Williamsburg Film Festival
2002
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Williamsburg Film Festival 2002 |
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Williamsburg Festival |
The Polaris crew has returned to their
duty stations in California and the events of the Williamsburg Film Festival
are now part of the Academy archives. A good time was had by all and our
thanks to the Williamsburg Committee for making the cadets feel welcomed.
Bill Sasser who was working during the whole event; Larry Floyd, who made
sure we were having a good time; the ladies at the registration tables who
seemed to "live" at their post and others who put in a lot of
time and effort to pull off a great event. There will be a thank you page
for the tireless workers of the show.
 The
number of cadets attending the festival did increase this year. There were
12 cadets who made a commitment to be at the festival. Ten of the 12 did
arrive and another group of cadets, almost as large, attended the Friday
Tom Corbett Panel and Radio Recreation event. There will be a comments page
for those who attended, so Tim, Marc, Harvey, Ted and several others who
made the visit, contact the Academy
with your thoughts, it was great seeing you. The Academy name tags were
very useful in making contact with these cadets. I met many at Frankie and
Jan's tables and some in the hallway. Frankie
and Jan had one of the most popular tables in the dealer's room. Frankie
was running at a D-2 rate, that's 1/4 space speed for the earthworm cadets
in the audience. He had just gotten out of the hospital, but being the trooper
that he is, he was there for the fans. Jan was a dynamo who was well known
by everyone and was once again in the spotlight when he participated as
the holder for a whip act. The trick would also curve your need for cigarettes.
There were three cadets at the event with digital cameras. As with all great minds, all three were using the Nikon 880 series camera, a real workhorse of the digital world. Cadets Chuck Lassen, Mike Turco and Ed Pippin were there photographing the event and we will have a number of good shots for many pages.  It
was a real pleasure to see Frankie back in uniform and the radio recreation
was one of the hits at the festival. There were over 100 people who attended
the "space events" on Friday. Applause greeted Frankie when he
arrived in uniform for the Panel talk and recreation of "MAROONED
WITH DEATH", a Tom Corbett Radio show. The script for Marooned
was transcribed and updated from two radio episodes from May 13th and 15th,
1952 by members of the original Polaris Crew ( Jan and Frankie).There will
be a lot of pictures in upcoming pages of Frankie in the original Tom Corbett
Uniform as well as pictures of Jan and Cadet Chuck in their Solar Guard
uniforms, so stand by. You can order a VHS copy of the TC panel and Radio
Recreation from the Festival committee for $20 + $4 postage. Order from: William Sasser PO Box 524 Gloucester Point, VA 23062 There may be copies of the radio recreation script available from the committee. Check the Cadet News page for updates.  The
number of attendees watching episodes of Tom Corbett TV and Rocky Jones
shows increased over prior showings and many became first time fans of the
early live shows. Cadets had several good exchanges of ideas with festival
attendees. One cowboy even said they never knew how much fun live TV was
and they were now hooked. Let's hope that's the case for many others. The
biggest drawback we face is getting the shows into public view.
Till later |
Cadet
Mike Turco treated the cadets to some excellent night viewing of Saturn,
Jupiter and assorted star systems. Mike's Astro Physics Refractor gave
meaning to the space slang "… by the Rings of Saturn".
Because of Mike's expertise in the field, he has been designated Academy
Astronomer for the Solar Guard Academy. Let's hope there will be many
more events that Mike can attend and show us some of the wonders of Space.
The
banquet on Saturday night was highlighted by song,dance and a good visit
with the guests who attended the show. The Academy cadets shared a table
with other fans and really enjoyed the show. The highlight for the cadets
was the exhibition of whip cracking and nerves of steel displayed by Roger
Manning. You will have to see the pictures to appreciate it. The cadets
attending the festival made a new friend in Frankie's step daughter, Julie.
An Academy thank you goes out to Julie for attending and helping
Frankie and his fans have a good time.
Keep checking the navigation bar on this page for pages as they are added
to archives. Pictures of the 1999 event are located at