Friends of the 1991 weekend

[Uncle Roger]

I had a great time at the Friends of the 1991 weekend in Norwalk, Connecticut. I'm no Prof. Stokes but here is my account of the weekend.

There was a bus trip to Essex on Friday. The town of Essex was used to represent Collinsport in the early episodes. The Griswold Inn is a quaint New England restaurant with great food at a reasonable price. You can indeed stay overnight there, if you so desire.

The Evans cottage is nearby. It's a private residence and, in the past, the owners were less than thrilled about having DS types descend on them. The surviving owner has had a big change of heart. She came outside and happily answered questions and posed for pictures.

The event itself took place at the Double tree hotel on the Norwalk/Darien line. It was wonderful to have the body of the event take place in air conditioning. (I don't care who's sponsoring it. Having an event in the stable at Lyndhurst is very second rate).
All of the announced guests showed up and seemed to enjoy themselves.

Beverly Hayes, who played early werewolf victim Donna Friedlander, had never been to any kind of fan event and was genuinely flattered that fans remembered her character. She said that they had to use some rather creative staging for her stalking sequence, as the werewolf was out sick.

Joanne Dorian played a small role as a nurse in one of the last episodes of the NBC revival. But she also played another role in the series. She read the part of Julia Hoffman in two of the auditions for Barnabas. One was Ben Cross. The other was Michael Stroke.

Christine Domaniecki talked about winning the Miss American Vampire contest in 1970. She made the costume herself, spending $4.00 on the material. She was thrilled to appear on DS as a barmaid in 1840. She spoke about how nice John Karlen was to her. But she didn't hit it off well with Joan Bennett. ("You're in my chair. Get out of it.") Christine became a professional makeup artist and especially enjoys working on horror films.

Donna Wandrey and Sharon Smyth Lentz are always fun. Donna is still active in theatre and was genuinely touched when several fans made a special trip to see her perform in North Carolina. Sharon has done a couple of independent horror films. They were asked about the Big Finish audiodramas. Sharon said that she would love to do one but she hasn't as yet been asked. Donna said that she would only be able to do one if it was a union job.

Jim Fyfe is now a history teacher. For the most part, he doesn't act any more, though he did a couple of things in Bulgaria that ended up on the Sci Fi channel. He was doing another project when he was cast as Willie Loomis and wasn't able to get to the shoot immediately. His first encounter with DC went like this: I waited a week for you. You'd better Be good.

In short, this was a small event, similar to the early days of the festivals in Newark. There was plenty of time to interact with the actors and to socialize with other fans

[Gerard]

That sounds like it was a lotta fun.  It's good to hear that the current owner of the Evans Cottage is open and receptive to DS fans wanting to take a peak at the outside.  It reminds me of the time I visited the Carey Mansion (the original Collinwood) in Newport when it was still a music school for the local college.  The staff inside had no problem with DS fans dropping in, allowing them to take a look around and to walk the grounds.  A photo I took, from the spot where the series photographed the house for the opening narrative scene, is my wallpaper. 

And Jim Fyfe is a history teacher!  Yahoo!  So am I!  Even though I now work as a substitute teacher. 

Gerard

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Thanks so much for the recap, Uncle Roger!! 

[Gothick]

I very much enjoyed reading your account, Uncle Roger.  It sounds like a lot of fun.

Did any fan vendors attend?  It's so nice that Christine and the actress who played Donna were there.  Donna's episode is one of my favorites because she's so shameless in her interest in Chris.

G.

[Uncle Roger]

Thank you, Gothick. There was one outside vendor there, Monsters among us, represented by Michael and Ria Pierce of Ohio. There was also a large table where fans were a selling some of their extra items from their collections. There were the usual selections of photos, Marilyn Ross paperbacks and such. There were a few copies of the recent Jonathan Frid book which sold out quickly, perhaps because both Nancy Kersey and Helen Samaras were there to promote it. There are tentative plans to do another event in 2016.