"Back To The Future" Cast Reunion Weekend Roundup

Wow! What a great weekend! The Hollywood Show event at The Marriott in Burbank was definitely a much larger one then when I peaked in for Bionicon two years ago! Lots of dealers, lots of stars, and of course, lots of fans like these guys!

The center piece of course was the "Back To The Future" trilogy. And when we arrived in the midday on Saturday, things were very much in full swing. Right outside the convention center in the parking lot there were at least twenty DeLoreans parked side by side! Some were original cars and others were movie re-fits with incredibly detailed props and electronics installed by the fans who owned them! We spent just the first forty five minutes checking all of these out and talking with some of the owners who were happy to show off their beauties.

Inside we found a good sized dealer's hall with many stars from TV and film, including porn star Ron Jeremy, who Rebecca managed to get a photo with! But the one thing we wondered about was where were the BTTF stars. Well, there was a whole area just for them, as well as the official BTTF.com booth and other merchandise, memorabilia, and props on display.

At the end of a very long line was Christopher Lloyd sitting at a period desk with period lamp. Behind him was a fireplace hearth with framed photos of Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, and Albert Einstein, just like in the movie! To his left sat Lea Thompson who was also signing autographs.

Across from them were a number of BTTF actors and actresses, including Elsa Raven (left, with me) who portrayed the woman taking donations to 'save the clock tower!' in the first movie.

It was also great to finally meet some of the people who host BTTF.com, including Stephen Clark, the founder of the site. At their booth, we each bought one of the Kubrick Doc Brown figures, which were selling fast. On Sunday they were all gone.

Saturday night there were some rumblings that Michael J. Fox might show up for a photo op. He was scheduled to appear at UCLA Sunday afternoon to promote his new book, and that was to begin at 3pm. So if he was going to pop in, it probably would be anytime before 2pm. Sure enough, as we arrived Sunday midday, a few folks outside the venue told us he was inside right now! We hurriedly bought our tickets for the day and made our way down to where Christopher Lloyd had been signing on Saturday. Sure enough, THERE HE WAS!!! Looking great and steady as a board. I remember him saying in an interview a year or so ago that with the Parkinson's, some days are good and some days are bad. And it all depends on how much medication it will take to control his uncontrollable movements. This definitely seemed like one of his better days, as he greeted fans for about an hour and a half before heading to UCLA. Unfortunately we missed his photo op with Christopher Lloyd and Lea Thompson, but no matter. The main thing was that we got to see him, and we did! I was able to take a couple of photos from a distance. Only one of them came out any good. However, Rebecca managed to get a good one which I will post shortly.

We were so glad to have attended this! Plus, on Saturday night when we were taking some pictures and talking with other fans outside the convention center, the converation turned towards next year marking the 25th anniversary of the first movie. Apparently there had been some studio promotional people from Universal in attendance who were taking notice of the turnout for this event, commenting on how they wanted to be much more involved next year for that very anniversary.

I mentioned to the other fans that some type of a gathering at the Puente Hills Mall, the location for The Twin Pines Mall, in City of Industry, CA about forty five minutes from where I live, would be a great way to connect with this milestone. I'd visited there when I first came to LA. Maybe a screening of BTTF at 1:15am on October 25th? That would be so awesome! We'll see what happens between now and then...

You can check out more photos from the event by clicking here!