Festival

[Miss_Winthrop]

(Thanks for your help Midnite  )

I arrived at the hotel on Thurs. afternoon and hooked up with my roommate. We went over to the Fulton St. Mall - OMG! Talk about an experience. There was everything from PIMP wear to cheezy bric-a-brac and a lot of things in between! It was fun and we had quite a few laughs.

Fri. went on the boat trip along with approx. 275 other DS fans (we had our own boat) and the tour guide, Mike(?) was the best! Learned a lot of the history of this great city.

I loved the music videos and would have bought them if I had known that they were available.  I got my Karlen fix with the Karlenzine IV book and 1970 PT Concordance and lots of other reading materials. I planned on spending and by gawd I did!

So excited to learn that this is not the last fest by any means. Marcy Robbins(sp) told us that Summer 2004 will be a 2 day event and they are kicking around ideas as to what format it will be and the greatest news of all: Summer 2005 they're going back to the 3 day event!!!

Now for the best part. The radio skit was the highlight of the fest for myself and for what seemed like several thousand others. I heard the attendance numbers were in the range of 2500 to 3000. OMG it was huge and I think everyone attended the radio skit. At the end we were introduced to Jamison Selby (David's son) who wrote the play.  Nancy Barrett is a remarkable actress and if they ever do a remake for TV or a movie, Please-Please let Nancy head up Collinwood. I was impressed with the performance of Roger Davis who usually gets a bad rap from everyone on the board.  All of the actors were very good with some of them being superlative. As someone said earlier the DVD/VHS would be made available. Someone told me Mon. a.m. that the cast had stayed over to record the play.  The play definitely left some loose ends for another play to be written.

I don't know if he does autographs or not but Roger Davis walks through the rooms waving and saying 'hi' to everyone and making the fans feel special.  He does add a definite 'spark' to the festivities. Karlen also makes himself available for pictures. He's definitely very popular with the fans.

Rumors were flying around that 3 hotels ended up being booked and sold out.  And that they were not prepared for the human onslaught of fans showing up. At one point they asked the audience how many very first-timers and half of the people there had their hands up. It was remarkable as I think that they got most of their core group of fest attendees to come and by some miracle have also attracted a like number of new fans. Several people I talked with who were first timers said that they were definitely coming back again.

Sun. night the banquet had about 69 tables with about 12 people per table - approx. 800 for that.  I was at table 50 and couldn't hear all of what Jim Pierson or KLS were talking about but I did catch from KLS that this is definitely not the end of the festivals which drew a huge response from everyone there. They are talking about doing the fest on some sort of a cruise or going out into the country but they definitely want to make some changes.  It will be interesting to see who is going to win the power struggle to wrest control of the planning.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to attend the Tarrytown tour on Mon. as I had to return to Chicago.  When I left for the airport there were 3 buses parked out in front so it looks like they were taking a big crowd up there. I know of several people desperately trying to get tickets but alas they were sold out.

I would say this is the most fun I've had at the fests and believe me I've enjoyed all of them so far. But, for some reason this one was special. Perhaps because I was afraid that it would be the last one and I think the organizers worked hard at making an awful lot of people's dreams come true.

[Midnite]

Glad you were able to get it posted, Miss_Winthrop.  I enjoyed your insights and details.  Isn't that dealer's room downright dangerous?

BTW, do you know what Josette's potrait brought in at the auction?

Methinks the Fest committee's definition of "Final Farewell" and mine is very different. 

[LdyAnne]

...
BTW, do you know what Josette's potrait brought in at the auction?

I belive it was around $2,400. Please someone correct me if I am in error.  I know it was over 2K. A bit out of my range!

[Midnite]

Thanks!

[Miss_Winthrop]

People were definitely spending money at the auctions. A cookbook with recipes from the stars like Nancy Barrett and KLS brought in $510!!!  I found that absolutely jaw dropping 

I wanted to bid on anything at the auction but by the time I could even think about it, the bids went sky-high and I was out of it.

Well in the dealer's rooms, I wanted to buy everything in sight but fortunately I had set myself a spending limit and stuck to it.  The ATM machine in the hotel would only dispense $100 at a time and they charged $1.50.  That is absolutely insane!

I did see the table where the fellow was unloading his DS collection.  He had some really great, unusual things but by that time, I was tapped out.

Several new DS books were available at the fest but Diana Millay's book about the history of Halloween wasn't ready until Sept. 1st on Amazon. By the way, she has a tour going to Transylvania (Rumania) coming up the end of October. I wish I could go as it sounds like a blast.  Oh, Miss Millay alluded to the fact that she is a descendant of witches from the late 1600's.  I liked her presentation and it was interesting and quirky.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

People were definitely spending money at the auctions. A cookbook with recipes from the stars like Nancy Barrett and KLS brought in $510!!!  I found that absolutely jaw dropping 

OHMYGOD!!

If we're talking about the same cookbook that Christine Domaneck (or Domaniecki or whatever name she's using nowadays) is holding in Joeytrom's second photo from the auction, that book originally sold for $10.00 when it came out in 1989:

Granted, it contains several rare photos that had never been published anywhere else before or since, but still...

[Raineypark]

I don't even understand the concept of Celebrity Cookbooks.

What the hell about being an actor on a TV Soap Opera implies that one would be a good judge of gumbo recipes?

[CrazyJenny]

$510 for that cook book?  wow.  I've ha it since it first came out and NEVER thought it was worth that much.  I do use it alot but....$500 for a cookbook???

[Mysterious Benefactor]

What the hell about being an actor on a TV Soap Opera implies that one would be a good judge of gumbo recipes?

Well, I bought it for the photos - and it was $10.00 well spent because there are some great photos in it, particularly some behind the scenes/deleted scenes shots from the DS movies. But even as someone who likes to cook, I can't say that I've ever tried any of the recipes, but...

I do use it alot

...maybe I should look them over again.

[Raineypark]

If there's one for gumbo, let me know how it turns out. 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Well, Louis Edmonds provided a recipe for "Special Gumbo" (and Joel Crothers provided a recipe called "Incredible Seafood" that's made with shrimp, scallops, clams and mussels in garlic and white wine that looks good). There isn't a Gumbo recipe in the 1970 DS cookbook, though.

Once we've switched over to the new system and the Members' Archive returns, maybe I'll post some of the $510 photos and recipes.  

[Raineypark]

Well....I'd try a gumbo recipe by Louis Edmonds because he came from that part of the country that KNOW's gumbo.

Don't think I'd try one if John Karlen submitted it though.

But I bet he knows how to make an egg cream!!

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Don't know about an Egg Cream, but Karlen provided a recipe for "Maine Lobster".    I guess he doesn't do much cooking. 

[dom]

I hate to get serious on everyone (not really, ) but it's the charity part that's important here, not the item. And of course there's that ever-so-important (in these tight times) tax deduction. I wonder what the charity was?

dom (who's craving an egg cream right now, thanks Rainey!   )
 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

but it's the charity part that's important here, not the item.

Of course, we realize that, Dom - and I'm sure whatever charity benefitted is quite grateful. However, simply because something is being sold for charity, that doesn't necessarily mean that people should spend 51X an item's original worth. But if you truly believe such extravagance is well within the normal boundries of what you're willing to spend at some future DS charity auction, please remind me to remind you of that fact the next time both of us happen to be at one - and I'll also clue in the auctioneer to that fact so that they never miss one of your bids.

And of course there's that ever-so-important (in these tight times) tax deduction.

And think of how many deductions you'll be able to take. I do hope they'll all fit on one form..

 

MB (who only wishes he had THAT much disposable income so he could be that generous. )