FX - Friday January 28-Sunday, Jan. 30, 2005
Friday was a day. It rained and rained and the toll road was
under construction so it took me a while to get to
David came in about 7 PM from CA.
I joined him in the hotel lobby as he checked in. David was very nicely dressed in black
jeans, white shirt, grey sweater and black leather jacket with black and white
running shoes. He looked good. David was very glad to see me and asked about
my day. I told him I was ‘frazzled’ as I
hugged him hello. We had left home at
9:30 AM, which was good for John, who is not a morning person. John
doesn't like to travel. David laughed
and said, "Only for David Hedison, right." I agreed and offered
to take David's carry on bag over to the elevator. He wouldn’t let me; he
never does because I'm female.
I asked David about his flight.
The seat was too narrow, they were crammed three across and he spent
five hours reading and being uncomfortable.
He said he usually gets up and walks and I told him he should have. I was so glad he was there. David was supposed to call the con chair and
I forgot to tell him until we were at the elevator. David said his cell phone was packed away.
I unhooked mine from my belt and handed the phone to David; he tries to dial,
clears it, dials again and then tells me I have to get a better cell
phone. It is TWO years old. I don't give out the number, so why pay for
an upgrade. David agrees to meet Mike in
the lobby and then hands me back my cell.
David went up to his room to leave off his bags without
waiting for Mike, saying he will be back down in 10 minutes. I
promise not to leave the lobby. I have
no idea who Mike is or what he looks like. A man came
into the lobby, looked around and said, David?
Bingo. I went over and explained
David would be right back. Mike did some
business with the front desk and I asked Mike about the party Saturday night - he
said it was optional - so I said I would let David know that. David ended not doing anything Saturday night.
David came out of the elevator; I call Mike over, and give
David his badge that I received when I picked up mine. Mike offers to
take David over to his table. They chat a bit about the event and how
Mike came to run it. Mike brings us in
the back door of the *green* room and shows us how to get in. The
green room has chairs and food for the celebrities.
Only folks with orange and red lanyards will be served. It
was a good set-up, David had food and a bathroom all in the same area and
he never left to see anything else at the con. John went out a couple of
times and I walked through twice, but it was more convenient to go in and out
of the green room. The food was decent. Breakfast needed to be
something other than sweet muffins and Danish, but the lunch subs and chips were
okay. Friday night we had lasagna and Caesar salad.
The first person David wanted to see on Friday night was John. John introduces David to Sue Davey, who got a
bit weak in the knees. She and David chat a bit. I teased David about the effect he has on
women. I went to eat while David got settled in at his table. All David
wanted was a diet Sprite (with no caffeine) and a cup of ice. I got both
and he slurped them down. David came in Friday
with some kind of 24 hour stomach flu that lasted through most of
Saturday. He went to the hall briefly
Friday night to make sure no one who paid extra to get in that night was
disappointed, but there were very few folks there, so he decided to turn in
early and try to feel better for Saturday.
David made the mistake of telling ALL of us there that he didn't
feel well and got a chorus of "Take some Airborne" from the
group. It was almost too funny.
Apparently David’s commercial has been seen by at least some of
the fans. David promised everyone he
would take the medicine as soon as he got back to his hotel room. David was very careful hugging me goodnight
as he didn't want me to get whatever it was he had. He said he'd call in the morning to let me
know how he was. I told him to get some rest and feel better.
I didn't sleep particularly well; I never do the first night in a hotel. I finally gave
up about 6 AM and got up. We were waiting for the phone to ring and for David
to tell us whether or not he was doing the show. He had said 9:30 and the phone rang at 9:30. I asked David if he was better and he said
no. I asked if he wanted to stay in
bed. He said no, go on over, set him up and he'd be over shortly. We promised we'd have everything ready for
him. David sounded tired. I offered him the option of closing early and
taking a nap at 2. He said no, we'd play it by ear. I told him we'd
close down at any time if he wasn't up to it. He sighed and said let's
see how it goes. So I said I'd see him
there and hung up. I had no idea what
kind of condition he was in and was prepared for the worst.
John and I set up the table and then I went to forage some
breakfast. David must have slipped in
behind me because I didn't see him arrive, but he was standing behind the table
when I came out from behind the green room curtains with John's Danish. David was more together than I expected.
He sat down and began pulling things out his black leather bag. The bag
has like three different zippered pockets and David squirrels things in all of
them. He picked up the bottled water I
had out for him and took a long pull.
He took something out his bag for me and then produced two Felix
Leiter Bond trading cards for John. David always
brings us both something, which is so sweet. He
had also found a Lee Crane postcard from
out to sell. It was hand tinted and was very striking. The way David's table was set up by the con,
there was no way for him to come out from behind the table and take pictures
with fans, so most of the time he leaned over the low table. The con
wanted to discourage the taking of pictures.
David came around the row a few times to stand in front of the table,
but not that often. And we didn't want him to, especially Saturday. David was truly amazing. We knew he wasn’t feeling well, so we kept
him supplied with all the bottled water he wanted. David smiled and was so nice to everyone who
came to the table and signed and signed (about 100 photos in 6 hours)
until everyone was gone. Then we walked him
back to hotel to rest and have some chicken soup via room service.
The first person came up for a picture and we were off. John was out front, getting the people to
pick a picture off the sign, give me the number, then I would go into the
folders in a box on the table, pull the picture, place the photo on the
table in front of David, and take the $20.00. David would then ask how they want it
personalized. He had all his markers at
his right elbow in a box so they wouldn't roll all over and he liked the set-up
very much. Basically all David had to do
was sit and wait for me to lay the paid for picture down on the table in
front of him. It was a lifesaver that day. He sat and signed,
let me give him water and we made it through to 4 PM without incident. David was chipper for being ill, we had warned
the con he was a little *under the weather* and they would check from time to
time to see if he needed anything.
David was able to sign and smile at people, although he told us he
had not slept well. He didn't look sick
(thankfully) and we got away with it. He
wasn't coughing or sneezing, thankfully. So
I gave him more water. The selling
picked up about 11 and went gangbusters until about 1, when
I told David that Marina Sirtis was at the con and that she
was in Spectres, but they didn't have any scenes
together. She played the mother and David’s scenes were with another
actress. David asked me if I had seen
the film and I said yes. I told
him the movie would not have worked without him, that his scenes were
pivotal to the plot and that I thought he was very good in it. I
thought the whole cast was good and I liked the film because I cared about
the characters in it. The film comes out
on DVD April 19.
She's a horse person, so she asked him about the horse in Son of
Robin Hood. She told David they gave him
the wrong size horse and it wasn't his fault that the horse didn't fit him and
what they should have done and David is looking at her. I figured he
needed to hear that. She loved it when David asked about her horse. Another lull came and she asked him about
acting and they were chatting amiably about various films and the Young and the
Restless and airline flights. He husband
went wandering off to do the rest of the show.
He may have been sick, but he was listening to everything that was
going on around him. I reminded David
that I was shaking so badly the first time I met him in 1988 that he could feel
it and that he had looked down at me and asked me if I was all
right.
Nancy left after about an hour, they were going to try to get a
flight out of
That lead us into a general fanfic discussion and I told David I
hadn't really told him how many stories I had up on web pages, or much about the
fanfic community. We don't talk about it; it is not part of anything I have
been doing for David.
David told me when he
wrote his bio for Lee Crane, his idea had been to make Lee Crane the son of a servant
of the Rockefellers and that the family had taken an interest in young Lee and
given him his education. But that his father was working class. But
Irwin Allen wouldn't use any of it. I
thanked David for sharing that with me.
A lot of fans said they had liked David on The Young and the Restless and hadn't wanted him to
leave. Write CBS and tell them
that. I think David enjoyed the Young and the Restless comments the
most. We had one woman come up and say, "You're Spencer, I knew I
knew you." She had never watched Y
& R because she was an NBC soap fan only. They chatted about AW for a
while. A guy claimed to
be a huge Y & R fan. Some
woman asked David if he still saw Katherine or anyone else and that's when
David mentioned he was going to Eric Braeden's 25th anniversary Y
& R party on Tuesday, Feb. 1.
Another person wanted to know if we had a COLBYS picture. I
said look with one with a moustache. Someone else mentioned the Love Boat
and David said I did three, right? And I
said, no, David, you did five and we counted them off together. And seven
One fan wanted to talk
about the Five Fly Films. Once we sorted
out there were three original films and two remakes and who starred in what
film, it went a little smoother. The
third film (Curse of the Fly) was the tough one. I knew it involved the nephew of David’s
character, but couldn’t remember the actor.
I did know that Eric Stoltz played Jeff Goldblum’s son in Fly ll. I told David I’ll watch anything once, and it
that case I regretted it. You don’t
want to know what happens to the villain in that film. In a word, ugh!
A fan brought David a gift of armadillo road kill. David
couldn't read the fine print on the tinned meat (joke can) so he asked me to. So I did, nice and loud. Not more than
20% hair and gravel...
Late on Saturday David said he was feeling slightly better and that
he thought the 3 bottles of water had helped.
It was close to 4 PM, so I asked David if he wanted tea. He said yes. I had the right brand into
the green room and brewed his tea. I brought it back and let him fix
it. He drank more of it than I thought he would. David was looking pretty beat. I suggested he hang it up and go back to
the hotel. We weren't that busy. David sighed and said okay, he'd call Bridget
and order soup and make it an early night. I told he had done wonderfully
all day and that it was a good thing for our sales that he was such a GOOD
actor. He blinked and looked at me and admitted he felt like hell,
but he appreciated that I acknowledged his effort to smile and be nice to
everyone. I said let me walk you home and
he did. I hugged him good night at the
elevator.
Having made it through Saturday I woke up Sunday with the hope the
soup and sleep had let David get better.
So we got up and got ready and waited for David for call. I had warned John we had to be ready, since
David tended to be early, so we were ready with the pictures loaded up by 9 AM. Our 9:30 call came at 9:15. Good sign!
John answered with Hedison Headquarters!
They were chatting away and I heard John tell David, sure we were ready
and to come on up (one floor) and leave his stuff in our room for the
day, since we would be taking him to the airport. David told John he'd be
up in 4 minutes. John gave him about two
and then opened the door and went to meet him halfway down the hall and
insisted David give him one of the three things he was carrying. David
gave up his black leather jacket and John carried it in and laid it on the
bed. David put down his carry on
suitcase on the floor and laid his black bag on the bed. I picked up
his jacket and hung it up in the closet. David said I didn't
need to and it was better if I left it on the bed and what if he
forgot it. I said I'd make sure he
didn't forget his jacket.
We sat him down in the chair and chatted a bit. John wanted to show David how our digital camera
worked and David listened attentively to the demo, looking into the back of the
camera over John's shoulder. Then David suggested we go over and set up. I don't remember what else was said, but
David came back with a smart ass remark and I remember pressing his arm and
telling him, you are better!
John was pushing the loaded dolly out the door and I had two
large canvas bags over my shoulders.
David was hanging back a little, trying to decide something and I looked
back and said, Well, come on, Lets go sell some pictures. David grinned at me and came out in the hall and
demanded we give him something to carry, too.
I handed him John's cane.
You'd think I handed him a snake. He did not want that. Mostly because he knew people would
think it was his. I told him carry the cane up high and no one would
notice. David wasn't thrilled, but he
did it. We trooped past the maid who asked if we were checking out and
David told her, he was, but we weren't. He
was twirling the cane by the time we reached the lobby and I took it back from
him so he could go check out.
Once we were in the hall, David said he was going into the green
room and eat some breakfast. I almost turned cartwheels. He was back there quite a while, so I figured
he either found something to eat or some one to talk to.
When he came back, he said the nice green room lady had made him
bacon and eggs (special order). I
didn't question this, I told him, he still had it and could charm anything
out of anyone. He gave me a little hand gesture, like it's a gift. A couple of the other actors got up and went
to get eggs, but there were none to be had. So the poor green lady had to
explain for close to an hour WHY there were no eggs. I finally tumbled to the fact David had
played a joke on the entire room. Later on, David apologized to the
harassed green room lady and gave her a free signed picture. So on the
picture he writes, Thanks for the lovely bacon and eggs ... and she dissolved
in laughter. Oh, yeah, he was better.
David later admitted to me that he had tried to eat a banana muffin,
but it was too sweet. I should have been quicker on the uptake and asked
if I go fetch something. I figured they'd bring different food mid
morning and he could go pick something for himself, if he wanted anything. David very graciously signed some pictures
for friends of mine that couldn't come to the show and then answered some
questions that Stephanie Kellerman had sent for the Basehart book while we were
waiting for the show to start.
Sue Davey showed up first to chat with David. David Goudsward arrived about 10 AM and
chatted with David and ran around and took pictures and did the dealers
room. After I introduced David G. to
David as Marta Kristen’s webmaster, David pulled me aside and asked what that
meant. I spent about five minutes explaining to David about html coding
and front pages and back pages and FTP space.
Dave told David all the other actors he did pages for and I think David
got a sense of what he does.
I was in the Green room around noon and David comes striding
through the curtain, cell phone in hand. I forgot to call Bridget this
morning, he says. I hold the curtain aside and open the back door for
him. There are some double doors to the
outside right across the hallway where you can get a signal. He came back about five minutes later. All was well.
We sold more pictures and I brought back lunch for me
and Dave (sandwiches) and handed David two saran wrapped cookies. Oh, do
you like cookies? Dave asked. David admitted he loved cookies. I had brought David his favorite.
Bobby (the guy on Seaview yahoo) came by and chatted and Sue was
there and David enjoyed everyone's company, since there were very few buyers
after 1 PM. I wish there had been more
people Sunday since David was feeling so much better and in a more playful
mood, but barring that we just enjoyed him. He bounced around
visiting some of the other stars there. Dave
took a picture of him with Marina, he sat down with Mark Goddard and they
visited, Walter Koenig came over to chat with both Mark and David. Cindy Morgan
asked David for a picture. Glenn Shadix asked John to ask David for a
picture and was so happy when John brought it over to him. David signed some con posters for a couple of
female con staffers. All the con ladies LOVED David. The mother of
the con runner's assistant had told me at registration that David was the only celeb
she knew at the con (she was 50 something) and that she wanted to meet him. So when I found her sitting in the green room, I told
her David wasn't busy and she patiently waited for David to finish visiting
with Mark Goddard. She had a nice chat with David. Later on she
came BACK with her husband and daughter to get a picture with David. Made
her con. She was sweet, telling David that I was so nice to do that for
her. They came over and asked David
to sign a bicycle that was the prize for a charity raffle.
David, when asked, said the worst Voyage episode ever was Fossil
Men. I said the six foot talking frogs
from Venus were worse. I mean really, they belonged on Lost in
Space. When we were discussing Son of
Robin Hood I asked David if it was damp that summer and he said it was horribly
hot and humid. I figured that from the way his hair looked.
At one point I was talking to David about Five Fingers series and
how much I liked it, because he was really into the
part and was enthusiastic and giving it his all and it showed. That he really liked Luciana and they gave
off sparks and
in the third episode he threw himself on top of her suitcase and
wouldn't let her leave and she was getting so annoyed
with him. David was
grinning. He said he remembered being doubled in Temple of the Swinging
Doll - he didn't feel well and had gone home so they made the stand-in come out
of the water in the wet suit and when he saw it he knew it wasn't him, because
the guy walked like a duck! Ruined the scene for David at least. I told David I could always tell it was him,
because he had a certain grace in the way he threw himself from side and side
and only he could bend his body like that and fling his arms
around.
John and I were teasing David about his appearance with Milton
Berle on The Hollywood Palace in 1964, shortly after Voyage premiered and
telling him how well he did and how hilarious the Voyage sketch was. David said the show was originally written
for Richard Basehart, but Richard didn’t want to do it and the only thing that
was a little difficult was the Shakespeare reading. Richard was more known for that than he was,
but David said, once he got past that and into the comedy he was fine. The sketch is very well done, with lots of shtick
for Berle - he keeps getting water thrown on him and David keeps kissing Neile
McQueen as the lone female crew member.
For morale. <wink, wink>
I asked David why there was a picture of Felix Leiter getting
married in Licence to Kill on his banner, when that scene did not appear in the
film. David told me that they had shot
Della and Felix’s wedding as the beginning of the film and that it was a very
good sequence and he felt like he was the star of the film, but the production
decided they needed a more action filled opening sequence, so they filmed the
Sanchez capture instead and the wedding got cut. Darn.
I would have liked to have seen that.
A fan asked what was his favorite film and David said Enemy Below. I reminded David that he liked to work with
Roger Moore and since the Brit was there and there was another female fan, who
obviously adored David, I asked David to tell the two ladies about celebrating
his birthday in
David and I had both flown on Song recently and we compared
experiences. Neither one of us liked the
Headphones. I told David I
had watched THE SAINT on the BBC on my flight home. I had seen them in
the
1970's, but did not remember any of the episodes. I told
David his episode was on DVD but only as a 100.00 set
and I was going to wait until I could get it as a single.
David was asked if he had saved anything from Voyage and he said
his fangs from Man Beast was the only thing
he had. I said if he found them, we could put them on display
at Wonderfest, since they were having props there.
David said he did all his own stunt work in that episode. If you
watch, you can see him fling himself (in his own special way) and know it's
him. Then there was this guy who kept describing a VOYAGE episode to David and
expecting David to name the episode. I told the guy to describe it to
me. Wasn't DEATH CLOCK, but we finally decided it was DAY OF EVIL. Another guy kept saying he went to a play in
FL, but couldn't remember the title or the year or who was in it.
<sheesh> Can’t help with that.
I left to go get water for everyone while a couple of fans were
looking at my Roy Scheider book. I came
back to Mark Goddard telling the girls about dating
Then there was the baby.
David stops short in front of this stroller and starts cooing at an
African-American baby girl.
The parents are looking at him oddly, but the baby is smiling up
at David. Naturally! She's female,
right? I lean around David and say, she
likes you. The baby grins wider as David
continues to coo at her. "I love
babies," David says and steps aside so the parents can continue on their
way.
Dave Goudsward left about two and the con basically rolled up
after that. We persuaded David we should start packing up the table
shortly after three. He wanted to help pack, but basically ended up
watching us do everything. We were
loaded up and back to the hotel by four.
When I said I’d take him to the airport on Sunday, David said it
was too much and he would get someone from the con to do it. I knew he liked to leave early and I promised
I would get him there when he wanted to be there (5:30 PM) and if I dropped him
off, I'd be sure he GOT there. David smiled and did not bring
it up again. David told me that being late was a worry for him and he
liked being early, especially when he flew. So we got it done for
him.
We took David back to our hotel room until it was time to leave
for the airport. David teased us that we'd better take him, as he was room
less and had no other place to go. He's incorrigible that way. We sat him down by the window, fixed the
blinds and the chair and let him enjoy the view while I made tea. I
brewed it and he fixed it. David
declined the bottle of water I offered for the flight home. .
Driving out to the airport I was very relaxed. David filled up the change tray (from his
pocket) for the toll coming and going and wanted to know which roads we
were going on and found road signs for me. Good company. He insisted on giving me money to pay for
parking (too much, I thought) but I took it and ended up using every last cent
he gave me. John came with us and he and
David chatted back and forth. We made it out to the airport in good time. I pulled into the parking garage. We got him unloaded. John asked David
why he was carrying his bag, when it was a roller. David showed us that the
handle was too short for him to stand up straight. Oh, the perils of being tall.
John wanted to carry the bag for David but between the cane and the handicapped
sticker, David said no way.
We took the elevator down, crossed over and up into Terminal B,
when we found Song flight check in.
David got his boarding pass and we went in search for his
gate. Security was at the entrance to
his gate area, so we went in search a bar instead. We had to go half
way across the airport to find one, but there were three stools open,
so we let David have the wall. I had my usual (Shirley Temple) as I
was driving, John had Diet Coke and David ordered a very dry vodka martini
that the guy made all wrong. No tip, David, I told him. Guy offered to make it again, but David
said no and tipped him anyway. David
waited until we were served and then gave a very heartfelt toast to all
John's hard work to make the show easy for David. John was very touched. John loves
designing David's signs and doing his table. So we had a drink to
success. On David. He
wouldn't have it any other way. Then David said it was the WORST martini
he ever had and I know the bartender heard him.
David then told us how the Arthur the wife killer was his idea and
how he wanted to do a "
glass" kind of scenario and the soap screwed it up and watered
it down from what he had discussed with the producer.
David loves Hitchcock movies. We talked about some of our Hitchcock
favorites. David liked Psycho and I liked
To Catch a Thief and John loves North by Northwest. We talked about a couple of Tim Burton
movies, Edward Scissorhands with Vincent Price and David loved Martin Landau in
Ed Wood. We talked about Orson Welles
and
Citizen Kane, probably the greatest film ever made. The camera work in that was amazing.
We walked David down to Security and he hugged us good-bye. We
let him go with good wishes for his trip to the
Diane Kachmar February 2005