DarrowCon

Science Fiction Convention
Name:	DarrowCon
Dates:	November 10–13, 1988
Frequency:	San Diego, CA
Location:
Type:
Focus:
Organization:
Founder:	Jean Graham and Pearl Stickler
Founding Date:
URL:
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flyer for the video

DarrowCon was a one-day, Blake's 7, private mini-con that appears to have been very informal and with a handful of fans.

"DARROWCON, as we later dubbed it, was Paul Darrow's 1988 visit to San Diego, tour of the local attractions."

While a precursor, is not the same con as Revelcon which was held in the same city and organized by the same people (Jean Graham and Pearl Stickler) a few months later.

Video!

Darrow's talk was video-taped. From an ad in Gambit #11: "PAUL DARROW IN SAN DIEGO VIDEO: San Diego mini-con, November 1988. $13 first class, $11 4th. Available in NTSC (US) only, VHS or Beta."

Blake's 7's Paul Darrow in San Diego, posted by one of the con's organizers.

Con Reports

Meeting Paul Darrow at Oakland was truly fantastic! We arrived in the hotel lobby just as Paul finished checking in himself! Now, I swear, we were all just going to be the well-brought-up young ladies that we are (ahem) and let the poor man go up to his room - he was obviously tired. But, I guess he has had practice recognizing the light of recognition in fans' eyes, because as we were heading over to check in ourselves, HE came up to US with his hand out to say "HI!" It was wonderful! He’d Just flown in from Honolulu, via L.A., and had put his wife on a plane for London in L.A. He was tired enough that he wasn't really bothering to turn the charm on full blast, so we had a lovely, human, "fellow travellers" chat. It was a Creation Con so he wasn't in the spotlight much, and so he was a lot more human. He was very, very friendly, very approachable. The hour (HOUR!) we spent chatting with him about all sorts of things - largely his work, but also England, travelling, bargains - he had to show us his knock-off watch he’d bought in N.Y. last year, was really fantastic!

San Diego was great fun. It was billed as "A Day with Paul Darrow” and there were about 100 fans of Paul there. I mean DARROW fans! No wonder he felt as if he had to entertain us! He'd been with fans for 36 hours when we go there, since the S.D. group had driven to Terry’s to get him, then taken him out and around San Diego Friday and Saturday morning.

I really did enjoy meeting Paul tremendously! He was kind and charming, and obviously cares about his fans. I wish I could make it to England for one of his plays, but in the meantime, I'll just have to hope that he’ll be back in the western U.S. again one day!

Paul Darrow came for a weekend in between his appearance at Creation cons in Oakland, St. Louis and New York. We took him on a whirlwind tour of the town, and set up a one-day mini-con (eventually christened ’Darrow-con’) which had about 100 people, including several from the L.A. area and a few from as far as Denver, San Francisco and various points of Arizona. Everyone had an absolutely marvellous time, and everything we’d ever heard about how nice Paul Darrow is to his fans proved to be entirely true! He was patient, friendly and very giving of himself, and helped us to raise a tidy sum of money toward getting B7 back on the local PBS station - enough, in fact, to convince that station’s powers-that- be to at least purchase the series for another run. It will start showing in May.

The San Diego ’adventure’ actually began in Los Angeles Friday morning, when two of our intrepid number (Pearl Stickler and Jennifer Tifft) pulled up in front of Terry Nation’s house. Our mission: to get up enough courage to ring the doorbell and claim Paul Darrow for the drive back to San Diego! Bolstered by Jennifer's presence, Pearl pushed the button. Moments later, we were in pleasant conversation with Terry and his wife, and Jennifer was sipping coffee. We both held a breath as Paul sauntered in, looking marvellous. When the round of coffee was finished, we headed south. Odd coincidences abound on California freeways. During a brief visit to a 'rest stop’ along the way, we all chuckled at four vans in the parking lot bearing large signs reading ’CAUTION: BRITISH DRIVER!’ The same vans later turned up in the convention hotel's parking lot!

Upon reaching San Diego, we dropped Paul’s luggage off at the hotel and headed for Seaworld, where a small group of fans showed Paul. the sights of one of our city’s most popular attractions. Highlights were the shark exhibit (which attracted ’Avon’!), the penguin enclosure, the killer whales with 1 1/2 month old Baby Shamu, and the sky tower, which provides a panoramic view of San Diego and Tijuana. For lunch, Paul expressed the desire to try an American hot-dog. But to our horror, we could find only hamburger stands. Finally, after checking almost every food place, we found a solitary hot-dog stand in a far corner, whereupon one of the ladies promptly bought Paul his hot-dog and a beer. Reluctantly, we all parted company soon thereafter, and took Paul back to his hotel to prepare for dinner. His 'escorts' that evening were Nancy Klauschie and Jean Graham; the restaurant was ’Chart House’ on Coronado Bay, where eight of us had a very lovely meal followed by a pleasant hour spent strolling through the nearby Hotel del Coronado, location site for many films, including ’Some Like it Hot.’ Still later, we took a ’midnight’ cruise around San Diego Bay on a riverboat. When the crowded party atmosphere on the lower decks began getting to the claustrophobics among us, we all went up for some brisk air on the top/ deck, and enjoyed star-gazing and watching the city lights.

On Saturday morning’s agenda was a tour of our largest and most famous theatre complex, including the Old Globe Theatre, with which Paul Darrow fell inexorably in love. ("Even the Royal Shakespeare Company doesn’t have facilities like this! I have got to do a play here!) (Yes, please!!) Because the Old Globe tour ran longer than expected, our one-day mini-con started a little late, but our agenda was casual, and no one minded. Paul answered questions and asked a few of his own. He talked about his book, the Creation convention tour, acting in England, the presidential election, and oh yes - ’Blake’s 7’. Everyone watched ’Aftermath’ after which Paul talked about the episode and answered more questions. The auction (for KPBS) consisted mostly of etched glassware (with B7 and other logos) and photos (including one of Avon on the cover of Playgirl Magazine). Paul had been asked if he would be willing to auction off a kiss. Not only was he willing, he ended up selling four kisses, and made quite a show of ’paying off' the winning bidders!

After dinner break, the guest/audience arrangement was turned into a party, where people watched music videos and played Trivial Pursuit-Ship (no, you didn't read that wrong - it’s the B7 version!) Paul mingled and chatted, and eventually challenged the ’Yanks’ to a game of original Trivial Pursuit. Since one fan had a British edition of the game, the two ’sides’ faced off for the duration. ’Yanks’ versus ’Brits’. The result? Well, Paul's team won. (Naturally!) (We have yet to find recorded proof that Paul Darrow has ever lost at this game!) The party lasted until the pleading looks on the faces of the hotel clean-up crew convinced the last of us to wander home. We're still getting thank-you letters from people who want to write to tell us what a wonderful time they had.

Sunday, Paul met a small group of fans at the San Diego Zoo. After an overall view of the zoo on the bus tour, we set out on foot for those areas we hadn’t yet seen. Paul took special interest in the reptile house and in the new Tiger River - though the tiger, unfortunately, was nowhere to be seen! Upon leaving the zoo, we walked through a small part of the adjacent Balboa Fark, including the botanical gardens, and had coffee at one of the park cafes. Ve went to an early dinner at a restaurant called Bobby McGee’s, where all the waiters & waitresses are in costume and play a character (ours were ’Scotch* and ’Soda’, both wearing kilts), and sing and dance at your table, etc. They were prebooked (by us) to sing a song about Avon, which they did, even though they sort of made it up on the spur of the moment). After dinner we took in a movie: ’Who Framed Roger Rabbit', because Paul said he knew Bob Hoskins (and there were no Clint Eastwood flicks in town at the time!)

Pearl and Karyn O’Rear drove Paul back to L.A. to Terry Nation’s Monday morning, via the coastal towns of La Jolla and Del Mar. He said he’d had a wonderful time and would definitely like to come back again, so... Maybe we can bribe., er. . persuade Michael Keating and/or Janet Lees Price-Darrow to come along next time.

It was a fantastic weekend, and we wouldn’t mind at all doing it again. If Terry Nation’s proposed convention tour becomes a reality, San Diego will be more than happy to host one of the events, or help to organize it in whatever west coast city it selects.

Our love and special thanks to Paul Darrow, for making friends of us all.

The following week [after Unicon] gave Michael the chance to see a little of Southern California. The San Diego BLAKE’S 7 group, lead by Pearl Stickler and Jean Graham, enticed Michael to extend his slay in our fair State and visit San Diego. A number of members of the Los Angeles/Orange County BLAKE’S 7 Special Interest Group (and isn’t THAT a mouthful!) trekked down to San Diego to be a part of the louring there, visiting the San Diego Zoo, Old Town San Diego, the beach and even Mexico.

Then, on Friday, a group of fans took Michael on the train north to Anaheim, home of Disneyland. It was a typical summer day at Disneyland, very crowded, but also a lot of fun. Michael amused everyone by his reaction to the George Lucas ride, STAR TOURS, which very realistically simulates a wild space ride. As they were zooming through “space”, he called out “Blake!”, and later commented that they could have used something like that when they were filming B7, instead of having to fling themselves about the set all the time! San Diego wasn’t quite through with Michael, though, and it was back down the coast Friday night after the fireworks, so that they could lour the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego on Saturday morning.

When Paul Darrow realized that he would be spending some time with Terry Nation in Los Angeles late last year, he kindly agreed to meet with some of his Southern California fans at a small "mini-con" in San Diego on November 12. He had already been away from home for nearly 6 weeks, attending conventions in Australia, New Zealand, and Oakland, California, with two more conventions (in St. Louis and New York) coming up before he could return home. Making time for us in San Diego was generous in the extreme!

Paul worked very hard to make "A Day with Paul Darrow" a happy event for all the fans who came to see him, most of whom had never had that privilege before. That afternoon he spoke to the fans and answered questions, telling us quite a bit about his book, his childhood, various roles he's played, the new play coming up, etc. He was as usual very animated, a fountain of information. I am amazed at his memory of roles he played many, many years ago.

Later that afternoon there was an auction to raise funds to help bring Blake's 7 back to the local San Diego PBS station. Paul played auctioneer, and after auctioning off the items our hosts had brought, plus some donations from the audience, Paul auctioned off 3 kisses from himself, of course! Everyone got into the spirit of it and groups of fans began scurrying back and forth across the room checking their finances and pooling their money, largely to buy a kiss for their friends! Paul encouraged the bidding shamelessly, but it was all in fun, and he agreed quite cheerfully to a compromise which gave a winner to both groups who were bidding for the "really big kiss." (Paul also endeared himself to a little girl sitting in the front row by walking over, picking her up, and kissing her. She was first in line for the autograph session!)

Before we broke for autographs, we watched the 07 episode Aftermath, which had been chosen by Paul. He said he had not seen it for some time. He also commented that at another con, he had watched Rumours of Death with the fans, and Michael Keating, who had stopped by during the showing, told him later, "They weren't watching it, you know. They were watching you watch it!" And of course that is what many of us did. It must be very difficult to watch your own work, knowing that everyone else in the room (say, 85 or 100 people) is watching you for any flicker of reaction! At one point I got a good view of both Paul in the audience and Avon on the screen; it is hard to believe it is the same man. I don't mean so much that there is a difference in looks, but that you can clearly see how successful Paul was in creating Avon as areal character separate and distinct from himself. Avon is, well, Avon and Paul is Paul!

After a dinner break there was a reception, during which time they showed videos and various bits of Paul's work. Paul mingled with the crowd, talking to nearly everyone. He took part in a lively game of Trivial Pursuit -- Paul's team won, of course! And just before the hotel threw us out of the room at midnight, someone rustled up a tape of Guardian of the Abyss, hosted by Elvira. During the Q&A session in the afternoon, Paul had expressed ignorance of this famous personage, and so dutifully sat down to have the mystery cleared up. I'd say he was a bit bewildered, but he did laugh when she used a clip of him for one of her jokes.

All in all, It was a remarkable day. Paul was gracious, charming, friendly, and attentive, and he went out of his way to make sure that we ail had a good time. Since he was the only guest there, this was a tremendous amount of work, and I can only say that I for one am very grateful to him for all his effort and kindness.