Ed Bishop at Equicon 74

Hi all,

Here is an edited version of an email I got a couple weeks ago,
from someone who saw Ed Bishop at a 1974 Star Trek convention
in Los Angeles.

Marc

--------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Marc... :)

You know, sometimes it's funny how some memories of
things that you did in long ago sometimes come back
and haunt you many years later, well--it took the sad
news of Ed's and Mike's passing to bring them back,
but....maybe you might get a laugh or two out of this
message.

....let me explain.

Way back in 1974 (I think it may have been 1975--but
anyway-one of those years.), I had a then portable
stereo audio cassette recorder at the 'Equicon-Star
Trek' conventions to capture some of the highlights of
the convention.

I found out by the program guide at the time
that Ed Bishop would be there at the convention and
would be roaming around as his usual self, but later
on, he would be set up in costume as Ed Straker in a
'light' recreation of his SHADO 'office' set that some
folks at the convention (Or maybe ITC?), put together.
They even had a lady (Not any of the actress's from
the series as I recall.) dressed up in one of the
'Moonbase' outfits. She fit into it rather nicely as I
recall.... ;)

Well, to continue, I had the recorder running off and
on at times when this was going on, and when Ed was in
and out of costume, and while everyone was asking
questions about some of his early on camera work, as
well as off-screen also....

"Mouse On The Moon'-- that was me also....with a
crew-cut!"

"Let's see, ehm, have you ever seen 'Captain Scarlet
And The Mysterons'?", "I was 'Captain Blue' in that--the
voice of 'Captain Blue'.

My friend at the time and myself, well--we were pretty
good at coming up with 'Satire-Show' concepts, and I
mentioned to Ed that we were thinking of doing
something on film (Super 8 most likely), of UFO, and
we were just doing some light brainstorming at the
time and just to get an idea of what he thought of it,
we mentioned the head character name to him, to which
Ed replied:

"Commander 'Faker'...that's good, that's good fellas,
keep working on those lines! (Chuckles)"

Then he followed up by saying: "You may do better than
the original series!" If that wasn't encouragement, I
don't know what is....;)

Then the inevitable question: 'What is Gerry Anderson
like to work with?'

"Ahhh....low paid actors!--(Laughing)--no, he's a
great guy!"

Now here comes the interesting part....I don't have a
cassette deck that works anymore, but I know that I
still have the master tape that I recorded those many
years ago, and if/when I can get another deck, pull
them out and digitize it, you are welcome to it. :)

--------------------------------------------------------------

Hi all,

I posted my message about Ed Bishop at Equicon 74 to both
SHADO and EdBishopFans, and the following reply was sent
to EdBishopFans:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Saw this and just 'had' to answer <g>
replies below:

--- In [hidden email], Marc Martin <marc@u...> wrote:
> Hi all,
Here is an edited version of an email I got a couple weeks ago,
> from someone who saw Ed Bishop at a 1974 Star Trek convention
> in Los Angeles.
> Marc
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> Hi Marc... :)
> Way back in 1974

Yes, it was '74.

I was the person who created and constructed the "set" background for
Ed's appearance, in addition to setting it up (his appearance) to
start with..

> They even had a lady (Not any of the actress's from
> the series as I recall.) dressed up in one of the
> 'Moonbase' outfits. She fit into it rather nicely as I
> recall.... ;)

We had two ladies in our extended group who were supporting Ed during
his tenure in LA... Ev Turner was the tall one, and Pearl Rae
Stickler was the shorter one. Still have photos of them. Did have
Ed's actual wig for awhile... he was going to give it to me as a
gift, but then UFO got hot again, and he had to go out on the
circuit, so needed it back. However, he did leave me with a copy of
the SUBSMASH script to make up for it...
>
> Well, to continue, I had the recorder running off and
> on at times when this was going on, and when Ed was in
> and out of costume, and while everyone was asking
> questions about some of his early on camera work, as
> well as off-screen also....
...> Then he followed up by saying: "You may do better than
> the original series!" If that wasn't encouragement, I
> don't know what is....;)
...
Now here comes the interesting part....I don't have a
> cassette deck that works anymore, but I know that I
> still have the master tape that I recorded those many
> years ago, and if/when I can get another deck, pull
> them out and digitize it, you are welcome to it. :)

I still have many cassette players... being a dinosauar at heart, as
well as a number of Super 8 films of Ed.

Would anyone be interested in a long story regarding how all this
came about?
Let me know..
rita