The Terrible Catsafterme

So are you asking yourself what would possess me to pack a grip and head to New York via airplane, stay less than 24 hours and then head home? Well I’ll tell you in two words: Chiller Theatre. This show  is the eastern equivalent of the Hollywood Collectors Show that takes place in Burbank and is remarkably attended with some big names, even many who never make it to the west coast shows. When my longtime friend Bill Cappello suggested that I attend the show on April 18, 2009, I though that it would be highly unlikely, until I saw the impressive line-up.

So there I was at 4:30 in the morning on that Saturday, once again heading out the door and to the Dayton International Airport. I had now enacted the ultimate revenge on fate, which had ruined my plans to go the Hollywood Show in February. I had already went to the Chicago show and now I was heading off to New York for a second substitute celebrity show.

At first it looked as if fate would have the last laugh once again by giving me one of the most miserable flights in a long time. First of all, it was late leaving Dayton. Scheduled to depart at 6:15am, we didn’t get off the ground until nearly 7:30, when they couldn’t start the plane! This worried me a great deal because, I had to make a connection in Detroit at 8:38. Then I kindly did my good deed of the day and allowed a mother with her young child to take my seat when the airport didn’t book them together. I lived to regret it though because I got stuck in a window seat next to some big Yeti whose leg sometimes brushed against mine. I wanted to jump out the window.

Fortunately, although I had to hightail it from the arriving terminal all the way to the complete opposite terminal in the Detroit airport (which was in fact a very nice airport), I made it onto my connecting flight with seconds to spare. From then on, the day was relatively smooth sailing.

Along with Bill, whom I had first met at the New York Sons of the Desert Convention in Tarrytown in 1994 and had remained friends with for all of the intervening years, another former convention attendee named Peter was one of Bill’s chums in the area with whom I had also become friends. Peter and I didn’t communicate often after our meeting at the convention, but have more recently became friends, particularly through this very website, of which he is an ardent follower. He was particularly happy at the prospect of contributing to my adventures and offered to drive Bill and me to the show.

So they met me at LaGuardia airport at my Northwest terminal and we headed directly to the show, which was actually being held at the Marriott in Parsippany, New Jersey about 45 minutes away. Although we never made it into Manhattan during my day trip, I could spot the city, the Empire State Building, and both the new and old Yankee Stadiums, currently sitting side-by-side, as we drove over the Hudson River on the George Washington Bridge.

The Manhattan skyline – as seen from the road. The tallest building near the right side is the Empire State Building

The Chiller Theatre Show itself was quite the spectacle. Incredibly crowded, celebrities were packed into almost every available section of the hotel, including the lobby lounge area, various meeting rooms, and even a tent erected outside. While the theme of the show was horror films and shows, this was a stretch for some of the guests in attendance. The show also has the distinction of holding a wild after-party during which many of the attendees come dressed in horror costumes and many of the musical celebrities actually perform. We didn’t stay for this portion of the show however.

Peter wanted to see one of my patented live ‘points’ – so this car with the Ace Frehley sticker in the window sufficed

The numerous celebrity encounters that I had were mostly pleasant. As always there are a few bad apples in the bunch who make things – shall we say – not so fun for the collector. One case in point was Lou Ferrigno, but I will discuss more about him at a later time. Corbin Bernsen was another, whose prices were so exorbitant that I chose to bypass him all together. Some of the celebrities present were one who had been scheduled to be at the Hollywood Collectors Show that I had missed.

Others here were folks whom I had obtained photos and autographs from before. Tony Curtis, Erika Eleniak, and Cynthia Myers were celebs with whom I chatted for a minute or two but did not bother with signatures or photos. There were other good celebs here as well whom I had met before and didn’t stop to talk to including: Noel Neill, William Forsythe, Donna Mills, Mickey Dolenz, Dwayne Hickman, and Christopher Atkins. The only real disappointment of the day was that Styx guitarist Glen Burtnik, while apparently at the hotel, never showed up in the autograph area.

Peter with Tony Curtis. I sneakily snapped this photo as Peter was chatting with Curtis about one his favorite shows The Persuaders

Bill with Zacherly, a local horror TV host with a tremendous following in New York

Me with a slice of pepperoni pizza during a much needed Parsippany snack break

For the most part, I was quite pleased that most of the celebs did not charge to have your photo taken with them if you made a purchase, others were moderately priced at $10, and at least one of whom I was more than willing to pay the $20 fee. Overall, a highly successful show and one which I will be monitoring for consideration to attend again in the future. Naturally, I will be presenting separate postings of the celebs in their own postings – beginning here.

After we left the show, Peter, Bill, and I headed over to a nearby Applebees where it was nice to sit down for a bit and just have a chance to chat and catch up after the crowded madness of the show. And the Fire Pit Bacon Burger didn’t hurt either, courtesy of Bill and his gift card.

Peter, Bill, and me kicking back at the Parsippany Applebees

The three of us headed back into New York where we went on a brief driving tour through Westchester, just north of New York City, where both Peter and Bill lived. We made a stop by Bill’s house, a nice three-story colonial, with Bill and his parents occupying the first and second floor. His folks live in the lower level and it was a pleasure meeting them as well. Peter and I talked Bill into letting us into his portion of the house so we could poke around his collection and I could update my Facebook status. Bill has a nice collection of movies, autographs, and books and was in fact getting ready to get rid of a batch of DVDs, offering Peter and me first dibs on anything we wanted. Generous as his offer was, I only picked out one: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.

Bill and me outside his Mt. Vernon home

Updating Facebook at Bill’s place

Bill and his great Three Stooges moving figures. Unfortunately, they no longer move as originally designed

Not having a whole slew of options of things to do at this late hour, and not wanting to travel into Manhattan by car (or with such limited time), we decide to make a visit to a casino in Yonkers called Empire City, bypassing any notion of seeing a New York strip club. Peter was kind enough to want to take some photos of me at the slots (which I quickly lost $5.00 at before calling it quits), with my obligatory White Russian, and in front of the indoor bandstand where a cheesy, geriatric disco band was playing tunes of the 70’s. He succeeded, but apparently took one too many before a female security guard who had seen one too many milkshakes forced us to erase all of the photos taken inside the casino.

Sending Heidi greetings from New York as I enter the casino in Yonkers

My favorite part of the evening was venturing into Tarrytown, the site of the 1994 Sons convention where we had all three met fifteen years earlier. In fact this was the last place we had seen each other. Being a nostalgia-fiend, I always enjoy these types of walks down memory lane, seeing the locations that had served as my stomping grounds for a week of my life from years in the past. The banquet area and gathering hall had changed very little. We asked a gentleman vacuuming the carpets to take our photo together in this area, the one featured at the top of the posting. The lobby had changed significantly, but with the addition of free internet access for the guests – which we were most emphatically not. However this didn’t stop me from getting online for a bit.

Back at our old convention stomping grounds

The familiar huge gathering area outside the banquet rooms where I hung out for a good portion of the 1994 Sons convention

Sneaking computer time in the lobby. I was a paying guest…fifteen years ago

By this time, we were approaching midnight so we headed over to the Mamaroneck Diner & Pizza, a very nice eatery in the city of the same name. Here I enjoyed a nice Crab Cakes Benedict and lengthy chat with my pals. Although I like to think that I am immune to wearing out, as we began to inch our way toward the 24-hours-of-my-being-awake mark, I started to really feel like collapsing and was wishing that I had a nice soft bed in which to lay my weary bones.

Late night breakfast in Mamaroneck

At LaGuardia, fading fast as the 24 hour mark closes in. Even Jack Bauer doesn’t stay this busy.

Unfortunately, I had a lengthy trip back to Dayton to attend to first. We left the diner around 3:30am and headed to LaGuardia. I had to wait in the lobby until 5am when they opened security. I found my gate and lightly nodded off for minutes at a time. I had no trouble sleeping on the flight back to Detroit which left at 6am and arrived at 7:54. Then, naturally, it was another lengthy walk through that cool Detroit airport during the two hour layover, followed by an exactly-one-hour flight to Dayton, which arrived at 11:07am.

I had left my car in the daily parking, so I walked to that, paid my fee, and drove on home. The couch never looked so inviting. I plopped my newly acquired collectibles and camera full of great photos aside, watched some TV and then took a four-hour nap. All the while, I had the memories of another great adventure swirling in my head, ripe to be chronicled on a website such as this one.

Follow the trail of Chiller celebs here…

2009 will continue…

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 3rd, 2009 at 6:20 am and is filed under 2000's - Late, Celebrity Encounters, Vacations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.