Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention
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The Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention is held annually in Aberdeen, Maryland. Michelle Katherine and Martin Grams, Jr., founders of the non-profit event, define nostalgia as "anything you long for since the days of your youth that is no longer available."
Topics and events at past conventions included Dragnet spoofs, radio's female detectives, the radio program The Green Hornet, Superman on radio-TV, collecting OTR and pulps, the history of Route 66, the history of Have Gun-Will Travel, Sam Spade on radio, Orson Welles's magic career, silent film serials, television's Lassie, World War II cartoons, eBay, news coverage of the John F. Kennedy assassination, James Bond in cinema, Harry Houdini in cinema, drive-in movie theaters, a retrospective of Alias Smith and Jones, a tribute to animator Frank Tashlin, baseball during radio's golden age, The Lone Ranger on radio, collecting pulp magazines, silent cliffhanger serials of the 1920s, and the creation of Underdog.
Hollywood celebrities are photographed with fans. Vintage films are shown 24 hours a day. In 2006, Author Michael Hayde presented a history of the Grand Ole Opry. Also that year, Lana Wood, David Hedison, W. Watts Biggers (co-creator of Underdog), Marta Kristen, Kenny Miller, Conrad Brooks and Richard Herd were guests.
In 2007, Erin Gray, Denny Miller of Wagon Train fame, Annette Andre, Arthur Weingarden, Virginia Davis and radio show host Ed Walker were featured at the annual convention. Admission money from the 2007 event was donated to the Johns Hopkins Comprehensive Cancer Center.
The 2008 event is scheduled to feature Patty McCormack, Edd Byrnes, Margaret Kerry (one of the Little Rascals and model for Disney's Tinkerbell), Larry Storch of F-Troop, Kathleen Hughes from It Came From Outer Space and Jon Provost. The dates are September 18-20.
Events scheduled for the 2008 event include a drive-in movie theater outside, a charity auction, Sgt. Preston of the Yukon, trivia about The Twilight Zone, presentation on glass slides used during the silent movie era, a history of The Phantom, P.G. Wodehouse and his screen career, the laughs of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, a retrospective of Orson Welles' War of the Worlds panic broadcast, and Edward R. Murrow on television. Movies scheduled to play include the 1934 Buck Rogers film short shown at the Chicago World's Fair, vaudeville film shorts, Sky King and the 1954 Egyptian version of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, among others.
