Thursday Day 1 |
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Early birds were able to get a jump on their memorabilia shopping when the dealers' rooms at the Renaissance hotel opened at 3:00 on Thursday. DVDs, book, vintage posters, and stacks of classic stills beckoned from every table.
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Cinephiles slowly began gathering in the registration area as early as 4:30 but did not form a line until they saw the volunteers bring out the boxes of registration packets about 10 to 5:00. The line grew quickly and soon stretched from the registration table back through the registration area, around a corner and part way down a hall. |
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No need to worry about a long wait because once the clock struck 5:00 the crack volunteer staff got busy handing out pre-registration packets and made quick work of the line.
The packets contained the film schedule, a registration badge and the 24-page program (full of great information about each film). The packets also contained flyers about the special added presentations to be held at the hotel on Saturday and Sunday. Plus discount coupons for Twist, the Renaissance hotel's premier restaurant and last, but most certainly not least, if you were wise enough to take advantage of the full pre-registration discount, you also received your celebrity banquet ticket. |
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By 6:30 much of the convention action moved down Hollywood Blvd. to the historic Egyptian where the weekend's screenings were slated to take place in the 600 seat Lloyd E. Rigler theatre.
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The show opened with a cartoon called Flora. This short was a dog vs. cat story with the decidedly film noir twist of the dog narrating his violent relationship with a cat named Flora.
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Then the program went from film noir cartoon to film noir feature with our first celebrity screening of the weekend.
1950 crime story, THE SLEEPING CITY, starred Richard Conte as an undercover cop in a large New York City hospital. He's trying to find out who's stealing prescription drugs and killing interns. The film also starred our lovely guest of the evening, Coleen Gray, as the beautiful nurse who aids him on his quest (or does she?).
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After the film Stan Taffel interviewed Coleen. He asked her about working on The Sleeping City. She remembered doing location work at New York's famous Bellevue hospital. She said she enjoyed working with Richard Conte and agreed that he gave a great performance in the film.
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They talked about her long career in films starting in 1947 with her early feature roles in Kiss of Death starring Victor Mature and Nightmare Alley starring Tyrone Power. She spoke about working with director Frank Capra and Bing Crosby in the comedy Riding High and working in westerns like Red River starring with John Wayne and Montgomery Clift.
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Stan talked extensively about her television career which began with live drama shows of the 1950s and continued with episodic shows through the 60s 70s and well into the 80s. Then Stan lead the question and answer session with the audience.
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The half hour allotted to the interview potion of the show didn't seem like enough time to spend with a guest that had such a long career as Ms. Gray had but after many interesting audience questions they had to wrap up. On her way out of the theater the gracious Ms Gray stopped to sign autographs and talk further to fans. |
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Coleen's wonderful husband, Fritz Zeiser, was with her throughout the evening. He seemed to have almost as much fun as she did. Here the happy couple poses for a picture before leaving.
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The film program continued with the delightful 1918 silent comedy UP THE ROAD WITH SALLIE starring Constance Talmadge (always a Cinecon favorite) and Norman Kerry. Constance plays a free spirit who decides to take her stuffy, widowed aunt on a road trip where stolen jewels and mistaken identities lead to much zaniness. This is one of the few surviving films by William Desmond Taylor who, unfortunately, is better known for his unsolved murder than for his work as a director.
The final film of the evening was the 1931 remake of the silent melodrama THE CHEAT. This was a chance for us to see famous stage actress Tallulah Bankhead in one of her early film roles. She plays a society woman whose gambling problem almost ruins her life. The film also starred Harvey Stephens as her husband and Irving Pichel as the man who would lead her astray. Very few people have seen this version of THE CHEAT which was recently preserved by Bob O'Neil of NBC/Universal (who provided the print) |
Friday Day 2
The Friday morning session started off at 9:00 AM with chapter six of The Iron Claw (1941) a 15 chapter serial about a reporter trying to figure out what's going on in an old house amid secret passages, sinister people and hidden gold. Chapters 1 through 5 were shown at 4 previous Cinecons including last year when we screened 2 episodes. We would be screening 4 episodes during the weekend, one on Friday with the rest on Monday.
The first feature of the morning was GRAFT, a 1931 pre-code crime drama starring Regis Toomey, Sue Carol, Dorothy Revier and Boris Karloff. It turned out to be an average film but fans were looking forward to seeing the early performance by Boris Karloff, which was said to have led to director James Whale casting him in FRANKENSTEIN.
One of the hits of this years Cinecon was the recently restored 1927 silent version of CHICAGO. This entertaining film starred the luscious Phyllis Haver (a former Mack Sennett bathing beauty) as unrepentant murderess Roxie Hart with Victor Varconi as her trusting husband and Eugene Pallette as her ill-fated lover. The luminous print was courtesy of UCLA. |
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Serious collectors of movie memorabilia had been shopping in the dealers' rooms all morning but with a lunch break in the film schedule the rooms got even busier
Besides a great selection of collectibles shoppers also had the chance to buy some personally autographed books. |
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Throughout the weekend authors of film related books turned out for our Cinecon Book Fair which was set up in the entry area to the dealers' rooms at the Renaissance Hotel to autograph and sell copies of their books. |
Actor William Wellman Jr. was on hand Thursday evening and part of the day on Friday to sign copies of the book he has written about his father, legendary director William A. Wellman. THE MAN AND HIS WINGS: William Wellman and the Making of the First Best Picture. Also available at his table were VHS copies of the award winning documentary about his father, WILD BILL - HOLLYWOOD MAVERICK: The Life and Times of William A. Wellman, which he co-executive produced. |
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Lovely former child actress Sybil Jason brought her autobiography, MY FIFTEEN MINUTES, in which she relates her career as Warner Bros' first child star in the thirties. Sybil worked with most of the top Warner Bros. stars of the era, Humphrey Bogart, Al Jolson and Kay Francis to name a few, and her book is filled with anecdotes about them. |
Bill Oates' book MEREDITH WILLSON - AMERICA'S MUSIC MAN is considered by many to be a thorough, accurate and loving biography of one of Broadway's great composers. Through meticulous research Oates traces Willson's journey from a small town in Iowa to playing with John Philip Sousa's band, to scoring movies through becoming one of Broadway's great composers with the opening of THE MUSIC MAN |
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Author Steve Stevens chats with a young man before signing a copy of his book KING OF THE SUNSET STRIP: Hanging with Mickey Cohen and the Hollywood Mob which he co-wrote with Craig Lockwood. Stevens came to Hollywood as a teen and co-starred with Annette Funicello in the Walt Disney Presents: Annette segment on the Mickey Mouse Club show among other acting jobs before he got involved with Cohen. |
Lou Miano was here with his book RUSS COLUMBO The Amazing Life and Mysterious Death of a Hollywood Singing Legend. Miano’s book is a fully researched, comprehensive biography of the short life of 1930s vocalist and bandleader Russ Columbo. The book also contains a filmography and extensive discography. Regular Cinecon attendees might recall that we screened Columbo's last film, 1934s Wake up and Dream a few years ago.
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TV writer and Journalist William Bast was James Dean's best friend during the last five years of his life. He wrote one of the first biographies about Dean only 6 months after his untimely death in 1955. Now, 50 years later, Bast has written SURVIVING JAMES DEAN a new book that reevaluates their relationship with a perspective that only time can give and completes the portrait of Dean in a way that could only be done by a close friend.
These authors were just a few of the dozen or so who came to Cinecon to spend time with our members. |
The afternoon session started with silent short THE STAR BORDERS starring Kalem studio's slapstick sociopaths Lloyd Hamilton and Bud Duncan AKA Ham and Bud. This time the boys decide to gas their fellow boarders so that they can make money by selling their belongings.
Up next was a 1929 early talkie feature NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH. This pleasant little comedy starred Richard Dix as an overconfident stock salesman who makes a bet with his co-workers that he can go 24 hours telling nothing but the truth. And you just know that's going to get him into trouble especially with the aforementioned co-workers creating one hurdle after another for him. Dix is ably assisted by Ned Sparks and Berton Churchill with the added bonus of some songs from Helen Kane (the boop oop a doop girl).
The silent version of KIKI (1926) starred Norma Talmadge and Ronald Coleman. Not many of Talmadge's films survive and this is the only feature length comedy she made. She plays a young woman intent on being an actress who falls in love with the dashing theatre manager played by Colman. The problem? He already has a fiancée. There are plenty of laughs and some fun comedy bits between Talmadge and George K. Arthur as Colman's valet
The lively 1942 Universal B-musical STRICTLY IN THE GROOVE led us into the dinner break. Like most of these Universal "B"s the paper-thin plot was just an excuse to enjoy the music and have some laughs. Here the entertainment was provided by band leader Ozzie Nelson, Spade Cooley, “Liltin’” Martha Tilton, Mary Healy and singer-songwriter Jimmie Davis with the inimitable Leon Errol and Cinecon favorite Shemp Howard thrown in for laughs.
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After dinner the evening session began with the 1932 pre-code cartoon FAIR PLAY which has never been seen on TV featuring our favorite Columbia cartoon character Scrappy
Rosalind Russell and Melvin Douglas play newlyweds in the crowd-pleasing romantic screwball comedy THIS THING CALLED LOVE (1940). She wants to try out her theory for wedded bliss, no sex for the first 3 months of marriage! Melvyn pretends to go along all the while trying to break down her resolve. Comedy ensues. This delightful film is rarely screened due to rights issues.
A pair of Westerns were up next, first a newly restored fragment of a Selig Polyscope one reeler from 1916, THE RAIDERS, Starring the inimitable Tom Mix with his real life bride-to-be Victoria Forde. Mix also directed. Print courtesy of Library of Congress.
SELFISH YATES (1918) is considered by many to be one of silent western icon William S. Hart's better films even though it has not been in circulation for years. In it Hart plays a self-centered saloon owner who doesn't care about anyone but himself until Jane Novak comes to town and helps him find his humanity. We finally have the opportunity to see this film because New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) recently made this beautiful new print.
The final film of the evening was THE SHADOW RETURNS (1946) in a great looking 35mm print from the Monogram series based on the pulp and radio hero of the same name. Kane Richmond played Lamont Cranston (AKA The Shadow) with Barbara Read as Margo and Tom Dugan as sidekick Shevvie. The plot is about missing jewels and several unexplained deaths |
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