Holiday Cons - Page 2

Film rooms running twenty-four hours a day of un-edited 16 mm copies of all the great movies, some times even they wide screen versions. We saw even classic "Star Trek" TV episodes on 16 mm film, at that time, many of us only saw these shows on the local television channels in reruns and, by then, with many unkind cuts to make room for more commercials, I even remember reading where they had sped up the show's running time about 10 percent solely so that they could to sneak in a couple of extra commercials. You could spot the sped up versions often by playing an older version and then listening to the slight tonal changes of the sped up soundtrack, expressly in the music. In the conventions films room, we fans saw them on a big screen, not the home TV which was then limited to only 25 inches maximum size, and they were uncut and without commercials.

There were panel rooms where authors and actors would give lectures or rooms that had themes such as: The L5 Society who wanted/wants to build colonies in space, out by the moon, or the "Bring Star Trek Back From the Dead" effort (this was before the return of the Next Generation series, these efforts were kept alive, for Paramount kept saying that the last movie, was indeed could be, the last movie), or the mechanics of how a "real" Starship might actually be built, or how to write that screenplay you have been dreaming of, or how to make a model or do a make-up job.

Some presenters would be thereto give a promotional slide or clip show of work within the film industry, answer questions and show models. There would be art rooms with paintings and models and sculptures done by fellow fans, many of which were for sale.

Film and TV producers would often show up to do promotions of upcoming shows and films.

There were display rooms where there might be Robby the Robot, the Knight Rider car, the Time Machine or the Deloraine from "Back to the Future" would be on display to look at. We had Darth Vader costumes, the "Man From Uncle" car, guns and other vintage pieces, the Wind-up Robot from "Return to Oz", a Spinner car from "Blade Runner", an endo-skeleton from "Terminator", Gort and the spaceship from "Day the Earth Stood Still" all these things I have seen at various conventions during these years. They have brought in Cylons, the Imperial Leader, uniforms and costumes from "Buck Rogers" and "Battlestar Galactica", costumes from "Forbidden Planet" and "Logan's Run", plus Flamer Guns and Followers have all been seen.

I could go on and on, so many wonders have we seen at these old conventions. If that was all, it would still be so much more than these pitiful C-cons running today . . . but there *was* more.

Since these conventions were taking place at hotels and not in someone's meeting hall or a 4-H barn, we, the fans, had full use of many of the activity rooms all day and all night. To make good use of them, the organizers would have special events after the main function rooms (dealers room's) had closed. Yes, their actually were conventions where there were things to do after the sales room had closed.Conventions were there were many functions just for the pure joy of it.

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