Hello all. I am new to the board and new to the Festival scene. I've wanted to go for years but was holding out for JF to make his return before I made my first trek. Add the fact that I had never been to NYC and that made this a very special weekend.
I arrived on Thursday with the thoughts of seeing a Broadway show to kick off the weekend however, due to plane delays, I simply hung out in the hotel lobby for a while. I met several fans, including many "uber-fans" decked out in their onyx rings, silver canes, and gothic wardrobe. It was amazing to me that many people seemed to even know what under arm deodorant JF used in episode # 255. (Slight humor there, but the amount of DS trivia known was amazing.
I took the trip to Lynhurst on Friday morning. I was originally going to bypass this but since I had won the JF ebay auction for his personal HODS poster I decided to see where the movie was filmed. I met two great new friends while standing in the looooooooong line for the shuttle - Charles Ellis (who told me about this board... thanks Charles) and Suzanne Present. Charles served as a fantastic guide at Lynhurst, fortunately for me, because I would not have recognized too many places from the movies and TV show otherwise. The rooms seemed so much smaller in person than on the movie screen. I had a great time at the mansion and was very happy to meet two people who's company I enjoyed so much.
We returned to hotel on the first shuttle and immediately got in line for registration, very thankfully. We were about 40 people back from the front and, as I understand, the line eventually extended all the way through the lobby and into the pool area. We waited for about 1.5 hours for registration to open and I got KLS, LP and MW autographs. I also purchased the audio version of Angelique's Descent, which I am listening to during my trip right now to Denver for a business related conference. My goodness, what fountain of youth is KLS drinking out of anyway? She is as beautiful now as she was on the show... and that smile and personality was all I could have hoped for. LP was nice but someone had just spilled water down her jeans right before I was in front of her for her signature so her mood was not at its peak right then. (Not that I hold that against her... I don't care for wet pants either
) And if LP is really turning 70 yoa this year as someone had said, she looks unbelievably beautiful as well.
After going through the line Charles and I camped out by the doors of the ballroom waiting to be let in. After several minutes I turned just in time to see JF exiting the ballroom and enjoyed the look on his face at the standing ovation we gave him as he walked by. He made the comment that he hoped we would still be clapping after his performance on Saturday. He really seemed touched at the reception and being a part of that was worth the trip. I knew JF had experienced back problems from a fall in January and was so glad to see how well he was getting around. A fall for an 80+ year old can cause serious health issues so I'm glad he bounced back quickly.
Charles has this whole convention thing figured out so we ended up in the front row right in front of the podium... great seats for the night's festivities. I really enjoyed the talks by the three ladies and Marie Wallace certainly is a character. She must have been a ton of fun on the set. I wanted to stay for the two movies but the chairs were simply not made to sit in for THAT long so I called it a night after "Writing and Producing Shadows." (I do have one bone to pick with one of the two featured in the Writing and Producing Shadows. The first interview - and I cannot remember which person that was - said that the way Barnabas was written, anyone could have succeeded in that role. I beg to differ...)
I got up really early Saturday, ate breakfast and got back in line... once again about 30-40 people back... where Charles joined me. We once again got seats front row in front of the podium (actually it was the third row but the first not taped off for JF's party.) During the first talk we were out getting Betsy Durkin's autograph. Betsy was amazingly nice to everyone and I really enjoyed getting to meet her. We went back in and, I believe, the fan videos were next. I found most of them quite funny and well done. One seemed way too intense and way too serious but perhaps that was just me.
JF hit the stage for the first time around 1pm to thunderous applause. (The room was standing room only by this time and all I can say is that it is a good thing the fire marshall didn't stop by right then.) He hobbled in on his wolf's head cane only to go into a little dance and cane twirl once on stage... very impressive and funny entrance. I enjoyed listening to JF's memories on the scenes he brought and always get a kick hearing how bad JF thought he was in the beginning of the show. He was very charming and funny talking about the scenes. I especially enjoyed when JF was praising Thayer David's work and called him the essence of the show.
The auction started off pretty slow, until Dan Curtis' little black book went up for bids. What actually made that so funny was the blonde lady on the front row who jumped up and made this big production about how she "wanted this one" and that no one else was to bid on it. Dumb move. The black book went for $1100.00 to the guy/golden girl bidding against the blonde. Boy I wish I had money to burn on foolishness like that.
Jonathan returned for his Reader's Theatre performance to another standing ovation. This was what I truly came to see and it was all I had hoped. JF has such a wonderful stage presence and is such a great story teller. He is the type of story teller I would love to listen to just sitting around a campfire. I hope he has other performances he will be releasing on DVD to go along with his great "Fridiculousness" DVD on sale at the festival. That genre suits him so well.
The Q&A was what I had expected. Questions about Johnny Depp - who JF admitted he doesn;t even know who that is. A side note here - don't get your hopes up too much for Depp actually making the Dark Shadows remake. Yes he bought the rights but the rights to literally thousands of stories are bought all the time that NEVER make it out of pre-production. I have a sneaking feeling that this will never even get to the script stage. I hope I'm wrong but really don't think I am. It certainly won't be fast tracked for the hoped for 2009 or 2010 release. Anyway, other than Depp and the Uma-Oprah question from Charles, I think all other comments were statements and not questions to Frid. I was glad to hear JF say how much he is enjoying his life in retirement and how, when asked about taking part in the DS audio dramas, that there comes a time when you should leave well enough alone... very much agreed.
The skit was, at best, cute. Seeing the "Depp in Barnabas outfit" portrait was definitely the highlight here. nuff said.
The banquet was amazing. JF worked his tail off signing pictures and his stamina with all the events, especially for his age, was very impressive. I was glad that he signed my table before his energy gave out and glad that I actually got the opportunity to exchange a few words with him. The video tribute was well done and all the comments from the other stars about JF were both funny and touching.
I am glad that JF enjoyed his special weekend as much as I enjoyed being there. Hopefully health and desire will come together again one day and JF will decide to attend another festival. If so, count me in. (Not to say I won't go to another without JF attending... but just about everyone else would need to be there, especially John Karlen.)
If not, at least I got to be a part of this special weekend and got to, in my own small way, say thank you to several performers who have given me hours upon hours of great entertainment and great memories.
Looking forward to joing the conversations here on the DS boards.
Paul
