I arrived at the Hollywood Collector's show at about ten-forty and found parking easily. When I walked in the front door I knew why - it was pretty dead, attendance-wise. I walked around the room seeing who was there and saw Roger Corman also walking around the room - the fact that he wasn't at his table told me everything I needed to know. The first person I said hey to was Ruta Lee, who I've known for twenty years or so. She looked great and we had a nice chat. Then I found Roger and Druxy - Roger was already packing up, and left five minutes later. As I said to him, "The writing's on the wall, huh?" Seated next to him was Miss Barbara Steele, and I said hi to her and reminded her I'd issued the Black Sunday soundtrack and that we'd met a bunch of times. She was very sweet. I wandered around checking out everyone and talking to dealer pals. While it never really got busy in the two hours I was there, there were, at least, a few more people. Leslie Nielsen walked in around eleven-fifteen - he had a little line of people waiting. Jane Russell wasn't there - apparently she wasn't feeling well. Linda Gray (is that her name - the Dynasty woman) had a small line, but no one was really doing much business, especially the dealers. For me, though, I had a blast, because I had a wonderful chat with Tony Dow, who I hadn't seen since I did my documentary Weekday Heroes, which he hosted. He's so nice and his wife was there and we had the best time reminiscing about the shoot - he'd just watched the show a week ago, in honor of Engineer Bill's recent passing. I was delighted to find out that Sheriff John is still alive and living in Boise, and apparently Chucko the Clown is also alive.
Most shocking celeb in terms of looking nothing like they used to: Tommy Kirk.
Best-looking celebs who still look incredible - Meredith Salinger and Cynthia Gibb.
Other celebs seen: Barry Bostwick, Tom Laughlin and his wife, Noell Neill, Pogue's pal Denny Miller, Richard Kiel, and others I can't remember right now.
As soon as I saw that Leslie Nielsen had no people at his table I went up to him and reminded him of The Creature Wasn't Nice, which he remembered right away. We also had a nice chat. So, I'm really glad I went.
