Diane's Long form report

David showed up early on Saturday, which suited me because there were early bird buyers and he made money.  He called me on my cell when he was five minutes out.

So I ran out of the hall, hopped in his car, which was a darker grey than I remembered, found him a parking spot behind the convention center and brought him in the side artist's entrance.

And we sold all day. The place was packed to the gills. Between the seven Sound of Music kids - at $150.00 a pop for both their book and another $150.00 for their photo op and the Laverne and Shirley reunion - long lines were the order of the day.

The rest of us celebrities had like five people in line in front of us the whole day.

Bernie Kopell showed up in his Love Boat uniform, Dave Ketchum - Agent 13 - from Get Smart - the guy who was always in file cabinets and trees and such, were around the corner from us.

David was popular with the actors. Bill Mumy came over two tables and wished us well. He was a great neighbor. Michael J. Pollard also came over early one and greeted David. Sally Kellerman stopped by. Barbara Steele came by.

After about the sixth actress came around the sign - behind the table to greet David and get a kiss - I teasingly told David: “I see, you are kissing all the girls!”

David grinned - a very rakish grin, leaned back in his chair and told me: "Of course, I'm kissing all the girls." Yep, still got it!

Barbara Bouchet (Tippy in The Left Handed Man) got a big kiss and very kindly posed for a picture with David for me.  What a nice lady. Keir Dullea came over twice. Seems his wife Mia did a play with David in 1998 (Return Engagements).

Turns out Eddie Mekka is half Armenian. He and David had a good chat.

Lana Wood sent a male friend to say hello. David walked down the row to say hi to Kathryn Leigh Scott. She came up later to return the visit.

We got posters and lunchboxes and remote control 39 inch Seaviews placed on the table for David to sign. Bond books and Fly books and DVD covers and inserts. The Fly bobbleheads were very popular. And we sold Fly at Fifty books.

We had printed up some new pictures, since David has been to this show before, five years ago.  And they were popular and sold, too.

It was a good Saturday.

The con fed us Ice Cream and Pollo Loco spicy chicken, beans, corn and rice for lunch. It was too spicy for me, but David tucked right in and ate everything.  He said he felt better after that, that the lunch gave him his energy back. He did very well. Talked to everybody. Posed for pictures.

It was nice. Everyone kept telling David how much they liked him. How good he was in all his roles, that he was the best Felix Leiter ever. (Several times).

He told me one of the Brady Kids told him Captain Crane was his hero when David went down the row behind us to talk to his neighbors.

Robbie Rist was behind us and David thought it was funny that he ended up at the head of the row of Brady kids, because he was asked to play Mike Brady... but turned it down.

We became friends with Robbie's Rist's wife - they were right behind us in the table cube.  She said Robbie couldn't believe his luck and Tweeted: 'OMG  I'm sitting with Captain Crane' on Saturday. They were great neighbors.

On Saturday, their young daughter brought two of her friends and they sat quietly at the end table - one of the Brady Kids had left - so Robbie moved down and when David asked about their tablet computer - they showed him what they were playing.

It was quieter on Sunday - so David went down the row across from us to talk to Gary Lockwood, who was next to Keir Dullea and then Barbara Bouchet came down and Brett Halsey went over there and they had quite the yakfest.

Next thing I know. David is yelling for me - to bring the camera over - for the website. For an old man, his voice really carries.

He wanted me to get the group shot of all five actors. I got about four shots before everyone else realized photo OP and the whole thing turned into paparazzi moment with 15 cell phones and Iphones going off behind me.

That was about the only exciting thing that happened on Sunday.

David signed for everyone who wanted a picture and then he left. I packed up - I had to rearrange everything in my suitcase as I was checked out of the hotel. I had arranged to be picked by a shuttle van at 7:30 PM for my red-eye flight home to Florida. Tony was early and Armenian, so we had a great time talking as we drove all over LA picking up the rest of the folks bound for LAX.

It was a great con.      

Diane Kachmar

April 28, 2012