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.