Going to the Celebrate History convention held April 9-11, 1999 at the South San Francisco Convention Center is like being in one of those idyllic MasterCard commercials:
- One-day registration: 20 dollars.
Hotel room for the night: 110 dollars.
Listening to WWII veterans reminisce: priceless.
You can't put a price on one-time enemies shaking hands and telling war stories together at Celebrate History, but for everything else, there's MasterCard.
And much of the attraction of the convention rests with the abundance of seminars where veterans of both sides spoke about their combat experiences in an effort to bring history back from the past.
At right, Hans-Georg Hess, youngest U-Boat commander of WWII, with his son and Harry Cooper (podium) discuss submarine warfare in a well-attended seminar. Large Photo (84K).
The second annual Celebrate History convention went off without a hitch, and proved to live up to to its name. I was quite impressed with the ability of the organizers--Dana Lombardy being the pointman--to attract a wide array of re-enactors, companies, gamers, and veterans to one spot for three days of seminars, lectures, costume spectacles, art exhibits, gaming, dancing, marching, and just plain fun. Indeed, there was so much to see and do, it was hard to know where to begin once you paid the $50 weekend entrance fee ($20 for one day).
At right, final touches on the "museum" from the WWII Living History Museum. George May III, president of the organization, is at left. Large Photo (138K).
Being tied to the MagWeb booth in the dealer room, I was only able to get away to attend a pair--a two-hour lecture/Q&A by WWII U-boat commander Hans-Georg Hess and a presentation by Legio X Fretensis (Roman legion re-enactors).
The art show, held in a small conference room in the Ramada, proved quite good, if cramped. The prints showed the talents of various artists. One notable entry was a painting (by Robert D. Hope) of a WWII Mustang signed by the aces at the show. Artists included George Bisharat, C. Paul Castenet, Rodney C. Girand, Micael Donegan, and Robert D. Hope.
I should also mention that I was quite pleased to meet artist Keith Rocco, whose Napoleonic works I much admire and whose work often graces the cover of Napoleon magazine. I was also pleased to give him the two-minute overview of MagWeb and show him the cover of several Napoleon magazines. He seemed impressed at the quality of the reproduction, which of course, makes his artwork stand out all the more.
Historical gaming took place throughout the convention. This Hallowed Ground, an ACW board game by The Gamers, was being played in the dealer area, as were DBA miniatures games (hosted by Manuel Ruiz). In the Ramada, other miniatures and board games were up and running throughout the show. I recall seeing a Killer Katanas feudal Japanese samurai miniatures game (hosted by Brian Bradford), a From Madrid to Moscow 1809 Napoleonic battle of Wagram (hosted by Steve Verdilova), a Battles of Napoleon game, naval games, a Crossfire WWII game that I played in, and much, much more. I picked up a copy of Steve Phenow and Terry Gore's Mr. Lincoln's War (ACW miniatures rules), some back issues of The Courier and other magazines, and other goodies at the flea market.
Were there any disappointments (besides the weather)? Well, nothing's perfect, of course, and I don't want to criticize because I certainly know how difficult it is to pull off something like this. I mean, next to magazine editors, convention directors have the most thankless job, so I want to emphatically state that Dana Lombardy, Anne Merritt, Peter Corliss, and the rest of the crew did a heckuva job pulling all these groups and companies together.
That said, I believe suggestion #2, yes, #2, would be additional marketing to bring in more people. About 1,000 people attended the event (including dealers and re-enactors). Anyone who's a history buff should come to this--and can bring spouses, significant others as well. There literally was something for everyone--it's a shame this wasn't blaring across TV stations (given the visual appeal), newspapers and so on. Now, before you start saying "Yeah!" and picking up farm implements, know that I put MagWeb's own PR agency to work trying to pull in media to cover MagWeb at the show. I managed to get on ZDTV and a shot with Computer Gaming World, but my PR agency couldn't pull in the more general media types.
Finally, the most important suggestion, #1, would be to smack the Ramada hotel manager up the side of the head for closing the bar at 11:00 pm. Yes, I realize there were other balls and galas going on, yes, it's primarily a business hotel, but gamers needed to wet their whistle as well. At Historicon, half the hotel's profits seem to come from the bar...
I met quite a few people at the show, and I picked up some literature. Let me provide a synopsis of each one and some impressions. If you contact them, please tell them MagWeb sent you.
Sharkhunters: the submarine folks who brought Hans-Georg Hess to Celebrate History. Harry Cooper, an effervescent former submariner, runs this top-notch U-boat association. I picked up a copy of KTB, now in its 17th year, and it is jam packed full of bits and pieces of historical information. More info: sharkhunters@hitter.net
Bay Area English Regency Society recreates the 18th and 19th era parlour atmosphere of the British Empire. During the convention, they changed costume several times to represent artisans, aristocrats, and soldiers, and provided entertainment such as poetry and dramatic readings, music, and informal chats. It's all quite invigorating. Their 1999 calendar consists of several balls and dances. More info: baers@geocities.com
Large Photo (slow: 181K)
Nova Roma: The Roman society was next to the Legio X Fretensis booth and seeks to increase knowledge of the classical culture. I looked over a wonderful exhibit of Roman-era coins--indeed, the first time I've seen and handled so many Roman coins at once. More inf: www.novaroma.org
Confederate Air Force (Golden Gate Wing): I spoke to Bruce Ames, the marketing officer for the CAF, which runs a museum at the Midland International Airport, Texas. The Golden Gate Wing is the California Chapter, which meets at the Officer's Club on Boeing Drive at the Oakland, CA airport. The CAF is dedicated to preserving WWII aircraft, and numbers over 120 planes flown by US, German, Japanese, and Soviet pilots. I picked up their 1999 calendar (wow!), and if I'm ever near Midland, Texas, I intend to stop by their museum. I also picked up a copy of their Ghost Squadron of the CAF: Wings of Freedom color booklet with dozens of pictures of the planes they saved and restored. More info: www.caf-goldengate.org
Western Aerospace Museum: At North Field, Oakland Airport is a museum for aircraft, the most spectacular being the Short Solent Flying Boat, in addition to a Lockheed 10-A Electra, TAV-8A, and Skyhawk. More info: WAM, PO Box 14264, Oakland CA 94614.
Eighth Air Force Heritage: Dedicated to the 8th AF, they had a booth in the dealer area. A museum is in Georgia. More info: www.mighty8thmuseum.com
The Great War Society offers a wide variety of information about WWI with its Relevance journal, as well as in-depth historical events. More info: medwardh@hotmail.com
Great War Historical Society is a group that recreates WWI trench warfare twice a year with 24-hour battles--including night actions. They were showing a video produced from one of their exercises. More info: Trenchster@aol.com
Shadows of the Past: Cowboys are the order of the day with this company that recreates the Wild West era, including staging train robberies. More info: foyde@cruzio.com
Western Warship Combat Club: These are model builders who take their scale models into combat using compressed air "gunpowder" and ""BB" shells. The video is wild, with the radio-controlled ships like the Iowa and Yamato racing around a pond firing broadsides at each other. It is amazing that these folks put so much effort into the models and then shoot 'em, but it certainly is intriguing.
Bay Area Tankers: Next booth over was the RC tanks. Excellent modelling here. Spoke to Ken Hofmann, the deputy public information officer for the club. I can't believe I didn't snap a photo of their brilliant efforts! More info: bill.hein@tandem.com
USS Hornet Museum: Like an airstrike at ground level, someone came over to our booth, dropped a pamphlet in front of me at the MagWeb booth, and strafed my ears with "Here, do something for the best carrier in the Navy." Then he zoomed off and was gone. The group had a display at the front of the convention by registration, and I had already picked up a pamphlet, but a second one is OK. The museum is the USS Hornet, a WWII aircraft carrier also used on Apollo XI and XII recovery missions and now berthed at Pier 2 in Alameda. It's available for field trips, conferences, dinner dances, and includes exhibits. The group is holding a "WWII USO Show/Dance" fundraiser onboard on May 22, 1999 (tickets $65 plus handling fee: call 800-748-9901 to order). Museum hours are 10am to 5pm (6pm in summer). For more information: www.usshornetmuseum.org
National Civil War Association: That's the American Civil War and this is a re-enactment group. The booths held numerous items from the era, and a "Seeing the Elephant" video played continually and showed how battle re-enactments occur. There is an associated "civilian" re-enactment group called the Trades and Professions Guild.
Pacific Rim Publishing, a war game and book publisher, was showing off its wares. New for 1999 are: Vistula 45 (March 1945 attack on Stargard), Vimy Ridge 1917 (Canadian attack), and Fuller Offensive 1919 (What If WWI extended into the next year).
St. Maximilian Landsknecht Re-enactment Guild: Certainly this Renaissance group was one of the most colorful of the convention, or, as the flyer put it: "Landsknecht clothing was easily the most gaudy and obnoxious of the Renaissance." It had the puffy sleeves and the "slash" style of slit outer garments allowing the undergarments to show through, often with mismatched colors on each sleeve and pants leg. Although primarily armed with pike, there were two handed swords for the "shock" troops that would slice through other pikes. More info: st.maximilian@stmaximilian.zzn.com
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The convention was an absolute riot of historical costumes--WWII predominated, followed closely by US Civil War, Victorian era gowns, WWI, US Spanish-American War, 1920s flappers, Renaissance, cowboys, and Roman legionnaires. And inside the dealer area--MagWeb being in booth #1--a variety of clothing, books, games, miniatures, artwork, historical organizations, and Internet companies plied their trade. Glad I brought a camera.
The seminars proved to be the highlights, especially when lecturers and panelists were veterans of WWII, the Korean War, and other conflicts.
Large Roman Photo (154K).
Yet these were only two of the dozens of seminars/lectures given by WWII fighter aces and bomber crew from all theaters, including the Tuskegee Airmen [see photo at right:
Large Photo (80K)]; authors of books about the Titanic, Gettysburg, women's clothing, submariners, aircraft, technothrillers, and other topics; and re-enactors about equipment and culture during historical periods.
Some of the re-enactments were cancelled due to the inclement weather. I recall seeing the ACW fife and drum unit playing in the entranceway to the convention center as the rain fell. A Renaissance duel was cancelled due to scheduling conflicts. Several costume balls (at right, a soldier of the British 60th Rifles in the hussar-inspired uniform from the Napoleonic period) were held throughout the weekend, and a fashion show also was thrown for all the re-enactors and historical costumers.
A few vehicles were parked outside the convention center, including an German Armoured Car, a couple US Jeeps, and a US Dodge Staff car.
MagWeb was pleased to attend. We had booth #1 (in photo at right, VP Susan Lockwood mans the booth in the background, behind the camoflaged WWII German re-enactor). I counted 75 companies and organizations manning booths at the show.
Suggestion #3, yes, #3, would be to better organize the Welcome Buffet and Reception. When you don't know anyone else, and it's billed as "Meet the Veterans," and everyone is eating, it would be a little better to introduce the veterans, or provide name tags or something else. To be fair, I had a great conversation with Jim Burbeck of War Times Journal and French doctor Andre Mas (who treats WWI veterans), but mingling is difficult when sitting with a full plate of food. And speaking of food, $30 for noodles, salad, and ice tea is a bit pricey (even though dealers caught a break at $18). Not being a vegetarian, I concur with the table mates who chanted, "Where's the Beef?" On the other hand, it was conveniently in the hall, though I made up for it on other nights in local restaurants (Vietnamese, Indian, and Chinese) that were 5 to 10 minutes away by car.
Organizations
The Commemorative Historical Society: A WWII Living History Museum consists of a number of uniformed re-enactors who ran the "museum" in the dealer area, and included a motorcycle. This consisted of a selection of uniforms from a variety of combatants displayed on mannikins. In addition, members roamed the hall. I spoke briefly with president George May III and member Robert Riddervold. More info: CHSWW2LHM@aol.com
The US Cavalry Association and the 11th US Cavalry Regt: The first thing we saw when pulling into the convention driveway was two men carrying a horse. It was a life-sized plastic horse, but a horse nonetheless. This was for the display by the USCA and the 11th Cav in particular. The 11th honors the last horse cavalry unit of the US Army (circa 1940). USCA is the parent organization that runs a foundation, library, and museum at Fort Riley, KS. More info: www.geocities.com/Pentagon/Barracks/2189/
Legio X Fretensis: A Roman army re-enactment group. I saw four of the members at the show, one wearing Republican Roman armor, another early Imperial armor, a third Pretorian Guard armor, and the fourth was an archer. More info: fireman_bob@juno.com
Military Vehicle Preservation Asso.: I'm not sure if the WWII era vehicles outside were theirs, but the jeeps, staff car, and German SdKz222 armored car provided an interesting mix. Inside, these folks had a motorcycle parked next to the booth. More info: mvpa-hq@mvpa.org (national organization) and ptheland@cncnet.com (California chapter)
National Women's History Project: This organization focuses on the achievements of women and bringing recognition to those achievements. For example, who was the first woman member of a US president's Cabinet? Frances Perkins, March 4, 1933, Secretary of Labor. More info: nwhp@aol.com
Spanish War 1898: This is a Spanish American War re-enactment group. Its booth held a MG, and had one of the most effective methods of calling attention to their seminar: a fellow who looks similar to Teddy Roosevelt led a quartet of re-enactors from aisle to aisle in the dealers room and announced he would lecture on his war experiences. More info: www.saw1898.com
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