May 28-29, 2005
Louisville, KY

David Hedison appearance courtesy of CultTVman Fantastic Modeling

David arrived around 6 PM on Friday, checked in with the con, chatted with his Sponsor, Steve Iverson aka CultTVman and then called us. He invited us to have a drink with him while we discussed his table and how we were going to display his pictures. After David left, John and I went down to the dealers room to put up David's banner.

 First thing Saturday morning David was live on local TV at 9:20 on one channel and 9:40 on the other channel to let people know he was at the con, so they would come on down. David looked very relaxed and talked about Bond and Voyage and his latest film, Reality Trap that is being shown in Avignon, France, June 16-19, 2005.

There was a line waiting for David when he started signing autographs at 9:50 AM and he had a line until after 3 PM, when we had a slight lull (and a tea break) before we got busy again right before the room closed at 5 PM. David was very happy to meet everyone and have them tell him he was their favorite fly, sub captain or Felix Leiter. We even got some Young and the Restless fans. David signed Lunch boxes, board games, flying subs, DVD inserts. It was a good crowd, everyone was polite and nice and loved meeting him.

The three of us had a quiet dinner Saturday night in the hotel restaurant and Mark Goddard joined us for dessert and a glass of wine.

 Sunday we were open at 10 AM and David signed until 1 PM, when he had to pack up to go to his 1:30 PM Irwin Allen panel. The panel was great. David, Mark Goddard and Bob May had the audience rolling in the aisles with their tales of working for Irwin Allen. After the panel, David posed for a few last pictures and we took him to the lobby to take the shuttle out to the airport for his flight home to Los Angeles.

A father showed up with what turned out was one of his sons and the son bought a picture of David (with the white hair in the spider web screaming).  David doesn’t particularly like this shot, so we had hoped to sell them out this show.  So he signs the shot.  One down.   Another kid comes to the table and buys the same shot and the father (who is still chatting with David) says, this is my other son.   About 15 minutes after that, a third young man comes to the table, buys the spider web shot and this time the father rolls his eyes and says this is his third son.   That’s how we sold out of that picture.   

 

Two other pictures that went  were a publicity shot of David and Brett Halseyfrom The FLY re-release – they were put out together as a drive-in double feature. Brett pre signed the picture for David and then David put his autograph on it at the show and they all went. David also had a posed shot of him and Barbara Bouchet (from Left Handed Man) but she’s in a bikini that she never wore on the show.   That picture perplexed several, they couldn't place it from an episode, until I told them it wasn't IN one.

We enjoyed helping David at his table all weekend and had a thoroughly good time at Wonderfest.

Diane and John Kachmar
(For more details, see Diane's Report at Seaview Stories)

Nancy and John Appelhof's Report on Wonderfest


Courtesy of Dori Martin


 


David and Rik Newman.
Rik was the Advance man on Enemy Below (1957).

One of the model builders (David Prosser) showed up at the table with a FLY head bust that was amazing and he asked David to sign the base.   All three of us complemented the builder on how much work and detail he had.   The bust was spooky, he had everything right, right down to the turkey feathers.  I took a picture of him with David and the bust for the web site, it was that good.

A fellow brought in a chalk board with The Fly message written on it and David signed

that one AL Hedison. He was very proud of himself for having thought of it. He told David, "I bet you never signed anything in chalk before."   He was allowed to come behind the table, so David could get a good look at what he had done.

About half an hour after that, another guy shows up carrying a Combex 8 Fly doll

from 1978 and wants to know if I will take HIS picture with David and the (now signed

on the lab coat) doll “for the web site.”   I said, of course, and did. I guess he had talked to the first guy.