DreamSeekers
| Fan Club | |
|---|---|
| Name: | DreamSeekers (Dreamseekers Fan Club of Virginia) |
| Dates: | |
| Founder(s): | |
| Leadership: | Lyn Musacchio (of the New England B&B Hotline), Laurie Wittenberg |
| Country based in: | based in Virginia Beach, Virginia |
| Focus: | Beauty and the Beast (TV) |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
DreamSeekers was a Beauty and the Beast (TV) fan club.
It published the bi-monthly newsletter Until the Night.
Its focus was the first two seasons of the show, aka Classic, one which fans disregarded or ignored the last season with the death of Catherine Chandler and the addition of the character Diana Bennett.
One of the goals of this club was "to attempt to incorporate tunnel philosophy in personal lives." [1]
This fan club was often in the middle of the Beauty and the Beast Wars.
Cons Sponsored
- A Kingdom by the Sea (1996)
- Beauty at the Beach (1998)
Zines
- Perchance to Dream (Beauty and the Beast zine) (1993)
- Beauty at the Beach: To See The World in a Grain of Sand (1998)
Activities
- skit at TunnelCon II
- bid on, and won, Catherine's dress from Masques for a $2300 at A Distant Shore in 1995
- New England B&B Hotline
Some Distancing from a Zine
In February 1995, the Dreamseekers Fan Club of Virginia posted the following to vol 2 Of Love and Hope:
The Dreamseekers Fan Club of Virginia is making it known that we are not responsible in any way for the obligations, merchandise orders or debts incurred by former member Betty Mills. It has come to our attention that in handling the "Emotional Fires" 'zines for Marilyn Preston in England, Ms.
Mills may have left orders unfilled and monies unaccounted or. Regarding these matters, we can only suggest that fans contact Ms. Mills at [address and phone number removed]; or Marilyn Preston directly.
Dreamseekers has never been involved with the distribution of these 'zine.
As of 1 January 1995, NEW orders for these 'zines may dependably be addressed to Marilyn Preston [UK address removed] or in the U.S., to Adele Turner [address redacted].
Dreamseekers regrets the inconvenience suffered by anyone dealing with Ms. Mills in these matters; and the circumstances which necessitate our taking this action.
About
The first meeting of those who eventually became DreamSeekers occurred at the convention in Arlington, Virginia in October 1989 [2]; people who introduced themselves with: "I live in Hampton Roads, too! Let's get together!" We began to meet regularly at the townhouse of Lynette Combs in Virginia Beach. As the months passed more people were drawn, through various meeting places, to come to our gatherings. These meetings were informal get-togethers to trade information, sort through rumors, discover and exchange zines, watch episodes, and become close friends. The name "DreamSeekers" came from a poem written by Lynette which seemed to personify why we had come together. As the group expanded, the meetings were moved to the home of Adele Turner, who had a larger living room and (very important) a tolerant husband who didn't seem to mind having his castle invaded every Saturday by women who continued to talk, laugh, munch out, and generally enjoy the ambience of Beauty and the Beast for hours.
Our activities expanded to include going to Cons (coast to coast-north and south), talking on the phone and corresponding with other fans around the world, adding to our zine library (which now contains over 300 fiction zines and many newsletters, infozines, letterzines, scripts, scrapbooks and enough art to start our own Beauty and the Beast art gallery). We also go to local craft shows, rock and crystal shows, concerts and plays, have cookouts and pool parties.
For some time, we have been investigating various charities in this area and finally decided to help support Samaritan House, which runs the only homeless shelters in Hampton Roads which take in entire families. We have members who are in the "Adopt a Highway" program (DreamSeekers’ sign is now proudly displayed on "our" stretch of Interstate 64), and we also collect non-perishable food for the South Eastern Virginia Food Bank. Our recent yard sale raised several hundred dollars, and we have plans for additional fund raising both in the area and at Cons, selling various B&B related merchandise, and a zine of our own is in the planning stages. Recently, we were interviewed by our local newspaper for a feature story on Beauty and the Beast and the fan club.
DreamSeekers is not as large a club as some. We regularly have 10-15 members at meetings, and several more members in Virginia, Arizona, Mew Jersey, Kentucky, Kansas and Louisiana. Ve range in age from 20-something to 50- something, are in various professions, every possible marital status, and many levels of income. Our members have pen pals all over the world and most belong to the International Fan Club. We have discovered new creativity in ourselves, with members who write and publish their own zines, write stories and poetry, edit zines for others, draw and paint. Beauty and the Beast brought us all together, and our friendship continues to grow. The ideals of the show and the tunnels have kept us going through good times and bad.
While we wait for our movie, we continue to watch the show (now in syndication), support the various activities in fandom, and try to live the way the show taught us. If Beauty and the Beast is remembered for nothing else, it should be remembered for the way it brought people of differing backgrounds together, and for teaching us the lessons of tolerance, acceptance and helping those less fortunate than ourselves.
- ^ from The Helper's Network Directory v.4 n.2 (summer 1993)
- ^ This con was Creation Con Oct. 28-29 Arlington, VA (Roy Dotrice, Howard Gordon were guests).