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Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Erin Gray part II

Link to Part I if you haven’t read it.
When I attended the Wizard World ComicCon in Austin a few months back, I got a chance to talk to Erin Gray again.
It was Friday and the crowds were very light.  I wondered over and mentioned that I saw her on Hollywood Treasure.  Hollywood Treasure is a reality show on the SyFy channel about collecting old movie memorabilia and then selling it at auction.  She got very excited and mentioned that a lot of people had seen her on the show.
Erin had a prop from Buck Rodgers that they were interested in. She was willing to let them look it over and possibly auction it off. After the experts examined her prop, the value wasn’t nearly what they estimated. She took the news with aplomb. I think I would have had tears in my eyes if I heard the news. Having hopes dashed against the rocks is always had to accept and she did it so gracefully.
We talked about her disappointment and how she really was going to use that money for her daughter’s tuition.
Just then a few people came over and I didn’t want to dwell on the negative nor keep her from working so I said good bye and walked away.
I went over to Gil Gerard who had a table next to Erin. This made sense as they were both in Buck Rodgers and they even had photos that both of them could sign.
He was very friendly and open. I mentioned I didn’t get a chance to see him in San Diego as every time I walked by he was busy. I replied that I must not have walked by much. That was a slow show for him. I asked if he was going back next year but he wasn’t sure yet. He was thinking about going to New Orleans for a show as it’s been a while since he’d been there.  When he was acting, he never got a chance to explore the town, so he hoped he’d get some free time.  I told him the next time he was in Austin he needed to see the bats fly from under the bridge. He had heard about them and asked if they filled the sky like people say. I told him, no but it’s still impressive to see 100’s of thousands of bats make black streamers in the sky as they woke and left to go hunting.
As we were talking he mentioned he was writing a book based on some unused scripts from Buck Rodgers; which I thought would be interesting. He said the show was canceled before they were filmed.
I did pose with him for a photo. Again my camera caused some chaos; due more to user error than the camera itself.  I did remember to suck in my gut and smile. 
So I had my Gil Gerard autograph in hand. The photo had both him and Erin in it. So I went back to Erin and got her to sign it.  I posed with her too but forgot to suck in and smile. Oh well.

Before I left, I mentioned the adventure in San Diego many years ago. I gave her a brief recap leaving out the part where I hoped my friend would ask her out to the ball game. She seemed to really brighten hearing about the story. She thanked me for sharing and said it was nice to hear the positive stuff.
I left before my welcome was worn out.

AH

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