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Con-tact: The Williamsburg Film Festival 2008
Thursday - Friday - Saturday
The first day: Thursday, March 6, 2008
General comments
Guest star panel: Richard Herd and Roger Davis
Solar Guard Reunion
Guest star panel: Don Kay Reynolds and Gregory Walcott
Media table: Links to upcoming conventions |
Past Thunder Child reports on
the Festival
Williamsburg 2006: Jan Merlin and Frankie Thomas
Williamsburg 2007: Richard Anderson
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| The Williamsburg Film Festival takes place every year at the Holidy Inn, Patriot, in Williamsburg, Virginia.
The festival has between 6-10 guest stars each year - most of them more well-known for their work in Westerns than anything else, although, because of their long careers, they usually have done some science fiction! But this year, SF fans got a particular treat, as almost every guest had substantial SF credentials.
Although the festival takes place in March, usually the weather is warm enough so that any spouses or kids can wander around the city or take in the Historic Triangle (Williamsburg, Yorktown, and Jamestown.)
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The author and Roger Davis
This festival has a small, intime atmosphere
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This year, unfortunately, it rained all of Friday and Saturday...
The guests, in alphabetical order:
| Lesley Aletter |
Stunt woman, doubled Sigourney Weaver in Galaxy Quest and Alien Resurrected, Julie Newmar in Return to the Batcave, and more. |
| Roger Davis |
Dark Shadows series, guest-starred on Twilight Zone, Bionic Woman, Wonder Woman and Galactica 1980 |
| Richard Devon |
Space Patrol series, guest-starred on Planet of the Apes, Quark, and Twlight Zone. |
| Richard Herd |
Guest-starred on Quantum Leap, V, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Star Trek: Voyager |
| Ted and Tom LeGarde |
"The LeGarde Twins" - played the Herman series of androids on the "I, Mudd" episode of Star Trek. |
| Lee Meriwether |
Did the series Time Tunnel and starred as Catwoman in the Batman feature film. Losira in Star Trek, etc. |
| Don Kay Reynolds |
A child actor in Westerns, he is now an animal trainer. He trained Shadowfax for The Lord of the Rings. |
Prince Caspian poster at Regal Crown Cinema's table |
As is my custom, I went in at about 6 pm on Wednesday, to pick up my tickets for all three days of the convention, and visit the Dealer's Room. It's fun to watch people set up their wares, and browse around looking for any bargains.
(I didn't find any, this year. Last year, I found a copy of Buster Crabbe: A Self Portrait, by Karl Whitezel, going for $30 less than on Amazon's used-book section (at that time), so I snapped that up in a heart-beat.
The Thursday events began at 11:00 am, with guest-stars at their tables, scattered throughout the dealer's room, ready to talk to their fans, sign autographs, and pose for photos.
As you entered the Dealer/Autograph room, you first passed the Regal Crown Cinema table, (which I thought was a good thing, as for the last two years they'd been stuck way in the back of the room...)
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I liked their Narnia display - a large plush lion, a sword - albeit made out of wood, but painted the appropriate colors, and the poster. They offered free posters of various movies, free pens, and free boxes of mints. On Friday and Saturday there was also a TV so people could watch trailers of upcoming movies.
Then I started making the rounds of the tables, getting autographs in my program. I started with Gregory Walcott, as I'd seen him many years ago in a movie called Man of the East, starring Terence Hill, and wanted to talk to him about it.
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Talk about "Southern gentleman"! He simply exuded charm as he spoke with his fans. He was flanked by his family - his wife Barbara on one side and his daughter on the other, and it was great to see such a dedicated and loving family.
Walcott's biography, Hollywood Adventures was published in 2003, and is available from Amazon.com. |
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Gregory Walcott |
I asked him about Terence Hill and he spoke warmly of him, so that made my day too. I mentioned that I was from Salina, Kansas, [originally] and got to use the line, "We're not in Kansas anymore!" which I'd always wanted to do.
I stopped at Roger Davis' table to take a photo, and before I had a chance to say a word, he'd jumped to his feet and offered to have my photo taken with him. I thought that was very nice, and I could almost - but not quite - forgive him for having staked Jonathan Frid's Barnabas Collins in The House of Dark Shadows.
Daniel Boone
At 12:15 pm, I went to the Guest Star Theatre to see Richard Devon in the first of two of his TV episodes being shown: Daniel Boone: "The Plague That Came To Ford's Run."
It was an interesting episode, and still resonates today (as indeed, lots of classic television does!). Boone's sidekick Josh (Jimmy Dean) travels to his old home town to seek out a German farmer who had made him a guitar, but there are some new men in town (one of whom is Richard Devon) who don't like immigrants, people who can't speak English properly, and intend to drive them out of the country - for all that the immigrants in question had been in the country longer than they had!
Daniel Boone, set just after the American Revolution, was made during the 1960s, and immigrants were coming into the States and facing prejudice, so plenty of TV shows, of all genres, made such episodes with "social messages" in them.
Richard Devon |
After his other episode, "Eager Man" from the Steve McQueen series Wanted Dead or Alive, Mr. Devon entered the room and had a question and answer session. He talked a great deal about Steve McQueen, with whom he got along with well.
McQueen was a star even at this time, but got along well with people as long as they did things his way. And once he was done with a scene - the way he liked it - the scene was done. He had a habit of unbuckling his gunbelt at the end of filming a scene and letting it drop into the dirt, despite the fact that the props people would have to clean it every night to get rid of all that dirt. |
At 2 pm I returned to the Guest Star Theater. Lee Meriwether's film The 4D Man was being shown. Unfortunately, she was not available to do an introduction. I sat through about 35 minutes of the film, then, because I wanted to assure a good seat, left to attend the 3 pm panel featuring Richard Herd and Roger Davis. (She did show up for the Q&A after the movie finished, and stayed for at least half an hour talking about the film.)
As an aside, what I saw of The 4D Man was okay..., if a bit soap opera-ish, but it was totally ruined by a completely unsuitable score - an upbeat jazz score that never changed rhythm or tempo. No feelings of suspense or portent could be conveyed with a score like that!
Richard Herd and Roger Davis
| Moderator Mitch Wesberg introduced Richard Herd and Roger Davis, questioning each about their early years in the business and then gradually moving forward in time.
Richard Herd started out in the theater, and performed in over a hundred plays before moving into the bread-and-butter of the television. He pointed out that his first movie role had been in Hercules in New York, in 1970 (when he was 38 years old.) This was Arnold Schwarzenegger's first movie. |
Robert Herd and Roger Davis |
Roger Davis spoke about his early career, and talked briefly about the unique soap opera, Dark Shadows. [About six months into the Gothic soap opera, vampire Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid) was introduced. After that it went into science fiction, fantasy and horror, and the series bounced back and forth in time. Actors who played one character in the present day found themselves playing completely different characters in different time periods, which is how the same ensemble cast of actors stayed together and got to show their acting chops.]
He went on to tell how he got into voice work - a director noticed one time that he sounded like Henry Fonda, so they used him to do a commercial (and he did an impersonation of Fonda and Robert Kennedy right in front of us). But he pointed out that "sounding" like another actor was actually a bad thing, as every actor wanted to be an original. (However, he made so much money out of his voice-over work that he was able to move into the real-estate business!)
He spoke about taking over as Hannibal Hayes in the program Alias Smith and Jones, just a week after the suicide of Pete Duel, and how hard that was.
Robert Herd spoke about his acting career - how he got the role on T. J. Hooker even though he hadn't really wanted it, and so on. [Unfortunately, the moderator never asked him what it was like to work with William Shatner!]
Herd has taken up painting in the last few years, (and had some prints of his work for sale, but no originals, unfortunately), and was very much a motivational speaker as he exhorted the audience to find a passion and devote themselves to it - it's never too late to get started.
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Richard Herd as John in V (1983). Below, Roger Davis stakes Jonathan Frid in House of Dark Shadows (1970).
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Solar Guard Reunion
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As usual, the Solar Guard Reunion was held at the Festival, led by Cadet Ed Pippin - webmaster of the Solar Guard website.
Cadet Ed had a table, with Cadet Mike Turco working mock-up of Space Patrol's Terra IV cockpit in a place of honor. Cadet Ed had his binder full of information on both Tom Corbett, Space Cadet and Space Patrol. In addition, each evening from about 5.30 pm to 11 pm, they showed science fiction videos in the Guest Star Theater - SF movies, and episodes of Space Patrol and Tom Corbett, Space Cadet.
Also as usual, I only got to see the first hour-and-a-half of showings each evening, as I always like to get to the Guest Star panels at least half-an-hour early to get a good seat in one of the front rows.
Today, we were treated to trailers for Rocketship X-M and Cosmic Man, then the "Amazon Women on the Moon" segment from the SF spoof Amazon Women of the Moon, which starred Steve Forrest. Next was an episode of Science Fiction Theatre, a 50s anthology series, starring Dane Clark and Beverl Garland in "Negative Man," and finally, an episode of the 1959-60 near-SF series Men Into Space, starring William Lundigan. |
Don Reynolds and Gregory Walcott
| Don Kay Reynolds started life as a child actor - he played Little Beaver in the Red Ryder serials which starred Jim Bannon, and then moved into animal training - everything from cows to goats to horses - even an elephant. For the science fiction and fantasy fan, he was the onle who trained the horse who played Gandalf's Shadowfax, although he never went into the specifics of what his training techniques were.
He did share an amusing story about Ian McKellen. McKellen and a child costumed as an orc were seated on Shadowfax's saddle, with Reynolds on a horse beside them.
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Gregory Walcott and Don Kay Reynolds |
The horse bumped into Reynold's, and he looked over to see what was going on - McKellen and the orc had fallen off the other side - although fortunately the kid had fallen on McKellen. This caused Reynolds some concern - if he couldn't even sit on a horse without falling off, what would happen when the horse started moving? But, he worked on his horsemanship and it all turned out well.
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Gregory Walcott is perhaps most famous for starring in "the worst movie ever made" - Plan Nine From Outer Space (1959), directed by Ed Wood, and co-starring Tor Johnson, Lyle Talbot and Bela Lugosi among others.
He took the role to help a friend...and soon regretted it. For many years he resented the role, but admits now that it is because of this film that he has stayed in the public eye for 50 years.
Plan Nine was not Walcott's first film - that was Red Sky of Montana (1952). It was his role as a drill sargeant in Battle Cry that really started him in his career, and then he co-starred opposite Claudette Colbert in Texas Lady in 1955. More film roles and TV guest star appearances followed. |
The plot of Plan Nine From Outer Space
The story takes place in the "near future" of 1968.
Aliens - Eros and Tanna - land on Earth, determined to destroy the planet to keep mankind from expanding into outer space. They implement their Plan Nine, which is to resurrect the dead as zombies, and have them destroy mankind.
Airline pilot Jeff Trent, played by Gregory Walcott, must save his wife and the day.
Media Table: Convention Flyers
Fantasmo Cult Cinema Explosion: First Friday of every month, Cult Film Double feature, Chesapeake Library, 298 Ceder Road, Chesapeake, VA
Cincinnati North Hotel, 11911 Sheraton Lane, Cincinnati, OH, 45246
Old Time Radio and Nostalgia Convention, April 11, 2008
Cincinnati North Hotel, 11911 Sheraton Lane, Cincinnati, OH, 45246
Email haradio@hotmail.com for details. (They have no website!)
Pulp Adventurecon #8: March 29, 2008. Ramada Inn, Bordentown, New Jersey.
The Memphis Film Festival: June 5-7, 2008. Whispering Woods Hotel, Olive Branch, Mississippi
31st Annual Western Film Fair: July 16-19, 2008. Clarion Sundance Plaza Hotel, Winston Salem, North Carolina
Slapsticon 2008: July 17-20, 2008. Rosslyn Spectrum Theater, Arlington, VA
4th Annual Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention: September 18-20, 2008. The Clarion Hotel, Aberdeen, Maryland
Media Table: Vendors
Western Collectables - Commercial site: DVDs, books, lobby cards, etc.
Magazines
The Midnight Palace: movie magazine.
Classic Images: movie magazine.
Societies
The International Buster Keaton Society, the Damfinos
Continue to Friday's events.
Thursday - Friday - Saturday
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Click on the icons for new features in The Thunder Child.
Radiation Theater: 1950s Sci Fi Movies Discussion Boards
The Sand Rock Sentinel: Ripped From the Headlines of 1950s Sci Fi Films
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