Wesley's Week - July 16-22, 2007

by Wesley

For those of you who read last week’s entry, I told you that I was heading to Los Angeles to attend the Game Show Congress. As I said, I did so mainly because my mom as well as my friend Steve Beverly, who has interviewed me a couple of times for his excellent TVgameshow.net Web site, told me I should go to it. Well, I have to thank them both for convincing me to do it – it was one of the best times away from the Triangle I have ever had.

I arrived at Beverly Garland’s Holiday Inn Sunday morning, and one of the first things I witnessed was the lobby which was chock full of photographs of Mrs. Garland, who played Fred MacMurray’s wife on My Three Sons as well as performed in a load of B movies parodied uproariously on Mystery Science Theater 3000. They were fascinating, but I was sad when I was told that she was too ill to attend the convention herself, even though she was a regular on the pantomime game show Stump the Stars in the early 1960s. Moving along, I went into the convention area itself and found myself meeting Steve Beverly in person for the first time, and he was gracious as always, plus several other Web site operators who knew about me and vice versa. It was great fun networking with them. And then came the stars.

Oh my gosh, it was incredible. I tried to be respectful, but when I saw Barbara Feldon from Get Smart, stroll by, looking maybe a day older than when that show ended in 1970, I had to call out and ask her if I could get a picture with her. She said yes, and afterward I asked her what she was up to lately. She politely said she was living in New York City and mainly writing rather than acting, as well as doing some work for women’s rights. Man, what a lady.

Following that came a dizzying assortment of stars here and there, from Earl Holliman to Florence Henderson, both looking and sounding well. I did get to meet Wink Martindale, and he was so nice in shaking my hand and saying it was good to see another Southerner at the event (he was born and raised in Tennessee). His hair was as perfect as always, leading to plenty of jokes at his expense as guest speakers paid tribute to him before he received an award there.

But the crowd favorite had to be Betty White, as she has done around 50 different game shows as a guest since the 1950s, always with intelligence and good humor. When they announced her name the first time, we stood up and chanted “Betty, Betty!” We stood up again when she was a guest speaker, and the enthusiasm was so overwhelming that she signaled to all of us to sit down and let her do her talk (in fact, I cannot remember any event that had as many spontaneous standing ovations, with many of them starting at my table, since we were all hardcore game show geeks). Betty gave a couple of good jokes, such as saying that Bob Barker insisted that any replacement for him on The Price is Right be spayed or neutered. Then after she prepared to sit down, Steve Beverly surprised her with the first game show panelist lifetime achievement award (Steve told me she never wanted to be honored at one of these events, so he had to keep the honor a secret). Betty was speechless and truly appreciative – a wonderful moment.

But here is the weirdest and maybe hardest to comprehend moment for me – Steve actually had me stand up as a notable guest at the event! Yes, me, coming maybe a minute after they introduced Florence Henderson! Even I did not know I was! But it was a thrill for this author, and I even have it on tape to make sure it actually happened.

There are plenty of other stories to share about the event, and maybe I will do with you in the future. But for now, due to a lack of time and space, this will have to do it. Just take it from me that if your family and true friends insist you should do something that they think you will enjoy, take their advice – they really do know what is best for you, as was the case for me in this amazing weekend.

Permalink |  Save on del.ico.us

Commenting is closed for this article.