Today - Wednesday, October 17th - was
Margot Kidder's birthday.
I met her once.
Me and my buddy, Joshua, too a road trip from Rochester to Chicago. Well, the
suburbs of Chicago. The Con was held at the
Donald E. Stephens convention center in Rosemont, just west of The City.
I understand seeing Stormtroppers everywhere, but from the parking garage to the box office where we got out badges, I could not believe the legion of Boba Fetts we saw. In authentic costumes, too. There were also a gaggle of Princess Leias as well. I have a genuine respect for cosplayers. This is an individual that has picked a character or characters and gone to great lengths to recreate as closely as possible the costume. I've been to Fall Con and Spring Con at the Minnesota State Fair Grounds. Cathy, my wife, got her picture taken with the Batman: The Animated Series version Harley Quinn. I had my picture taken with Spider-Man and the Hal Jordan Green Lantern. The most impressive costume I saw was the Golden-Age Alan Scott Green Lantern. The costume was very authentic. I wanted to get a picture with just him, but instead I got a picture with the
entire cosplaying crowd.
That was another time, though.
Josh and I were wandering around the convention floor. We ran into
Doug Mahnke. He remembered me from an in-store he did in Rochester just a few weeks earlier. I was a radio personality, and the store had a paid live appearance. I got to be the personality doing the live broadcast, interviewing a few of the celebrity artists.
We chatted about the Con before he went his way and we went ours.
I had no idea she was going to be there. Her table was all the way in the back of the hall. Not to far away was
Sam Jones who played
Flash Gordon. There was some wrestler that had a table between them. I thought about meeting Sam Jones. But it was a choice that decided by how much cash I had left. The choice was simple.
Superman's girlfriend won out.
She was travelling with
Christopher Reeve's Superman Costume. I would have thought something like that would be under glass; or, maybe on a mannequin. No, it hung on a hanger just behind her.
I walked up to the table, and as I was saying hello, she started telling me about the fan she had just met before me. Whoever it was had come up to her and
proposed to her! I really didn't know how exactly to respond to that. I didn't want to say anything that would sound inappropriate or continue that weird thread. So, I just paid for an autographed portrait, had my buddy Josh take a picture of us together, thanked her and moved on. I guess I could have stood next to her. But, I just didn't want to keep the awkwardness going.
And that was my momentous, memorable meeting with
Margot Kidder. I got to be the guy that came up to her after the guy that proposed to her.
So, I got that goin' for me.
