The incredible classic and
unique Mid Atlantic Nostalgia Convention, or MANC as it is called, landed back
in Baltimore for 2011, and what a show it was indeed!

However, you are not allowed
to call it MANC, unless you have attended!

Martin Grams has this passion
to take our love of nostalgic television, and films,  actors and actresses, science fiction,  artists, dealers,  collectors, autograph seekers, fans from here
and out of this realm as well, and allows us to meet celebrities of yesteryear,
and chat with them, snap photos, and get that hand singed autograph. Martin has
penned many books in this genre, and is a fine published author in this area. 

So many of us enjoy meeting
and reacquainting with fellow genre attendees and nostalgia buffs of all ages
races, and various home worlds!

Conversations of the most
sublime and true to a classic yet upbeat 
rhythm , as only we at this “Con” can understand and talk about those
glorious TV shows from the late 50’s to yesterday’s  gone by. 

And, yet with all this…….you
still have the guest star celebrities there to get up close and converse with,
after all these years. Too cool, gee wizzzz, and golly, I can’t wait to get
their autograph!!!! 

These guests I am about to
list for your viewing pleasure, you are sure to remember, and to get a chance
to actually meet them, too cool! I mean, far out.

This September the convention
featured, Patty Duke, Tony Dow, Davy Jones, Michael Constantine, Billy Gray,
Lauren Chapin, Jimmy Hunt, Charles Herbert, Ed Nelson, Jim Rosin, Mark
Redfield, Conrad Brooks, Larry Storch and Karen Valentine!

Incredible line up, I know!!
These guests had so many fans at their signing tables to chat as we remember
their roles they portrayed. Yes yes, these guest stars also signed tons of
autographs. For a reasonable fee, you could talk and then have an item that a
guest was selling on their table or bring some collectable you owned to be hand
signed in person by them, and snap a photo of you standing with them to show
off your new autographed item!

All guests were asking about
the same fee, however,  Davy Jones on the
other hand signed for FREE, if you brought your own item, and charged a nominal
fee if you purchased one at his table!

I was lucky myself to be one
of the photographers for this event, and I snapped some really cool photos, of
fans, guest stars, dealers, and all around fan fun! Plus I was able to have a
dealers table and shared this space selling some of my own collectables with my
buddy Marty who was selling some great full size movie posters and more. I
offered a diverse variety of stuff, like Star Trek collector plates, models,
nostalgic toys, autographs and more.

Other dealers were selling so
many nostalgia items and collectables, such as rare and unique classic films
and TV shows on DVD, toys, photo’s, posters, classic magazines and books, and
any almost anything you could think of in this realm.

There was an awesome display
put out at a huge table of Buck Rogers items by a group called The Solar Guard
Fan Club and The Radio and Television Museum of Baltimore. There were Buck Rogers
memorabilia out to see such as some early Pulp magazines to ray guns to
advertising artifacts pages from the 1930’s comic book and much more. Glad this
display was encased, it would not be good to have anyone grab that Buck Rogers
ray gun and start shooting, and no one really wants to clean up after the room
is sprayed with lethal reddish emissions with its lighting effects and laser
beam spread all over everything.

Also here at this show is a
group called Radio Once More, which broadcasts the best in old time radio and
nostalgia via the internet and pod casting. Mid Atlantic Nostalgia Con also
promotes such groups as the National Capital Radio and Television  Museum in Bowie Maryland, The Metro
Washington Old Time radio Club The Theatre Preservation Society, and more.

Often times at this
incredible convention, you see many like-minded old friends and fellow fans. Every
year at this show I see a family of six, a father, mother and four kids ages 17
down to 8 that come all the way from Vancouver Canada to attend and meet the
guest stars and filter throughout the weekend’s events. They attend all the
guest stars stage talks, visit them at their booth to chat and purchase their
hand signed autographs and revel in this fun filled arena. This family is
starting their young ones early into appreciating the art of meeting TV and
film icons, and collecting that hand signed item. What a great investment as
well, there is part of that college fund. 

I actually bonded with one of
the weekend’s guests, one Davy Jones from the Monkees. I helped him and his
assistant Johnny Blair, musician himself and singer at large, with various
things. I also helped Davy and Johnny load up their car when they left and Davy
Jones wrote down his address and cell number for me to stay in touch! 

During the 2 days David Jones
was there, he wound up doodling on the table cloth that covered his signing
table, and it was quite a wild looking doodle and he actually signed his name
through the center of it. Well, this is quite a rare work of art to have a
guest doodle a huge square box and within it draw things that I assume were a
flower on a stem, two heads, and one looked like a rabbit and a weird looking
triangle shape with some science fictional type of doodle in that, and then
Davy did some swirly squiggly lines all over the boxes’ border.

Well, at the time where Davy
was packing up to leave, I asked him if he were going to take the table cloth
off the table and keep his large doodle he created throughout  his two days there, and he said not at all.
Many other fans were eyeballing this too, so as a huge collector, seeing this
hand drawn doodle done by Davy Jones of the Monkees on a table cloth covering
his autograph table, I did what any good collector of a rare find like this
would do, and I took out a pocket knife, and whipped it open and cut out the
entire diagramed doodle and asked Davy to hold it up in front of him where I
snapped a photo of that scene with my camera. Many other fans approached me and
said they were really hoping to keep that prized tablecloth, but you have to be
very fast and I was! Yet another fascinating hand drawn and signed item to add
to my own personal collection!

I actually took well over
1000 photographs of convention happenings throughout these grand three days.
Even the guests really wanted to pose with the other fellow guests, and I was happy
to oblige them.

The guest stars here really
gave some great trivia and stories at their stage talk panels. The room was
filled with fans while every group of guests that was at their own particular
panel talk shared some incredible stories! 

I will feature some excerpts
from my one on one celebrity interviews I received at this show soon, as these
guest stars shared some incredibly fascinating info with me!

I will say that Davy Jones
told me he loved being in the play The Artful Dodger recently, while Billy Gray
showed me and talked about one of quite a few inventions, such as a new unique
guitar pic he had created. Tony Dow tells me he is very comfy being behind the
scenes and the camera in a more creative mode. Jimmy Hunt said to me how much
it amazes him when fans show him photos and other collectables with him in them
that he did not know existed. 

Charles Herbert admitted he
was a bit scared when he saw the monster from his film Colossus of New York. Karen
Valentine and Michael Constantine chatted about their working together on Room
222, and more individual remembrances of their early careers. Patty Duke had a TV
set with some of her classic TV and films running in front of her booth and
often times walked out from behind her signing table to watch some scenes as
she told me a few interesting tid bits from each one being shown. It is so fun
for me to be able to interview these iconic stars; you never know what they may
offer up to hear.

At the end of all the
outstanding times shared at this convention by guest stars, staff, fans, media,
dealers, and everyone able to attend, Martin put on a Banquet, for fans with
guest stars at each table! 

Fans and guests got to relax
and let their hair down to chat and eat a great catered meal. Then there was
some on stage fun with the celebrities and a few appreciation awards for the
guest stars as well. 

All in all this particular convention
boasts some awesome and classic genre celebrities we all get to meet and also acquire
their  signatures, first hand as it were.
We share a ton of fun and reminiscing with fellow fans while we spend the
weekend away from the outside world and get to enjoy this world of nostalgia! 

Be sure to prepare for next
years Mid Atlantic Nostalgia Con, and I look forward to seeing you all there
interacting with fellow fans and dabbling in conversations with those awesome television
and film stars we all remember from yesteryear! Until then, Hi-Ho Silver, and Up
Up and awaaaaayyyyyyyyyyy. OK, had to get those in, ha ha.

http://www.midatlanticnostalgiaconvention.com/

Here is Davy Jones from the Monkees who asked me to snap a pic with other gust Patty Duke!

Also after interviewing Billy Gray, he signed an item I took with me from The Day the Earth Stood Still signed a few months earlier by late actress Patricia Neal for me! Now both signatures on one item. Too cool.