Have a great birthday and may the Great Pumpkin grant you all autumn wishes.
All the best,
Michael

[/color]

Nancy Barrett's name has been removed from the Chiller guest list. 

MsCriseyede, you can tell David and Nancy Chiller's isn't THAT scary.  I know my friends that are going with me are kinda disappointed both of them have canceled. Then again, I've been bigging them for years to come to the DS Conventions with Diane and I for years.
     On the other hand, Chiller has added Burt Ward so I'm pretty happy to get my Batman book and photo signed! I'll also be in line to get a Willy Wonka pic from Leonard Stone aka Mr. Beauregard, who was also Farnum on "Lost in Space."  Okay, I'm in line for Barbara Eden, Larry Hagman and Bill Dailey, George Romero, William O'Connell and the cast of "Blood Feast."  Thursday the road trip begins and it can't get here quick enough!

Michael

Julia fiddling w/her gloves

As a sort of tribute to Grayson as well as Hogan's Heroes, who's characters often were also great glove fiddlers, as a cast member of a student film at my college, many years ago, I had my character wearing a pair of gloves slapping a THIRD glove from hand to hand.

Michael 

  I'm always quite amused that Marsha Mason's "blink and you might miss it" appearence as a vampire during the Levaithan story, a dream sequence no less, is so often brought up. Its almost like reading one of those poorly researched references on DS in article or books that say something like, "The campy series starred Jonathan Frid,Grayson Hall and future TV sitcom stars Barnard Hughes, Abe Vigoda and Conrad Bain...". (emphasis on STARRED)  I guess for many of us, she's simply a curious footnote, like Harvey Keitel being a Blue Whale dancer/patron twice. The one thing hardly anyone mention is that after the "dream" is over, you can clearly see her arm sticking out from behind the Old House curtains!

King of Swamp Castle"Son, one day all this will be yours..." (gesturing toward castle window)
 Prince 'erbert "Wot, the curtains?"
-Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Michael 

  Diane and I both had a great time and chatted with a lot of fans only one of which had ever been to a convention before. We gave out a lot of web addresses and answered a lot of questions, more than anything else about Jonathan Frid, (lol). The whole show was fun, but we had terrible weather. It was a downpour all morning until the mid afternoon. I'm lucky I didn't lose anything to water damage unloading our exhibit on collecting DS. I could probably have sold a few items, such as the M Ross novels or Gold Key comics.
Its nice to how they say, "raise awareness" and let people know about the DVDs and how to contact others in DS fandom.
     Convention master Clayton very thoughtfully added to my collection when he gave me an original "House of Dark Shadows" promotional still for my participation. (Ironically, the photo is a familiar one of Barnabas, but the verbal hype intended for press release on the back is all about Nancy Barrett, who's not even in the photo!)  (I also picked up a few good movies cheap!)
     Dr. Madblood was thoroughly happy with his David Selby signed photo. Scary Monsters magazine, they of the recent DS cover stories, was also in attendance.

I think we will do the show next year as well.

Michael 

LMAO!  Very amusing!  Have you ever listened to Ron Barry's Dumb Shadows?  I can easily imagine Ron Barry doing that line with his great Stokes impression.

I have the Ron Barry interview CD that Bobubas put out a few years back, which I love. I've never actually heard any episodes of "Dumb Shadows", but I got a feel for what they might be like. Are there tapes around? Bet i would like them.

Michael 

Some of the things that have become everyday speak with my wife and I, and a few of my friends, include:

"I like cheese"
"Do you have any paintings by Charles Delaware Tate?"
"The pink cards or the green cards?"
"OhmygodwhathaveIdone"   (said as one word with little emotion, ala Chris Jennings after fighting Jeb Hawks)
"Tell them you saw no one" (slowly) "So what should I say if I see someone?" "Tell them that you saw NO ONE!" (quickly and indignantly)
"Leave her pure, blameless" (followed by a sputtering sound as if you were blowing the fly away)
"Worthington Hall" (can be worked into many contexts)
"Mr. Barnabas...you gonna finish those fries"  (done in Ben Stokes voice, okay its not an actual series line, but when you say it like Stokes, it sounds right)

I'm sure I'll think of a few more, there have been some good ones already

Michael  [/color]

Hello my fellow Collinwoodies,
        If any of you are or would like to be in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia this weekend, please stop by and see us at the Chesapeake Central Library for Monster Fest 2005. Its a family fright and fun day and I am delighted to have been asked by Clayton to host a panel on Dark Shadows and its upcoming 40th Anniversary, which will be at 9:30 am. The big event for Tidewater Monster fans will be progams on local Horror Host Dr. Madblood's 30th anniversary. I will be presenting the kindly doctor with an autographed photo of David Selby as Quentin,    he's actually a fan of our favorite. I will also have an autographed photo of Lara Parker as Angelique, vampire phase era,   as a door prize, and I'm pretty sure there are more door prizes as well. Last year there were movie posters of new releases for everyone and costume contest winners got Sideshow figues.
    If anyone come, please visit Diane and I at our table as well where we will have a display on DS collector's items, like the gum cards, games, posters and my photo album of oir convention pictures and trips to Lyndhurst, Essex Ct and Newport to DS locations. Please introduce yourself as a board member.

Hope to see anyone who can attend,     

Michael