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Lucy Festival 2011 - Comments, Photos, etc.


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I'm just about to go have dinner but I wanted to pop in and say right off the bat that I have NEVER BEFORE seen crowds in Jamestown the likes of what turned out for the parade tonight. There had to be at least 2,000 people lining the route! :obrien:

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I'm just about to go have dinner but I wanted to pop in and say right off the bat that I have NEVER BEFORE seen crowds in Jamestown the likes of what turned out for the parade tonight. There had to be at least 2,000 people lining the route! :obrien:

Well, that's nice to hear, maybe they bused the people in from West Jamestown? :lucythrill:

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Yes, you do have those shoe button eyes! (if your shoes are red....)

Joan looks pretty darn good.....Plastic surgery? Sign me up!

I'm curious how "Jury Duty" went over with the crowd. Haven't seen it in some time. I've always considered it good, but a notch below BobMadeln's best.

The new fans these days are all ILL. I'm interested to know how they react to later Lucy, this being the last year of Here's. If they can sit through "Ma Parker" they'll sit through anything.

 

I LOVED your story about the hotel.....Do you have a bad reputation or something? Did you have a temper attack last year and destroy the room's bric-a-brac? She's about as accommodating as George Skinner at the One Oak.

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Yes, you do have those shoe button eyes! (if your shoes are red....)

Joan looks pretty darn good.....Plastic surgery? Sign me up!

I'm curious how "Jury Duty" went over with the crowd. Haven't seen it in some time. I've always considered it good, but a notch below BobMadeln's best.

The new fans these days are all ILL. I'm interested to know how they react to later Lucy, this being the last year of Here's. If they can sit through "Ma Parker" they'll sit through anything.

 

I LOVED your story about the hotel.....Do you have a bad reputation or something? Did you have a temper attack last year and destroy the room's bric-a-brac? She's about as accommodating as George Skinner at the One Oak.

Maybe that's the way his eyes REALLY ARE? Too many old fashioneds?

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Today started off for some with a photo op at the Desilu Playhouse for those wanting their picture taken with the “fab four”, as depicted by Diane Vincent, Adrien Israel, Rhonda Medina, and a new Fred making his debut. That wasn’t for me, so I planned on heading out at 9:30 for the portrait unveiling at the L-D Museum. One portrait of Lucy was put on loan by another Lucy fan and the second portrait was of Sylvia Hahlo, who filled her Goldwyn Girl hole with Lucy back in 1933. As it turned out, I got sidetracked on my way to the museum and missed the unveiling itself by five minutes. I then went into the museum and snapped a couple of photos before leaving to the “Members Only” event at the Reg Studio Theatre.

 

The “Members Only” event (and I use quotes because nobody seemed to be checking whether one was a museum member at the door) afforded the opportunity hold and have your photo taken with various Lucy-related objects. The first object was Lucy’s boots from Stone Pillow. Beside that was a framed ad congratulating Lucy on her portrayal of Florabelle which apparently ran the day of the airing. Next up was the second Emmy Lucy won in her career. That was very groovy to hold. Possibly even groovier was the chance to pick up and examine THE trumpet from Mame. Museum volunteers were on hand to take photos of people with the objects, which was pretty groovy. The last object on display was the white and blue outfit worn by Lucy as Lucybelle in Lucy & Arthur Godfrey and as Scarlett O’Hara in Lucy & Flip Wilson Go Legit. Unfortunately, this costume has seen far better days. It was ripped in many places and there were a few holes here and there. There isn’t any excuse for that. I certainly hope this is a new acquisition for the museum and not something they have had a chance to tend to over the years. It is in desperate need of repair.

 

Following the “Members Only” event, I moseyed back to the Desilu Playhouse for the photo opportunities with Gregg Oppenheimer and Joe Mayer, one of the second set of twins to play Little Ricky. Both couldn’t have been nicer, and, in fact, Joe was at the Members Only event signing post cards for people which had photos of him and his brother with Lucy and Desi. Following the photo op on the Ricardo NY Living Room set, many of us trooped upstairs to the Tropicana Room for a packed lunch and seminar with Gregg who took an opportunity to talk about his father and the writers, how their ideas evolved, etc. A special treat was Greg sharing audio recordings taken of the party Lucy and Desi held at Roxbury in Jess’ honour when he left the series. The audio from this event was hilarious with Lucy, Desi, Viv and Bill performing wonderful parodies of popular songs of the day in Jess’ honour, almost as a roast. Gregg pointed out that he cut out most of Bill’s performance to keep the audio clean and family friendly, which makes me very curious as to how racy the festivities actually got! A further bonus of the event was Gregg distributing Jess’ original old business cards that he found in his desk drawer before donating it to the Lucy-Desi Museum!

 

Following that, I had some downtime as the cemetery tour I wanted to go on was sold out, so I came back to the hotel and finished some of the work I had left over from my day job. That out of the way, we had a quick snack and headed out around 6 pm to find a place along the parade route. I was SHOCKED to see the amount of people that were already staking out Third Street along the route. It started well beyond the Best Western Hotel!

 

The purpose of the parade was to recreate the original 1956 parade held in Lucy and Desi’s honour when they came “home” to premiere Forever Darling. I can say in all honesty I have never seen a more crowded Jamestown event. I think my original estimate of around 2,000 people is really low-balling it. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was far higher than that. As we were walking down Third Street to have a spot near Tracy Plaza, a helicopter flew overhead presumably to recreate the part where Lucy and Desi flew to Jamestown from NYC via helicopter. This was confirmed when it appeared to land at Jamestown High School where the original helicopter set down. “Lucy” and “Desi” began the parade heading west along Third Street to where the parade was set to begin. I’m still not sure where it was supposed to begin, but the start of the route was not in my sightline leaving the Best Western.

 

A few moments later the parade proper went by, and included several marching bands from around the United States and around the world – including one from Sudbury, Ontario and Sherbrooke, Quebec. Also included were a number of Jamestown community groups, the Shriners , complete with their little cars (one of which malfunctioned near Tracy Plaza), a number of classic cars which carried their owners and some also carried VIPs like “Ethel” and “Fred”, Joe Meyer, the 1956 Miss Jamestown who got to kiss Desi during the original parade riding along with the 2011 Miss Jamestown, and “Lucy” and “Desi” themselves. When they got out at the Plaza, Mayor Sam Teresi (how long has this guy been in office anyway? He’s been Mayor as long as I can remember. LOL) made a special presentation, and a carnival atmosphere kicked up at the Plaza with vendors, live bands, and lots of other groovy things – including one independent bookshop selling HC’s book!

 

I really enjoyed the parade. When I first heard the brief description about it, it sounded a little bit cheesy but the more details they announced, the groovier it sounded, and groovy it was! I particularly liked how some of the people that participated in the original parade almost 55 years ago were included in the recreation tonight. Judging by the crowds, it was certainly a rousing success!

 

Tomorrow begins with Brunch in the Tropicana Room!

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"Forever Darling" Parade Recreation:

 

Crowds outside the Reg Lenna. Note the marquee:

 

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"Lucy and Desi" Make their way to the beginning of the parade:

 

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Lucy keeps a watchful eye on her birthday festivities:

 

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Shriner Down! Shriner Down!

 

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An Italian dance troupe submitted a wine vat:

 

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And then a fight broke out because one of them allegedly spoke no English:

 

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Miss Jamestown 1956:

 

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Joe Mayer:

 

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Ethel Mae Potter: We Never Forgot Her!

 

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...

 

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Here comes Desi!

 

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I'm SO grateful to you, Brock, for these wonderful photos; it makes me feel like I'm there, and without having to walk with my painful foot....Love, JK

 

 

Painful foot? Oh, no! Is that why I haven't seen you out and about? I've been keeping my eyes peeled! :( Hope you're feeling better!

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Painful foot? Oh, no! Is that why I haven't seen you out and about? I've been keeping my eyes peeled! :( Hope you're feeling better!

Why dun't you just go vist HER before you leave, it would be nice to see a pic of HER. I'm tired of waiting for her pic on the dust jacket of her chronology book. Whoa happun to your foot Joyce?

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Couldn't agree more!

 

Enjoying "Mr. Weir Takes Jamestown"

 

I don't suppose you could have slipped that Emmy under your jacket and walked out with it. My birthday is coming up and I'm awfully hard to buy for.....Besides, she has three others (5 if you count the series).

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I couldn't see the crowds in the balcony but I gather from others that it was pretty much sold out with the odd individual seat in the balcony here and there. No, I didn't go to the actual meet and greet for Joan, just hung around the stage door. The Meet and Greet was only for those donating $1,000 (NOT a typo) to the museum.

I heard that they were only about 200 away from selling out for Joan's performance. I think I heard that the Reg seats 1200, so there were probably about 1000 people there.

 

Mary Jane Fan

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