2013 Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention Recap

Photos by www.GuptillPhotography.com

My mother-in-law, Mary Ethel, runs the front registration desk at the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention. This past weekend one of the attendees, Roger Sirk, told her, "I would rather miss Christmas than miss this convention." Based on the feedback flooding my inbox, that appears to be the overall opinion from attendees after the convention came to a close. Michelle, my wife, convinced one of her co-workers at her day job to attend and they went back to work on Tuesday, they scolded the other employes for not going to the show, describing the event this way: "it was not a geek thing." MANC is not the kind of event that sparks comic con impressions. And after eight years I find it difficult to describe just what the three-day festival is all about.

Like many conventions, vendors offered a variety of products for sale ranging from books, tee shirts, movies, lobby cards, movie posters, glossy photos and vintage collectibles. Like many conventions, a handful of Hollywood celebrities signed autographs, posed for photographs and participated in Q&A sessions on stage. Quoting Brad Rogers, an annual attendee, "The Nostalgia Con is a throwback to conventions 20 and 30 years ago when they were fun and not like those today that try to rake people over with large admission costs and autograph fees." When Ed Asner got up on stage, he opened by telling the interviewer, "Okay, Chuckles, let's get this over with." The audience laughed and clapped with appreciation. Everyone loves the grumpy old man but Asner proved he has a soft heart and there is no doubt a special place in heaven for him.

Ed Asner and interviewer Tom Doty. Courtesy www.GuptillPhotography.com

Actress Margaret O'Brien and author Gregory William Mank.

Julie Newmar doing her Catwoman purr.

During her Q&A session, Julie Newmar answered a request from a fan in the audience and reprised her Catwoman purr over the microphone... the audience cheered and clapped. Margaret O'Brien talked about the dance sequence with Judy Garland in Meet Me in St. Louis (1958), followed by a special screening of the movie. For fans of The Rifleman, Johnny Crawford talked about his five years on the program and Jeff Connors talked about his father, Chuck Connors. The panel went over so well that Jeff asked me to make a copy and send it to him.

This year's bill of fare included almost two dozen slide show presentations ranging from the history of DICK TRACY in the comics (courtesy of Garyn Roberts), Gracie Allen's run for Presidency in 1940, and home movies of Brace Beemer (radio's LONE RANGER) courtesy of his grandson, Bob Daniel. Attendees included museum curators, magazine editors, authors and historians, obsessed fan boys and folks who share a common interest in the times gone by. Live re-enactments of old-time radio dramas, complete with scripts, sound effects and microphones were among the highlights. On display was The Blob silicone from the 1958 Steve McQueen horror classic. Yes, the original Blob! How cool is that?

That's the real movie monster, folks!  The Blob silicone on display.

Larry Storch. Photo courtesy of Melissa Saka Ginsberg.

Abbott and Costello impersonators walked around the hotel performing routines (including "Who's On First?). They even took time out to pose for photos with the celebrities. "Mr. Asner seems to like to come off as 'cantankerous', but we found him to be playful, funny and warm," said Joe Ziegler, pictured on the right.

Ed Asner with Abbott and Costello

Who wouldn't smile when Abbott and Costello are around?

Actor Robert Loggia was among the celebrity guests who took time to talk about his appearances in movies... let's see if we can name them all... the piano sequence with Tom Hanks in Big, the general in Independence Day, Scarface, The Sopranos, The Nine Lives of Elfago Baca, Hawaii Five-O, Jagged Edge, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, three Pink Panther movies, Psycho 2, Prizzi's Honor, An Officer and a Gentleman, and a guilty pleasure of mine called T.H.E. Cat. When is that ever going to come out on DVD commercially? I asked Mr. Loggia, and his wife, and they both were as puzzled as I am.

Actor Robert Loggia with fan Kelly J. Sheridan.

Elizabeth Shepherd talked about her days on the stage in Shakespearean dramas, then introduced a late night screening of The Tomb of Ligeia (1964), directed by Roger Corman, and co-starring Vincent Price. Larry Storch was just as funny today as he was during his days on F Troop. Diana Sowle talked about her screen roles including Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Margaret O'Brien was a sweetheart and I had the honor of taking her back to the train station after the convention was over.

Talk about crowds. Last year's attendance spiked past 2,000. We hit 2,250 this year. Combating an aging fan base and a declined economy, it is nice to know our attendance record continues to grow. 

"I just wanted to let you know how much we enjoyed the convention. It’s the best one we’ve ever participated in. I thought driving 3,000 miles would make Roy want to swear off conventions, but he’s talking about doing it again next year. Wow!"

                              -- Sandra Grabman, author of numerous biographies

"The time seemed to pass rather fast and we didn't get to do everything we wanted to do, which indicates a good time was had by all."

                              --Ed Pippin of the Solar Guard Fan Club

"Please thank your great crew for being so courteous and treating us so nicely. This was the best show I've ever appeared at in thirty years of work in the industry. I will never forget it."

                               -- Rusty Gilligan, commercial artist

"Congratulations on a fantastic convention. Although it was my first, it will not be my last. I had a great time."

                              -- Bob Tevis

At times the convention was a bit crowded.

But who doesn't love a crowd? Adds to the excitement of the show.

Lewis Forro has a blog and posted two pages of photos from the convention. Check it out here:
http://pristine.webspaceforme.net/Facebook/dragoncon13_baltimorecon13_nostalgiacon13/nostalgiacon13/nostalgiacon1.html

 

Couldn’t get by without posting this photo.
I bumped into this beauty at the end of the show
as everyone was tearing down and packing up.
Love the Sock Hop poodle dress!

Want to see three minute news coverage? Click here: http://www.wbaltv.com/news/maryland/baltimore-county/Mid-Atlantic-Nostalgia-Convention-features-classics/-/10136486/22026776/-/w2mjt0/-/index.html#.Uj8Q7AmrizE.facebook

Check out Samantha's review on the Dick Powell blog: http://www.dickpowell.blogspot.com/

No event can run smooth without a speed bump along the way. On Friday afternoon, the power went out momentarily throughout the hotel (and from what I heard, the traffic lights outside as well). Thankfully the hotel had backup generators. We video streamed the seminars so folks in Alaska, Canada and France (among other places) could view the events live on their home computers. While the attempt was merely a field test this year, we do feel confident that the technology is good enough to warrant a permanent fixture starting next year. So this time there is no excuse to overlook the event in September 2014.

Many of the photos on this site were provided by www.GuptillPhotography.com

Dragnet: The "Lost" Premiere Radio Broadcast

Jack Webb as Sgt. Joe Friday

The evolution of detective programs on old-time radio began in the late twenties when most original detectives were inspired by the murder mystery stage plays often dramatized on stage on Broadway. By the early thirties, Philo Vance and Charlie Chan began inspiring imitations and programs of their own... sometimes adapted from the novels themselves -- others to help promote major motion pictures.

In 1946, CBS began offering The Adventures of Sam Spade and those early adventures revealed a different kind of gumshoe -- one who stole money out of a dead man's wallet and shot a crooked thief (a woman) in the back when she tried to escape. Radio listeners (and script writers) took note and began their own imitations of the Sam Spade series, more tame than the Sam Spade character. By 1947, radio detectives became a common staple in network broadcasting -- so much so that concerned parents formed organizations in an effort to curb the vicious murders that intrigued impressionistic young minds. But after you listen to a dozen of those programs -- Philo Vance, Boston Blackie, Nero Wolfe, Richard Diamond, etc. -- the conclusion is the same. The detective programs are relatively the same -- each with their own variation-on-a-theme.

Then came Jack Webb and Dragnet, which was far more original than any detective program on the airwaves. So original that it is difficult to name another radio program that attempted to imitate Dragnet. (It is far easier to name a number of programs that spoofed Dragnet.) Many collectors today know that the first broadcast of the series, June 3, 1949, does not exist in recorded form. There are numerous stories of why that disc was accidentally broken before it could be transcribed but thankfully I was able to find the original script and it is reprinted below for your enjoyment.

Vintage radio advertisement with Jack Webb

A few small notes to point out: the theme song for the first two radio broadcasts was not the classic theme you hear today. It was not until the third broadcast of the series that Webb began using an excerpt from Miklos Rozsa's soundtrack score for The Killers (1947). The second episode of the series does exist in recorded form. Listen to that one beforehand and get a general idea what the theme song was for the premiere broadcast.

There is no origin for the Sergeant Friday character.

The earliest episodes never had an official script title. Some people created their own title for the earliest episodes but be aware that not all of them really had a title -- just because a recording in your collection has a title doesn't mean the information is accurate.

There is a big misconception that the radio program is in the public domain. This is usually stated on websites providing free downloads in an effort to play stupid... and use as a scapegoat should they get into trouble for offering the recordings. The script here is reprinted with permission from the copyright holders.

Shame on the Evening News...

Just the other night I was watching both NBC Nightly News and CBS Evening News and they featured an obituary for a Hollywood celebrity... and the networks decided to include snippets from the actor's motion pictures... with horrible picture quality! For the record, I pretty much stopped watching the evening news a few years ago when I discovered that the majority of the news items are publicizing their own interests (NBC hypes up a motion picture released through Universal Studios, etc.) and most of the news is depressing anyway. After all, is that not why people joke that "there's nothing good on the news" anyway? Why don't they feature up-lifting news items? Anyway, the only time I watch the news now is when my wife calls me in to watch an obituary on a Hollywood celebrity and this is where I am having a issue with.

For more than a year and a half, I have observed where the networks, rather than send a page out to rent a DVD so they can excerpt a clip from the disc, they choose to use YouTube as a venue... forgetting that what looks good on a five inch screen on the computer does not look good when telecast nationwide on larger screens. And such horrible pixeled images are showing up more common on major programs such as Today and Good Morning America. 

Allow me to explain. The picture quality will never be 100% perfect when it originates from YouTube because the video has to be processed and prepared for delivery over the internet, and footage on YouTube (in general) is already compressed down to the smallest file possible so people can watch the clip without waiting for the system to spent an hour downloading the entire film clip. This always entails some loss of quality. For years, news programs used film footage from their libraries when more recent images were not readily available. But the networks now choose to visit YouTube and other internet websites using software to pluck the film clip off the internet. Now, if you plan to do this yourself and have no problems watching the films restricted to a five inch screen on your computer, it will look no different than what you see on YouTube. But blown up on a 40 inch television screen, telecast on the evening news in High Definition, you get picture quality that looks like this (see below).

An excellent example of how it looks on the evening news!

Most people are not ignorant when it comes to old movie footage so when I asked the local news once in an e-mail why this is happening, they claimed the footage was from an old movie and an old movie is always going to look horrible. That is what I call blame shifting. We know the difference between a Super 8, a 16mm and a 35mm nitrate transfer. Saying the old movie footage was just "old" doesn't mean it is going to be pixelated. Anyone who makes a living processing old movie footage from archival prints will tell you that picture quality is dependent on the hardware, software and most importantly... the source material.

Screen capture from a 35mm nitrate archival master.

Screen Capture from a 16mm print, a step down from the 35mm nitrate.

 

Evening News pixeled quality. Imagine this on a 40 inch screen.

What the networks are doing is the equivalent of using footage from a sixteenth-generation print from a 20 year old VHS video. Why not take the extra effort and go to source material that is far superior? Is there not a DVD rental company near by? 

For the record, my wife and I watch television in High Definition. Yes, the system is hooked up correctly and everything is brand spankin' gorgeous. I can even see the sweat coming from the pores on the anchorman's forehead. All the settings on our receiver and television screen is set to perfection. The rest of the evening news is gorgeous. It's only the stock footage they use that looks terrible. There is nothing wrong with the equipment my wife and I use to watch television. And this is just the picture quality -- we haven't even begun with the frame skipping that is common with the method they use to pluck stock footage from YouTube. (And that is the biggest tip-off where their source material comes from.)

On a side note, our local news stations and newspapers in Baltimore, Maryland, won't even promote non-profit events that feature Hollywood celebrities unless we pay them for commercial space -- they won't say that outright, but they word their sentences over the phone in a way that implies this -- and I am not alone. I have complained to the local Chamber of Commerce who verbally told me that they get that complaint too often.

So my question is this.... why would the evening news not want to provide us with the best picture quality when screening excerpts of old movies and television programs? Is this not a bad reflection on the network? Is this not disrespectful to the actor or actress they are trying to recognize?

The 2013 Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention

As expected from frequent readers of my blog, here is my annual endorsement for the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention held annually in Hunt Valley, Maryland. Located thirty minutes from Geppi's Entertainment Museum (next door to Camden Yards) and minutes away from Diamond Distributing (the leading distributor for comic books in the United States), this three-day festival is held at the Hunt Valley Wyndham (formerly the Hunt Valley Marriott) and recognizes the good old days of nostalgia from vintage movies, old-time radio, retro television, pulp magazines, comic books and more.

Patty Duke signs autographs for fans at the 2011 event.

The Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention has a lot going on. Slide show seminars are put on every hour, on the hour. A drive-in movie theater outside the hotel in the parking lot provides a nostalgic look back at the days of outdoor entertainment. Abbott and Costello and Three Stooges impersonators wander the hallways recreating their classic routines. Over 200 vendor tables offering merchandise ranging from tee shirts, books, magazines, movie posters, lobby cards, vhs videos, DVDs, bobble heads, vintage toys and collectibles and more. A movie room screening rare gems from the past 24 hours a day, all three days. Hollywood celebrities sign autographs all weekend and participate in Q&A sessions on stage for fans.

Highlights of this year's event: Garyn Roberts, author of Dick Tracy and American Culture (2003), will provide us a fascinating slide show about the famous comic strip that debuted in October 1931. A special screening of Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) with weekend guest Margaret O’Brien introducing the classic motion picture and answering questions from the audience. Author Cynthia Miller will take you back to the days of the TV rocket men with Buzz Corey, Commando Cody, Tom Corbett and others. Carol Lynn Scherling, the author of Blondie Goes to Hollywood, will provide us a fascinating look at the Blondie comic strip and how it inspired a series of motion pictures during the 1940s. Bob Daniels, the grandson of Brace Beemer, will premiere exclusive excerpts from his up-coming documentary about Beemer, the man who voiced The Lone Ranger on radio for more than a decade. Gene Crowell will host a nostalgic look back at Captain Chesapeake who, for more than 20 years, entertained children on television with his puppet friends.

For anyone who is not aware, the convention (often referred to as MANC) is a non-profit event that helps benefit the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital with a bonus: a charity auction featuring memorabilia donated by Hollywood legends. Check out some of the items up for auction this year!

Rhonda Fleming donated a signed photo!

Valerie Harper's autographed photo for sale!

Johnny Crawford autographed this LP record for the auction!

One intriguing aspect of the show this year is the introduction of video streaming the slide show seminars. This means people who live in Alaska, Canada, California and other areas across the country who otherwise cannot attend the convention due to distance or expenses (airfare isn't getting ay cheaper) now have an alternative. They can watch the events as they unfold live from the hotel. I agree it is not the same as wandering the hallway and meeting and greeting celebrities and vendors and folks who share a common interest... but it's the next best thing. For information all about video streaming at this year's event, CLICK HERE. http://martingrams.blogspot.com/2012/12/manc-announcement-video-streaming-2013.html

Attendees from Belgium, Canada, England and all over the country attend year after year. The attendance has grown in size every year as well. If you stumbled on this blog post and never heard of MANC, I hope the description above convinces you to check it out. I can assure you... I am not steering you wrong.

A recap of last year's event can be found here:

http://midatlanticnostalgiaconvention.com/2012-convention-recap-2/

If you want to see a ton of photos (some of them are really cool) from last year's event, click here:

http://midatlanticnostalgiaconvention.com/photos-from-the-2012-mid-atlantic-nostalgia-convention/

Either way, video streaming or a live personal appearance, I hope to see you at MANC as I haven't missed a single year yet.