October 30, 2004!

By Richard Roy, DoO

After GBNJ along with our franchise friends defeated Baccardio a weekend earlier, executives from Chiller Theater, Expo, whatever invited Bill, myself, and ghostbusting legend Winston Zeddemore to be special guests. Bill and I were going anyway, so why not. We felt honored, our names were right below Cindy Williams and Penny Marshall. Wow, what a thrill.

If any of you met us or took photos with us, please email me the pictures as you said you would.

After arriving at Chiller and suiting up, the usual , random GB references were made. One guy yelled "Venkman." Like you really could mistake Bill for Dr. V. Once we were outside the parking garage (no valet for special guests, what gives?) we had to wait in a very long line. Winston went to try to speed the process up for us. Good and bad move as Chiller execs. had it set up so he could meet our fans, (or his) sign autographs, and then mingle. He thought he was going to hang and see his friend Mr. Hudson.

We figured why Z did his thing, we'd do ours. We had to keep walking to the back of the line where we met our first ghostbuster. A perhaps upcoming FA in NY, name patch read Spengler.

We took some pix, talked to him, gave him a GBI business card, and parted ways. We still had to walk about a mile to the back of the line. While we walked, some people just snapped a few more pictures. We handed out business cards when we felt the need. Towards the back of the line we met an older sci/fi fan who we had a few "old skool" discussions with. We talked with him on and off and when it was time, gave him a business card, and went our separate ways.

Why on and off? Sure their were our fans, but of course we were on call. Aren't we always?

This pirate skelton ghost was just walking among the crowds. I called out to him to get his attention. That is if you can get the attention of a pirate ghost. Did he listen? No of course not. Here I am right before I fired the streams.

As we continued to wait, an Orc from Middle Earth approached me. At first I thought it was a costume. Bill thought so too until he checked out his chain mail. The Orc was fascinated by the can of soda on the ground. His stupidity astounded me, How then do you deal with an orc?

Like this! "Hey! Don't you know the king has returned? Its the time of humans stupid."

"I'm gonna take you home to my private zoo!"

Not long after this bust so to speak Bill and I wondered if this was the line to get our VIP tickets or just the line to meet most the has been celebs. He thought since I had been there before, I should find out. After a test of our radios I left the line and walked away. It was almost like when Dr. Stantz saw the onion head ghost for the first time. I say that because as I walked I saw some pretty strange things. Among them were fans of ours. As I walked to where I would turn to get in a much shorter line to get our passes, a guy asked me to pose for a pic. I couldn't refuse yet another photo I'll never see. What was different about this op was another guy we didn't know couldn't understand we were trying to take a picture. It took a couple of tries to get him to understand. Probably stoned, but knowing our movies at least somewhat he kept asking me about the packs.

Once I took care of customer relations I walked into the shorter line where 2 more guys said, "Hello Ray," Good to know the public knows the legend's names. I was about to correct the one guy when he saw my name tag and corrected himself. My reply, "Dr. Stantz is my employeer."

After I had our passes (I slipped $40 to the Chiller worker to make sure we were treated well) I radioed to Bill and made my way back over to him. The lined moved some more and faster. We started to feel relief until we found out why.

I almost jumped the gun literally. It was as Bill confirmed a costume. Actually more like a rubber mask.

Have I mentioned how much we waited in line? If you wanted to be cool that day, that's how you met all the other GBs, let photo ops come to you, and let a young guy tell you a little about his band. Or was it a cult? Either way we should look into that.

In however long a time span it was to see Winston again and meet Ernie Hudson, we met another NJ Ghostbuster who was looking to join up with us. Be sure to email us. Of course we spoke to him and gave him a business card. Not long after Bill and I approached the first tent. This is where Elvira, (is she on GBI's top 10 list?) special guests Lavern & Shirley, and some washed up model (I think) no one cared about were.

Our mission, our goal, to get to the second, huge white tent. We were ready, except we had to wait. We spotted Spengler (the GB fan, not Egon) at this point who wanted to film us. I'm not sure what I was saying. Someone else told Spengler to join the team. Good call, oh he meant come stand by us. Not one to give up a chance to promote GBI or GBNJ, I shamelessly plugged. Meanwhile Spengler was talking (I think) about the river of slime. Hopefully if he's reading, he did get the vid transferred as I asked.

By now you either know and saw the pix to prove we hung with Ernie and Wisnton. Or you need more proof and hung in here for a long time. Good choice, its about to pay off. Finally the waiting was over, Chiller staff let us in. We walked a little and got on a very short line. It was easy to see Ernie Hudson. We didn't know where Winston went though.

Ernie signs an autograph.

We introduced ourselves and talked to Mr. Hudson. He's a down to earth, nice guy. As far as we know, doesn't let his success as an actor become his life. So we know he was in other things in the last 20 years. We respect that, but as huge GB fans, we admire him. It was an honor to meet him as ghostheads, but moreso as we all wore flightsuits from a couple of movies we love. How awesome is that? I don't recall if we asked about it. However Mr. Hudson said, "Its Halloween, you're in NJ, why not." I'm sure Bill and I babbled about nothing important. Sometime after Ernie said, "Its been sitting in a box since the last day of filming." Wow, that kicks. I left out one thing, nothing major unless Sony is reading. I ain't here to get him in any trouble if their's any to be had. Though Mr. Hudson if you're reading, Louis Tully is standing by just in case.

We still had to wait for Z, so Bill took this time to get an autograph. I took this time to ask Ernie Hudson if he would check out ghostbustersinternational.com. He looked at the business card unsure of what GBI was, then somehow if the original concept of Ghostbusters was still there, smiled. This was also where I almost went into the concept of GBI. Instead I said, "If you take a look, you'll understand." I don't know if he actually will or has already looked at the GBI site. Even if he doesn't, I think its cool I got to tell/show someone involved with the movies about what we do.

Not long after, Winston finally came back. He had been meeting and greeting with the fans. Before leaving we all took some pix. Unfortunately I don't have the one with the four of us at this time.

Bill gets a photo op with Winston.

Winston hopes Rich appreciates this (more then you know Z).

When we were done there, the three of us left the tent and began to walk back towards the parking garage to unload the gear. Our plan now before going inside the hotel was to put the PR machine on over drive. Easier said then done when you're walking with Winston. Almost immediately people were calling out to us, including a female GB named Tanya or something like that. We spoke briefly and gave her a business card too. We continued walking, being stopped for more photo ops. Many of which I'd actually like to see. Soon after we took the stairs (where we used the 'where do these stairs go' line yet again) back to our vehicle. It had been a great afternoon, however it still felt good not to have to wear my pack for a while.

Upon our return and entrance into the hotel I spotted Ernie Hudson strolling through. He said "what's up" to me and patted my shoulder. He was being escorted by his one Chiller guard. Hah Ha. We kept a bit of distance as we all went outside. Ernie was well received.

Winston, always happy to wave or point to someone.

From this point and after finishing our PR, Bill and I wanted to see what else Chiller had to offer. We walked to a side entrance and waited again, however not for long. We went inside and went up to the second floor, the dealer's floor mainly. Put it this way, if you're into sci/fi, anime, horror, and whatever combo of those genres you can thnk of, then you came to the right place. A word to our fellow GBs, should you go to Chiller, take it from me, this is not the room(s) to wear your proton pack in. With that safety tip over with, we walked around and checked out the wares. GB items of note, an old, torn a bit long poster (import?) from GB2. A Mr. Stay Puft kids watch from our Real Ghostbusters cartoon, and a vendor selling "display pieces" of wine bottles with various pop culture logos on them. One of course featuring a "no ghost" logo and our first poster. I think we noticed that bottle, but were stopped by the dealer when he saw 2 Ghostbusters. Suffice to say we passed on the "display piece." You can do better with your printer and a can of Coke. On the way out of one of the dealer rooms, Bill saw a dealer selling our patches. After talking with him he also told us he use to sell traps. Hmm, wondered if he was authorized. We bought a patch, ya know for evidence. Yeah, that's it.

When we were finished there, we took the elevator ("we'll take the next one.") to the 3rd floor. This is where the model (the non people type) contest was being held (I think) and where the B9 Robot Club was set up. The line was long (we had enough of lines) so we also passed on that. Instead we went into the B9 Robot Club room. If you don't know what a B9 Robot is, where've ya been, lost in space? Seriously, I didn't know it actually had a name. Plus before October 30th I was all set to mess with these hardcore robot prop makers. After seeing their B9s (along with mini Terminators) I couldn't do it. They have my respect. Their huge B9 talked, for a robot, it had jokes.

"Do not touch me Dr. Smith."

(ok so it didn't say that last part)

I was also hoping to meet "young William" (Bill Mumy) who I thought would have been hanging with the robot club and was on the Chiller guest list. Alas he was not there, neither was Bob May. Whose Bob May? Exactly. C'mon, to be fair, he was the one who wore the robot costume during the series. After giving respect to the B9 Robot Club and watching B9 do a set, Bill and I left.

It was already like 6 (Chiller ends at 7:30) and the weather was awful. This muggy, warm, rain thing. We tried to leave, but the elevators were acting funky (we couldn't get one to take us down) so we took the stairs. You know what was said next. Moments later we're back in the garage where we met a couple more fans of ours. We talked a little and posed for another picture.

We knew when it was time to leave, so we made our exit and went back to the car. Leaving Chiller for at least another 6 months or so we thought. Actually, according to their site, Chiller is being held in Jan. for the first time.

Winston, if you're reading, we're so sorry we left you there.

Halloween Pictures By GBNJ

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