The Dracula Society was slowly being overshadowed by the more mainstream and potentially if not necessarily glamorous Academy.
In April, the Dracula Society held its Fifteenth Ann Radcliffe Awards Dinner at the (USC) University Hilton. Awards went to Jay Robinson for Cinema, Leonard Wolf for Literature, Gene Roddenberry for Television while Special Awards went to Jim Rumph, Radu Florescu and Don Johnson. Other awards went to Margaret L. Carter, Don Glut and several members of the Society. Don't know why, but I too received a rather poorly lettered award .
May the Force Be with the Money
Convention fandom was doing swimmingly, mostly from the onslaught of more mainstream fans who may not have known they were fans until Star Wars hit the screen during May of '77. In Hollywood proper, only Mann's Chinese played the movie and sported lines down the street and around the corner for weeks. Who would have known "Star Wars" would be such a success? Certainly not Mann's who booked William Friedkin's latest film after Exorcist: Sorcerer. "Sorcerer" was set for a June opening at the Chinese, but clearly, "Star Wars" was still in warp drive.
Mann's, in their wisdom, decided to refurbish their smaller venue down the boulevard, The Hollywood Theater and there "Star Wars" would remain for the immediate future while "Sorcerer" played to unenthused crowds at the Chinese.
It wouldn't be long before "Star Wars" returned to the Chinese, but the incident pissed off Fox to such an extent, it was well over a decade before The Chinese was allowed to play another Fox Film! There is a photo of "Star Wars" playing at the Hollywood Theater HERE.
Dan O'Neill
Trina Robbins
War of the Worlds Comes Home
I managed the Holly Cinema on Hollywood Blvd. earlier in the decade and it was fun to visit in September for the most auspicious occasion of celebrating the 25th Anniversary of War of the Worlds with a co-feature of When Worlds Collide In attendance was Producer George Pal, Anne Robinson, Les Tremayne plus Forry Ackerman, local rock DJ Charlie Tuna and a gaggle of others. I suppose, since Gene Barry wasn't there, George let slip this bon mot that "Gene was so conceited. . ." he would catch his reflection in the camera lens and quit acting to admire himself".
At last the fates smiled upon us and everything we've been working for so long was going to happen. The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films Award Ceremony would be appearing on television! Thanks to Oscar and multi-Emmy winning producer Arnold Shapiro the show was in the bag and under his skilled handling, would be a monumental success!
During rehearsal for award presentation, our "Trixie" award began shedding its silver covering. Arnold would have none of that and claiming the Trixie appeared as a "Big Silver Lump" wanted something that looked more prestigious on television. He showed up at the next meeting with what would become "The Saturn Award". He had designed and produced this award, almost over night.
Next, claiming he was "calling in a few favors", Arnold presented us with an unbelievable guest list:
To top if off, this year the ceremony was held at the historic Cocoanut Grove. So here we were, glammed to the 9s, though a sudden cloudburst ruined most of the women's hair.
Here's a few memorable moments:
After a glowing introduction from Charlton Heston, George Burns walked out saying "That's easy for you to say, but then, you only played Moses" and followed that with "Here's another commandment: Don't try to steal the show"
Stan Freberg and his alien puppet friend Orville, referring to Darth Vader as "The Leather Nazi", which was clipped for TV.
But probably the most lasting memory of the evening was William Shatner doing his infamous rendition of "Rocket Man" which you can see . <With a girlfriend and the Saturn Award
If Don Reed was known for anything, it was his over inflated opinion of himself and the Academy hitting television had really sent him over the edge. It was hard enough working with him in the past, but now was next to impossible. Don had declared everything should be named after himself. "Don Reed's Academy of. . . ", "The Don Reed Award" and so on. It really hit the fan with my Academy newsletter "Popcorn" meant to be a lot of little kernels of information about movies and the club. Don had a fit I wouldn't name it "Dr. Donald A. Reed's Newsletter" and never let me publish another.
Dracula - No Laughing Matter
A relatively quiet year with the 16th Dracula Society Banquet again at the University Hilton. Awards went to George Pal and Burgess Meredith for their contributions to Cinema, C.L. Moore for Literature, Frank Langella received the Horace Walpole Award, Edward Ansara received the Rev. Dr. Montague Summers Award with the Dr. Cunningham International Cinema Award going to Ray Harryhausen.
Don had acquired the talents of Bill Mills and Bob Short (Partners in Hilarity) for sporadic bursts of entertainment during the program. Alas, the skits were so embarrassing, humiliating with references so fannishly obscure, few in the audience even knew what was going on, earning them little but raspberries. One skit involved the cremated remains of Charlie Chaplin which had in fact recently been stolen and evidently appeared in a garbage bag in their possession. When ashes began spilling out of the bag into the banquet meals of the audience, the horrified audience booed them off the stage. Finally, Bob Short succumbed, taking the podium and giving a gracious if not thoroughly embarrassed apology.
Meanwhile. . .Mike Jittlov had been amazing fans with his imaginative film projects since Animoto in 1969 and The Wizard of Speed and Time in '79. He climbed through the television into everyone's home with a series of shorts for Disneyland.
<Photo by ?
Mike clearly mastered the art of creating amazing effects with a minimum of equipment and budget. During these years he must have wagged his film real from convention to convention and always left'em amazed!
Westercon 31
The Marriott Hotel, fanworn and tired was again host to a fan event, this time a Westercon. I was lucky enough to win Best Fantasy First and Second Place in the art show. There was also a lovely lucite trophy that went along with the certificates.
But there was a fatal blow to the Academy dealt by Don himself. Producer Arnold Shapiro came to the meeting and spoke those words I had been waiting years to hear. That he was overjoyed with the response to the Academy screenings and it was "Time to move to the next level". Which meant making the Academy a legit organization; all of Don's dead relatives should be removed from the Board of Directors, there would be a paid staff and real elections. It was music to my ears that over 20 years of hard work had finally paid off.
The concept of a legit election terrified Don and his response was "I'd rather be a big fish in a little pond" and that was that; instantly, everything crumbled. Shapiro washed his hands of the Academy and despite Don's best efforts, was never able to get an award show on television again.
I felt completely betrayed by Don's ego and our relationship was never the same.
But that didn't mean Don was out by any means. As long as he could retain an exalted position and call the shots, he was happy.
I was in Europe when the whole thing went down, but the Science Fiction Film Exposition sponsored by the Sci-Fi Academy was quite an event. 6 days of genre films culminating Halloween of 1979 and held at Tommy Cooper's Tiffany Theatre.
The committee boasted everyone from Rich Correll, to Joseph Jasgur, Eric Hoffman, Bill Warren to Brian Forbes and the amazing collection of films and presentations included the following:
trophy that went along with the certificates.