Photo by Dave Nimitz
Last Saturday, I went out to Burbank to attend the Collectors Show at the Burbank Marriott. This is more-or-less the same function that was once known as the Hollywood Collectors Show which a gent named Ray Courts began and staged from time to time at the Beverly Garland Hotel in North Hollywood. I believe it was Ray who moved the show to the hotel in Burbank across the street from Bob Hope Airport which keeps changing names but is presently a Marriott. Then Ray sold it to others who have operated it since. This was the last one in the Burbank location. Beginning with the January 12-13 show, they'll be at the Westin out by Los Angeles International Airport. Throughout the hall, one could hear attendees saying, "That's too far to travel" as they predicted failure in the new location. Then again, these were the people who could get to Burbank (since that's where they were) and we weren't hearing from people who think Burbank is too great a shlep but who live near LAX. So we'll see.
A moderate crowd filled the Marriott Ballroom on Saturday afternoon. The longest line was for Jonathan Winters and seated near him were two of his co-stars from It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Marvin Kaplan and Barrie Chase. I had a nice chat with each of them but Jonathan seemed too swamped with signature-seekers to interrupt. Marvin reminded me that it originally wasn't supposed to be him and Arnold Stang as the gas station attendants in the film. At one point, Jackie Mason was penciled in for the role Arnold ended up playing and Marvin's part was to have been filled by Joe Besser. Besser was unable to get a leave of absence from his then-current role on The Joey Bishop Show (the sitcom) and no one seems to know what happened to Jackie. Maybe he gave someone the finger.
I saw two old friends of mine who were also mobbed: Audrey and Judy Landers. In 1978, I was an uncredited consultant on an ABC live-action pilot of Archie and I pushed for the casting of Audrey as Betty. She was quite wonderful in the part and in everything she did after that. She and sis Judy still look stunning and so does Judy's daughter (one of them who was there) who I almost mistook for Audrey. There's something kinda scary in that family's genes as they keep outputting beautiful blondes who don't seem to age much.
June Foray was there, also with a long line and I also got to speak with Michele Lee…and now that I think of it, really no one else on the guest roster. But John Amos was there. And Lou Gossett and Mariel Hemingway and John Saxon and Dawn Wells and Tanya Roberts and Andy Dick and Connie Stevens and Murray Langton (aka The Unknown Comic) and James Darren and Edd "Kookie" Burns and a whole lot of other stars. As usual, the patrons who paid admission and roamed the aisles were in many cases as interesting and/or famous as the stars behind the tables.
I don't know how this show will do in its new location. I hope the answer's "well" as I enjoy them and at every one, I see some fans getting to meet someone they've always loved from afar. And I get to see the person loved from afar realize that maybe they have more fans than they thought. I wouldn't want to see that stop.