I have loved old movies and movies in general my entire life.  It started when I was still in school at Charjean Elementary and I discovered WREC Channel 3 in Memphis, Tennessee had a program called “The Early Movie” and it was filled with all of those old fantastic black and white movies from the thirties and forties. No one but TCM shows these kind of movies today.

My favorites, of course, were the mysteries of Charlie Chan, Sherlock Holmes, The Thin Man, Mr. Moto and Nancy Drew, among others, but I watched and loved all types of these movies from dramas, to comedies, detectives, adventures and  horror.  I always said when I grew up that I would have a library full of these old movies and especially the complete libraries of Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, and all 44 of the Charlie Chan movies. I kept my promise to myself. I have them all and so many more.  Now with Internet streaming, it almost seems unnecessary but I’m from a generation that had to depend on the whims of network executives or TV station programmers to get my favorite movies. So you see that owning these favorites is my personal back up if any of these streaming stations go out of business or they decide to go to some other type of entertainment.  I also have loved a multitude of television shows over the years because I grew up in the era of the birth of television.  I was born in 1956 so I

have seen such shows as the Milton Berle Show, the Jack Benny Show, the Bob Hope Show, the Colgate Comedy Hour with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis all the way up to things like today’s BBC’s “Sherlock”.  I have loved these shows and the stars that made them as long as I can remember.  It was only natural that my wife and I started going to movie and TV conventions.  I have been to more of them than I can remember and collected more autographs than will fit on my study walls. I have several prized possessions, among them, my Bonita Granville autographs with her picture, my Bonita Granville and Frankie Thomas autographs and picture from the movie The Angels Wash Their Faces. There are also my Key Luke and Roland Winters autographs, and my two autographs from Annette Funicello and Roberta Shore. Even though there are many more that I love, those are my favorites because they are the stars whose movies I love the most.  I have seen others such as Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce but have never been able to spend the kind of money

that it would take to own them.  I also have Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Lillian Gish’s autographs. They started in the silent era around 1912 and worked in Hollywood up until the late 80’s.  My wife and I have been all over the South and some northern states and California to all kinds of conventions to collect these autographs and souvenirs.  We also have gone to various Disneyana Conventions in hopes of snagging some elusive autographs. 

I remember one convention in particular. It was a “Quantum Leap” Convention and my wife was crazy about Scott Bakula’s TV show about a scientist that was leaping in time. It also co-starred Dean Stockwell.  This particular convention was

in Indianapolis, Indiana and they had several guest stars appearing.  I didn’t think that it was going to appeal to me very much even though I like Quantum Leap. I didn’t really know any of the guest stars and I was sure that the merchandise would be limited because it was only about one TV show.  They had finished with the first part of the convention and were showing some videos and one of those was “Halloween The Happy Haunting of America” by Daniel Roebuck. I couldn’t say if I was familiar with Dan’s work at that time but I became familiar with it, but I will tell you that piece of the story later.  I sat down and started watching the video presentation of “Halloween The Happy Haunting of America”. I was the

only one in the theater watching it and enjoying it thoroughly. I was about ¼ way into it when a lady came in and asked me if I’d mind much if they turned it off because no one seemed to be interested in it.  I agreed under protest but it was the best thing about that convention for me. I also think I was the only man there other than the guest stars. Later on, they were signing autographs and I met John D’ Aquino and the star and producer of “Halloween The Happy Haunting of America”, Daniel Roebuck. I asked him about the video tape and could I purchase a copy. He replied that it was available online and I did purchase it.  Dan seemed to be fascinated with my hat. He asked me if he could see it and I agreed and handed him the hat. He asked me where I had gotten all of these pins.  I told him I had gotten them all over the

United States and that I was always on the lookout for Disney related hat pins.  We kept on talking about both our love for all things Disney and I told him that I was going to a upcoming Disneyana convention at Walt Disney World at the Contemporary Resort Hotel and Convention Center and I gave him the dates and we left saying that we might see each other there. Believe it or not, as fate would

have it, we did. We were walking back towards the Crystal Palace in the Magic Kingdom and low and behold, there was Dan and his family. We had not pre-arranged this meeting. I have called Dan and lifelong friend ever since. 

I have also met two people that co-starred in Charlie Chan movies at other movie memorabilia conventions. We met Kay Linaker and Mark Lawrence, both of whom appeared in several Charlie Chan movies.  Kay Linaker, besides her appearances in Charlie Chan and other well known earlier movies, was also the author of 1958’s “The Blob”, yes, the one that most of you saw on Fantastic Features with Sivad, she wrote it. I want to tell you about one more meeting. It was a star who played with my favorite actress in my favorite movie detective series “Nancy Drew”. He played Nancy’s boyfriend Ted in the movies and he also

played with a group of kids along with Bonita Granville (Nancy Drew) that were known as the “Eastside Kids” AKA the “Bowery Boys” AKA the “Dead End Kids” that were one of my favorites as well.  Frankie Thomas, who was “Tom Corbett - Space Cadet” on the early television series and also starred, while still a teenager, in the 1930’s Nancy Drew movies, was my first contact with anyone that had actually known my favorite actress of all time, Bonita Granville.

We met many other old time movie stars at various conventions around the country, including Ann Rutherford, Tommy Kirk, Haley Mills, Stella Stevens, Will Hutchens, Lash Larue, Buffalo Bob and Howdy Doody (yes, the real live puppet),

Irish McCalla, Alan Young, Harry Carey, Jr., Noel Neill, William Smith, Ann Robinson, Johnny Crawford, Dickie Jones, Sarah Karloff (Boris’s daughter), Debbie Reynolds, Tim Considine and David Stollery, Ann Lockhart, Dirk Benedict,  Richard Hatch, Walter Koenig, William Shallert, Bernie Kopell, Julie Parrish, Yvonne Craig, Dawn Wells, Ronnie Shell, Scott Bakula, Ruth Buzzie, Barbara Luna, Dennis Cole, Kim Darby, Billy Mumy, John Rhys Davies, Elvira (Cassandra), Olivia Hussey, Hugh O’Brien, Joseph Campanella, Jon Provost, Dick Durock, David Carradine, Dean Stockwell, Adam West, Kathy Garver, just to name a few. We’ve lost tract, quite honestly. If you will look these names up online, you will recognize them for their roles in so many different movies or TV shows.

There were probably three other people that I met that meant as much to me as anyone else. One was Roberta Shore who played Annette Funicello’s arch rival in the Mickey Mouse Club serial “Annette”.  Unlike her character on the show, she was one of the sweetest people we’ve ever met. I was also privileged to be able

to meet Haley Mills, my favorite Disney live action star. Meeting her was such a thrill that I brought her a dozen pink roses. She was extremely nice and gave us on extra signed autographed picture. How sweet of her to do that.  It was a huge thrill to meet them all. 

We also have gone to several Star Trek conventions and have collected numerous autographs of the stars from Star Trek, Enterprise, and Star Trek The Next Generation.  A lot of the older movie conventions are no longer being held because, unfortunately, a lot of the old stars are no longer here, not to mention that some of the people that were putting the conventions on are no longer here.  I’m afraid that these conventions are about to end. Most of the people my and younger are no longer interested these types of conventions.  The people that were going to conventions are a few years older than I am.  I can remember rummaging through old lobby cards looking for that prized possession and talking to the other guys that were doing the same as I was and most of them had to be about 10 years or more

older than me. They were good people and we all had a lot in common. Sometimes we would sit and talk about the old movies for hours.  We would also want to talk to the stars that we had come to see for hours but their time was limited and that was not always possible. I remember speaking to Ann Rutherford and she told me that she was the maid of honor at the Bonita Granville’s wedding and was friends with her up until her death in 1988. As I was trying to talk to her about Bonita, a vendor came up to her and was trying to get her to sign a bunch of autographs so he could sell them, so I gracefully left to allow her to do her business and never got the chance to hear any of her recollections of Bonita which saddens me greatly.  The stars were so grateful and so generous with their time. I remember Roberta Shore introduced us to her husband, like we were long lost friends that had just been reunited. I couldn’t believe it and she was probably the sweetest and nicest lady we met up to that time. All of these wonderful stars that once shined so brightly in Hollywood will

eventually be dimmed as so many others of their craft have left us far too soon . I haven’t been to a movie convention since last year in Tunica, MS, that Tim Considine and David Stollery from Mickey Mouse Clubs serial “Spin and Marty” were at. I keep looking to see if any of the conventions I love are still being held. Hopefully, that will not be the last one that I will be able to attend. I enjoyed the company of other people that loved the movies of an earlier time as I do. I believe that today’s stars “ain’t got nothin” on the movie stars of days gone by. They had faces.