Autographica 2012

By Mark

A bit of an early morning today by leaving the house before 8am for my trip down to Autographica at the Hilton Hotel in Birmingham.

I arrived by 10.00 and went in for 10.15, my first stop was Buzz Aldrin the Apollo 11 Astronaut, his signature was not cheap, not cheap at all £250 for him to sign and extra if you wanted mission, date inscriptions. I really don’t agree with splashing out that kind of money but I needed his autograph on my map of the moon that already has a number of Apollo, Gemini and Mercury Astronauts on it.

When it was finally my turn I gave him the map to sign and asked him if he was having a good morning, he ignored me, in fact he did not look up at me the whole time or speak, not a very good experience at all.

Next was Martin Landau, the Oscar winning actor and star of Space 1999 (I have actually met him before back in 2000 at the movie premiere of All the Pretty Horses in Los Angeles but he did not sign autographs them). They did not have any photographs from Ed Wood, my favourite of his films so got a Space 1999 picture signed instead.

Up next was the Apollo 12 Astronaut Richard Gordon, I have met him before but needed his standard White Space Suit portrait signed to add to my collection, he was nice and very friendly, the total opposite to Buzz.

I then went for my first photoshoot of the day with the NASA Astronaut Donald Thomas, closely followed and Richard Gordon and then Robert Springer.

I then went back in the signing room and met Grand L. Bush, most people will not recognise him but I have been a big fan of his for years and has acted in many films including Colors, Street Fighter, License to Kill, Demolition Man, Lethal Weapon and my favourite of his Die Hard where he delivers one of the best lines in the movie during the helicopter scene.

He was such a friendly guy and we talked for a few minutes about Die Hard and in particular the helicopter scene and being directed by John McTiernan, he even wrote that line from the movie on the picture. Meeting him was defiantly the high light of the show for me. His wife Sharon Railford Bush was also with him, she even took the photograph of me and Grand together, she is a celebrity in her own right and has been an actress, TV presenter and Civil Rights Supporter.

After I met Grand I then had a photoshoot with him followed by Catherine Schell who has appeared in the Return of the Pink Panther, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and Space 1999.

I then had a break for a couple of hours and walked around looking at the stalls.

In the afternoon I had photoshoots Martin Landau followed by Robert Powell.

The final three photoshoots were with Ed Mitchell, Charlie Duke and Buzz Aldrin. Ed and Charlie were friendly but Buzz did not speak to me again and just looked forward towards the camera and did not acknowledge me.

After the photoshoots I had one last walk around the event and then drove home.

About the author

An adventurer and theme park enthusiast at heart, Mark specialises in family travel content creation, and is a passionate and award-winning travel writer and videographer.

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