Another birthday… *sigh* Atlanta Amy Meets Billy & Lost Boys August 2006
Why is it that the more decades you get under your belt, the faster they seem to fly by? I had decided that meeting up with Gretchen at the Monster Mania Con 6 in Cherry Hill and hopefully getting to speak with Billy and shake his hand would be the perfect post-birthday pick-me-up. I made my plans and, on Saturday, Aug. 26, headed cheerfully to the airport to begin my little adventure. The flight I was listed on was severely overbooked, so I had to wait about 2 ½ more hours and cross my fingers ‘til they cramped, but I finally got on a flight and made it to Philly around 4pm.
I was considerably later than I’d wanted to be, and slightly less cheerful, but at least I had gotten there… But then came another bit of bad news, a message from Gretchen saying that she’d had a family emergency and would not be able to make it that day. On top of that, she wouldn’t know until Sunday morning whether or not she could come then either. Bummer! What next?! Gretchen had talked to Billy on the phone, but the many times over the past three or so years that she’d gone to some event, hoping he’d be there, something would have happened and he couldn’t make it. Not only had I been looking forward to meeting Gretchen and hanging out with her at the convention, but I didn’t want her to miss this opportunity of finally meeting Billy face to face. I tried to keep my hopes up that everything would turn out well for her.
I took the shuttle from the airport to the Crowne Plaza hotel, checked in, took my bag to my room, hooked my camera over my shoulder and then went back downstairs to “scope things out”. I’d never been to anything like this convention before and the thought of standing in a line to get an autograph from someone horrified me! Plucking up my courage, I found the room that Billy was in, went inside and ambled over to his table, where I stood back and waited for him to finish up with a group of fans. I felt like a total goober! When the group cleared away, I approached Billy to say hello – he looked up at me, then pointed with a “don’t I know you?” look on his face. I said laughingly “you couldn’t possibly remember!”, gave him my name, and told him that I’d met him briefly several years ago at the “MacArthur Park” screening at the St. Louis Film Festival. He smiled and said, “Yeah, that’s right, I do remember…” and from the look of recognition on his face, I really believe that he did!
Even though Max had told me numerous times that he’s got a good memory for faces, I was still amazed and I told him so. I also said “Max sends her love” and said that I was going to call her later when she’d be home from work. I told Billy that Gretchen had planned to come but had a family emergency; he said “can you call her?” Absolutely! I got her voice mail, left a brief message and said “here’s someone else that wants to talk to you” and handed Billy the phone. He was leaving her a message, too, when he pulled the phone away, looked at it in puzzlement, and handed it back to me saying “it’s beeping”. Well, it was Gretchen calling in on the other line! We talked about how things were going for her and made plans to talk later that evening – I also told her to be sure she checked her voice mail for a nice surprise!
After I hung up the phone, I chatted a bit with Billy about how he was doing, was he enjoying the convention, things like that. At one point I held up my monster camera and said “I hope you won’t mind if you find me snapping a bunch of photos of you throughout the rest of the convention – I promised that I would try to get some for the fan site.” He smiled and said, “No, that’s fine. We should definitely do that. Are you going to be here tomorrow?” I assured him that I would be, and he said that perhaps we could go outside at some point on Sunday and take some pictures. I was thrilled, of course, but I masked my excitement behind a more “professional” face and said, as nonchalantly as I could, “Sure, whatever works best for you. Just let me know…” Feeling a sudden attack of shyness, I began to look over the stacks of pictures on Billy’s table, noticing that he had one from “American Reunion”. I tapped it and commented on the woman in the picture with him, “Ah, Jennifer Rubin”. Billy smiled and said “Yeah, she’s here, too. She’s right over there. Come on and I’ll introduce you.” So I followed in Billy’s wake, across the room to Jennifer’s table; they hugged and he said to her “Jennifer, I’d like you to meet Amy.” I told her it was a pleasure to meet her and she smiled and shook my hand, and then… I will never forget these words as long as I live… she turned to Billy and asked “Is this your girlfriend?” I was dumbfounded! Excuse me? Could you repeat that, please? That’s something I never in a gazillion years thought to hear and know I’ll never hear again! Once I’d picked up my jaw from the floor, I chuckled and drawled with sarcasm, “Yeeeeeah… riiiiiight…” Billy grinned and explained to Jennifer that I was from the fan club, then excused himself and left to greet some more fans at his table, so I chatted with Jennifer for a few minutes.
By then there were a handful of people waiting behind me to meet her, and I didn’t want to keep hanging around Billy like a stalker, so I wandered around the convention a bit and got a good look at the “interesting variety of attendees”… at times feeling like a soccer Mom at a Goth Club!
With about 20 minutes left until the end of Saturday’s autograph signing session, I retrieved my MacArthur Park t-shirt from my room and went back to Billy’s table to ask him to sign it – despite how awkward and uncomfortable it made me to ask. He was signing and taking pictures with some more fans – a couple times he even called me over, gave their cameras to me and asked me to snap the shots. I talked with Brooke quite a bit while I was waiting. That guy is a riot!! His wisecracking quips are right up my sense-of-humor alley! Billy was very pleased when he saw the shirt I had brought and was more than happy to sign it. I suggested somewhere on the front with the movie picture, and though he could have simply scrawled his name in black across it, instead he thought for a minute or two on what he wanted to write and where it would show up the best, nabbed a thin gold marker from Chance, and then VERY carefully wrote his thanks to me in the black ground area under Tom Byrd’s feet. His warmth and generosity simply radiate from him – there are few people in this world, especially among the “celebrities”, who can make a person feel so appreciated the way that Billy does just by his manner. As they were finishing up for the day, I called Max to fill her in on everything. Billy looked over and caught my eye as I was talking to her, so I mouthed the name “Max”. As soon as he was done, he came over to me, said “Is that Max?” At my nod, he smiled and said, “Let me talk to her” so I handed him the phone and walked away to give him his privacy to talk.
There was a Lost Boys Q&A scheduled for 7pm, so after talking with Max for a while I made my way to the ballroom where it was being held. The Lost Boys were apparently LOST somewhere – it took the convention who-di-das about 10 minutes to locate them and bring them in. The ballroom was set up like a big press conference, with Billy, Chance, Jamison, and Brooke seated at a table on the stage and the audience in rows of chairs below. It was a great turnout – the room was quite full. Billy hooked up his cell phone to a speaker and lo and behold, who should be on the line but Corey Haim. People got to ask him a couple of questions before he had to go, which made them quite happy. Billy seemed to get the majority of the questions from the crowd, and I was quite impressed by some of the things they knew about him. One guy even asked him about when he was in American Gladiators! There was so much being asked about his other projects, in fact, that a couple of times the guys all laughed and said, “Okay, can we bring it back around to Lost Boys questions, since this is supposed to be a Lost Boys Q&A?” Billy was warm and charming and sincere – you could see how captivated everyone was with him. When the session was over, I went back up to my room for a bit to unwind and make a couple phone calls, then headed back down to grab a bite to eat in the hotel restaurant. Jennifer had asked me if I was going to attend the Nightmare III Q&A at 10, so I made my way back to the ballroom for that. Afterwards, the jet lag was starting to kick in… I declined on a “staff party” where “some of the stars are supposed to show up” (whether they really did or not I’ll never know) and went up to bed.
The next morning, Gretchen called to say that she had pulled some strings and she should be arriving at the hotel around 11:30-12. I was delighted! We had spoken via phone and e-mail several times but we had not yet met face to face, and I was so looking forward to it. I told her to call me when she got there, so she could either come up to the room or we could meet in the lobby. When I checked out at noon, I still hadn’t heard from her. I left my bag with the valet and went into the autograph room to see if Billy was there – he was, and so was a group of people waiting to meet him. Brooke saw me and gave me a gigantic wave, which I returned with a grin and a gigantic wave of my own. I headed back into the lobby and talked for a while with one of the convention staff who had been so nice and helpful to me the day before. At about 12:45, as I was dialing Gretch’s number to make sure she was okay, she called me at the same time – there’s that ESP again! Turns out that someone had given her really lousy directions and she could not find the hotel. The convention staff guy was still standing with me, so he got on the phone with her and gave her very specific directions with landmarks. She arrived within 10 minutes! She called me from the parking lot and I went outside to meet her. I could feel the energy that flows from her while she was still 30 feet away – she really is an amazing person!
We went to get her a ticket for the day, then I led her to the autograph room and over to Billy’s table. I said to him, “Hey, Gretchen finally got here.” He stood up, came around the table with a blinding smile, and wrapped her in a hug that went on and on – one of those rocking-back-and-forth hugs that melts your bones. Sarah was sitting behind the table and he introduced Gretchen and me to her – she is very soft-spoken and seems to have a very kind heart. Billy signed several photos, including the one for the fan club, and handed them to Gretchen. She got a picture with him. She and I had each brought printouts of Billy’s artwork pieces with our contact information attached, in the hopes that, by giving them directly to him, we’d have better luck getting them. We’d both spent years trying to contact the art site but never got any worthwhile responses from Alison.
Billy said something to me again about taking some pictures outside for the fan site when the people flow slowed down a bit, and I smiled and once again said “Whatever’s best for you.” I introduced Gretchen to Brooke, he signed a photo for her, and we both got pictures with him. They were getting busy again so we decided to go have a drink in the bar. Little did either of us know that we would be fending off the drunken advances of some guys who were probably 20 years younger than me! At one point, when the main offender was weaving dangerously close, Gretchen leaned over to me and said “If he comes over here again, I’m going to lean in and start kissing you!” It was hilarious!
After a while we made our way back into the autograph room. Billy was still busy, so I led Gretchen over to Jennifer’s table, re-introduced myself and then introduced Gretchen. We talked for a few minutes, and Gretchen said, “Hey, you should let me take a picture of the two of you.” I said, laughing, “Oh, sure, just what I need – to have a picture taken of me standing next to THIS beautiful woman! As if I couldn’t look bad enough, let’s have a comparison!” Jennifer laughed and said “Oh, stop it!” So Gretchen and I each took a picture with Jennifer, then let her get back to greeting some fans who were waiting for her, and we wandered back over toward Billy’s table.
There was a couple there with a little boy who was about 14 months old and had the most beautiful blue eyes and a cherub’s face. Billy had knelt down in front of the stroller and was talking to him, and the baby was listening very seriously and studying Billy’s face. Then Billy reached out his hands and the baby held his arms out for Billy! Billy picked him up and hugged him with the most beautiful smile on his face and his eyes sparkling – my heart melted into a puddle!! Gretchen and I smiled at each other and agreed that, as gorgeous as he is on the outside, the most compelling thing about Billy is the love and compassion that is inside of him. It’s a shame that so many people only look at the exterior…
After the couple and their baby had left, Gretch and I decided to go outside for a smoke, and since Billy was unoccupied with fans for a moment, I went over and asked him if he’d like to join us. He accompanied us outside and then lectured us not to smoke those “things” with all the chemical additives, and recommended the American Spirits in the orange box, made with organic tobacco and no additives. While we were outside talking, a guy walked up to us and said “You’re under arrest!” We looked a bit startled, and he laughed and said, “No, not really, do I look like a cop?” Billy laughed and started talking to the guy, who kept on saying that Billy looked like a rock star, that he should be in a rock band… and Billy was saying “Yeah, I’ve always wanted to be in a rock band”; Gretchen and I glanced at each other and bit back a smile.
A woman and her son walked by us on their way to leave and Billy asked them if they’d enjoyed the convention. They answered yes, and he asked if they’d made it by the Lost Boys tables. The boy looked crestfallen as he answered, “No, we didn’t” and Billy smiled and asked “Would you like for me to sign something for you?” The boy’s face lit up and he nodded enthusiastically. As Billy went over to talk to them, the guy still standing with Gretchen and me looked shocked and said “I had no idea who he was!” Billy needed to get back to his table, so we all went back inside. I had hoped that I would be able to shoot some pictures but Billy’s time seemed too much in demand, so I put away my disappointment. Gretchen had graciously offered to drive me back to the airport, so a short while later we decided that we’d go ahead and leave.
We went back over to Billy’s table to say goodbye. He hugged Gretchen and then hugged me, and, though I was embarrassed to ask, I wanted to get a picture with him so I held up my camera and began, “Uh, Billy, if you wouldn’t mind…” I didn’t get the rest of the words out – he immediately piped up, “Oh, yeah, we still need to do that. Come on!” and hurried back outside with Gretchen and I behind him. I looked at her in mid-jog and said, “Okay, I guess we’re gonna take some pictures now!” Billy walked around a bit and said, “Where do you think would be good, how’s the lighting and everything?” and I quirked an eyebrow and told him, “Well, you’d know that a lot better than me, Mr. Director!” We laughed and he chose a spot he liked, and I got the rare privilege of shooting pictures of this wonderful man. I would snap a few and he would come over and assess them, then say “Let’s try this” and we’d take a few more, etc. Though I’m not a professional photographer, I’m used to shooting rock bands that I know during their concerts, but it’s an entirely different experience when you’re one-on-one with someone who can “work the camera” as Billy can. I actually got into the spirit of it, saying “Okay, Billy, turn your head to the side… Okay, now turn it the other way… Great!” The most stunning shot of him came as he turned his head back to me, tilted it, and gave me just a hint of a smile, yet there is so much depth and expression in his eyes. All I could think was “Wow!” When we had taken several shots, I knew that he needed to go, so I worked up the courage to ask if he’d take a picture with me. He smiled and said, “Of course.” Gretchen did the honors. The big stupid grin on my face probably tells better than words just how happy I was! Billy headed back for the lobby but turned and smiled at us and gave us a parting wave.
I retrieved my bag from the valet and Gretchen drove me to the airport – we couldn’t stop talking about our wonderful experience! I was so thrilled to have found a new friend in Gretchen! And I was so happy for her that she’d finally gotten to meet Billy face to face. It was a time that I think we’ll cherish always.
Amy
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