gothick,

considering how i've waxed rhapsodic about ms. isles over the years i can see how one could assume that the "best gift ever" might be something more alexandra-centric but i love having a prop actually used on the series.perhaps alexandra handled them at some point.

lydia,

the salt and pepper set is actually somewhat nondescript.despite being labled "victorian" they're rather simple silver shakers.i actually thought that they were pewter at first.they're also marked "made in england" on the bottom.

i'm determined to find them.again i'll say that they're too old fashioned for the diner.i can't recall a formal sit down meal during 1897(although being labled "victorian" i can see how one might make that connection)or in any time period other than the present with the exception of the elaborate silver chafing dish affair hoffman served to quentin and maggie in 1970pt. that gothick mentioned.perhaps i'll look there.

i love them.

The pen!

yes and i hope collinsport inn waitress "susie" is being cast with great care...a small but multifaceted role.

one of the reasons that the films didn't "say" dark shadows to me is that they weren't filmed at seaview.

the other location just didn't feel like collinwood.
NODS especially,despite starring several d.s. actors,could have easily been just another early 1970's horror film.without frid and stalwarts like bennett,edmonds,scott and so forth not enough of the d.s. atmosphere was captured.kate jackson in particular wasn't on the program long enough to carry a film centered on it.there was something of a generic quality to it.

ditto the california sun-drenched location for the 1991 series.NOT collinwood for me.

thanks mysterious!

it's the middle version that appears on the t-shirt.the black space between carolyn and vicki's heads must be where jason was somehow eliminated.hmmm.

the smiling version is beyond weird.i mean how often did this group smile?

in june of 67 joan and louis are still being given "star placement"...that will change rather quickly won't it?and grayson is sort of biding her time in the background before she assumes the mantle.

b.t.w. i don't walk around new york in this t-shirt.i'd feel kind of silly.i wear it under another shirt so that only i know that "they're" with me.

i'll throw my humble two cents in on why kathryn leigh scott had such a poor showing in "the game"...

in a word:chemistry.she and jonathan frid just don't have it.

kathryn's somewhat subtle acting style played as rather bland contrasted to jonathan's largeness.

josette collins works for me as an abstract concept.a ghost.a legend.a myth.
but as a flesh and blood character she was pretty vapid.what's more kls only played the character but briefly and only for a few episodes with jonathan before angelique takes control so we don't see much interaction between the two.her "presence" on the show is much bigger than what the character actually merits.

with grayson hall and lara parker however frid had chemistry in spades.their much broader acting matched frid's bigness.they shared much more screen time,scene after scene,year after year,than scott and frid.there was also often a love/hate,push/pull dynamic between the characters that was just more fun than the fawning between barnabs and josette.

the reason maggie and joe were such a sweet couple is that scott and joel crothers were well matched in terms of acting style.there was a believability to it.since they were both original players they were in some ways leftovers from an earlier era before the types of over-the-top situations required acting methods to match.

besides because of the brutality that barnabas treated maggie with in 1967 i can never view any subsequent pairings of the two actors(rachel,kitty or any maggie variation)without some level of repulsion.just because the barnabas character became popular and they changed the writing for him those deeds cannot be undone.those images are burned onto my retina forever.

ironically i found alexandra moltke's rather flat acting style to be a fine match for frid.for me she had a somewhat regal presence that stood up to it.

the only other character i found frid to have less chemistry with was his other "great love" roxanne drew.for me they just batted zero.

at the fest i bought a t-shirt with the 1967 cast photograph.

it's a pretty well used picture(although mpi marketed for many years a plaque with this picture described as "rare")that most of us have seen.

there are a few variations on it(one fellow at the fest told me of a version with everyone smiling although i'm not sure what any of these folks would have to smile about by 1967)but i could have sworn that jason mcquire was in this picture whenever i've seen it before yet he's not here.

funny too that maggie is pictured in her waitresses' uniform since after her abduction by barnabas she is never again seen in her waitress role(the producers must have figured that at this point that the audience would still most identify with her in that part).

poor joel crothers gets left out of this picture just as he does in the 1968 series with the cast on the staircase.what did this poor guy have to do to get into the cast shot?

speaking of that famous 1968 photo it's quite remarkable that besides it and the 1967 photo under discussion here that they never did another ensemble photo.not in 1966 and not from 1969-71.there are really only two group shots from this show.

once the program became successful i'm surprised abc didn't order more for publicity purposes.especially once quentin became so wildly popular a character.there are of course numerous single shots of the castmembers but only two group setups.

i realize that location shooting had become prohibitably expensive but it couldn't have been too hard to gather the cast on the set periodically for this purpose.something of a mystery.

a subway to a train to a monorail to a shuttle...this was work!

as has been said there was a very sizable crowd this year.especially given the remoteness of the location.

a bit light on stars but obviously frid was the big draw so no matter.

sadly the big rumour around the dealers room was that diana millay was not in attendance because she is "unwell".sad.

picked up marie's book(autographed)and some fabulous pictures of alexandra(late 1960's publicity shots)looking very "bond girlish" in diamonds and furs.

a nice day.