Haines Logo Text
Column Archive
October 2, 2011:

THE CELEBRITY SIGNING SHOW – THE FIRST DAY

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, October is flying by, like a gazelle twirling a baton and doing the splits. The first day of the celebrity signing show was a good deal of fun. What we all thought would be a really good location with excellent sight lines turned into a bit of a nightmare thanks to the popularity of Clint Walker. He had a line – not a huge line – but a line and that line effectively blocked the view of my table, Bridget’s table and Druxy’s table, at least as you entered the room. I asked the powers that be if there was anything to be done about it, but there really wasn’t. Clint likes to chat up the folks and he signs VERY slowwwwwly and people had multiple items, so that line stayed the same length for over two hours. Then it abated somewhat and that was better and then Clint went to lunch and suddenly people found us. Bridget did really well – people just love Here Come The Brides. Druxy sold some books, so that was good, and I did pretty well, too – sold some books, some Blu and Rays and, surprisingly, some photographs. I do think I would have sold more had I been closer to Cindy and that group, but I would not have been happy down there as it was VERY crowded and not very roomy.

Mostly, I’m just at these things to have fun and fun I had. Sitting across from me was actor Paul Carofotes (spelling?) and we had fun giving goofy looks across a crowded room. They weren’t getting a lot of folks over there. Diane Baker and I exchanged smiles and waves as did Millie Perkins and I. James Darren came over and said hi. Ron Ely was doing good business as was Pat Priest, who was next to Druxy.

I met some very nice folks, including a regular Kritzerland customer who lives nearby. One nice fellow came up to me and said that his favorite episode of Happy Days was the poker episode I did – I showed him the still from it and he was delighted. There were several Nudie fans who’d seen the movie on HBO and Cinemax in the 1980s. I think a lot of the older collectors simply don’t have Blu and Ray machines – I suspect if it had been a DVD I would have more than tripled sales. At some point I took a break and went and said hi to Cindy and waved at Penny. I said hey to Henry Winkler and my old pal Leslie Eastabrook, who was in my show Start At The Top way back when. Former porn star Seka came up to me and chatted – she was very nice. But the person I talked to most was Eddie Mekka – we had a very nice chat and I gave him a copy of my book. Then it was back to my table. By three-thirty most of the action was done, and even Cindy and Penny had no one at their table and they wrapped up early. One can only wonder what today will be like.

After I finished, I brought some stuff up to the room, then went down to the hotel restaurant and ordered a Caesar salad and chicken pot pie, both yummilicious. As I was finishing the chicken pot pie, Druxy showed up – he’d decided not to go to the movies with all the other celebs, so he ordered what I’d had and we had a nice chat whilst I picked at some mixed berry sorbet.

After dinner, I went to the gym and did five miles and burned 500 calories on the treadmill, then came back to the room, lets VERY sore. Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because it’s my intention to go to bed early and get a good night’s beauty sleep.

Today, I’ll arise and go print out my boarding pass. After that, I’ll shave and shower and mosey on down to the celebrity signing show – the second day. It only goes from eleven to four, so that’s not too bad. Then I have to discuss with the hotel staff how exactly I’m going to ship my box o’ stuff back. Once that’s worked out, then Cindy, her writer friend, and I will sup and talk about the show we’ll be doing. I’ll take my leave around eight, do my evening ablutions, write the notes and post them and get to bed early, as I must be at the airport at five-fifteen.

Tomorrow morning I’ll be flying back to Los Angeles, California. Once there, I will have a lot of stuff to do, like banking, errands and whatnot, returning telephonic calls, having a quick rehearsal with Alet, and maybe getting together with the editor to see a first pass at our trailer. I’ll do the four-mile jog and eat, too.

Tuesday is our stumble-through, Wednesday is sound check and show. The rest of the week is meetings, meals, prepping our next shoot, and readying the announcement for our 100th CD release – thankfully, it’s actually all ready to go – I’ve written the blurb, I’ll get audio samples to the web guy very early and we’ll actually be ahead a little.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do the second day of the celebrity signing show, I must print out a boarding pass, figure out how my box o’ stuff is getting back to me, do the treadmill, and have a meal and meeting. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland where I shall dream of selling lots more books and Blu and Rays – maybe the dream will come true – one can only hope!

Search BK's Notes Archive:
 
© 2001 - 2024 by Bruce Kimmel. All Rights Reserved