Cinema Wasteland Movie Convention in Cleveland: what an adventure into the bizarre, the original, the hedonistic. I was a “Special Guest,” along with twelve other guests. Other than coming down with a bad case of the Blue Mocus, I had an awesome time for five days and nights of movies— and movie fans. It was a total love trip, like a cinematic Woodstock.

Ken Kish, the charismatic producer of the event, is the son of an ex-Cleveland “hero-cop,” and Ken seems a chip off of the old block, only huggy and fuzzy as well. He is about 6′5″ and 260lbs…no one wants to piss him off. KEN insists on respect and decorum during the shows, which last from 9am to midnight — then we were all free to howl at the moon, hit the bars, or retire to our rooms for a few zzzzzzzs. Guess what I did!?

Besides mingling with the crowd and renewing old acquaintances, I also served on a panel discussing “GrindHouse Films.” Ken was on the panel, along with “42nd St. Pete,” a radio-movie deejay from New York, and Ted Mikels (The Corpse Grinders, Astro Zombies, etc.), a director and producer who just happened to have cast me in my first leading role in a film some forty years ago. Completing the panel were Tommy Lee Wallace (Halloween, Amityville 2, Vampires: Los Muertos), Kyra Schon (Night of The Living Dead), and Ted’s close friend, actress-producer Wendy Altamura. Quentin Tarantino would have felt right at home.

The most interesting parts of the panel to me were the descriptions of the GrindHouse movie theaters by Ken and 42nd St. Pete. Ted and I just made the films, these guys could remember going to them — as teenagers, sneaking past the box office. The theaters were usually situated in the rough part of town, across the tracks and down a dark alley—yeah, the one that smells like feral urine…animal and human. Once inside the theater, one’s senses were overwhelmed with the combined odors of popcorn, mildew, cigarette smoke, sweat, and yes, lust! Teenaged delinquents were in heaven.

Eric Caidin, owner of Hollywood Book and Poster on Hollywood Boulevard and co-owner of the New Beverly Cinema in Beverly Hills, was at the Cleveland convention. He is going to do a book signing for the opening of my book Shadows and Light/Journeys With Outlaws In Revolutionary Hollywood. Eric also plans on a Gary Kent Festival at the Beverly Cinema—three or four of my movies and a book reading–event. Please try to be there—mid-spring, 2008. Btw, Dalton Publishing is doing the tough work connected with my book, so adieu, then, and farewell ‘til next posting….Gary K.

P.S. Love the t-shirt, Ken!

Filed under: Gary Kent, Books, Shadows and Light, Cinema Wasteland Movie Convention, Ken Kish, Ted Mikels, Tommy Lee Wallace, Kyra Schon, Wendy Altamura, Eric Caidin, Quentin Tarantino