Hollywood Weekend Featuring a Galaxy of Stars
Sunday, May 16th, 2010
I knew that it would behoove me to bring along a large wad of cash to the Hollywood Show held at the Burbank Mariott Hotel and Convention Center on Saturday, April 24, and Sunday, April 25, 2010. The collector and celebrity show in Burbank must certainly be one of the largest in the country. The one on this date was the fifth one I’ve attended over the past five years (seventh total) and I must say that it was the best show I’ve seen to date. I usually pontificate on the greediness of the some of the celebrities, but I’m going to spare you that this time. After all, no matter if there were a few putzes in the mix, I came away happy…albeit much poorer. Read the rest of this entry »
I was particularly interested in getting a photo take with Spin and Marty so that I could share it with my Dad. I know the power of nostaligic TV shows from one’s childhood and the serial installments of The Adventures of Spin and Marty on the Mickey Mouse Club were a major one for him. Although I own the Walt Disney Treasure DVD (in the collector tin) of the first of three seasons of their series, I have only had time to watch a few of them. Obviously though, as die-hard Disney buff and aficionado, I had enough interest in having Bob pick up a dual signed photo of the boys’ team when they had made a rare joint appearance at a Hollywood Collectors Show. 
A pessimist such as I might look at the bad news that this posting will eventually get around to revealing: that I did not get to meet, nor did I get an autograph of Luise Rainer. But as I now reflect on the experience of just seeing her in person, I deemed that this event merited a posting of its own. It was on Sunday, April 25, 2010, that Bob and I attended a screening of The Good Earth at the Egyptian Theatre in Burbank. Actually, we didn’t even attend the screening itself. We just stopped in to see Louise Rainer. 
We’ve all loved David Spade in his deliciously snide roles in Saturday Night Live and Just Shoot Me. We’ve laughed with him for his wry, pessimistic, and wonderfully sarcastic roles opposite Chris Farley in the classic Tommy Boy and Black Sheep. But what do you suppose Mr. Spade would be like in real life? Surely the snippiness is all just an act, right? Well, I think I can answer that question based on the ten seconds I had with him on Saturday, April 4, 2010. 
I hadn’t planned to take the side trip excursion to Paris, France during my weeklong visit to England, mostly because I had already been there before. This may sound silly, but if I had intended to go, the number one reason would be to visit the Hard Rock Cafe. So I nearly almost passed up the trip even when circumstances (namely a couple who had signed up for the trip never made it to England) allowed me to go for free, because I knew there wouldn’t be an opportunity to get to the Hard Rock during our brief guided tour of the city. But there was one specific thing that I had not accomplished the