The convention featured slide shows, panels, a costume parade and of course, their special guests. They gave me my own dealers table and Krystina and I were booted from the lobby for public snogging. All in all, it was a jolly event.
Down in the Bierkeller, Jenny Elson teaches Joe and I authentic native dance
With the fetching Janet
and Krystina
Jim Mathenia, ?, Me, Bill, Jerry
Bill Barradell
We met Bill Barradell, a local film fan who invited us to his home for the evening. He and his wife Clare were lovely hosts who treated us like kings and Bill and I corresponded for several years afterwards. Sadly both he and Clare died in 2007.
Back in London we caught a couple good breaks. A local film club was having a screening of a long lost Boris Karloff flick The Ghoul, recently found in a garage in Czechoslovakia. It was in English with Russian subtitles on top, Czech on the bottom.
Century 21 was known for shows like Thunderbirds, Supercar, UFO and others. Plus they had an enormous publishing concern with tabloid periodicals based on many of their TV shows, including Star Trek.
When the company closed, they were saddled with thousands of original full color, hand painted tabloid size comic pages and nowhere to put them. Their solution was the same as Hitler's: "Burn everything". Fortunately, we found the guy responsible for chucking everything into the furnace who (thoughtful fellow) grabbed several armloads of panels for himself.
Back on the train and up to the guy's abode where we were allowed to plow through his pile of contraband and select anything we wanted (for a price). Joe and I wound up with a dozen glorious Frank Bellamy pieces. We were smiling all the way back to the hotel. Bellamy died a year later, probably after hearing what happened to all of his stuff.
Gayna wanted a full-skirt coat, so a quick stop at Harrodsallowed me to return home with something for everyone and no matter where you go, it's always good to come home.
COMIC-CON PROSPERS
The second year found the convention roosting in dorms at the University of California, San Diego. I had been in contact with co-founder Richard Alf and brought an armload of movies to screen at the con: King Kong, Things to Come, episodes of, Way, Out and other gems. I brought my girlfriend Gail and thought we'd do a low-rent campout with sleeping bags in one of the dorm stairwells. . . until we got busted at 4 in the morning and forced, blurry-eyed to get a dorm room (sheesh!).
One of the guests was Kirk Alyn whom I met when Gail did an interview with him for her college newspaper and we became fast friends. When Kirk published his Super-Bio: "A Job for Superman", I had two copies of the book hardbound; one for Kirk and one for myself. Alas, Kirk's was immediately stolen and is out there somewhere.
Meanwhile, by 1975, Comic Con had their tents pitched at the venerable El Cortez Hotel for 3 years. And indeed, the ELC became the ideal location with their expansive dealers area, glass elevator, oddly yellow swimming pool christened "The Pee Pool" and easy access to your rooms for a quick doobie supplied by someone who just nipped over the border and brought back a bag of TJ's finest.
But the world was watching and eager to join the parade.
MARS CONQUERS THE BACK YARD
Halloween rolls around and as usual, the Great Pumpkin rises from the most "sincere" pumpkin patch, takes a gander at the residence of Bob and Kathy Burns, gets the crap scared out of it and flies off! Once again, Bob and Kathy, plus their band of over-the-top creative geniuses continue their streak of spreading terror to a "BOO!" hungry world. This year was no difference, but the tale being War of the Worlds! Check out the L.A. Times pic .
They planned the look of the alien based on original published artwork and the ship on the whim of Mike Minor. Tom Scherman, a master of fabricating anything, created several heads from foam rubber on a framework of foamcore. Invitation of the Halloween Party .
A Close Encounter
Charlie Dugdale
I am toast
The annual symphony of general construction echoed throughout the neighborhood hailing the arrival of All Hallow's Eve and the next Bob Burn's Halloween Extravaganza!
<Pics by ?
Charlie Dugdale again partook the role of radio announcer and I was one of the State Troopers stumbling across the alien invader to be summarily dispatched. You can watch the entire show HERE.
This was also the year most of the Bob Burns crew put in time at the "Magic Mountain Parade of Monsters". Glad I did it; equally glad I only did it once. My job, for the next umpteen hours was enduring a strobe filled room inside a walk-through attraction called "The Magic Pagoda" where I would wear the Martian head and run after people, flashing the eyes off and on. Yeh, pretty lame, but I've never had my ass grabbed so many times before (or since)! Wanda Kendall got the shitty stick. She was playing a werebabe chasing the train when some guy flicked his cigarette just happening to land in the eye-hole of her werewolf mask! Needless to say, she bailed on that job, tending her singed lashes.
Charlie presents the entire cast and crew
Pic by ?
THINGS LEFT OVER FROM 1975 WITH NOWHERE TO GO
So here's a few items I just didn't know what to do with or remember what they were about, so this is as good a place as any to put them,
Hmmm, a NASFIC membership card. If you saw me there, was I having a good time?
Thanks to all our adventures, I was able to publish a 12 page movie poster catalogue that went to 100 collectors around the country. Yeh, done on one of them new fangled copying devices. Tom Scherman donated a Nautilus sketch as he was selling one of his hand-built models. You can see the sketch .
Now, I may be completely delusional on this next item, but it seems at one time, David Gerrold had a business called Lincoln Enterprises that sold Trek related items. Somehow I wound up with a personalized "Flight Deck Officer" certificate .
My 12 page poster catalogue
Dr. Donald A Reed speaking about "Horror Films Today" at the USC campus radio station.
