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June 23, 2014: Superman Celebration an 11-Year Tradition for One Fan
Posted by Neil Cole
Superman fan and contributing writer for the Superman Super Site, Chris Brockow and his wife Helen have been making a yearly pilgrimage to the annual Superman Celebration in Metropolis, IL for over a decade.
This year's festival recently took place June 12th - 15th and marked the 11th time the couple has attended; their first was back in 1998 which was then followed by yearly trips since 2005.
Reflecting back on this year's festival, Brockow has written the following recap of their experiences during the 36th Annual Superman Celebration which once again featured a great mix of fun, food, and festivities for all ages:
This year, we came in on Tuesday, June 10th around 4:00pm and went home on Monday, June 16th. I wanted to come early to make a nice, long vacation out of the celebration. We stayed once again at The Baymont Inn which I call “My home away from home”.
Tuesday and Wednesday, we do what we call our “Paducah run”. That is where we go to the city of Paducah, KY and go to the mall and Wal-Mart to do our shopping for the week.
Wednesday afternoon we went down Market Street, and it was a normal, main street for the town. However, later in the day we saw the vendors come in and the main tent go up. It was nice to to see Market Street transform before our eyes.
Some of the SuperFriends came in Wednesday and it was nice to get together with them. The ones that were there early all met for breakfast on Thursday morning.
Thursday afternoon is when the celebration got started. This year's skit was really good. One of the best I have seen in a couple of years. There was supposed to be bowling after the skit but, unfortunately, the upgraded bowling alley was not done with all their renovations. This makes me look forward to next year's celebration to see all the changes they have made to the new bowling alley which will be called “Linwood Super Bowl”.
In place of bowling, all the SuperFriends in town met for a nice picnic at Washington Park in downtown Metropolis. It is always nice to see old friends you have not seen since the previous year, and on the same token, it is always nice to meet new friends.
The day ended with me and Helen going back to the hotel to relax in the hot tub which is one of the many things we look forward to while staying at the Baymont.
Friday was the first full day of the festival and we wanted to do and see as much as we could. The morning kicked off with a stop by the “Autograph Zone” to meet actor Aaron Smolinski (baby Clark Kent – “Superman: The Movie”) and actress Valerie Perrine (Ms. Tessmacher – “Superman: The Movie”). I have been friends with both of them on Facebook and it was wonderful to finally meet them face to face. Aaron, who recognized me immediately, started talking and was extremely nice to both Helen & I. Valerie was very sweet to us as well and her manager was also very kind.
Helen and I host the “Stump the Superman Expert” trivia show that is part of the celebration's official schedule and I had a DVD copy of “Superman: The Movie”. I asked Aaron and Valerie if they could sign it as part of the Grand Prize for our show. Both could not have been nicer to us. Not only did they sign it, but they also wrote “congratulations” on the cover.
Next was the Superman Homepage Meet & Greet at Hardee's which was a fun. Everyone got a button and a raffle ticket to win various DVD's. Trivia questions were asked to the fans that came out and, if you knew the answer, you had to yell “Buzz”! If you answered right, you got to pick the DVD you wanted. This went on for an hour and both Helen and I were among the trivia winners.
It was then time for us to head over to Fat Edd's Roadhouse to help Neil Cole with his 5th Annual Superman Super Site Meet & Greet. Neil always has big prizes to give away and this year featured an assortment DVD's, huge movie posters and gift certificates for various businesses around Metropolis. Once you came into Fat Edd's, you signed a guest book and were given a raffle ticket which you then listened to see if your number was called out for a prize. It was fun to see the faces of people when their winning number was called and the prizes they had won. As a bonus, anyone who ordered food had the opportunity to win a special “mystery prize”.
Next it was time to go to the Artist Alley and Writer's Way. Many of our friends, including me, have books and artwork out. This was the place to go to meet the authors and artists. I had the opportunity to share a table with another author on Saturday and that was one reason why I wanted to go on Friday to see where I was going to be and also to see others and their work.
After we were done there, it was time for the event I always look forward to, “Superman Jeopardy”. For the past 9 years, I have always been part of the contestants and I usually win this game show. I along with 3 others were picked to come up on statge. This event is hosted by John and Alex Rinaldi and they not only ask the contestants questions, but they also ask questions to the audience. This game, in my opinion, is the best scheduled event there is. I won again this year but, at first, I did not think I would because the questions were a little more difficult.
After “Superman Jeopardy”, illusionist Morgan Strebler took the stage. Morgan and I became good friends during the celebration and his show was amazing. He got the audience involved in his performance and you left his show with the thought “How did he do that?” He is a very nice man and I hope to see him again in future Celebrations.
After Morgan's show, it was time to get dinner and go to The Baymont Theater for the “2nd Annual Smallville Prom” where I danced as Helen watched and filmed me. After about an hour, she got tired but I stayed. I'm glad that I did because Morgan showed up and we hung around for a while and talked. I don't remember what time it was, but I know it was getting late because I was starting to fade. It was time to go to bed and look forward to Saturday.
Saturday morning came and this was the day where I spent a couple of hours in the Artists Alley & Writers Way to sell my book “Transition”. The book is a story of a dog looking for her 'Fur-Ever' home.
I got to sit next to Tyrone Tony Reed Jr. Both of us have stories in a book titled “With Great Power”. This book has 24 stories by 12 writers and the stories are based on the Spider-Man origin story found “Amazing Fantasy #15” with each story continuing into the next.
After I was there for a few hours, I went to the main tent where Helen was saving great seats for us for Dean Cain's Q&A event. Dean talked about “Lois and Clark” as well as other shows, movies and projects that he has done. He was extremely nice to the crowd and the fans loved him.
Next it was time for “Superman Jeopardy” again. This time I was the category keeper and it was just as fun and exciting as Friday's game. When the game was done, I found myself thinking “I waited all year for this event and now it is all over until another year”.
Brian K Morris was up next with his seminar of “75 Years of Batman”. Brian put on a good presentation and did a lot of research that he read to the audience while fans dressed up as Batman came up on stage. People had costumes showing Batman from when he was first created up through present day. History with visual effects really made Brian's presentation a crowd favorite.
When “75 Years of Batman” ended, it was time for dinner and then back to the room to get ready for the “1st Annual Super, Pow, Bam Bash!” event. This was fun and the music and company was good and so was the dancing.
During this event, the annual “George Awards & Auction” took place. This time there were a lot of high end items up for bid. There was also a silent auction that went on during this time with all the proceeds going to the “Save The Massac Theatre” organization. Once everything was over, it was time to go to bed and get ready for Sunday.
Sunday morning came and we went down to the main tent for the Church Service. After Church, Helen and I set up for our “Stump the Superman Expert” trivia show. I spend all year getting ready for this show and we always have fun with it. This year's winner was Zach Curtis. He was more than happy to win the “Superman: The Movie” DVD. Zach didn't make it to see Aaron Smolinski and Valerie Perrine and to have their autographs on that DVD was something special to him.
After our show, Morgan Strebler came back up to entertain us one last time. If you saw his show during the celebration, then you know how amazing he is. It was fun watching him one more time.
Next up was the big event for Sunday... the annual Costume Contest which features fans coming together to show off their hard work on their costumes and their skits. The event, which I write up an annual review of for the Superman Super Site, was once again hosted by Steven Kirk. He was dressed this year as Austin Powers and always makes this event something worth while.
After the contest was over, it was time to eat and also time to go back to the Baymont to pack up as we had to head out early Monday morning.
The Superman Celebration is now over and I have another year of Super Memories. They say Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year, but I choose to disagree with that since, for me, the Superman Celebration is that time of the year.
Lastly, I would like to send out a special “Thank You!” to Karla Ogle, Lisa Gower, Heather Helms, and the entire celebration staff for all the super hard work that you do to make the celebration very special year after year.
