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LucyFest 2015


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I don't know but I can vouch for it being on display back in 96'.

 

They rotate them. The first time I went there (1998, I think) it was Lucy's black and white lacy housecoat from Second Honeymoon and a couple of other episodes. The next time it was a sparkly brown and pink cocktail dress.

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Here are a few photos from today:

 

Ric interviewing Lou Ann:

 

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A picture from a rare clip they showed at Lou Ann's dinner. The dinner was very interesting and went on pretty long, well over 2 hours.

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A view of Jamestown from the tower at the Fenton History Museum:

 

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From the members only event, Lucy's costume from HL episode "Lucy and the Used Car Dealer":

 

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Various monogrammed purses of Lucy's (and one of Lucie's), including a briefcase that says "Our President":

 

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If you would like to see a close up of any of them, I'll be happy to post them.

 

Brock found a Band-Aid and Lifesaver in one of the purses!!

 

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Viv's shawl that Lou Ann put up for auction:

 

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Floor plan for the Comedy Center:

 

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Si!  Terribly worried about arrdubya's introduction (of himself!) at Lou Ann's Interview! 

 

Justin - never saw you there!  Was sitting with the McCullough's; got there fairly early - did you think the presentation was a bit LONG? 

 

Had it not been for unohoo, would have enjoyed it much more; interesting gossip follows....see you at Taco - 1 is great; I'll be real thirsty by then!!!! 

 

Loving each of you for posting these tidbits . . . AS ALWAYS, JK :D 

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I started my day down in the lobby where Diane and Rhonda were with Lou Ann and the fans. Both of them are better than ever and made breakfast lots of fun for all. Can't wait for the brunch show tomorrow. Then, I headed down to the Lucy and Ethel Photo Opp, which I do every year, and I saw Diane and Rhonda again. I was happy to see that they decided to put us on the Beverly Palms set this year.

 

After that, I headed down to the Lou Ann boat cruise to meet up with Brock, his mother, Christina Carroll, and Mike. Despite some mess ups regarding seating and the meals, which caused us to be separated for a while, it all worked out in the end. Lou Ann stayed on the top deck with all of us for the first half, and then moved below deck. But, it become a little hard to follow because the audio system was cutting in and out. So, we eventually just ended up talking to each other. However, it was amazing to see how Lou Ann was able to walk around and talk basically for 2 consecutive hours, and she didn't complain a bit.

 

After that we headed over to Mary Rappaport's to see the Garage Sale... which was quite packed. After talking to Mary, I picked up a few things (an Italian magazine/newspaper featuring a full page Sorrowful Jones photo on the cover, one of the notepads with a photo from "Lucy and Bob Hope", and a signed Dann Cahn caricature). Once we finished up there, we headed over to Taco Hut and had a nice little get-together, which was nice as always.

 

I then headed off to the trivia contest, which was full and hectic as always. It was surprising to see how many new people were here this year... probably well over half of the people at the Robert H Jackson Center. The host was a local man, who said once served on the L-D Center's board, but I had never heard of him. However, he did a relatively good job with handling the situation. Brock decided not to participate after winning last year, but I played and got to semi-finals... I was one away from being in the finals, but it's alright (the prizes were downgraded this year to medals... no more nice gift bags or baskets full of goodies). It seemed like a lot of the questions were from last year's trivia.... so Jimmy's near impossible questions made a return. We left early, however, because it was dragging on too long.

 

Once that wrapped up I checked out the train station again. I bought Melissa River's book and Nick Offerman's book... apparently both of them will be having book signings so I am very excited. I also checked in on the silent auction... I was outbid on the glasses, but I think I'm going to skip it since I've already burned a hole in my pocket this year.

 

Next up: Melissa Rivers/Kelly Carlin/Ramis kids Comedy Roundtable and then Nick Offerman!! (And possibly the Lucille "Ball" but I'm not too sure about that)

 

I'll post photos and more later.

~Justin

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Milton Berle's nephew has been added to the roster for this afternoon's groundbreaking:

 

http://www.dailyjournal.net/view/story/00127b323c3b4388afcfc5208e956bc2/NY--National-Comedy-Center

 

Nothing against Marshall, but if the special guest was only our patron teenybopper, THE MOVIE STAR!!

 

Jam packed day ahead. I'm particularly looking forward to the Lucy & Ethel Brunch and Christina Carroll brunch. Our own Laura and Neil have created a video presentation for the latter which is one of the grooviest things I've ever seen!

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Well, with another amazingly fun wrap party hosted by Diane Vincent this evening -- Lucy Fest 2015 has drawn to a close. Actually, there is still one event tomorrow but I haven't yet met anyone who is going on the second boat cruise. I'm too exhausted from this jam-packed day to write a full recap, but I will in the morning. It's safe to say this was an extremely well attended festival and the number of first-time visitors attending the Lucy-specific events such as Lou Ann Graham and Christina Carroll's events, the trivia contest, etc., was staggering and encouraging. The Lucy legacy is alive and well.

 

Of today's roster of comedians, Seinfeld was fantastic, but I was particularly impressed by Kelly Carlin's terrific one-woman show. It is a tour de force!

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Safe journey(s) home to each of you travel folks!  It was great to see you; looking forward to re-caps from all the exciting things which I 'attend' through each of you.  Once I get the $$ saved up for the publication of second volume of the chronology, I shall be attending more events in the future years.   Love, JK :fabrary:

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Back home now -- after a gloriously simple border crossing we soon drove straight into a huge storm, which was spiced up -- and prolonged -- an otherwise uneventful drive.

 

I don't know about the rest of you that were there this year, but I found it a bit harder to say goodbye to everyone this year. It was such a jam-packed few days, but they flew by so quickly. The new traditional wrap-party is the perfect capper. 

 

The Lucy Fest organizers really knocked it out of the park this year in finding that perfect balance between maintaining the Lucy connection and forging ahead with their vision for new comedy. Long may this winning formula continue. Christina Carroll and Lou Ann Graham are wonderful keepers of the flame and such interesting and lovely individuals in their own right. Journey did a great job! I hope Christina passed along her idea for an event next year (or in a future year). It's a terrific one!

 

My only complaint is they need to work on their timing a little bit more. Many of us had to leave the Tropicana Room events much earlier than we wanted to because they made a strange decision this year not to begin the formal program until everyone had more or less finished their respective meals. This meant Lou Ann's dinner overlapped with ... help me out. It's late, my brain is in powersave mode after this weekend and I'm drawing a complete blank on what it overlapped with! The Comedy Showcase? and Christina's lunch overlapped with the much-touted groundbreaking ceremony for the National Comedy Center.

 

On a final note for now (until I write a more detailed recap) -- love him, hate him, or indifferent to him, it was nice to see Ric Wyman back hosting these Tropicana events. These are always so much more enjoyable when they are emceed by someone who actually knows their Lucy stuff, like Ric or T. Faye Griffin. Hopefully this is a sign that (get ready for a cliche overload) fences have been mended after the Great Brouhaha of 2008, water has flowed under the bridge, and most people have now gone to their neutral corners. (Phew!)

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" I hope Christina passed along her idea for an event next year (or in a future year). It's a terrific one!"  Brock

 

Brock:  Care to give me details about what Christina suggested?  I would appreciate that....  Thanks!  JK

****

 

comments I should keep to myself - obviously, for the sake of the employees, and others, here it is, anyway: 

 

Your comments about arrdubya:   [perhaps those of you who were NOT PART OF THE INNERWORKINGS OF THE CENTER FOR FIVE OF THOSE SIX YEARS 2002-2008 (MYSELF MERELY A VOLUNTEER!!!! ;) BUT, OTHERS WHO WERE 'walked-all-over' and abused in other ways, as well, EMPLOYEES, WOULD HAVE A MUCH LESS ENTHUSIASTIC FEELING ABOUT his RETURN]....  JUST SAYIN'!  Those feelings are still pretty-much at surface level.  Traumatic events such as happened to at least four of the top-level, entry in 2002, employees who quit while I was there, I KNOW have not 'healed', even after all this time.

*****

 

Glad everyone had such a good time - I know I did; just a question about the couple who sat with us this year at Taco Hut; I was not introduced to them; so, STILL don't know who they were; they spoke when we ran into each other on the 'round-town' passings later on the next day.

****

 

 

On a MUCH LIGHTER note:  while in the train station, and viewing the photos of the 1956 event on the wall, found a full-face photo of my father in one of the close-up photos of Lucille speaking with was labelled 'her former beaus'!!!!   Needless to say, after 59 years, it was, quite clearly, the highlight of my day THAT day! 

 

Respectfully submitted,

JK

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Glad everyone had such a good time - I know I did; just a question about the couple who sat with us this year at Taco Hut; I was not introduced to them; so, STILL don't know who they were; they spoke when we ran into each other on the 'round-town' passings later on the next day.

 

Oh, that's Natalie and her boyfriend Justin. I thought you already knew each other. Sorry!

 

 

 

On a MUCH LIGHTER note:  while in the train station, and viewing the photos of the 1956 event on the wall, found a full-face photo of my father in one of the close-up photos of Lucille speaking with was labelled 'her former beaus'!!!!   Needless to say, after 59 years, it was, quite clearly, the highlight of my day THAT day! 

 

That's so cool!

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Back home now -- after a gloriously simple border crossing we soon drove straight into a huge storm, which was spiced up -- and prolonged -- an otherwise uneventful drive.

 

I don't know about the rest of you that were there this year, but I found it a bit harder to say goodbye to everyone this year. It was such a jam-packed few days, but they flew by so quickly. The new traditional wrap-party is the perfect capper. 

 

The Lucy Fest organizers really knocked it out of the park this year in finding that perfect balance between maintaining the Lucy connection and forging ahead with their vision for new comedy. Long may this winning formula continue. Christina Carroll and Lou Ann Graham are wonderful keepers of the flame and such interesting and lovely individuals in their own right. Journey did a great job! I hope Christina passed along her idea for an event next year (or in a future year). It's a terrific one!

 

My only complaint is they need to work on their timing a little bit more. Many of us had to leave the Tropicana Room events much earlier than we wanted to because they made a strange decision this year not to begin the formal program until everyone had more or less finished their respective meals. This meant Lou Ann's dinner overlapped with ... help me out. It's late, my brain is in powersave mode after this weekend and I'm drawing a complete blank on what it overlapped with! The Comedy Showcase? and Christina's lunch overlapped with the much-touted groundbreaking ceremony for the National Comedy Center.

 

On a final note for now (until I write a more detailed recap) -- love him, hate him, or indifferent to him, it was nice to see Ric Wyman back hosting these Tropicana events. These are always so much more enjoyable when they are emceed by someone who actually knows their Lucy stuff, like Ric or T. Faye Griffin. Hopefully this is a sign that (get ready for a cliche overload) fences have been mended after the Great Brouhaha of 2008, water has flowed under the bridge, and most people have now gone to their neutral corners. (Phew!)

 

I completely agree with everything you said. I definitely have to applaud Journey for a job well done this year. And it was very kind of her to make sure that she came down to the Best Western and said goodbye to all the Lucy fans before the headed off. She seemed so grateful to all of us, and kept saying that she couldn't do it without all of our support. I think we're in good hands. Adding on to that, I agree with you in that they once again had a perfect balance between comedy and Lucy. Nothing felt like it was lacking.

 

Also.... I totally agree with you about the overlapping events. Although it did always keep us busy, it definitely became a little annoying at points (like when we had to leave Christina's lunch early). And the event that overlapped with Lou Ann's was the Regis/Letterman talk. And I agree with you about Ric, I think he did a good job and seemed in good spirits. 

 

I don't think I added anything in this post besides reassurance of what you said, but I feel it needs repeating. I will post photos soon!

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