Mr Super 8 himself, Keith Wilton, reports on 1990’s Convention in issue 18 of Film for the Collector magazine.
A TOUGH ACT TO FOLLOW – THE 1990 BLACKPOOL CONVENTION
By Keith Wilton
The ever popular Blackpool Convention with the dinner held on Saturday and the convention ‘proper’ on Sunday takes place during the month of November and is the last convention of the year in the staunch collectors calendar. Though Derann’s preparations for the convention start several months beforehand, for most who attend the weekend starts with the journey to Blackpool some time Saturday morning. By mid-afternoon a growing collection of film fans arrive at the Cliffs Hotel, greeting one another in a rich variety of regional accents with those from the Midlands and North predominating. I was pleased to meet familiar faces and to exchange views with those who regularly read S8FR – ‘The Film Buff’s Bible’.
As you will no doubt be well aware the November 18th 1990 Blackpool shindig was something of a celebration for Derann who were marking 25 years in the film hire and distribution business: the weekend naturally strongly reflected that celebration.
I’d been invited to be one of several guest speakers, and I was feeling rather nervous about this, particularly as I was to be on first, and I’d been suffering since Friday with a particularly bad migraine. I felt even worse when I discovered I was to follow the after-dinner guest – a ‘world famous stuntman’: just what had I let myself in for? I was bound to compare badly with someone so well known (and exciting), in addition which the migraine prevented me from having a much needed stiff drink.
Being stone-sober I was at least able to appreciate the tremendous effort put into decorating the ballroom used for the dinner and film show. Each table was named after some well-known feature film which was later to figure in one of the many competitions. Balloons sporting suitable celebratory slogans decorated each table. Across the stage a sign sported the message: “Happy 25th Anniversary”.
On entry to ballroom prior to the start of the evening meal, each person, or couple, was announced in grand style by Master of Ceremonies, David Erskine, before having their photograph taken with hosts Mr. and Mrs. Simmonds, next to the table upon which rested the Anniversary cake. Here I must confess a strong temptation to push some unsuspecting person into this cake overtook me each time I passed by. Had I gone as one of the Three Stooges (I do not refer to anyone in the 8mm business by the way), it being an occasion on which many collectors and their wives attended in fancy dress depicting screen personalities or stars, I suppose I might have got away with such a drastic, but compelling, action. Those who did turn out in fancy dress certainly did it in some style as you can see from my photographs – what a pity you can’t see them in colour – the costumes were quite splendid and Derann provided plenty of prizes for the best ones in their categories. But I reckon every single one of them deserved a prize. I remarked in my speech that having been mistaken for Ben Kingsley (by the way I understand that he is getting fed up of being stopped and asked what is going to be shown at the next convention) I had intended to go as Ghandi, but on arrival the hotel pinched my sheet for Derek Simmonds bed.
Everything about the evening was first class – well almost! I was seated at a table with the lads from Rank alongside the after-dinner speaker – the ‘world famous stuntman’ who was as they say ‘full of himself’ (and accompanied by an attractive young lady). All hell was let loose when his wife burst in, pushed her way to our table and accused him of having an affair with the young lady – this created quite a stir – the whole room became deathly quiet. This violent outburst, and the stuntman’s act that later followed turned out to be an elaborate, but not particularly funny hoax involving him on-stage having Mike Dimmock, armed with a pistol, shoot at his head (I wish he’d asked me!) while he tried to ‘dodge’ the bullet – but wait! Someone exchanged the blank cartridge for a real one and ‘killed’ the stuntman. Lengthy (and I mean lengthy) police investigations then took place. The act, which was quite tedious and amateur, was met with stunned disbelief by most of the audience. After some 15 minutes or so of this tripe (for which nobody at Derann can be blamed – it probably sounded like a good idea at the time) one desperate collector jumped up and yelled: “CUT!” – but alas to no avail – they continued regardless and were later heard in the bar congratulating each other on the success of their show – they should have asked me how well they’d done…
Eventually I (yes I was still awake) and a number of other guest speakers including Ian O’Reilly from Perry’s Movies, Vic Hayers from Rank labs, Stan Long, John Curtis of Ritz Films and Steven Simmonds paid our individual tributes, mostly humorous, to Derek and Derann. Derek in turn thanked those who had helped him over the past 25 years.
Earlier Dave Worrall, editor of “FILM FOR THE COLLECTOR“, presented unexpected awards to several of those involved in the production of “FILM FOR THE COLLECTOR“, David Oxland, Phil Sheard, Mark Silvester and myself for S8FR. I must say I was rather surprised and pleased by this award, nice to be appreciated now and then.
The awfulness of the earlier stuntman act was fortunately redeemed by the sheer professionalism of the closing cabaret by dynamic Lee Clarke, it seemed the audience wanted him to go on forever – his extremely blue (but fairly witty) jokes were obviously a big hit, but he really hit his stride when he moved on to the musical part of his act – though I must say an unrehearsed slagging match between a disgruntled collector whom he described as ‘Worzel Gummidge’ also served to warm up the audience.
The successful cabaret over, but not before a tremendous encore, the evenings entertainment was brought to a conclusion with a short film show – the main item of which was an impressive extract from “HELLO DOLLY” that had really big sound boosted from speakers at the back of the hall in addition to those on either side of the screen – it looked and sounded impressive. Derann’s striping and sound recording certainly passed this test with flying colours.
I snatched a few hours sleep before joining Derek and his staff for early breakfast prior to the dealers setting up shop and opening the doors to the hundreds waiting to get in. Due to the effects of the migraine I left for home earlier than intended (I do apologise to those collectors who wished to speak to me), but not before seeing brief snatches of the shows in the cinema (presented to perfection by Derek) that included extracts from “COCOON“, “THE SMALLEST SHOW ON EARTH“, “EASTER PARADE“, “HELLO DOLLY“, “CARRY ON SCREAMING“, “THE DAMBUSTERS” and plenty of trailers, cartoons, etc, etc.
Finally before leaving I mingled briefly with collectors who told me how much they were enjoying the weekend, particularly the dinner the evening before and was pleased to learn that my own small contribution, as one of the guest speakers, had been well received. It didn’t dispel the migraine but it did make me feel the effort getting there had been worthwhile. A good weekend, with a lot of humour and goodwill, and one that all at Derann can be justly proud… but it’s going to be a tough act to follow in 1991.
(Keith Wilton)
Blackpool Film Collectors' Convention 