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Speaking of Takei, I remember seeing him at a Phoenix convention in the early 70s, and at the panel discussion someone asked him to sum up William Shatner in one word. Without hesitation he replied "Rich!"' and then added "when haven't you seen him on TV or in movies?"

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Speaking of George Takei, here's a shot from the 70's...

 

earlyconphotos-43.jpg

 

And here are a couple of miscellaneous images that I have easy access to while traveling (uploaded awhile back and don't believe posted here before)...

 

Artwork by yours truly (1992), used for convention program cover.

 

img_DragonProgCover1_125.jpg

 

This is me (right) and my assistant auctioneer Mitch Bentley (circa 1990's)...

 

Catmitch.jpg

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We never could afford Shatner or Nimoy or Kelley. But we had all the rest... George Takei, Walter Koenig, Nichelle NIchols, Grace Lee Whitney and James Doohan. And we also had hangers-on and fellow travelers like David Gerrold and Mark Lenard... I'm sure there were others that I can't recall right now.

 

I particularly remember James Doohan. In one of his talks, somebody asked him if it was true Scotty wouldn't drink anymore. And Doohan said, patting his coat pocket for effect, "I have a letter right here from Gene Roddenberry that says Scotty can drink whenever he damn well feels like it!" The audience applauded mightily.

 

After the convention, I drove Doohan to the airport. He obviously didn't want to talk about Star Trek, so it was kind of awkward at first. Then when I told him my dad was a motorhome dealer, he was very talkative the rest of the way. He kept asking me how you fixed this or that on a Winnebago... I thought it very ironic that one of the most famous 'engineers' in TV history hadn't a clue how to work on his own motorhome!

 

One of my favorite memories.

 

I remember seeing Doohan at a convention in Houston I think. He sat on a table top and chatted with everyone. I think it was before the second movie which he liked a lot compared to the first one.

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:bump: :bump: :bump: :bump: :bump:

 

 

hm I figured that it was time to bump this back up to page 1 as there hasn't been much FANDOM discussion recently (I guess folks are still recovering from the summer shows and too bushed to reminisce).

 

:preach: Let's get the old timers out of their rocking chairs and rockin' this site! :headbang:

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DM

 

I've been meaning to ask you if you remember a bookstore called Lutes in South OKC? We used to drive across town to it - they had wooden square bookcases lined from floor to ceiling if I remember correctly with scads of old comics. Not always the best condition but tons of stuff. A few higher end books were kept in a glass showcase up front.

 

 

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hm Vaguely; I seem to recall checking Lutes out a couple of times back in the 70's while visiting friends in OKC, even though I rarely got up there outside of OAF meetings and the occasional Multicon, Springcon and Wintercon.

 

At the time I was a typically poor college student who resided about 60 miles SW of OKC in a modest liberal arts college community nestled in the traditionally conservative town of Chickasha. Note: My understanding of town folklore is that the Founders misspelled the tribal attribution Chickasaw when the name was submitted to the state capitol for registration and nobody ever bothered to change it. doh!

 

On the occasions that I got out of Chickasha my favorite regional comic and book stores were the Norman, Oklahoma based Down Memory Lane, run by Bart Bush & (for a time) Don Maris, and another book/comic shop that was on Campus Corner at OU, run by Mike "Mad-dog" Madden (I want to say that one was Madden's Books, but that may not be right).

 

Do you recall either of those?

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Definitely Down Memory Lane - great store. I think of it every Time I drive by where it was in OKC. And visited the Norman stores when I was attending college at OU in mod-80s. I don't remember Mad-Dog though. Bart still has Atomik Pop bookstore in Norman I think.

 

I'll be at OAF this year.

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Definitely Down Memory Lane - great store. I think of it every Time I drive by where it was in OKC. And visited the Norman stores when I was attending college at OU in mod-80s. I don't remember Mad-Dog though. Bart still has Atomik Pop bookstore in Norman I think.

 

I'll be at OAF this year.

 

Bart is in the process of closing his comic shop after 40 years and nearly as many store names... :grin: ; he's co-chairing the upcoming OAF ComicCon, BTW.

 

I'll be there too, with two tables reserved; probably sharing one table with Mr Bedrock (who has some of the coolest GA paper around, as y'all know). (thumbs u

 

Here is a link to the OAF Oklahoma Comic Con:

 

http://www.conventionscene.com/2011/06/27/oklahoma-comic-con-november-2011/

Edited by DavidMerryweather
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Great - looking forward to meeting you. Weirdpaper (Roger) will be there too. Same weekend as WW Austin - cool that Richard is coming to OKC.

 

I'm glad, too, to hear Bedrock will be there. I guess I had just assumed he would be at WW. I will be there with two tables, bringing my local show stock and breaking out most of my own collection for sale (minus the half box of keepers with my Fighting Americans and Terry Toons 7 -- sorry, Richard).
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This really needs a :bump:

 

Here are some photos I took at the recent Oklahoma comic-con (including members of the Oklahoma Alliance of Fans, a first fandom collecting club dating back to the 1960's; apologies in advance for those whose names were inadvertently overlooked)...

 

(right/left) David Smith, Roger Hill and Roger's wife Teri...

 

IMG_0056.jpg

 

(left/right) Michelle Nolan, Bud Plant...

 

IMG_0052.jpg

 

Steve Fears...

 

IMG_0051.jpg

 

(left/right) Robert A. Brown, Bruce Schultz

 

IMG_0050.jpg

 

Don Maris...

 

IMG_0048-2.jpg

 

My friends and fellow boardies from Weird Paper (Roger and co.)...

 

IMG_0045.jpg

 

IMG_0043.jpg

 

Long time friend and a real buddy, Buddy Saunders of Lone Star Comics fame...

 

IMG_0040.jpg

 

Miscellaneous mayhem (busy dealers)...

 

IMG_0039.jpg

 

...and finally, a link to the OAF Blogspot with many more pics (even my image was unavoidably snapped a couple of times, once while imbibing a beverage and on another occasion visiting with Kent Cordrey, a friend from my Norman SF Association days)...

 

http://www.oafcon2012.blogspot.com/

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So I stumbled across a few of my MonCon '78 pictures (or was it '77?); I have more but they're in another box somewhere. Locale was West Virginia, guests were Harlan Ellison and Stan Lee.

 

Stan gave what I assume was his standard address at the time, a variation on The Origins of Marvel Comics followed by an audience Q&A session. At the moment, the two things that stand out in my memory are watching a 16mm print of the Outer Limits episode "The Chameleon," and Stan dissing "Prez" to a bunch of Marvel zombies. lol

 

StanLee_HarlanEllison.jpg

 

StanLee.jpg

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Time for another... :bump:

 

Earl Blair posted this YouTube video to members of the Serial Squadron which captures early Texas FANDOM in all of it's glory (sorry, I tried to embed this with no luck, but here's the link):

 

 

 

Earl's reflections (his YouTube notes) are posted below:

 

 

In the 1960s and 70s, Houston, Texas was a hotbed of fandom activity. Spearheaded by Marc Schooley and Roy Bonario, local fans formed the Houston Comic Collectors' Association in the summer of 1966. The first Houstoncon was held the following year and soon grew into a five day extravaganza attended by fans the world over. Houstoncons offereed a wide variety of programming and events dfirected to such diverse interests as Star Trek, classic films, comic books, westerns and movie posters. The guest list for fabulous fandom gatherings also exemplified the all-inclusive them of the event. Guests appearing at Houstoncon included Roy Rogers, Johnny Weissmuller, James Doohan, Jock Mahoney, Al Williamson, George Takei, Walter Koenig. C.C. Beck, Grace Lee Whitney, Forrest J. Ackerman, Don "Red" Barry, Frank Brunner and dozens more...even local Houston TV icon from the 1950s, Kitirik was a guest!

 

Emphasis at the events was also placed on the motion pictures serials of the 1930s, 40s and 50s. The complete screenings of Columbia's Batman serials -- billed as "An Evening with Batman and Robin" -- fueled the "camp craze" of the 1960s and led to the BATMAN television series starring Adam West and Burt Ward. Screenings of serials -- many shown publicly for the first time in their entirety -- played to capacity audiences at Houstoncon. The guest list also complimented the screenings with serial favorites David Sharpe, Kirk Alyn, Frank Coghlan Jr., Henry Brandon, Tom Steele, William Benedict and director William Witney on hand to meet fans of the genre.

 

The last motion picture was released in 1955, though prints were available for theatrical bookings through the 1960s. So avid were we Houston fans about serials, that if Hollywood would't make any more serials, we'd make our own.

 

Armed with a black and white Super 8mm camera and however many rolls of film we could afford, we spent several weekends and evenings over two years shooting our homage to the motion serials. In those distant days, the technology available to amateur filmmakers was limited to basically a viewer and a guillotine splicer.

 

Cast members for this segment were Glenn Kessler (noted comic collector/authority and, later, owner of Happy Trails Bookstore), Roy Bonario (owner of Houston's first comic shop, Roy's Memory Shop), Ken Donnell (comic collector par excellance and for years owner of Houston's Northside Book Emporium), Walter Irwin (syndicated columnist and co-author of over a dozen TREK paperbacks), Ken Finnerty (long-time fan and collector who actually broke his collarbone during filming), local fan Bob Mitchell, friend and Jack Huff (friend and fellow drama student at the University of Houston) and yours truly, Earl Blair, wearing the tights. None of us were professional stuntmen and no one was paid for the hours and hours they participated in this effort. We did it because we loved motion pictures serials...and, perhaps, we missed those Saturdays of not too long ago more than would like to admit.

 

This clip is one of six segments we shot and edited. The film -- scripted as a four chapter serial -- was never completed. The spliced Super 8mm print was transferred to 3/4" video in the late 1970s and a rough musical track -- by permission for this non-profit project -- added from cassettes of old serial music from Ivy Films. I've often given thought of reediting the original footage, adding sound effects and dialogue, now that the technology to do so is readily available. Perhaps someday, I will. But now you can see the winner of the Best Amateur Film Award at Multicon '70 in Oklahoma City -- pretty much as we shot it forty years ago.....

 

 

 

Having been active in fandom when this was produced it's great reliving this old super 8 footage of First Fandom achieving immortality. (worship)

 

I remember seeing a live reenactment of part of this stunt fight between Roy Banario and Glen Kessler at a Texas convention in 1972 or '73 (either a D-Con or The American Nostalgia Convention, both were held in Dallas a year apart).

 

This is Part I, Part II continues on from there at the YouTube sidebar. Geek-on, dudes! :banana:

Edited by DavidMerryweather
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Cool stuff. Thanks for posting that. Just saw Glen last week (he's the bad guy in plaid fighting Cap through most of that segment). He just turned 70 but I think he could still do all the stunts. He has a mock up of the Galveston Daily hanging in his living room done with news of Cap saving the day and all the cast in fake headlines. It is dated February 1972. They were originally planning on using it as a prop in the movie, but never did.

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Roy whacking someone in the bean with a stick ?? .....naw.

Glenn ??? HEELLLL YEAH ! lol

 

And I asked Ricky if he had seen this just 6 months ago !!

Edited by towards2112
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