Los Angeles Comic Book and Science Fiction Convention 

Sunday, August 21, 2011

	I woke Sunday, before my wake up call. It was another beautiful LA day, high of 76 with no chance of rain to ruin attendance at the show. I was very happy about that. With only day, we needed good weather.
	I went down to see what the complimentary 'grab and go' breakfast was - coffee, tea, rock hard granola bars - which I can't eat with my (corrective) braces and granny smith apples. I found one apple that was almost ripe, made a cup of green tea and went back up to the room to order room service. Normally, I would not bother, but I knew we would be selling right through lunch and the con would probably not provide lunch nor would there any place on site to get lunch. So I ordered cereal and milk, and a wheat bagel and cream cheese. I told them not to toast the bagel, so naturally they did.
	I ate the apple while I was waiting and packed the small bottle of water the hotel had given me (as a Carlson club member) into the bag for David. I packed a larger bottle out the hotel vending machine for myself. Sometimes the con will give you water, and sometimes they don't, so I always make sure I have the right size bottle for David. He needs it, because he talks to everyone who comes to the table. Thirsty work.
	I went down early. David is prompt to a fault and has a tendency to show up early, so I'm always ready. I tried to print my boarding pass while I was waiting for my phone to ring, but I was too early to do that. So I printed it when I got back that evening.
	My phone ran about three minutes before nine. I assured David, I was indeed in the lobby waiting for him. A minute later he pulled in. I put my rolling suitcase in the back hatch and jumped into the front seat, with my duffle.
	The con organizers wanted us to call when we were five minutes out, so we did and they told us to come on up. Both Bruces were busy, but they said someone would meet us at the back door and bring us in. David told me to put on my seat belt and we were off. It was only about three blocks up Figueroa and then one block west to the back of the Shrine auditorium. They let us park behind cones beside the building. Right next to the dumpster.
	We got out and pulled our table bags out of the back hatch to take in. David has a retractable flap that hides what's in the hatch and I couldn't get it to lock back into place. I guess David is used to it. He got it back in place on the first try. There was David's red and black roller, my green roller, with the table sign and my black duffel and blue water bag. Jeff met us at the door. David was rolling his bag and had his black backpack. I had my green bag and the duffel. So there wasn't anything for Jeff to carry in.
	He walked us to the back to the large black curtain that signified the end of the show area. David peeked behind the curtain during the show and remarked that we were only using half the hall. 
	We started to set up next to Sharon Farrell, who was near the end. David likes to be on the end. Jeff came back and said, no, we closer to the center of the row. Three tables in. I told Jeff, David needed to get out from behind the table - to take pictures, so Jeff pulled the tables apart and made David an exit between Table 3 and Table 4. That worked.
	As we were walking back, Jeff remarked to David that while he knew David was 84, he wanted David to know that he didn't look it or act it. It's true, David walks without a cane, is still quite upright and is very alert. Like most people, Jeff told David he looks 60. Except, David didn't have lovely snow white hair when he was 60. David was 61 when I met him in 1988, and he looked 45. 
	David looked at what Sharon Ferrell had up behind her and wanted me to put "something" up on the black curtain that was behind us. All I had was the cardboard banner that was supposed to be on top of the sign. It was too heavy to stick to the black curtain for long, but I did scrounge enough tape to get it up and keep it up most of the show.
	I was concerned that David wouldn't be able to understand me with my braces. I had mentioned this to him before the show. While we were setting up, he asked to see my braces - so I smiled wide for him and revealed the two rows of metal. Wow, he said, you'd better not smile for any of the con pictures. I was not planning on it, trust me. I only have wear them for about 6 more months. David was able to understand me. I think that has more to do with me knowing when to speak up and the timbre of my voice than my lack of enunciation. We managed. I would have preferred David to have worn his hearing aids, but he didn't. Thankfully, the hall didn't echo, like some, which helped.  
	David wanted his pictures out on the table, but there were too many packs of them, so we compromised. I put out some of his pictures and left the other half of the table open for the fans to put down their items in front of David. The rest of the pictures went into a box behind the sign. We had 36 pictures out for selection and I had more in a binder that I would let multiple picture buyers go through. I also put out Fly books and some assorted Voyage and Fly DVDs. There are three Fly DVD releases from 2007, 2008, and 2010. The last one was the 75th anniversary re-release.
	I set David up with his pens, water, snacks, Purell and his favorite throat drops. He wanted to know how I had fared at the hotel, was I getting enough to eat? I told him the room was fine and I had purchased two very large pizza slices at the USC pizza joint attached to the hotel. There was also a sit down TGIFridays kind of a place there, where I had dinner. The Radisson (at USC) turned out to be a good choice for me, and worked out really well. They even gave me the college rate, because I work at one.        
	 It took a while to start selling, we mostly had lookers at first, but more people came in around noon and we started selling more briskly. My Fly books went very quickly. We mostly sold pictures, but a few folks brought us items to sign. Voyage TV guides, Viewmaster packs and their own DVDs, both from Voyage and The Fly. Kimberly Rose, a Facebook fan of David's, brought David a gorgeous screencap she had made from the pilot episode of Voyage.  
	Another fan, Elizabeth, said it was like being a candy store. She bought several photos and DVDs. She definitely wanted a flying sub shot, so I found her one.
 	A third fan brought in several of his models for David to sign. David signed Flying Subs and Seaviews and everything else he brought them. Some of the models were quite detailed and he brought them in very nice cases. He showed us where he had to affix them to the base with putty as earthquake prevention. David signed the bottom of the Monogram sub because he was going to put a light under to illuminate the signature. I bet that looks really cool when he's done with the display. I told him when John painted my Monogram sub, he gave the shorter plastic figure red hair and the taller plastic figure black hair and it looks really good like that. The guy thought that was great idea and David chimed in with a smile that would work.  
	A lot of people wanted to talk about the Fly book and the Fly DVDs so I showed them pictures out of the book and explained the features of the three different DVDs. One guy wanted to know how they shot David in the spider- web and was that really him. Yes, it was, and they shot that scene last because they were afraid the white glue "web" would stick to David's hair and they would have to cut his hair to get him free, but that didn't happen. 
	We talked about Voyage. They asked David his favorite episodes and we named them (again). One fan wanted to know how they flooded the sets - David said he thought they used a fire hose, but he really didn't remember that long ago. We talked about the Green Tank on Stage 16, the Dutch Moat (the stranded on the island set) and Sersen Lake and the 16 foot (surface) Seaview on her track. It was fun chatting with everyone.
	I was asked how long I had been with David and I told him 1983. I wrote David a fan letter and he directed me to his fan club president. I worked for three different fan club presidents until the fan club was disbanded in 1997. He seemed a bit surprised that I would stay with David that long, not realizing that David has a lot of fans that have been with for more than 40 years. David has always been good to his fans, he answers his fan mail and he is kind and generous. It's very easy to be loyal to David.  
	They were teasing me about knowing all the answers to the questions the fans posed.  David remembered (from a con in 2003)  that I could identify the Time Bomb episode picture.  That was easy - he's in a Russian uniform. Some of questions they ask are not that simple, but after some eight years on the road with David, doing two to three cons a year, I have pretty much been asked most everything. At least until the next con.    	
	Sharon Ferrell asked after David's daughters. David said he sees the younger one quite often, as she lives and a steady job at he Food Network in New York City. His oldest daughter is a photographer now and is traveling all over taking pictures. He said she was currently home in LA, but was going to head to Singapore soon for another shoot. We talked a bit about her Ithaka exhibition in London and how beautiful her pictures were and how to go over to her website to order them.
	Toward the end of the show, the promoter came over to chat with David - he had a notebook full of the still photographer's proofs from Licence to Kill - back before they changed the title to Licence Revoked. A lot of them were shot at the airport on Sugarloaf Key - the beginning of the film where they capture Sanchez. They were interesting to look at.
	The other actors started leaving around 3:30, so we packed up, too. David was gracious enough to wait for me to get all my stuff back together and taken apart. He then drove me back to my hotel. He is very considerate that way. 
	He handed me back the Purell and the throat drops and said bring them to Nashville. I had tea for him, but there was no place to brew it there. We were well supplied with water from the con. Jeff brought us water and then another volunteer said we were his favorite so he gave us even more. David was fine with the small bottle I had given him. I saw him struggling with the cap and twisted it open for him. He can write fine, but not twist. David ate one of three snacks I brought, so I ate another one when things slowed down around 3:00 PM.  We had a good time and a good day. David told me he had really enjoyed his trip to Sardinia, Italy with Bridget a few weeks earlier.

Diane Kachmar   
September 5, 2011