Before Dallas Fan Days (the big con) there was was Dallas Fan Days (the teeny con). Fan Days was often held at the small community center in Plano, Texas. During this time Official Pix, the show producer, was holding the Official Star Wars Fan Club Breakfast. Looking back, it seemed so calm and quaint.
The breakfast had about 50 attendees. Dave Filoni, James Arnold Taylor and Steve Sansweet were guests. There were raffle prizes and photo ops. In another room were many Star Wars signers, including Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett), Ray Park (Darth Maul), and others. The conventions at the Plano Centre were small and uncrowded. The dealer room had wide isles and space to move. It was easy to walk up to your favorite actor and have a conversation.
One of my favorite memories from these early conventions in Dallas was when Ben Stevens asked me to help Carrie Fisher sign her stack of photographs. She would sign and I would pull the finished photos from the stack revealing a fresh sheet. After a while she became bored so she simply got up with her pen and stack of photos and started walking.
We’d walk the isles of the dealer room. She in front with the photo stack, me in back, catching them as she threw them over her shoulder. Well, maybe she didn’t throw them, but that’s the energy it had. She was generous with the dealers, she’d buy one of this and one of that, leaving her assistant to pay and grab the bags. All the while the signed photos flew. It took a lot of energy, patience, and willingness to go with the flow when helping Carrie, but it was always a unique experience.
Anne Neumann is President and CEO of Rancho Obi-Wan, former Volunteer Coordinator and Fan Club Breakfast Manager for Official Pix, and previously a Systems Analyst at the University of Texas at Austin.