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(5 days ago)
In the 1960s and 70s, Houston, Texas was a hotbed of fandom activity. Spearheaded by Marc Schooley and Roy Bonario, local fans formed the Houston C...
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In the 1960s and 70s, Houston, Texas was a hotbed of fandom activity. Spearheaded by Marc Schooley and Roy Bonario, local fans formed the Houston Comic Collectors' Association in the summer of 1966. The first Houstoncon was held the following year and soon grew into a five day extravaganza attended by fans the world over. Houstoncons offereed a wide variety of programming and events dfirected to such diverse interests as Star Trek, classic films, comic books, westerns and movie posters. The guest list for fabulous fandom gatherings also exemplified the all-inclusive them of the event. Guests appearing at Houstoncon included Roy Rogers, Johnny Weissmuller, James Doohan, Jock Mahoney, Al Williamson, George Takei, Walter Koenig. C.C. Beck, Grace Lee Whitney, Forrest J. Ackerman, Don "Red" Barry, Frank Brunner and dozens more...even local Houston TV icon from the 1950s, Kitirik was a guest!
Emphasis at the events was also placed on the motion pictures serials of the 1930s, 40s and 50s. The complete screenings of Columbia's Batman serials -- billed as "An Evening with Batman and Robin" -- fueled the "camp craze" of the 1960s and led to the BATMAN television series starring Adam West and Burt Ward. Screenings of serials -- many shown publicly for the first time in their entirety -- played to capacity audiences at Houstoncon. The guest list also complimented the screenings with serial favorites David Sharpe, Kirk Alyn, Frank Coghlan Jr., Henry Brandon, Tom Steele, William Benedict and director William Witney on hand to meet fans of the genre.
The last motion picture was released in 1955, though prints were available for theatrical bookings through the 1960s. So avid were we Houston fans about serials, that if Hollywood would't make any more serials, we'd make our own.
Armed with a black and white Super 8mm camera and however many rolls of film we could afford, we spent several weekends and evenings over two years shooting our homage to the motion serials. In those distant days, the technology available to amateur filmmakers was limited to basically a viewer and a guillotine splicer.
Cast members for this segment were Glenn Kessler (noted comic collector/authority and, later, owner of Happy Trails Bookstore), Roy Bonario (owner of Houston's first comic shop, Roy's Memory Shop), Ken Donnell (comic collector par excellance and for years owner of Houston's Northside Book Emporium), Walter Irwin (syndicated columnist and co-author of over a dozen TREK paperbacks), Ken Finnerty (long-time fan and collector who actually broke his collarbone during filming), local fan Bob Mitchell, friend and Jack Huff (friend and fellow drama student at the University of Houston) and yours truly, Earl Blair, wearing the tights. None of us were professional stuntmen and no one was paid for the hours and hours they participated in this effort. We did it because we loved motion pictures serials...and, perhaps, we missed those Saturdays of not too long ago more than would like to admit.
This clip is one of six segments we shot and edited. The film -- scripted as a four chapter serial -- was never completed. The spliced Super 8mm print was transferred to 3/4" video in the late 1970s and a rough musical track -- by permission for this non-profit project -- added from cassettes of old serial music from Ivy Films. I've often given thought of reediting the original footage, adding sound effects and dialogue, now that the technology to do so is readily available. Perhaps someday, I will. But now you can see the winner of the Best Amateur Film Award at Multicon '70 in Oklahoma City -- pretty much as we shot it forty years ago.....
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Me and my gang of cronies were seated right next to you guys at the premiere.