Headed over to the L.A. Hilton for a weekend of the Haunt-X (Expo) for Legends, Ghouls and freaky shit!
We got there Friday evening around 8:45pm due to the rain and traffic sucked starting at Beach & the 405 but picked up around the 405/605 interchange. We checked in and crashed.
Saturday morning, I got up at 8am, freaking out that I only had an hour to get ready, but I called Tim and he told me that 9:30 would be good to go. So we get there and Darcy and I wait for a good 20 minutes for Tim to show up (He was one of the sponsors of the event, so he was a busy-bee!) Anyway, we go to Tim's booth (www.theghoulishgallery.com) and check it out, met Tim's wife April and chatted, then Tim took me to the celebrity room where people could meet his/her favorite celebrites that were on the list to attend!
WOW!
I'm not star-struck in any way, shape or form, but it is both a privledge and an honor to have met:
-Sara Karloff (Boris Karloff's daughter)
-Ron Chaney (Lon Chaney's grandson)
-Bela Lugosi Jr. (Son of Bela Lugosi)
-Ben Chapman (THE Creature of the Black Lagoon)
(Note: If you don't know who the 4 people above are; THEN YOU ARE CLUELESS !!)
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Ms. Karloff (who advised me to call her Sara!) was a sweet lady and was stoked to have seen that I had her father in Frankenstein make-up on my cell phone background!!
Bela Lugosi Jr, was a gentleman and really nice guy! SPIT IMAGE of his Father!!
Ron Chaney was cool, because he had the same idea I had to have Ben Chapman autograph the Universal Monsters figures of the Creature!!
(I told Ron that he stole my idea and we both laughed! I'll admit, that I am a bit jeolous! )
Ben Chapman was a soft-spoken gentleman, and a sweet man! Kind of like my Grandad!
Other people I had the honor of meeting were:
-Michel Berryman (The Hills have Eyes, Devil's Rejects) Nice fella and great smile!
-Miko Hughes (The cute/creepy kid from 'Pet Cemetary') Cool dude!
-Reggie Bannister (Phantasm) Fellow Long Beach mate! We talked for a good 1/2 about the good old days of Long Beach and seriously nice guy!
-Gigi Bannister (make-up artist) Very funny & sweet lady!
-Doug Jones ('Abe Sapien' from HellBoy) Very nice guy!
-Bill Moseley (House 1000 Corpses/Devil's Rejects/Texas Chainsaw's 'Chop Top') WAY Cool cat!
-Tom Savini (The Gore Wizard!!) Funny and generally nice guy!
-Richard Brooker (Jason in Friday the 13th, Part III) Cool, a little to himself, but cool)
-Bill Daily (I Dream of Jeanie) A Gentleman! Class Act!
-George Wilbur (Micheal Myers in Halloween 4 & 5) Nice guy, great smile!
-R.A Mihailoff (Texas Chainsaw Massacre III) Kind of like that Big Brother Biker friend!
-Kane Hodder (Jason Vorhees in 'Jason goes to Hell). Nice loveable guy! Brought his 2 sons!
-Carel Struycken (Addam's Family 'Lurch') Polite and soft spoken, nice guy! TALL DUDE!!!
-Julie Adams (The Creature from the Black Lagoon) A classy lady!
-Scott H. Reiniger (Dawn of the Dead '78) Nice guy!
-Joseph Pilato (Day and Dawn of the Dead) A little washed-up in my opinion, but still cool.
-Camden Toy (Buffy/Angel) Really super cool and nice!
-Brian Steele (HellBoy/Underworld) Generally cool and down-to-earth!
-Andrew Divoff (Wishmaster) Cool dude!
-Chuck Williams (Dark Walker) This guy was LIVE and cool!
-Don Calfa (Return of the Living Dead) Mr. Entertainment! This guy had people laughing!
-Dazza & Sandra Taylor (as Tim would call 'Eye Candy', but very nice and not 'stuck-up'!)
-Irwin Keyes (House of 1000 Corpses) Total nice guy, well mannered!
Some people were disappointed to learn that Ashley Lawrence (Hellraiser's 'Kirsty') and the ever so lovable Bernard Fox wouldn't be making it down, but I did have a good weekend. I was supposed to have given a ride to Tom Savini to the airport, but for some reason, he hitched a ride with someone else (I know this because as I was leaving the parking structure of the Hilton, he was in the car behind me!) Not pissed, but the bragging rights would have been nice! (DUDE, I HAD TOM FUCKING SAVINI IN MY CAR MAN!!!)
I wanted to have some pictures taken with the people I had listed above, but they charged like $10-$15 for a photo op (which sadly I was tapped!) This is how they make their money, because they volunteer their time, just like I gave my time to help Tim out, and had nothing to show for it, except the pictures that Darcy had taken.
I remember Tom Savini coming up to Tim and I going "You know that 'Creature' prop they had in the celebrity room?" (They had a life-sized prop of the 'Creature from the Black Lagoon' in there)
Tim goes "Yeah"
Tom goes "I just bought it for $6000, can you send it to me?"
Damn. Tom is serious about his collection of stuff!! I admire him for that!!
Check out http://www.savini.com/.
His "tour" of his place is here: http://www.savini.com/tourthe.htm
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