I emailed David when we arrived on Wed to give him the hotel address for mapquest and give him a brief rundown on the parking situation at the convention center. I was there early because Thursday I had to go to UCLA to do book research for the book on David's Five Fingers TV series we are writing. UCLA was the sole owner of some items I needed to review. So I was driven up to UCLA on Thursday and spent the day there working on the book.

I emailed David again on Friday morning to tell him I had successfully picked up his con badge. He emailed back to say he would arrive at 2:00 PM, which was a little early. He had previously told me to turn on my cell phone at 1:30 PM, in case he hit traffic coming down the freeway. It was about 50 miles. He drove himself down. David told me later he hit some slowdowns, but then it was always hard to get out of 'downtown'. I know when I was driven up to UCLA it was a tough go and it took us 90 minutes to go 59 miles. David said it was two hours coming down in the middle of the day. He was so glad to finally be there.

We were setting up his table when the phone chirped letting me know I missed a call. So I dialed him back and he wasn't picking up, so I hung up. Then the phone decided to ring. So I answered "yes, David"... Luckily it was him. He was coming up from the parking garage. It was a really long way, but I finally spotted him coming up the escalator.

I got to the rope with his badge as the guard stopped him. I hung his badge around his neck and said David was with me and the guard let him in. I took the bag and the suitcase David had and rolled them down to our table.

Once David was shown where our table had been moved to (one row over), he said he had to go over to one of the convention hotels. I showed him where to exit and he took care of his errand. He came back all sweaty, carrying his sweater. They had the back doors open and the hall was too warm, so I spread the sweater out to dry. Once they closed those doors, the hall cooled off. I helped him back into his sweater a few hours later.

We had a good Friday - we made sales on a steady basis and in between David signed the 24 items I had in presales. He was in good mood, wanted to know all about my book research at UCLA. He had brought me back Chapter 11 of the Five Fingers book he had edited. David had loaned me his annotated scripts from the TV series and they are really adding to the book. He is a good editor, too.

He mentioned Alexandra was stranded in Europe because the Iceland Volcano and wouldn't be making it home for Bridget's birthday that weekend. Bridget very graciously forwent a birthday celebration on Friday, so David could work late at the con. The autograph area closed at 9 PM, and David left about 7:40 PM to drive home.

He had decided to spend Saturday night in Anaheim, after that long drive on Friday and booked a room at the Marriott. Bridget came down about 5 PM on Saturday and they had a lovely birthday dinner together at the JW Steakhouse. David said he always takes Bridget out to dinner on her birthday, so she doesn't have to cook.

The hall was crowded on Saturday, but most of the buyers were in line (for 5 hours) for the two actresses from Charmed, who had never done a con before. A few other celebs, William Shatner and Ed Asner had lines, but the day consisted of mostly one-day ticket holders walking around and looking at everyone. There were certainly enough celebrities, wrestlers, baseball players, producers, comic book artists, voice actors and reality show stars to gawk at. About 250.

We made several sales, Janine came by to say hi, as did Vernon Wells and Kevin Sorbo, Lee Meriwether and Malachi Throne. David has seen Malachi's most recent play, and I had great fun listening to these two old pros dissecting as to what worked (and why) and what didn't. Fascinating.

David went over to talk to "his wife" from Licence to Kill, Priscilla Barnes and Loretta Swit (MASH) kept giving David Trader Jack's snacks all day. They have the same agent. David split the popcorn with me, plus he gave me his guest tag so I could get him "lunch" from the green room. Then he told me to eat it. It was ham and potato salad and very good. That was funny, when I went to get David some fruit punch Sunday morning, the green room guy was training someone as a door guard, looked at me and my tag and said, she works for David Hedison, you can let her in.

Our table neighbor was Daz Crawford - He did the Brosnan Bond film World is Not Enough and was in Blade II. Super nice guy from England. I told him how American green rooms worked and he always managed to snag himself food at the times I told him to go. He even had "tea with milk" with David on Friday. He was 6 foot 5 and gorgeous. The younger women were all over Daz.

David left at 5:30 PM to meet Bridget and we packed up his suitcase once again to take back to our hotel. Since Sunday starts slow, we told David to show up at 11 AM, we would open for him at 10.

The hall was deserted when we arrived. Only about a third of the celebs came in on Sunday. David stayed for two hours, as long as he had business. Then we packed him up and sent him home. He left me several signed pictures to sell after he was gone, which I did. I will make them available on the web site store and on the David Hedison Store on Facebook for those of you who could not go to the con.

It was a great con for all the new people we met: Richard Anderson, Ted Raimi, Ed Asner, Lee Meriwether, Michael J. Pollard, Larry Manetti, Roger Moseley, Mickey Dolenz, Morgan Sheppard, Cliff Simon, Jennifer Rhodes, Priscilla Barnes. Lee was super nice and let me take her picture for a Time Tunnel fan friend of mine. There were also three actors from Land of the Giants there. Don Matheson, Deanna Lund and Don Marshall. They were great to talk to. Don told me he was half Armenian, but no one believes him because he (used to be) blonde.

John had more time than I did, to go around and talk to people like Ilya Salkind, Mindy Sterling, Billy West, and Maurice LaMarche. We also said hello again to actors we had met before Malachi Throne, Richard Herd, Doug Jones, and Erin Gray.

David stopped to chat with Ed Asner on his way out and he told me to stand "over there," with his suitcase. So I did. Ed was looking at me, wondering who I was, so I smiled at him. I'm sure Ed saw me following David out of the hall, rolling David's suitcase.

I went back later and introduced myself, explaining that David was the boss and when he tells me to stand there, I have to. Ed laughed and said, "David was a pansy and that he had tested him and that I could take him." I smiled and said, thanks, but I preferred to do what David wanted me to.

We had a good talk, I told him how much I loved him as Santa in "Elf.' Ed said he was very proud of that movie. On the way out Sunday, Ed stole John's cane, which was leaning on our table. He gave it back and told John he would have given John a picture if he had asked. He then offered to let us take pictures with him, which is how I ended up with Ed Asner's arm around me. Nice man and apparently a long-time friend of David's. He and John got on great. We had a great three days with David. Worth the trip.

Diane Kachmar 4/25/10
Diane's extended convention report