The Little Older Lady That Knew All The BIG Stars.
Updated: Sep 17
For sale amongst the bric-a-brac, old wrinkled paperbacks, scratched vinyl, and once fashionable clothes of a Belgium thrift-shop was a most unusual photo album. Old photographs tend to appeal to a certain kind of customer–those with an interest in photography, or history, or artists looking for source material–but this particular photo album donated to Opnieuw & Co. would have surprised even those most jaded of shoppers.
Inside its plastic-bound cover was an incredible selection of photographs featuring an array of A-list film and TV stars. At a quick glance one might have mistaken the woman standing next to Bruce Willis or Johnny Depp as perhaps his mother. But then it becomes apparent this woman appears in every photograph with every one of these stars, who all seem more than happy to pose with her.
Who is she? Is she someone famous? Or, perhaps a behind-the-scenes technician–an acting coach, a speech therapist, or script supervisor. Or, maybe just maybe a stalker? Who knew?
On the album’s discovery, it seemed nobody knew. But a little detective work by eagle-eyed viewers noted this individual could be identified by her name tag in a photograph where she stands beside Medicine Woman Jane Seymour.
The woman was Maria Snoeys-Lagler, a former member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA). Snoeys-Lagler was one of the 90 members of the HFPA, who each have a role in choosing winners for the Golden Globes Awards.
Alas, Snoeys-Lagler died in 2016 at the age of 87, which possibly explains how this particular photo-album ended up in a thrift shop. Some incurious individual perhaps tossed it out thinking it perhaps full of boring pictures of Ms. Snoeys-Lagler on holiday or smiling cheerfully at office parties. Who knows? But since Maria Snoeys-Lagler has been identified, the kind people at Opnieuw & Co. have reached out to her daughter in California to offer the return of this once prized possession.
