Sunday Evening - The Celebrity Banquet |
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Excitement mounted as banquet time approached. Cinephiles always look forward to the banquet as a time to socialize with friends and rub elbows with the filmmakers that we esteem and admire. This year the Cinecon Career Achievement awards would be given to 4 wonderful entertainers Coleen Gray, Rose Marie, Tab Hunter and Marvin Kaplan. Besides those celebrities being honored many of our former honorees and their friends also came to the event.
The cocktail reception began at 7:15. Fans gathered in the entry area to the reception with cameras ready for the celebrity arrivals. And they didn't have to wait long.
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Game show host Peter Marshall poses with two of the evenings honorees, old friend Rose Marie and Marvin Kaplan. |
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Former child actress Sybil Jason, who appeared in films with the likes of Humphrey Bogart and Al Jolson and was also on hand during the weekend to sign copies of her autobiography, talks with friends including actress Ann Rutherford of Gone With The Wind fame who has been a presenter at past Cinecons. |
Director Joe Dante, far right, shares a drink with friends, left to right, Elizabeth Stanley, Lainie Miller and her husband and cult film actor, Dick Miller. Dick has been in many of Dante's films including the popular Gremlins. |
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Tab Hunter was pleased to chat with good friend former agent Dick Clayton as actress Jane Withers looks on. Tab credits Dick with getting his career started. |
There's a whole lot of socializing going on with groups of fans and celebrities everywhere
Here TV & film actors Warren Stevens, Richard Anderson and (with her back to us) Stella Stevens are holding a conversation. |
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And this time Peter Marshall has his back to us as Stella Stevens has a chat with him. |
One of the evenings honoree's, Marvin Kaplan stops to talk to friends. That's Bernard Fox of Bewitched fame, in the upper right corner.
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As 8:00 approached everyone began to make their way into the banquet hall to take their seats. Dinner would be starting soon.
At this table (from left to right) are film and TV actress Francine York, Will Ryan, songwriter and animation voice, June Foray animation voice artist best known for doing Rocky and Natasha on the Rocky and Bullwinkle show and Jerry Beck, noted authority on cartoons and animation. |
Two of the people at this table are at least partly responsible for the films we see at Cinecon, Grover Crisp of Sony Pictures (left) and Barry Allen of Paramount Pictures. Without cooperation of the studios we would not have access to the wonderful selection of great films that we show.
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As dinner is about to begin, a happy Rose Marie sits next to Peter Marshal on the dais. Marvin Kaplan and Tab Hunter in the background are about to take their seats after talking with Rose Marie.
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Cinecon president Bob Birchard opened the
banquet with a few remarks and introduced
Will and Nick. | Cinephiles Will Ryan and Nick Santa Maria
performed a novelty comedy number tailored
to our Cinecon audience. |
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Everyone enjoyed the lively act which sometimes
got up close and personal. | M.C. Stan Taffel joked with the audience as he introduced the celebrities in attendance. Then he introduced the first presenter, Beverly Garland. |
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Beverly Garland, always a Cinecon favorite,
spoke about great character comedian Marvin
Kaplan and presented the award to him. | Marvin, still sitting on the dais, enjoyed Beverly's comments. |
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Marvin has had a long entertainment career of numerous film and TV shows. | Marsha Hunt congratulated Marvin as he left
the podium. |
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Game show host Peter Marshall had the pleasure
of presenting the next award to old friend Rose
Marie. The two appeared together on Hollywood Squares for nearly 20 years. | Rose Marie has been an entertainer since the
age of three starting in radio then film and of
course TV, being best known for THE DICK
VAN DYKE SHOW. |
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The old friends shared a few laughs. | Rose Marie waxed nostalgic about her long
career as she thanked Cinecon for the award. |
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Film actress Marsha Hunt was up next to present
the award to her friend Coleen Gray. | Coleen accepts the award. |
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Coleen enjoyed attending Cinecon and thanked
the Cinephiles for the award. | Film and TV actress Lori Nelson brought Tab
Hunter up to the podium as she spoke about
him. |
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Tab has had a long career in films and television.
He and Lori worked together on his TV show. | Their warm relationship was apparent by the
way they acted toward each other. |
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Stan was up again for a few final words before wrapping up the show. | |
Even though the banquet was over it was hard to clear out the room because fans still wanted to get one last autograph or photo of the celebrities before leaving. |
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Some of the award winners show off their awards, Tab Hunter sitting with Lori Nelson, Coleen Gray and Marvin Kaplan. |
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Rose Marie listens intently during a conversation
after the banquet. | Tab Hunter signs a photo for one of his fans. |
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Choreographer Miriam Nelson (in lavender
and purple) talks to a fan while people in the background wait to get Tab Hunter's autograph. | Honoree Marvin Kaplan stops to talk with
actress and former child star Jane Withers. |
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After their chat Marvin and Jane graciously pose
for a picture before leaving. | Small groups of people enjoyed talking to each
other after the dinner. |
There was still so much to talk about that people didn't want to leave but slowly the crowds thinned out and eventually they all left for the evening and another Cinecon Career Achievement Award banquet was history. |
| With everyone looking their best for the banquet it was a great time to catch the Cinecon staff for a group photo.
Left to right: Mike Schlesinger, v.p. Robert Nudelman, president Robert S. Birchard, volunteer coordinator Stella Grace, secretary Stan Taffel and last but not least v.p. Marvin Paige. |
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Monday - One last day of films before heading home |
The last day of Cinecon is usually a quieter day with many of the out-of-state Cinephiles having to use Monday as a travel day to get back to work on time. For those of us who could stay on day five the focus was on film (and maybe one more trip to the dealers' room).
The morning session began with chapters 7 - 9 of The Iron Claw a 15 chapter 1941 serial about a reporter trying to figure out what's going on in an old house amid secret passages, sinister people and hidden gold shown back to back. Hopefully everyone caught chapter 6 on Friday. So we managed to show 4 episodes this year, at this rate maybe we'll be able to finish up this serial by 2008.
Our next film was the 1925 silent version of LORD JIM. In it a merchant seaman is branded a coward after he abandons ship during a fatal hurricane. The title character was played by Percy Marmont with Shirley Mason as his love interest and Noah Beery playing to type as the villain.
Leading us into the lunch break was THE BARKER from 1929 was one of those hybrid films made at the dawn of the sound era which was filmed as a silent picture then held back from release to reshoot some scenes with sound making it a part talkie. This circus story starred Milton Sills as a side show barker who wants to keep his sister, played by Dorothy Mackaill, away from circus biz. Betty Compson and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. also star.This film was another audience hit and many considered Milton Sills a real find.
After lunch we started the final afternoon session of Cinecon 42. The opening short, PUNCH OF THE IRISH, a fast-paced but rather disjointed comedy directed by Henry Lehman. His girlfriend, actress/model Virginia Rappe, had a featured part, thought to be her longest on screen appearence. If her name sounds familiar it's because she, unfortunately, is better known for her tragic death in the Fatty Arbuckle scandle then for her acting.
GIRL IN THE PULLMAN, was an average silent comedy from 1927. It starred Marie Prevost, Harrison Ford and Franklin Pangborn in a love triangle set mostly aboard a train. The great looking print 35mm print was a new restoration from the AFI.
The lively college musical comedy START CHEERING from 1938 followed. The film featured cowboy star Charles Starret in this non-western about a successful young actor, famous for playing college football heroes, trying to leave Hollywood behind to attend college for real and do it incognito. The supporting players made this film extra fun: Jimmy Durante, Raymond Walburn, Walter Connolly and in several brief bits, The Three Stooges.
And last but not least the final film of the convention was the legendary pairing of Rudolph Valentino and Gloria Swanson, BEYOND THE ROCKS (1922). For a long time the film was thought to be lost but a print was found and restored. Even though the film had already been shown on the Turner Classic Films channel Cinephiles were still looking forward to seeing it on the big screen. The film had a recorded music track but long time Cinephile, Tex Wyndham, stepped forward to give us a live musical accompaniment.
And so another wonderful Cinecon ends and it's time to say goodbye to the Cinecon staff. But where are they? Hey, Mike?...uh, Stan?...Robert?...Stella? Where are you guys?
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There they are. They fell asleep. I guess the long weekend finally caught up to them. Hey, wake up, it's time to go home. Oh well, . |
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Much thanks to the great Cinecon staff and all of those wonderful volunteers who donated their time to make this show happen. Because of your hard work Cinephiles were able to spend another wonderful Labor Day weekend indulging in their favorite pastime of watching vintage films. Time for all of us to make our way home to rest up for next year. |
