Autograph Hall

Since I stopped playing with the action figures in 1984 I've only collected three Star Wars related items...the vintage die-cast ships, Star Wars Insider/Bantha Tracks and autographs. Autograph Hall was a very big part of my CV experience, I was able to greatly add to my collection, and get pictures with many of the actors. Here are a few of my favorite moments and surprises.

Working at Cat Taber's table on Thursday,she was very nice. There were several times that she told me she wanted to take a quick break, but wouldn't if someone came up to the table.

Alan Harris (Bossk)- I noticed that he was making each fan who went to his table shake his hand and introduce themselves, I really liked that. I skipped over him initially, and when I got Chris Parson's autograph I chose a picture that had 4-Lom with Bossk. I brought it back to Alan, but he was being whisked away to the trivia show. Figured I'd catch up with him the next day. Sadly, he had to be been taken to the hospital on Friday, he later told me because he feared he had another blood clot, fortunately it was nothing serious. Saturday morning his line was closed so he could take a break and I finally caught up with him Saturday evening. Very nice man, and worth the wait.

One of my favorite moments, and biggest surprises from the hall was meeting Frank Henson. I received his autograph in my thank you packet from Official Pix and had gone to his table to have him personalize the autograph and get a picture with him. He had his own book of autographs on the table, each picture with it's own story, which he was happy to tell me. He just seemed like a genuinely nice person, and I'm sad I would have missed out on hearing his stories if I hadn't gotten his autograph from Official Pix.

Chatting with John Morton (Dak) about his book about Jazz and his interview with one of my local radio stations.

Chris Muncke just being a funny, funny guy. Seemed to really enjoy being at CV.

Anthony Daniels, upon my saying my first Star Wars figure ever, C3-PO, having seen better days saying "I've seen better days myself" and cracking a smile.

I'd love to hear other people's stories from Autograph Hall.

 

Caroline Blakiston was quite stylish, was she not?
I wish I'd gotten more autographs.
I thought it was a crappy move on whomever's part to move the Ahsoka voice actress from the open autograph table to behind a curtain by Saturday. She was really popular and had long lines, so they figured, hey let's hide her.
I was able to see Ray Park through the curtain when people were leaving his table.

 

Caroline Blakiston was quite stylish! When I had my picture taken with her she said "Let's say Jedi, it's just a word condusive to smiling". One of my favorite pictures from CV because of the expressions on our faces from saying Jedi.

I worked on Ashely's line on Saturday, making sure no one tried to sneak in because it was so long. She was one of the most popular signers there (who's name wasn't Mark, Carrie, Anthony or Warrick). I think partly because she is Asoka and partly because she had a very limited availability for signing because of the "Her Universe" table.

 

Ashley Eckstein's line was very similar to Amy Allen's line at C3. First day of C3 her line was bigger than the area could handle and so she was moved over to the area where the big names (Ray, Tem, Peter, Billy Dee, etc) were signing and so it moved better. Ashley's line for the first day she signed was ridiculously long and made crowd control a problem. I'd chalk it up to her voicing a main character, her limited schedule, and the fact that young and attractive female signers tend to draw longer lines.

As for me, Thursday, I was a floater and was eventually assigned to John Coppinger's (sculptor of the Jabba puppet and operated the eyes) table along with him and his wife. Very charming people and we had conversations about all kinds of things during my shift. His table was next to Richard Bonehill's table and I had to go on a coffee run for both tables around 5pm when the green room was out of coffee and most of the food booths were closing. Had to go to 3 booths before I found one with fresh coffee.

On Friday, I was assigned to assist Gary Kurtz. He was very calm and reserved, but also friendly with the fans. Most of what he signed were posters or items with everyone else's sigs on them (including a few which were signed by Lucas) and so a lot of interesting stuff was brought to him to sign. Mr. Kurtz also explained to a few fans why he parted ways with Lucas - most of it was over the direction of ROTJ's story, particularly the ending in that he wanted Han to live and Lucas was considering having Han killed off in the raid on the Imperial base. They realized that they couldn't get around this and so Kurtz decided to leave the production and there wasn't any bitterness about it contrary to what you may or may not have heard over the years.

Saturday was my day to assist Tom Kane, the voice of Yoda and Admiral Yularen on TCW. He was very friendly with the fans and would often pull out the Yoda voice when kids were at his table. What I remember the most about working with him was that there was a custom iPhone case booth in the dealers area and the guys at that booth had a custom made Yoda iPhone case for Mr. Kane. At first, he left the table for 30 minutes to find them and pickup his case, only to have those guys stop by to present him with his case while he was away. They left by the time he got back and so he waited for another hour before he got up again to find the guys only to have them stop by while he was out looking for them again. Eventually, they met up and he got his custom Yoda case. Mr. Kane had to leave early due to a panel so I was let go an hour early and wound up attending the Clone Wars panel he was at. Mr. Kane was also gracious enough to sign a free autograph for me at the end of my shift and thanked me for helping him get his phone case. I also found out that he's a fellow Midwesterner like myself and records his line in his home near Kansas City, uploads the recordings to an FTP server he runs and the Clone Wars people download them from his server and edit them into the sound mix for the show. He also told me some stories about his other voiceover work including a humorous anecdote involving Steve Jobs when he did a Super Bowl ad for Apple about 10 years ago. I'll post it later if enough people want to hear it.

Sunday, I was an autograph puller and worked in Volunteet HQ pulling stacks of all the photos for the volunteers who worked the final shift. As I was working, Mark Hamill and his wife were in the room talking to some people and just milling about looking at the photos. Later, Caroline Blakston, Gary Kurtz, Warrick, Carrie, Anthony, and several members of the Clone Wars cast were all in there at the same time all while I had to act busy and pull photos. I was pulling the photos and catching glimpses of who all was in there and realizing that none of my friends back hom would ever believe I was in the same room with all of them at the same time, it was cool but very surreal too.

Those were my experiences with volunteering for Official Pix. I only bought 2 autographs, Caroline Bl

 

The Autograph Hall was probably my most important part of C-V. I asked both Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher to write a "Will you marry" message to my girlfriend, and I used those autographs to propose to her when I got home. (She said Yes, so it worked pretty well.)

 

That's a great story and congratulations!!

 

AND WTH Wasn't I told about this??????



Cograts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Putting on the famous Norway crew jacket and talking at length with Robert Watts.

That jacket is my favorite piece of SW history, and getting to don it was spine-tingling for me.

 

Just wanted to say that the lucky woman was me. I loved it, it was very special and very much a surprise. It was the perfect way for one Star Wars fan to propose to another.

 

Sorry, but he was a great addition to our contest.

 

I thought that was the most romantic way of asking a SW fan that important question. Glad you said yes.

 

I've seen a couple of her movies lately and really wish I'd met her when she was there in front of my face.

 

Working that shift at her table was really cool, she was very down to Earth and easy to talk to and she seemed to genuinely enjoy interacting with the fans. Maybe you'll get another chance to meet her at CVI

 

Cat Taber, Ashley Eckstein and Tom Kane were amazing to talk to for me. All three struck up genuine conversation, and Ashley and I discovered we grew up fairly close to each other in Orlando! Tom Kane and I chatted for a while about voice work, as I had just done a cartoon voice for a pilot just prior to CV.

I volunteered with OPX for the 2nd time at CV, and it really makes the Autograph Hall experience that much more amazing (not to mention the free autographs at the end of the event)! At one point, I was handling the Mail-In autographs for OPX, going table to table having literally EVERYONE sign the items that were sent in from fans. Julian Glover spilled ink all over a poster, and we worked together to clean it, having a few laughs while we did that.

 

The highlights of the Autograph Hall for me were being first in line to get Ben Burtt's autograph, and sitting with Julian Glover for a whole day as a volunteer! That was the second Celebration I was assigned to his table!

 

I wasnt a volunteer or anything but I also thought the autograph hall was a highlight. All of the celebs were friendly and nice. The only one who seemed as if he really didnt want to be there was Jake Lloyd. I actually felt bad for him because he seemed so miserable. Daniel Logan was the exact opposite. He was having a great time laughing, talking and interacting with the fans. Caroline Blakiston was also really sweet and not just because she told me she liked my hair (which was a wig by the way...lol). I still cant believe that the poster I brought for autographs has just about every obscure SW character you can think of but didnt have Mon Mothma. I ended up buying one of the figurines she had for sale.

My favorite moment though was with Carrie Fisher. I was wearing a teefury t-shirt that has Leia holding a wookie baby while Han looked perplexed and Chewbacca was sneakily running away. I went to get my authograph from Carrie Fisher when I realized I was wearing it so I had my hands crossed over my chest to cover it up because I didnt know if she'd think it was disrespectful. My husband being a smart alec loudly tells me to show Carrie the shirt. Then Carrie asked me to show it and I did. She looked at it and paused for a few seconds before saying, "So basically that shirt has me ****ing Chewbacca?" My husband and I nod and then she asked, "So, where can I get one?" It was pretty funny.

 

I love working in the autograph room. It gives you a chance to meet a lot of fans and the actors. Getting the autographed pictures at the end of the shift is great. If you work on the last shift of the convention, they give you a lot of the leftover pictures, just not autographed, I got a whole stack at the last two celebrations. I was assigned to the Carrie Fisher table and she was really great with the fans. She signed one womens Leia perfume package, and then suggeste they open it to see what it smelled like. I don't know if she liked it or thought it was a good joke, as she had her helper go and buy her a entire case of the perfume. She also at one time signed some womans ankle extra, on top of her autograph. I will volunteer for the autograph room again and recommend it to anyone who is thinking of trying it.

 

If you volunteered for at least two shifts they gave you 10 free autographed pictures. I took mine to each actor and they were all nice enough to personalize them for me. Great experience!!