"Shōgun" Author James Clavell In 1978 Party

Above, James Clavell at right in the background at Assemblyman Mike Antonovich's birthday party in Sacramento. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

While thumbing through some photo albums (I now have plenty of space where I have easy access to my older albums), I came across some photos I took in 1978 at the California State Capitol office of then-Assemblyman Michael D. Antonovich in Sacramento.

The occasion was a birthday party for Antonovich. One of the guests of the party was Shōgun author James Clavell.

From Wikipedia:

James Clavell (10 October 1921 – 6 September 1994), born Charles Edmund Dumaresq Clavell, was an Australian-born British (and later naturalized American) novelist, screenwriter, director, and World War II veteran and prisoner of war. Clavell is best known as a writer for his The Asian Saga series of novels and their televised adaptations. Clavell also authored screenplays, such as The Great Escape (1963) and To Sir, with Love (1967). Clavell wrote science fiction as well, including an episode of the early sci-fi TV series Men Into Space in 1959, titled "First Woman on the Moon", as well as the film script for the original (1958) version of the sci-fi/horror classic The Fly, starring Vincent Price.

I had met Clavell a few days before at a banquet for Assemblyman Paul Bannai.

The Shōgun television mini-series starring Richard Chamberlain was one of the top-rated television programs of all time. The show got a lot of people interested in Japanese culture and history.