My Kind Of Town.

Thought you may like to hear some of the more telling moments of my trip to Chicago for the Hollywood Collector's Show.
One of the first things I noticed when I got there is that my nameplate at my table was placed directly between Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams.

My first reaction to this was "How flattering! This should probably help me sell a lot of books.

I arrived about a half-hour before they did, and immediately sold three books.
Then the girls arrived, and all hell broke loose.

They took their places, and neither Penny or Cindy could comprehend why I was seated between them.
I was having trouble trying to figure out that one myself.
Then, they unlocked the zoo.
People came swarming out of he woodwork to pay to get their pictures taken with Penny and Cindy and Henry Winkler.
And stepping over my face in the process to get to them.
And I kept getting in everybody's way
I was completely bypassed in the deluge.
Nobody from the zoo had any interest in noticing me.
I don't think any of them were at all literate, thus wouldn't have thought to have bought a book even if they did notice me.

It's quite comforting to know that the fan base for the show that you had so much to do with it's creation were not even vaguely interested in anything but having their picture taken with the girls.
Reading anything about how the show was created could not have interested them less.
I felt that the only chance I had at selling more books would be to get the hell away from them.
I did, and book sales improved rapidly.
They do these shows in L.A. and Chicago, and I imagine that it's easier to do it in L.A., because you don't have to fly the celebrities in and put them up in hotels.
I understand that for this last show in Chicago, except for maybe one or two celebrities, the rest had to make their own way to Chicago and pay for their own accomodations.
So they already have a pretty steep nut that they have to dig themselves out of.
They were significantly in the hole before they trotted out their merchandize.
There is new management there now, so I don't know how this is going to be handled in the future.
Because I drove from Detroit and my wife is a member of the Hilton Diamond Points club, it cost me virtually nothing to make this trip.

And after selling those first three books, I was already in the black.

Next time, I will talk about some to the cee-lebs I spent some time with.

My book, "Show Runner" and it's sequel,"Show Runner Two", can be found at the Amazon Kindle Store, You can search by typing in my name, Cindy Williams, Laverne & Shirley, The Odd Couple, or Happy Days.
You might want to check them out.
You don't need a Kindle machine to download them.
Just get the free app from Kindle, and they can be downloaded to an IPhone, IPad, or Blackberry.

The paperback, "Mark Rothman's Essays" is still available for people without Kindle. I have many readings and signings remaining, and the thing about Kindle is you can't sign one.

The website "On Screen & Beyond" has two hours of an interview I did on it's podcast in their archives.
Just Google On Screen & Beyond to find them if you're interested.

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