I was pumped for a busy week/weekend. It would have been even busier had the Morrissey concert scheduled for Wednesday, October 24, 2012. But it was, and although I was disappointed, I had a bit of a reprieve from the totally insane amount of activity that would be coming up. Then I saw – and met – the Afghan Whigs, on Thursday the 25th. In my mind, this really kicked off what would amount to about 50 celebrity encounters by week’s end. I didn’t get back to my Mom’s until about after 2am that morning, but I was up by 7:30 the next morning, ready to begin my celebrity sabbatical.
The journey started with a solo drive to Knoxville, Tennessee. Here I would find the first ever Fanboy Expo, and event which had been scheduled – and then canceled – in Pigeon Forge earlier in the year. It wasn’t a massive event, but I thought it might be fun to check it out in lieu of flying to New Jersey for the Chiller Theatre event going on the same weekend. In the end, the lure of the Chiller, the cheaper flights out of Knoxville, and my insatiable quest for cool celebrity encounters took me to both shows.
So I began my drive around 8:30am from Mom’s house, well-equipped with a stockpile of music on my iPod, and before I knew it I was pulling into the parking lot of The Parkette Drive-In in Lexington, Kentucky. They didn’t open until 11am, so I had about a fifteen minute wait. This restaurant, as you might have guessed, had been featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives – specifically in the episode You Found ‘Em. It was still equipped to handle drive-in service, but I opted to eat inside the diner and soak in the 50’s atmosphere.
Their specialty was the “Poor Boy”, a hamburger conceived in 1951 when the restaurant first opened. It was topped with the special “Parkette Sauce” and although it resembled a Frisch’s Big Boy, I’m here to tell you that it tasted even better. I also added a chili dog, which was also featured on the show.
DD&D #53: Parkette Drive In in Lexington, Kentucky
The sweet interior of the Parkette
Like a Big Boy… but better
Driving makes me hungry
From the Parkette, I had about another three hour drive to Knoxville and the Jacob Building at Chilhowee Park. The weather got gradually warmer as I headed south and it was in the 70’s by the time I got to the show, which had opened at noon, at about 2:30. I was immediately stunned to find that the place was a ghost town. This proved to be ideal in gathering up my small list of autographs and photo ops, except for a couple of things. First of all, the actors were getting bored and roaming around, so it was hard to catch them at their tables. Secondly, there was literally no one around to take pictures for me. Sometimes I’d have to actually leave the table and go find another fan. I actually felt a little sorry for the convention (although I heard that it did pretty well on Saturday).
Some of the actors at the show were more recent heartthrobs like folks from Twilight and X-Men 2, as well as some folks who had microscopic roles in some of the Star Wars films. These were folks of whom I had no interest in getting. And as always there were a few whom I had met in the past: C. Thomas Howell, Richard Kiel, George Lazenby, Lana Wood, Dirk Benedict, Camden Toy, and Paris Themmen. Cancellations included Kathy Najimy, Thomas Ian Nichols, C.J. Graham (whom I had already met) and of utmost disappointment, Marc Singer – who was one of the actors on the list who drawing me there in the first place. Two of the actors on my list had experienced flight delays and wouldn’t be in until the next day. The guy running the show was kind enough to give me a free admission wristband for Sunday, so that I could pop back in and pick them up then.
All in all, it still proved to be a worthwhile event, with the bulk of the celebrities giving free photos with an autograph purchase. I spent a bit of time talking to Paris Themmen about future prospects of Willy Wonka reunions and photo ops, and he would later take a picture for me with another celeb as he was walking around. You can check out the trail of celebrities from the show beginning here.
I finished up at the show a little after 4pm and headed over to my hotel for the night, the Country Inn & Suites in Alcoa. This motel was situated just a few minutes from the airport, and more importantly, near McDonald’s. There’s just something pleasing about eating McDonald’s in motel rooms. I spent the bulk of my evening relaxing in my room, eating dinner, chatting on the phone, on Facebook, and listening to the iPod. Of course, I had to get to sleep early to catch an early flight the next day.
My flight out of Knoxville departed at 6:40am and arrived at its layover in Philadelphia at 8:21am. I sat next to a lady with Starbucks drinking a cold Starbucks beverage. Southern stupidity seemed to permeate this flight, and collectively the passengers smelled like a giant Frito. The next flight to Newark was scheduled to take off at 9:35am, but was delayed until about 11am, at which time they brought in a plane from Allentown and I sat next to an Asian woman with a friendly smile. This didn’t get me to Newark until close to noon, and consequently after my friend Peter picked me up, we didn’t get to Chiller until about 12:40pm. Ordinarily this wouldn’t be a problem, but I had so many celebrities on my list to get, I was concerned that we would literally run out of time before my quest was completed.
The Chiller Theatre Show had switched to an all-new location: the Parsippany Sheraton. Overall, this proved to be neutral, as the crowds were as out-of-control as always, and there were in some cases long lines to get into certain rooms or areas. But what was certain was that the star-power (at least to me) was off the charts compared to any celebrity show that I’d attended before. I had initially made the decision not to attend this show, but soon enough the scales were tipped in the favor of going after all. Then additional names kept being added almost every other day, and soon I had the longest list of celebs that I had ever taken to any show.
In addition to the many that I got that weekend, here is the additional lengthy list of the celebrities I had already gotten: Julie Adams, Andrew Anderson, Brutus Beefcake, Linda Blair, Morgan Brittany, Conrad Brooks, Kristine Debell, Eddie Deezen, Shannon Elizabeth, Deborah Foreman, Valerie Harper, Ken Kelly, Barry Livingston, Stanley Livingston, Donna Loren, Penny Marshall, Pamela Sue Martin, Lee Meriwether, Miles O’Keeffe, Aileen Quinn, Eric Shea, Mews Small, Carroll Spinney, Barbara Steele, Connie Stevens, Greg Valentine, Frank Vincent, Virgil, Donna Wilkes, Lita Ford, Richie Scarlet, and Ace Frehley. Just imagine how intense this convention would have been if I had just started collecting…
The show was both extremely exhausting and highly rewarding. Peter was quite a trooper throughout the day, taking pictures, and keeping me great company. I think we had more meaningful discussions as we waited in lines than we ever had before. We took only very brief breaks for shirt changes and so that he could grab something to eat at the car. By the end of the day, I think we were both ready to collapse. You can follow the trail of the celebrities at this star-studded event here. Also of note was that I ran into fellow Sons of the Desert member Kevin Mulligan at the show.
For a show that was so wrought with potential for disaster, including flight delays and the incoming Hurricane Sandy, everything went remarkably smooth despite the sheer exhaustion that it brought about. The only casualties of the day were that I missed out on Dustin Diamond (whom I heard left at noon that day), Lisa Loring (who took off about an hour early, before I had reached her area), Ian Ziering (who left early, and after I saw what he was charging, I would have skipped anyway), and finally, John Bobbitt (who was a last minute addition and would have proved an interesting novelty – depending on his prices – but had left early). So I lopped him off the list as well. Josip Elic and Lee Meredith were both on my list, but took off after their appearance on Friday, likely because of the incoming hurricane.
Cancellations that had occurred before the date of the show included Patty Duke, Anthony Michael Hall, and Dan Coscarelli. I had already met Duke and Hall, but was hoping to get additional autographs on items I had. I only bypassed two celebs on my ‘maybe’ list: Stefania Casini (I was hoping she’d have a photo from 1900, but she did not), and Keith Emerson (who was charging a whopping $70 for an autograph/photo op combo). And finally, there was Kirk Hammett from Metallica, who was supposed to be present on Saturday, and was only signing for winners of a drawing. I entered the drawing but wasn’t selected, but it made no difference; he postponed to Sunday and then canceled altogether.
Peter and I left the show at around 6:30. Tired and hungry, we made our way to the Tick Tock Diner in Clifton, New Jersey. Of course this was a DD&D restaurant, and had been featured on the New Jersey Diner Tour episode. Since I had conflicting reports from online blogger, who claimed the featured item was meatloaf, and the waitress, who said it was chicken parmesan, I just took a chance on the Bleu Burger and Disco Fries (covered in mozzarella and brown gravy). The fries, which the waitress said had also been featured, were just fair, but the burger was definitely one of the best I’ve ever had. I think this diner also gets the award for being the largest DD&D I’ve ever visited.
So tired I can barely remove my Chiller Theatre wristband
DD&D #54: Tick Tock Diner in Clifton, New Jersey
Simply one of the tastiest burgers I’ve ever had
Relaxing after an incredibly long day. Do we look beat?
After dinner, Peter drove me to my motel, the same Econo Lodge motel in Elizabeth that I had stayed earlier this year. He stuck around for a bit for a chat, and I passed off a few signed Catsafterme photos to him. It was really cool of him to take such good care of me during this and previous visits, and I appreciated having Peter with me as both my photographer and as good company. He took off and I chatted with Jamie for a while over the phone. It was late when we finished our conversation and then I had trouble sleeping, the net result being that I had about three hours of sleep – bringing my three-day total to roughly eleven hours.
I got up at a little after 4am the next morning in order to catch the shuttle to the Newark airport. My first flight was from 6:45am to 8:48; I sat next to a gangsta with elbows and landed in Charlotte. I got lucky on my second flight at 9:40 and was able to switch to a seat with no one next to me. I got to Knoxville on time at 10:43.
After working my way back to my car in the airport lot, I drove back to the Fanboy Expo. It was now rainy and had dropped about 30 degrees since Friday. I was trying to catch two of the actors who had missed the show on the first day. I got the first one without incident, but the second one, Adrian Paul, had a sign that said he’d be in at noon. With a half-hour to wait, I decided to go have lunch at McDonald’s and then go back.
I never did see Adrian Paul. I overheard his handler say that he wasn’t doing any photo ops, because there had been a professional one scheduled the day before. I decided that I didn’t need Adrian Paul, after all. So I packed up and headed home.
The ride home was uneventful, and actually went relatively quickly. I made some phone calls and listened to music and got home before 6pm. I had seriously considered going to see George Lopez perform live at The Funny Bone, which would have upped the ante of this ultimate weekend even more, but in the end, I realized that he really isn’t one of my favorites and that I might get heckled if I fell asleep during the show.
Either way, this will doubtlessly go down in my personal history as the weekend of the most celebrity encounters ever.
2012 will continue…
Follow the trail of celebrity encounters from both shows, which begins here…
Hey, it was my pleasure to be even a little part of this “Ultimate Weekend.”
Yes, it definitely was exhausting and I was very much feeling it by the time you had your last few celebrity encounters at Chiller. But overall I was glad to be there – primarily for the good conversations with you as well as the overall spectacle / experience that was Chiller.
Peter
November 27th, 2012
I’m glad to hear that your travel plans were not hampered by the hurricane. It sounds as if you had a great, if not exhausting, weekend.
Dave Chasteen
November 28th, 2012
The curious thing is that over in West Virginia Alex Schoenbaum was operating Parkette Drive Ins that joined Big Boy in 1952 and offered the Big Boy hamburger as the “Poor Boy’s Meal”. (see http://oldroanoke.net/lendys/sho1aX.JPG and http://www.wvliving.com/Spring-2012/All-American-Tradition/) In 1954 the West Virginia Parkette Big Boys changed their name to Shoney’s Big Boy.
Bob Thomas
June 10th, 2014