the floor,” Evalyn recalled with a laugh.
She remembered Redford coming in, sitting down in their living room and being offered a scotch or something like it. She said he opted for a beer “from the bottle” instead.
Evalyn recalled a moment in the conversation when her mother, who was not a frequent moviegoer, said to Redford, “I haven’t been to a movie since Gone with the Wind.” She said Redford replied graciously with, “It was a classic.”
“I was embarrassed,” Evalyn admitted about her mother’s remark.
Maurice, Evalyn’s father, was head of the University of Iowa’s department of neurology, and it was he and Redford who were talking most of the evening.
“My father is asking, ‘Well, what is it you do and where do you do it?’ and so forth and so on, trying to get a feel for this guest that we had,” she recounted.
Evalyn, on the other hand, remembered being absolutely starstruck.
“I was tongue-tied,” she said. “I couldn't believe that this guy was there, that he was talking freely and he was relaxed. He seemed to be enjoying himself and the dinner and the environment.”
Redford — who insisted that the Van Allens simply call him “Bob” — at one point remarked at the comfort of having a homemade supper.
“He said, ‘I have not had a homecooked meal in I don't know how long,’” Evalyn recalled. “He was such a gentleman, and my mother was very pleased. And we sat there, and I'm right across the table from him — I made sure of that.”
Evalyn said she did manage to say one thing to Bob that night at her parents’ house.
“My one question was, ‘So, what's Barbra Streisand really like?’” she remembered asking girlishly.
Redford's Refocus spotlight
Around 7 p.m. or so, they all headed over to Hancher Auditorium for the screening of All the President’s Men. Redford said his goodbyes, and the Van Allen family took their seats in the front row.
After the movie, Redford answered questions from the audience. Evalyn remembered it being a hit among the crowd.
“The film, of course, was very well received in Iowa City,” she said.
The next day, Redford led two back-to-back workshops at the Iowa Memorial Union in the Illinois Room, according to the festival schedule printed in the Daily Iowan.
Alan J. Pakula, the director of All the President’s Men, was also a special guest at the festival and led workshops that same weekend. Refocus featured a lineup of his movies, including Klute and The Parallax View, which fit the paranoid thriller theme that permeated the festival.
When Evalyn looks back on the 1976 Refocus and that unforgettable Friday night dinner with Redford, she admits it’s a story she never gets tired of telling.
“It was really a highlight in my life to be part of that,” she said.
The next year, the Van Allens hosted director Sydney Pollack during his Refocus visit. As for Evalyn’s parents, their brush with a Hollywood icon had ignited a newfound love for cinema.
“By then, they were film addicts,” Evalyn said, smiling.
