The first time I was face-to-face with Francis Ford Coppola, I played it pretty cool.

My friends and I had scored free tickets to a silent auction and dinner in Napa Valley’s favorite upscale town of St. Helena, but it wasn’t a fancy event. People milled around in the airy barn-like hall sipping wine. I mostly sat with my friends at a table, getting up now and then to check on the auction items I had bid on. It never occurred to me that Mr. Coppola might be in our midst.