Instead of this being one of my large opuses, I'm just going to share some general comments and thoughts about the event. Of course, for me short is under 2000 words, but I digress. Back in the 90s, I had gone to a couple of bowling events, and while the concept was the same it was different than in those days. Some of my comments will discuss how things have changed over the years.
I got to the bowling alley, late thanks to how the trains run on a less regular schedule on weekends. In 2011, I had "found" money so to speak, and had to only pay for gas to get to my sister's as I slept at her home for the weekend, was given a MetroNorth pass so the train was free, and had refunded money in my PayPal account, which using that balance I only had to pay $12 for a spectator ticket.
Bowl-mor is a lot fancier than the Port Authority bowling alley, and while I like the venue, there were dead sound spaces. The area for the private events is open at the bar and downstairs, has an island. If you were at the far left you couldn't see what was going on in the bar/downstairs area. One disadvantage of having an event in a bowling alley is that the lanes tend to be dark, so a good number of my photos aren't bright enough to share.
Unlike the 90s events, food and nonalcoholic drinks were free. Even sober, I'm clumsy and I dropped a chicken wing. I was able to grab it before it went down my shirt, but it made a spot on my jeans. Another change was the name tags, they were on the free teeshirt. I only realized it once I got home, as barely anyone had their name on them. That said the sticker also had your shirt size, so I'm glad that wasn't mandatory. The volunteers and actors had special shirts, and the fans who didn't bowl and those who did had different colors too. Also this was for ACS, which makes sense if you know the history of the host of the event. Years ago, there were revolving hosts, and the charity depended on the year.
Everyone was given a gift bag, I didn't realize at the time it included a schedule of events. (The fact that this didn't dawn on me that day pretty much explains how scattered I can become around people from soaps. It also is a reason why I occasionally make really odd remarks as I say what I think/feel without an edit button available.) That said since I wasn't bowling, I really couldn't find a place open the bag to see what was inside of it. Unfortunately for me, the weather was incredibly warm that day and the chocolate inside of it melted to the point it was inedible.
The other thing that was interesting was that the press room was behind the bar, and there was windows. We could see who was there at the event before it officially started, though I wonder if that was frustrating to the stars. Due to the fact that Guiding Light was off the air at this point, and no one knew if One Life to Live was continuing trying to find things to discuss with people was difficult. In a lot of cases, I just said hello and got a photo.
David A. Gregory aka Ford on One Life to Live, did the auction, which was held on the steps. This was before the actor announcement, which back in the old days the auction was at the end of the event. At times it was difficult to hear him and the volunteer who was running the auction. I was thinking I wish I had a megaphone to donate, though I didn't say it, for once I kept my mouth shut, will wonders ever cease?! Kristen Alderson aka Starr on One Life to Live and now on General Hospital came out as did Josh Kelly aka Cutter. David's on screen brother James (Nic Robuck) also came out during the auction part. I wish my photos from this were clearer or I'd share one.
With most of the items there were barely any bidding wars. Both of them were offering lunches with fans, which was an awesome prize if you could schedule it. I thought this was strange and some items no one went for, though in some cases it was due to size limitations. Since I'm not completely illogical, I realized that on the way back I'd have to walk through Times Square to get to Grand Central Station with whatever souvenirs I ended up getting, so something like the huge OLTL Vickerman poster was out of the question especially since I don't have a real life wall of morale. I ended up in a bidding war with someone over a set of working scripts that Jerry used on OLTL. Eventually I just said to David, can we see about splitting them in half. He seemed surprised by this idea, but the other bidder agreed and that was that. I wanted this as it was something I could easily take with me, and I figured it would give me much amusement. I really should scan some pages to share with everyone. Let's just say Jerry doodles, and writes seemingly random things on the scripts, so it wasn't just edits to the lines and stage direction. The script pages, which were three hole punched, live in a black binder on my bookshelf among my other various television books. (I may do a separate blog entry on this eventually, sharing what I said to Jerry when I spoke to him about it, along with script pages.)
When the actors were announced to go to their particular lanes I think I missed part of it, as I didn't realize it was starting. In the middle of the open area there was an island you couldn't see over, but I thought I heard "actor voices" so I followed the sound. I do have some pictures of that, with many of the actors, but they aren't all that clear and I was taking photos between other people's heads. If anyone is that interested in seeing this kind of photo, contact me privately.
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| This photo of Jerry and Liz is the best of the two I got of them during the event. I have one that is at a slightly better angle, but is further away from later in the day. Unfortunately none of my pictures of Liz or Jerry wearing glasses came out all that well, though I am glad that I did pipe up to Liz that I liked her wearing them. |
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| Here is a picture of Michael, Gina and Grant. Both Gina and Grant weren't scheduled to be at the event and came anyway. I like surprises like that. Gina came after it started and saw how people greeted her. |
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| Sean, Kiernan, Josh, Gina and David in the bowling alley. I couldn't hear what was going on, but I got this picture, which was clear. |
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| I can't really recall if Thom and Sean did any scenes together in 2008, when they were both on OLTL. I just happened to really like this photograph, so I had to share it. |
Other than the auction, there were silent auction items available. I looked at those, but many of the items I already owned as they were things like soap opera books. I'm not one for posters, and there wasn't anything excitingly strange like a magazine from a decade or more ago with signatures on it. A raffle was also held, and I won one of the Guiding Light baskets. The winning tickets were shown on a table and I was stunned to get something. Showing extreme restraint, I waited to get to my sister's home to open it. She was stunned that I had that much patience, but I didn't want to lose anything. It was sort of the equivalent of an Easter basket, but instead of it having candy and toys it had pictures and other assorted stuff. Items included old pictures from the 80s, different GL cast pictures from the 90s, bumper stickers, a copy of a side script and so on, most of it I didn't own, which made it even better. Some of these things I tweeted, but in the future I may create a blog entry detailing them further.
That's my relatively short summary with some pictures from 2011's Daytime Stars and Strikes. I hope the people who go this year have a wonderful time, get good pictures and have save travels.
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