Gerry Anderson In NYC!

I'm back! I had a great time in NYC yesterday seeing Gerry Anderson and a
few people from our various email lists.

I hung out with Anthony D, Ken S, Patrick (All from the various Space 1999
email lists) And Ken P (From Online Alpha and the UFO list) Our special
guest star (Move over Jonathan Harris) was William Latham, author of Space
1999 Resurrection!

I arrived in NYC very early, I was a little paranoid about parking because
of the MTV Video Music Awards. I shouldn't have worried because parking
was no problem in Times Square, even though Radio City Music Hall was only
a couple of blocks away. Driving in was tough as we had the worst rain on
Long Island that we've had all summer. I came in on the Expressway which
flooded and closed. SO I switched to the Northern State Pkwy which ALSO
flooded and closed! It took about 2.5 hours to drive into Manhattan.

I spent a few hours walking around Times Square checking out the Virgin
Megastore and asking where the signing was going to be. The people who
work there didn't know anything (Of Course!) but at least were very nice
and told me how the other signings they've had went. Reading the LA
reports beforehand was very helpful.

I walked over to Radio City to watch them set up for the MTV video
awards. Kind of cool (Not a lot of rain in NYC either, I got lucky!)
Then I went into the new Toys R Us store and checked it out. Also very
cool, they have an indoor Ferris wheel! I had thought about going to the
Museum of Radio and TV but changed my mind earlier as it was pretty close
to Radio City and I didn't want to get stuck in some MTV crowd. Bad idea,
walking around the city by the awards was easier than I thought it would be
and I could have gone into the museum and maybe watched Breakaway.

At around 4pm I got a call from Ken and we all met in the lobby of the
Crown Plaza hotel. YES That Crown Plaza hotel! The site of Main Mission
2000! It was surreal going back in there again, I think it was two years
to the day since Main Mission 2000! The function rooms were roped off, I
really wanted to stroll around them again since I spent so much time there
2 years ago. But being in the lobby was enough.

Talking with Patrick, Ken and Anthony was great, like a mini
convention! (Spacecon 14.5???) I had already had dinner but the three of
them didn't, and wanted Pizza. So we found a pizza place and had some
great Space 1999 conversation while they ate and i drank coffee. We also
discussed UFO quite a bit. It got closer to the signing time so they went
back to the hotel to get their stuff and I found the line for Gerry
Anderson. Actually, I became the line for Gerry Anderson. When I got to
the store at 6pm there were people milling about but no organized line. I
decided to stand by Gerry's table and wait for him. The Virgin Megastore
was well stocked with lots of UFO sets, Thunderbird sets (Including the
Megaset), Space 1999 sets (Both seasons) and the Captain Scarlet set. They
also had a cool glossy poster promoting Gerry's appearance. I talked to a
bunch of fans, many people found out about the event through an ad in the
Village Voice, it was about a 1/2 page ad. One guy saw it on his way home
from work and turned around to meet Gerry! Another fellow had a Supercar T
Shirt on (The one from the new comic book company) and when I spoke to him
I found out he had been to the Century 21 convention in the UK.

Some of the fans there were fans of Supercar and Fireball XL5! One fellow
asked if Gerry was bring his wife...Sylvia! I said, do you mean Mary? He
said no, Sylvia! I told him Gerry and Sylvia had been divorced since
1976! Pretty funny. By then (Around 6:45pm I guess) about 40 or 50 people
had gathered, mostly 30 -40 year old guys like me, but a few women as
well. I met a young Japanese woman when I got on line the second time.

Bill Latham showed up and I remembered to pass out fliers for the book. I
had these printed up the day before to help promote the book at this
event. Good idea....everyone on line wanted one and a few people had Bill
sign the flier! I've never seen anything like that before! I should have
had a couple of copies of the book to sell but I had no idea how the store
would have liked that. There was no worry, the line wasn't really
controlled by the store at all and there was only one rule. (Only two
items signed!) Bill and I spoke a bit, it was neat seeing him in
person. And then Bill got on line also (For a picture with
Gerry). Finally Gerry Anderson wandered up to the floor we were on, looked
around at the line (Looked right at me!) and then walked away! 10 minutes
later he came back. I thought I had scared him away at first! Gerry
seemed a little more frail than remembered from seeing him on various
videos and TV documentaries. If he flew in to NYC that day i bet he must
have had a terrible time at the airport.

Finally it was time to sign! I was told only two items were allowed but
the line was short enough to hop on again. Gerry asked me about my
Spacecon T shirt and the convention in Tampa. He was having a hard time
hearing (I think he's 73 years old now???) but the main problem was the
Virgin Megastore. On the top floor the music was blasting like some sort
of club. We were on the middle floor and they were playing Thunderbirds
DVD's on the store system. That was loud but the sound effects on the
disks are enhanced so whenever a ship took off or an explosion occurred the
floor vibrated! Now try to have a few words with Gerry Anderson over that
racket! That was the main problem with the event. Gerry signed my red
book, I made a special page for him to sign (It probably embarrassed him)
and my Fanderson script book. Then I took a picture of him holding the
Resurrection book up, he pretended to read it. After I snapped the picture
he said, "That will be $10,000 please!" : - )

I got back on line and picked two more items for him to sign. A tough
choice but I decided to have him sign the Evocation CD and my Space 1999 ad
slick. I've been seeing the biography on EBAY signed by him so maybe I'll
go for that later down the road. If i had known there was a two item limit
on the line I would have brought less stuff. But who knew? Better to have
too much than not enough. The man in front of me on line had nothing for
him to sign but the xerox pages promoting the event.

After the second trip through the line I figured that was enough, with the
level of noise in the store and the fact Gerry was having trouble talking
to his fans i didn't want to piss anyone off. So I stopped at four items
which was just fine.
Because of that I was unable to ask about any of the upcoming DVD releases
(Sorry Claudia!) and couldn't get any extra items signed at all.

Around this time Ken P (SHADO & OA lists) had to leave and got his Space
1999 book signed by William Latham. William also posed for a picture with
Gerry and I'm sure that will find it's way onto the POWYS website real soon!

After that the five of us decided to find a good place to sit and talk a
bit about the event and Space 1999. We walked back to the Crown Plaza (It
started raining again) and sat in the bar for about 2 hours talking about
the show, conventions and a bunch of other stuff. I probably talked too
much! It was just great being around fans again and having a free day in
the city. Writing email is one thing to but talk and joke around with
everyone in person is something not to be missed. Finally it was time to
go home (10pm now!) Bill Latham and I walked out of the hotel and walked
back up to where my car was parked (Also on the way to the train for
Bill) I almost ran back into the Virgin Megastore to see if I could grab
one of those glossy signs to take home (I wonder if they threw it out?) but
decided against it. Finally it was time to say goodbye to Bill, I offered
to drive him to the train but it took 20 minutes to get my car out of the
garage I think it only takes 10 minutes to walk to the train!

I drove through the city, making the mistake of driving up 42nd street into
a big traffic jam. Took about 15 minutes to get out of that! I also
almost got hit by a garbage truck that decided to drive in two lanes at
once! I Love New York!

I made it to the Expressway and got home about 12:30 - 1:00am. It was a
great experience, it was great meeting Gerry and the rest of the fans. I
took a few pictures and will be uploading them tonight sometime to the
Online Alpha files section. I'll put most of the pictures there and try to
upload some Gerry pictures to the other lists I CC'd this message to.

Thanks to everyone I saw in NYC, I had a blast and it was a great way to
end the summer. It also filled the void left by the cancelation of the
2002 Spacecon. Here's to Portland in 2003!