People Who Tonight are Still Only Shadows in my Mind, but Who Will Soon Fill the Days and Nights of My Tomorrow

Sunday Morning

I started off the day meeting with my great friends Roxanne and ProfStokes. It was to be our first The Dark Shadows Files group reunion.  Along the way we ran into JamesLady and met our other friend, Dwight Fry for the first time.

 

While we were waiting for the videos to begin, Roxanne and I went to see Kathryn Leigh Scott and Marie Wallace for books and autographs.  Both of the stars were really sweet to us. 

The fan videos were next.  ProfStokes got hers played.  She was so thrilled! They also played some Baby Dark Shadows.  Baby Dark Shadows is a parody of some episodes with little children playing the roles of the actors.  “The Dream Curse” was pretty funny.  The fan videos were followed by Dark Shadows 35th Anniversary Tribute.  Even, Alexandra Moltke was in it.  Amazingly, she looks exactly like she did when she was originally on the show.  Just a few more wrinkles.

The DS Tribute video was followed by the Donna McKechnie video.  There was also the video vault where an early film of Craig Slocum was played.  The Collinsport Players then did a sketch.  And finally, another Charity Auction.

Robert Rodan

Robert Rodan took the stage.  Since everyone was taking his picture he decided to take theirs.  He shared about his old soft porn movie, “The Minx”.  His dog had a starring role at the end of the movie.  Robert put chicken grease on his face so at the death scene, the dog would lick his face.  In the picture on the right, it looks like he came to the fest in his slippers. 

Chris Pennock

Chris Pennock read to us from his comic book, “Fear of Losing Dark Shadows.”  He spoke really loud into the microphone.  It hurt my ears a bit.  Also, he shared about his more psychedelic adventures while on the original DS set.  He's been clean and sober for several years now.  It's seems he is working a strong AA program.

He was the only person who signed my program with my DS name, Victoria.  Way to go Chris!

Dennis Patrick

Dennis Patrick came next.  He was assisted onto the stage by Richard Halpern.  At the time, he was quite ill with cancer and also needed dialysis.  Many thought he wouldn't even make it to the Fest.  But he did, and he was my favorite pleasure of the entire week-end.  Also, don't let his health condition fool you.  His spirit and wit were very much intact. He told us stories of being Irish, of his work on the show, the appearance on Lost in Space, and his work with Peter Boyle on a really bad movie, “Joe.”  Just to be sure that one scene made it to the cutting room floor, Dennis described tearing the film out of the camera and exposing it.

He was quite an Irish character to be sure.  He shared some of his bawdy limericks with us.  One is about Willie and it goes:

The Last Few Events

Marie Wallace read a scene with Richard Halpern from Neil Simon's “Plaza Suite” and she took our picture too!  Her photos are very interesting and I have enjoyed looking at them. You can find these at MarieWallace.Com.  I asked her at the autograph table if she would ever release her work as a coffee table book; she said she had no plans in the works right now.  I hope some day she will do so.  Or exhibit them at a local museum.  I'd go to that for sure!

The final official event was a presentation of a scene from a play “Love” about a divorced couple starring Kathleen Leigh Scott and John Karlen.  John Karlen was pretty cute with his Mickey ears on.  Note in my picture below the back of Robert Rodan's head!

Banquet

The banquet food was pretty good by hotel standards and was edible.  There was a piano player playing Dark Shadows music. Many even were dressed up.  It gave a certain class to the proceedings. 

The class aspect soon changed when Roger Davis once again took the stage and showed his Viewmont video again.  A Sciography Dark Shadows was shown which made it even worse. Some of it was interesting or funny. However, the show was mainly trying to focus on problems of the show or attempting to paint a picture of intrigue or fighting between the stars.  I couldn't even imagine David Selby fighting with Jonathan Frid even on a bad day.  After the lights came back on, it appeared that several of the stars had walked out on it.  It turns out it never even aired or was going to air because of the sensational content. Robert Colbert would not allow the use of his music. Jim Pierson apologized to the stars for showing this video.  Marie Wallace and Kathryn Leigh Scott also spoke and were visibly upset by it.  Many of the things the Sciography was trying to allege were just not true.  It did cast a pallor to the event.

People Who Tonight are Still Only Shadows in my Mind, but Who Will Soon Fill the Days and Nights of My Tomorrow

Because of this festival, I was able finally to meet some of the stars personally and learn more about the history and personal stories of its making.  Further, I was able to meet many of my now current friends and even make more on-line friends after the fest.  I'm finally glad to be able to put some pieces of my memories together about the show.  Now, I have new ones too.

I'll be equipped with a new digital camera at the 2003 Festival.  

I hope to see you in New York for the 2003 Festival.  Information can be found here.

 

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