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Corrections? Contact Richard J. Arndt: rarndt39@hotmail.com.
The Unconventional ComiCon Costumer
A
2007 Interview with Angelique Trouvere!
By
Richard Arndt
RA: We’re
welcoming Angelique Trouvere, model and costumer of
AT: I’m originally from
In my senior year I suspected that there
might be a problem or, perhaps, a hint of things to come because I was
constantly hearing things like…”That’s very nice but a little too
costumey”. By the way, my bestest
friend, Animal, who is an amazing costumer, was turned down for the same reason
when she tried out for Bravo’s “Project Runway”. So it’s not just me
Anyway, I wanted to work in the costume
field but that was easier said than done.
I did, however, spend a lot of time working in theatres and learning my
craft on my own. I worked as a dancer
and, because I was interested in astrology, I called myself Destiny. Dancing was a great job for me in that it gave
me confidence, poise and grace as well as the time and money to work on
costumes and show them too.
In fact, that’s how I found out about
Vampirella. I remember one day I was at
a theatre when I noticed a coworker reading a magazine-sized comic book and I
asked if I could see it. It was a Vampirella
and I was instantly hooked. I guess it
was love at first bite? There was an ad
in the book that told of a ComicArt Convention that was happening in the near
future. That was Phil Seuling’s ComicArt
Con of 1972 and that’s where it all began.
RA: The first
time I heard of you was the Gerry Boudreau article that ran in the back of most
of the Warren Magazines in 1973. Was
that your first con appearance?
AT: Actually, my first convention
was Phil Seuling's ComicArt convention which was held over the July 4th
weekend in 1972 but I only went for one day, just to check out the dealer's
room—I wanted to find more Vampirella comics and had no idea there even was a
masquerade.
I met some really wonderful people at this first con. They were fans and
dealers and they told me about the masquerade, which I had just missed, and suggested
that I should enter the next year’s since I was interest in costume making.
So a year later, my friends and I showed up at the 1973 Seuling's July
ComicArt Con masquerade. I was dressed
as Vampirella. As a budding costumer back then, Vampi was—or rather HAD to be—my
first costume for competition.
I loved Vampirella--she was everything that I aspired to be: brave, strong,
a true champion, beautiful, tall....
By the way, many costuming fan-girls had a Vampirella costume in their
collections—it was the gold standard of costuming back then. In fact my
friend, Kathy Bushman, recreated by hand the very first Vampirella costume two
months after the Vampirella magazine premiered, entering it in the 1969
WorldCon masquerade in
Anyway, as we wandered into the area where the masquerade entrants awaited
the start of the show, my friends pointed out the other Vampirella to me. Heidi
Saha was tall and very pretty—her baby face sported blue eye shadow and
lipstick red lips. As she peered out
from under the long black bangs of her wig she reminded me of a beautiful doll.
Someone told me that she was 14 years old
and I remember thinking how young she was and that she must be rich because her
bat wing earrings were gold, as were her armband and bracelets. Her boots were an exact replica from the
famous 6-foot tall Jose Gonzales poster.
It was a well-made and detail oriented
costume that knocked my socks off.
I made my earrings out of cardboard that I’d sprayed with gold
paint and attached to ear clips. Then
I’d jury-rigged the rest of the accessories with other cheap materials. Sadly,
my boots were totally wrong: black vinyl with chunky heels but it was what I was
able to afford at the time. (insert sad violin music here...}
My costume was made from a stretch satin that my friend Stephanie
and I worked on to fit within an inch of its life. Stephanie was a great help
with the fittings of such a dicey costume and together we figured that since
Vampi's costume looked shiny and was curve fitting in the comics and poster, than
that's what we should aim for.
Heidi's costume was made of polyester and
cut like a swimsuit but it still looked great.
She even had a paper-mache bat! I love attention to details!
Man! I would've loved to have had a
paper-mache bat...
Speaking of the paper-mache bat, I spoke
with a very nice lady named Perdita Boardman, who confirmed that she actually
made Heidi’s Vampirella outfit from the bat to the boots, with the exception of
the jewelry. Perdita and John Broadman were great friends of Art Saha, Heidi’s
father and Perdita readily agreed to use her considerable costume skills to
recreate the Vampi costume when Heidi’s mother, Taimi asked her for help.
I believe that Heidi’s parents had Perdita
make the costume because they needed a professional looking outfit for the
promotions that Jim Warren wanted to set up.
Perdita was not aware of this aspect and considered her work on the
costume as a favor to a friend. Heidi’s
mom was very proud of the fact that she made all of Heidi’s costumes herself
but, in this case, her skills weren’t good enough for Warren’s demands for
complete perfection, which was a trademark of his.
By the way, I heard that Heidi sold the
costume at an auction house a few years ago—I wonder if that’s true and how
much it sold for?
Meanwhile, back at the 1973 masquerade, as I was waiting around, I noticed
that Heidi seemed sad—like she wished she could be somewhere else. Everyone else was having a great time but I
couldn’t help but wonder why this girl was so unhappy. I wanted to talk
with her but my friends said I had to go off and get registered—remember,
it was my first competition and I have no idea of what to do. So we went to the
registration area. By the way, it took
me years to figure out that not every costumer has their own entourage…
It was around this point that a short, thirty-something woman with long
brown hair strode in, looked at my costume, scowled, and proclaimed, "Oh,
that's so tacky!" and left in a huff. I was like: Who was that? What?
No hello?
My friends explained to me, "That's Heidi's mother, Taimi Saha."
Well, it seems that Mrs. Saha hated me from the moment she saw me because
she thought that I was stealing her baby's thunder. I didn’t mean to mess up her plans. I just wanted to enter the masquerade as my
favorite character. But to Mrs. Saha, this
was supposed to be "Heidi's con & masquerade” and I was viewed as a
potential threat.
Heidi could not have cared less but her mother did, a lot, so she tried to
get me barred from entering the competition on the grounds that my
costume was cut too low. This was news to me as I was unaware of any
problems with it before—after all, it WAS a Vampirella Costume.
Anyway, it was Phil Seuling who came to me
and told me that I would have to do something about that if I wanted to enter. He was very nice about it but he felt that he
had to back Mrs. Saha on her concerns for decency.
So, let me get this straight, she's
parading her underage daughter around in sexy costumes and she's concerned
about decency? Sheesh!
Well, my friends weren't going to let that happen. One of them came up with an idea and ran off
to get a box of band-aids from a nearby drug store so I was able to cover the
"offending area" with the flesh colored band-aids and thus I was
allowed to enter the masquerade. And I haven't been able to deal with those
sticky little buggers since... {laughs}
I went on before Heidi and the audience went wild when I dropped my cape and
posed and played to them. I think that
Heidi went on last and stood there with the paper-mache bat held aloft in a
copy of the pose of the Gonzales poster and again, the crowd went crazy. So
you can imagine my confusion when a short time later, parts of this same
crowd started to boo and jeer when it was announced that Heidi had won 3rd
place.
Maybe they thought she should've won a
higher place? That would have been
understandable as I thought that her costume was excellent.
However, it seems I didn't know about the
politics of the situation at that time which, as I was later told,
were the reasons for the audience's reaction. However, if the crowd had a problem with James
Warren or her parents, they shouldn’t have taken it out on an innocent
kid!
Poor Heidi. She stood on that stage, holding her pose
like a real trooper amid the boos and heckling—it must have hurt like hell.
I felt so bad for her at that moment and
in that moment, I gained a lot of respect and admiration for that young
lady. I also got some precious insight
into mob mentality: it’s a very scary thing!
As it was, Cortlandt Hull’s wonderful Ming
the Merciless won first place and Darkseid & Co. took second--sorry I
didn’t get their names.
Despite not winning, I still had a great time and I got a really cool
drawing of me as Vampi done by Sergio Aragones himself. He was one of the
judges and drew it up on the spot for me when I visited a friend at the MAD
magazine offices. He even added a bat to my hand! What a guy!!
That was one of the best “prizes” I ever received!
While at this con, I met Anthony Tollin and Gerry Boudreau, who were writers
at
Gerry then asked me if I had any professional shots of my Vampi and I said
no. So he talked with his editor, Bill DuBay, and discussed the idea of
including me in the article. Bill loved the idea and I was given
the name of a photographer they knew that could do the shots quickly. I
was told that I had to get my pics to them asap because the article was going
to press soon.
So I upgraded my boots to look closer to the poster and got some great
pictures within the week! Thank God for
shoemakers, matte black spray
Paint and reasonably priced (good natured)
photographers!
Gerry and Bill loved the pictures and they decided on the one that appeared
in the finished article. Bill also picked a different pose from Heidi's
shots because he felt that it would improve the article
I heard that Mrs. Saha was not very happy when she saw the article in the
November issue of Vampirella #29: "Two Vampirellas Stun 5,500 at 1973
Comic Art Convention". Well, everyone I knew loved it.
I would always say "hi" to Heidi whenever I saw her at cons—we’d talk
about astrology & stuff but not a lot because her mom might be lurking
nearby and neither of us wanted a scene. Mama had some serious issues.
My heart went out to Heidi in that she was just a sweet kid who wanted a
normal life but her mother was bound and determined to make her baby a “star”
regardless of what she wanted.
Actually, I could relate to that in that my mom could be very heavy handed
at times and would make me crazy too. Still, I loved her and miss her terribly.
I think that Heidi wanted to be an adult as soon as possible so that she
wouldn't have to put up with her mother's nonsense, but even today, although in
different cities, they still stay in touch.
Heidi simply learned to take her mom’s moods in stride.
I remember one of the last times I saw her was at a Star Trek con in early
1975. She was dressed in a pink jumpsuit
and her hair was a nice shade of brown.
She wore tinted aviator glasses, pretty hoop earrings and had a small
jeweled decoration on her cheek—the kind of thing a 16 year old would
wear. She was very happy and relaxed.
She wasn’t entering masquerades anymore,
not since some very unsavory stuff went down at the July 1974 Seuling's Comic
Art Con. I believe that Heidi's father, Art, decided to put a stop to the
costuming activities which pleased Heidi to no end. I was very happy for her too.
Sometimes I think it seems kind of odd that Heidi and I are forever tied
together just because we wore the same costume to the same comic-con so many
years ago. Funny how things work out.
After my first
appearance as Vampirella, I wore the costume to a few Halloween parties and entered
it in the masquerade at the
Eventually, I
decided to upgrade my costume and made a new one that had a long skirt added to
it that I’d seen in a Vampi story drawn by Gonzales. I entered this new version of Vampi 2.0 in
the Famous Monster Con masquerade in Nov. 1974 as “Vampirella’s Evening
Gown”. When I stood on stage, I waited a
moment and then whipped off the detachable skirt to reveal the more familiar
and beloved Vampi costume underneath to a very appreciative audience and
judges’ panel. I won 3rd
place for my efforts too. By the way,
you can see all of the masquerade winners with Forry Ackerman and Jim Warren in
Famous Monsters #115’s coverage of the con.
Later, I
designed my own version of this concept as an entry in the 1977 Star Trek Con’s
Future Fashion Show. My ”Drakulon Evening Wear” won 1st place
Alienwear.
Drakulon Evening
Wear
RA: How did Jim Warren respond to your Vampi appearances?
AT: I would
often visit the offices of Warren Publishing to see my friends who worked there
and my first encounter with Jim Warren was memorable. One day I was talking with Bill DuBay in his
office when
To which
OK, so he wasn’t
crazy about me but I really wanted to do promotions as Vampi for his company so
I asked him about it.
Maybe my timing
was off, or more likely, I never had a chance in the first place but
So I guess that
was a “No”…?
Ironically, I
did end up in one Vampirella issue by chance.
When I met Neal Adams at a con, he told me that he had an art studio in
As I shed my
coat and Neal saw the costume, he did what any red-blooded man would do when
faced with a scantily clad pretty girl—he immediately drew a picture of
me!
Hello,
artist…what were you thinking?!?
That sketch
appeared as the frontispiece of Vampirella #44, and if you look closely, you’ll
see me as the model with my coat still clutched in my left hand.
By the way, Neal
was the art director, costume designer, and illustrated the poster/Playbill cover for Warp, a science
fiction stage play by Bury St. Edmund and Stuart Gordon that had some cult
success in Chicago in the mid-1970s, and played on Broadway for a too brief
time.
The other
appearance I’m actually not too sure of, but the cover painting for Vampirella
#32 sure looks a lot like me in costume.
That happened a lot. I’d often
pose for a picture at a con and find a painting of me on a cover of something a
while later.
Jim Warren did
talk about his experience with Heidi Saha in his 1990s interview that appeared
in The Warren Companion which, by the way, is an excellent book for anyone
interested in the
He mentions that
he met Heidi when she was 14 or 15 but I’ve seen at least one photo of him
posing with a younger Heidi, probably taken at Lunacon in 1970 when she would
have been 11. Heidi’s father, Art Saha,
was at one time president of the Lunarians, the group that sponsored LunaCon.
Warren knew the
Sahas through his friendship with Forry Ackerman and Forry had known Art since
the 1940’s when he was a young science fiction fan living in Forry’s hometown,
Los Angeles.
Hey, it was a
long time ago so no one can fault him for not having a clearer memory about
this.
I believe that
Everything
seemed to be going very well but then a serious problem occurred at Seuling’s
1974 ComiCon and the Saha family immediately withdrew Heidi from the
promotions.
A friend of the
Sahas remembers “being with Taimi in a con suite back then when she became
quite tearful and distraught when it dawned on her what she was doing to
Heidi. I think she pulled back on the
stage mother stuff thereafter.”
By the way, for
people who wonder whatever happened to the magazines and posters, here’s what I
know: when
He was worried
about the many photos that he loaned
By the way, in
regard to the Vampirella movie, it’s really a shame that
I liked your
interview with Barbara Leigh and I remember laughing out loud when I read DuBay’s
interview in The Warren Companion relating the time when he and Barbara first met
and they faked out Jim Warren with that kiss!
I liked the way she handled things--she’s definitely my kind of
people!
Although we
never met, I helped Barbara when she first appeared as Vampirella at the Famous
Monsters con in 1975. It seems that she
was having trouble with staying in the costume and a friend from
Both Vampirella
and, later, the Satana costume were gravity-defying outfits. You could do them one of two ways. You could cut them wider so that they covered
enough or you could make them as they were drawn and use two-way tape, which is
also called carpet tape. It’s strong and
super-adhesive on both sides. You tape
one side directly to your body, the other to the part of the costume that needs
to stay put and in most cases it worked beautifully. I hope that “the costumer’s secret weapon”
was of help to Barbara that day.
When it comes to
costumes, it’s all about bringing the fantasy to life. A drawing doesn’t have to worry about falling
out of the costume but a real person does.
While it’s ok to look like you’re going to fall out any minute, it’s not
ok if that actually happens. The tape
allows the fantasy to play on.
I remember an
interview with one of my heroes, Elvira, who talked about the same thing with
her costume. In her case, the costume
was built on a very strong corset and because of her “industrial strength bra”,
her breasts may look like they’re going to fall out but she affirms, “they ain’t
goin’ nowhere”. Believe me, that’s a
great feeling!
RA: How did the Satana costume come about?
AT: After the
masquerade in 1973, I was hooked so I searched for a suitable challenge and
found it in Satana. The costume was sexy
and not too easy. It also involved some
hand-made touches that I could do and I sensed that it would be a crowd pleaser.
Again, with the
help of my friend, Stephanie, I was able to recreate the costume and, this
time, we were very careful when we cut out the center area as I didn’t want a
repeat of the previous year’s troubles.
I embroidered
the ram’s head symbol on the cuffs and made a 3-D ram’s head decoration out of
paper mache and beads that was on the hip of the bodysuit. The fur boots covers had similar pieces on
them as well. I topped off the effect
with my very long human hair red wig and even managed to jury-rig a small
widow’s peak. Then I used red pipe
cleaners to make her distinctive eyebrows, which I then glued to my own. Yeah,
I know: costumers are crazy! I added
some double-sided tape to the right places and I was good to go.
I met Tony
Isabella while wearing the Satana outfit and he’s been a great friend ever
since. I asked him if he had any
memories of those days to help fill in my lapses and he answered “Memories of
you? I think I wrote a letter to
Penthouse Forum once! :)”
“Seriously, I
remember that just about every guy I knew, including me, had at least a little
crush on you. I remember the Vampirella
and Satana costumes. I think we met at
some convention when you were wearing the latter. I had just become Satana’s editor in Haunt Of
Horror… My memory is that you visited my
office at Marvel in the costume when we were talking about doing some sort of
Satana photo-story, which I would have written and you would have starred
in. As you can imagine, some of the
older production people were surprised.
One of them, I can’t recall who, asked me later if you and I were
dating. I think I might have told him
something like, “No, my girlfriend usually wears a Tigra costume.”
Tony added, “I
mostly remember that you were always at these shows and everyone knew you,
everyone liked you. That Satana costume
(and you in it) still knocks me out every time I see it. So sexy and sinister, but not without its
sweet aspect.”
Thanks, Tony,
for remembering so much of those great old days!
I entered Satana
in Seuling’s ComicArt Con in 1974 along with my best friend, Kris Lundi, who
entered her excellent Hawkgirl, which included an amazing pair of handcrafted
feathered wings. We both tied for 3rd place and that was fine with
us because the only thing better than hanging out with your friends is
costuming with them.
Kris would later
change her name to Animal X and become a major influence in costuming on her
own. She inspired me to do wonderful
costumes and is one of the reasons that my work is included in ‘The Costume
Makers Art”, which is a glorious book about costumers and their creations that
Animal spearheaded to the attention of the publishers. I often tell people that I would have bought
the book even if I wasn’t in it—it’s THAT good!
RA: Can you give us any details about the costumes that you’d care
to share?
At: OK, since
you asked, let’s talk costumes! Since
1973, I’ve made about 105 costumes or pieces—give or take a beaded necklace or
two… I’ve always liked recreating comic
book characters because the outfits are so recognizable to the fans and fun to
portray. Among the costumes I made from
DC Comics for myself and others were Wonder Woman, Superman, Supergirl,
Starfire (not the same character as Marvel’s Princess Kori “Starfire”), Batman
and Batgirl. Marvel Comics also offered
up some wonderful characters as well.
Beside the aforementioned Satana and Red Sonja, there was Rogue, Dejah
Thoris and Spiderman. All some of my
best work.
Angee’s sister
Keri (in the Wonder Woman suit) & Angee as a butterfly! Artist Ernie Chan
was so impressed by Angee’s butterfly costume that he drew a sketch of it on
the spot!
Angee as DC’s
Starfire
Angee as Dejah
Thoris
I found that I
enjoy certain elements of costuming like design and engineering as well as
beadwork, wing making and recreation.
I’m also a natural born performer (H-A-M) and dreaming up interesting,
fun presentations is another aspect that I enjoy as well.
All of these
components come into play when I’m working on a costume and I was able to hone
my costuming skills first through the many Comicons, Star Trek cons and SF cons
I attended. People like Animal and other
creative fans helped me to go further than I would have thought possible.
Through my
involvement with Rent-An-Alien, which was an unusual costume business created
by Peter Mosen, I was able to expand my repertoire with costumes I probably wouldn’t
have tried on my own. Frankly, that’s what
made it so rewarding and interesting.
After I left
Rent-An-Alien, I joined Animal in many of her costume adventures and business
ventures—which was too much fun! (like
the time we loaded a 20 foot dragon into a taxi—ok, two taxis…)
In the early
1980s, there was a new kind of convention—CostumeCons! They’re like the WorldCons in that they’re
held in a different city each year but they consist of wall-to-wall costume
programming with no less than 3 competitions: a Science Fiction/Fantasy Masque,
a Historical Recreation and a Future Fashion show. They’re really amazing, exciting, funny and
educational too and so worth the trip!
In the late
1980s, I met another fan, Kristopher Curling, who had his own fan-based comedy
group called, “Doctors In The House” which specialized in Dr. Who comedies and which
later branched out into other fan favorites.
With the ‘Doctors’, I was able to perform comedy and create some very
specialized costumes for the instant costumes/character changes backstage.
By the way, our
sketch comedy also had a unique element too: it attracted some of the attending
celebrities to join in performing with us. I’ll always remember fun-loving Denise Crosby
(Lt. Yar from ST:TNG) gleefully teasing the audience while holding a bundled
baby, “Would you like to see my baby?” and then revealing the baby was a
toaster. When the laughter subsided she
touched her communicator and said wistfully, “Data, We REALLY have to talk!”
…the audience lost it!
We even
attracted Star Trek writer, Peter David, who asked us if we would perform his Trek
play at one convention. We had the added honor of having Worf performed by
Michael Dorn himself! He was really
funny too—great sense of timing and his deadpan delivery really had the
audience and us in stitches.
Out of the 105-ish,
there are five costumes that I think stand out.
1. Vampirella was my 1st costume for
competition and a sort of baptism of fire for my entry into masquerades. Vampi still stands out as a fan
favorite. It’s really amazing how many
websites are dedicated to Vampirella.
One of the first sites I became involved in was one run by superfan
Terry Sanders from Kentucky who put together many of the “live Vampi models”
fact pieces that one finds all over various Vampi sites. Terry spent a great deal of time and energy,
both setting up interviews and posting the model’s photos to Mike Grace’s
website, “Vampirella Revealed”. He also
managed to get some fine pictures of many of the current Vampi models, both
solo and cozying up next to him—he is the envy of many a Vampi fan—trust
me. You can check out his site at http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/way/rbp20/models/sanders.htm
and while you’re there, you can click on my name and read my first online Vampi
interview.
Speaking
of Vampi fans, Robin Whale, the creator of an unbelievably extensive site
called Vampilore credits a former site, Vampifan.com with inspiring him to
build Vampilore. Robin explains, “I used
to use Vampifan as my primary point of reference for my collection, and then
one day it was gone. The lost of Vampifan
was one of the main reasons I decided to build Vampilore!” Robin points out that Vampifan.com’s original
owner was Scott Stockwell who was said to have gone to the
I’d
also like to add that before Seuling’s 1973 con, I would often make
costume-like clothing for myself just for fun.
Some were based on my own designs or copied from something that
impressed me, such as the first Broadway musical I ever experienced, which was
“HAIR”. HAIR’s costumes were exciting
and inspirational and the show’s message and spirit still soars within me. HAIR set the tone for my life in a way: it crystallized
a youngling into a thinking, questioning and creative adult (who doesn’t mind
using a George Lucas term every so often…)
One
of the HAIR costumes I recreated for myself was a silver lame (pronounced
“lamay”) pants & crop top from the song ‘The Electric Blues’. The outfit was covered in tiny mirrors which
looked good on stage but, as I learned, were very hazardous to actually walk
around in.
2. A Lady from Wrigley’s Pleasure Planet (or LWPP or
just “Lady” for short) was my first original design that won an award. It was based very loosely on a mention of the
planet in a Trek episode. I made that
one for the
At that particular con, Joan was a masquerade
judge which gave
her a unique perspective. Three of her fellow judges were Star
Trek and movie costume designer, Bill Theiss,
actor Robert
Lansing and writer David Gerrold, of whom she
wrote “David
should not have been there. He was running a fever—even before
Angelique Trouvere appeared in what there was
of her costume.”
It’s ok, Joan’s a friend—really!
I
also loved her bit that she added regarding the decision to
award “Most Beautiful” to me—“The males on the
panel, however,
after they retrieved their eyeballs from
across the room,
decided on Angelique.” Joan always had a great sense of humor.
By the way, I met Bill Theiss a month earlier at the
January
1975 Trek con when I wore my version of the silver
Shana costume
from the episode, “The Gamesters Of
Triskelion”. He was a very
sweet man who graciously complimented my work and
added “Your
Shana was much better than the one on the
show.” When I asked
in what way, he playfully poked my breast and said,
“Yours are
real, hers weren’t.”
Well, at least he didn’t award me “Breast
In Show”…
Anyway, the Lady was a fairly simple costume
in that it
consisted mainly of front and back panels. There was a lot of
skin showing because there was nothing else on
the sides. My
bra, which was heavily beaded and matched the
collar, held up
the front panel. People thought I was naked under the panels
but I wasn’t.
It was an optical illusion I designed when I used
nylon wire to stabilize the bra on the sides
and then I arranged
a matching panty to stay in place by using the
nylon wires in
place of the regular sides. They ran up to the bra strap fore
and aft under the panels and thus I had no
visible panty lines.
The sleeves stayed up with good old reliable
two-way tape and I
just went to town on the headdress and high
heels too! I had
the best time constructing and bringing this
design to life.
Later on, while Kris Lundy and I were walking
down a hallway
after the masque, still in our costumes
outfit, we ran into
Robert Lansing—he was very charming and
flirted with us. He was
a little blitzed but very sweet.
A short time later, I entered this design in a
Future Fashion
Show at a LA based Trek convention called
Equicon. Bjo Trimble,
the lady who saved Star Trek, wrote me a
lovely letter
telling me that my design had won 1st
place in the Eveningwear
division in spite of some opposition to its
winning a place in
any category.
Bjo explained, it seemed that the
young woman
running the con was “somewhat religious” and
thought I was
“terrible for running around in all that bare
skin.” However,
Bjo, and her husband John, went to bat for me
and got the design
approved because it was an nice example of
what people might
wear on other planets. She wrote “…you can be trusted NOT to
get us all arrested.”
I’ve always admired and respected Bjo ever
since she spearheaded
the letter writing campaign to save the
original Trek but now
she had my friendship and affection too. Bjo
was indicative of
the warm-hearted, extremely creative and fun
people I met at my
first west coast convention and I found both
the cons and the
people great reasons to return to
3. Red Sonja. I
made this for Seuling’s ComicArt masquerade in 1975. It started out as a basic bikini that I made
out of a heavy silver fabric to which I added the triangular flaps in front and
back of the bottom. A pair of large hoop
earrings held the sides and flaps together.
I then sewed silver sequins to the two pieces and cut out the shoulder
piece, called a yoke, and bra decorations from mylar. I added some suede-like straps decorated with
sew-on jewels that glamorized the boots and the armband, as well as a thigh
strap which held my dagger. I customized
a pair of brown gloves and added my long red wig to complete the look of what
was then Marvel Comics latest heroine. I
knew it wasn’t perfect but I was pleased with my efforts and was happily
surprised when it was announced that I’d won 2nd place.
Funny thing about Sonja—she always seemed to
demand respect and
I found myself constantly upgrading her over
the next few years.
For example, I sewed down the sequins which I sprayed
with a
matte silver paint to give them a more
realistic look. I also
used that paint on my new yoke that I cut from
a very strong,
yet lightweight fabric called buckram. The hoop earrings I’d
used on the sides were also replaced with
larger and stronger
plastic curtain rings. Later I completely redid the boots and
gloves to match Frank Thorne’s drawings, using
slippers and leg
covers with elastic suspenders. The sequins were eventually
replaced with actual metal disks in which I
punched tiny holes
so they could be sewn on the bikini, then
later on I replaced
those with smaller, metal shank buttons which
made the costume
look and feel more authentic. I was on a quest for the best Red
Sonja costume I could produce. She was always a labor of love
and one of my best loved recreations.
4. Another costume that I’m very proud of is my Daggit costume
from the 1978 version of Battlestar: Galactica.
This was my break-away costume!
Up to that point, I had always been known for my sexy lady
costumes. Daggit allowed me to show a
totally new side of my costuming skills.
This
epiphany happened when I first met a very talented costumer, named Peter Mosen,
at Seuling’s ’78 ComicArt con Masquerade.
I was wearing a beautiful Elinor costume (from the film ‘Wizards’) that
had been recreated by Elfquest writer/artist Wendy Pini for an earlier Worldcon
(SunCon ’77). She went as WeeHawk and together
with her Elinor, she won “Most Authentic Fantasy.” She’d contacted me a few months before
Seuling’s con and asked if I would like to have the costume. I remember her writing “Angie, it’s a prize winner!” It was a sweet gesture and I never forgot her
kindness. By the way, it’s not unusual
for a costumer to give away their costumes to a good home. I well remember the intense joy and
excitement I felt at receiving a headdress that I admired at a costumer’s party
one night and I like giving others that same great feeling in return.
“Angelique
as ‘Elinor’, in a costume recreated by Wendy Pini, with Peter Mosen’s C3PO
& R2-D2 in the background!”
When
I met Peter Mosen, he was wearing his amazing recreation of C3PO which included
an excellent R2-D2 recreation as a rolling prop! Peter added a cassette player to R2-D2’s
innards and whenever he hit a switch, it made R2 sounds, which was very cool
and unexpected for that time. His
creativity and workmanship with hard materials like plastics, metals, etc.
impressed me and because Peter could not sew or work with soft materials as I
could, we decided to join forces.
A
few months later when we first saw the pilot episode for the original Battlestar
Galactica, we were blown away. Peter
immediately began making plans to recreate a Cylon Warrior. I considered recreating one of the ladies’
outfits but their costumes weren’t very challenging. However, that Daggit costume was a whole
‘nother story!
In
the show, the Daggit was a costume actually worn by a chimpanzee named
Evie. For my costume, Peter made the
non-fabric parts, just as I made the fabric parts for his Cylon Warrior. I was able to easily solve his costume
problems by sewing a gunmetal colored vinyl onto the heavier mylar for his
pants and then made a matching top with sleeves, to which I added thin plastic
tubing under the vinyl that encircled his torso.
Peter
was then able to craft the cylon’s various armor pieces out of chrome mylar with the piece de
resistance being a working cylon helmet.
People could not get over that crazy red eye that moved back and forth
at different speeds—oh, those innocent ‘70s…
Peter used this same mad scientist ingenuity
when he worked on
my
Daggit mask. He put together the facial
pieces of the Daggit’s face using
plastic Christmas ornaments, bits from old model kits and basically anything
that he had that was handy. Peter kept
EVERYTHING, believe me! We also used the
costumer’s secret weapon—L’eggs Eggs—another gift from the ‘70s. Look closely at my Daggit’s face and you’ll
see them.
The
costume itself consisted of three main parts: pants, top and mask. I attached the hooves to the pants—think
footsie pajamas, furry and silver sectioned footsie pajamas—to keep things
simple. The costumer’s nightmare is not
having important parts of the outfit when you’re getting ready to go on stage. By
the way, ALL parts are important!!
ANGELIQUE’S
DAGGIT COSTUME
I
didn’t quite realize it at the time but this costume ended up taking an amazing
amount of physical commitment on my part.
Still it was worth every sweaty moment!
I would often refer to myself as a furry astronaut as a joke—although
come to think of it, it would have been nice to have a mini air conditioner
inside the mask.
Peter
added an electrical set-up inside the mask and a battery pack inside the
top. Finally I added the matching lame
over mylar belt and Viola! Cute little
furry droid from outer space!! By the
way, I sewed this costume by hand as I’d done with all of my costumes up to
that point. It wasn’t until later that
Peter gave me a sewing machine to help out.
When I entered the Daggit in the NY Star Trek
con in February,
1979 I decided I wanted to be judged on my
abilities alone and
not my name or reputation so I didn’t give my name
on the
announcer’s form. I simply titled the entry as ‘R2-D2’s best
friend’ and waited for the fun to begin.
Once I left my room in the Daggit costume, I
spent as much time
as possible in character and on all fours
which I’d prepared for
with some practice and with deep gratitude to
my flexibility. I
was able to walk on my hands and toes by
keeping my legs tucked
in tightly to my sides and letting the fur
help in the
camouflage.
When the announcer called out for “R2-D2-s
Best Friend” to
appear, I walked out to great cheers and applause. Then when I
got to center stage, I sat down like a dog and
used my secret
weapon—I pressed a rocker-switch with my right
hand that was
inside the hoof.
This simple unseen action caused my Daggit
ears to TWIRL! The
crowd went nuts!! Peter had rigged up an electrical system
inside my costume and the mask to make that
happen. The mad
genius had set my ears on a pair of tiny
racing motors attached
to a metal plate which sat on top of my
head. I worked the
rocker-switch to slow down the movements
because those tiny
motors were fast!
I continued in character as I exited the stage
and waited for
the judging which wouldn’t be for another hour
or two—I think I
was in costume for about 4 hours total but I
wouldn’t break
character.
ANGELIQUE AFTER
A 4 HOUR DAGGIT STINT!
Finally, the awards were announced and each
Star Trek celebrity
who had been a judge came forth to hand out
the trophy to each
winner.
When I heard my entry called as the winner of the 1st
Prize (Best In Show?) I headed back to center
stage where Grace
Lee Whitney had squatted down to present the
trophy to what she
clearly thought was a youngling. She called out to me, “Come
on, Sweetie! Come get your prize!” I moved towards her still on
all fours.
Then when I got close to her, I again sat down,
twirled my ears and removed my front hooves so
that I could
carefully remove the daggit mask and finally
get some air and
allow the audience to see me.
Grace was so stunned that she fell on her
behind as she cried,
“It’s a girl!”
The as she got up, she recognized me and said,
“It’s YOU!” and at that point I stood up to an
equally stunned
audience and took my bow. It was one of the best moments of my
life.
5. My final notable costume represents the pinnacle of
my costume
journey. It called on all of my skills and resources
and became
my crowning
achievement—literally. My lords and
ladies, I
present to
you the true monarchs of costume & comedy: Queen
Elizabeth I
and Lord Blackadder.
These two
costumes were recreations from the British comedy,
‘Blackadder
II’. Produced for British TV in 1985, it
was shown
on Public
Broadcast Systems all across
to rave
reviews and besotted fans everywhere.
Among those fans
were myself
and my friend, Kris Curling, who directed the
comedic antics of the fan-based comedy group,
“Doctors In The
House’.
In 1990, we heard that a Costume Con was scheduled
for
costumes and characters for the Historical
Masquerade with Kris
as Lord Blackadder and myself as Queenie.
Not only could Kris portray Blackadder
beautifully but he could
ad-lib too and all that was required of me,
besides making both
costumes, was that I play her majesty as a
ditzy bimbo—no
problem!
The
two outfits were awe-inspiring recreations of Elizabethan
finery and something I’d never tackled before
but I felt
confident that I could make this perfect pair
for the upcoming
masquerade.
As I mentioned earlier, CostumeCons (or CCs) are
very different from other cons and the CC’s
Historical masques
were not for the faint-hearted. I was almost terrified of
entering one but in 1990 I felt that
Blackadder couple signaled
that my time had come.
While
both costumes were complex I knew that my experiences with S/F and comic
character costuming would be essential in their recreation.
It
was a lot of work, both by hand and machine, but I had to admit that when I
finished it, Queenie and ‘Adder were a very impressive sight. I could see why the Elizabethans would have
worn such complicated clothing. It made
them seem more unearthly and glorious.
See? You actually learn stuff when doing
historical costumes!
As
grand as the costumes were, it was our presentations, written by Kris, that
gave us the edge over the competition. Kris
devised a really funny and yet simple presentation for us. He sought out the masque’s MC, Ricky Dick,
and asked if he would go along with Kris’ script. Ricky agreed and when our turn came he
pretended that he couldn’t make out the handwriting on the entry card.
“Entry
21:…Lord…Edna? Black slat…no, Black
tickler…no, Edna…” at which point Kris in full Blackadder regalia storms on
stage and jumps down next to Ricky.
“Get
out of the way! Get out of the way! You really are a pratt, aren’t you?” as he
easily took over the podium amid cheers and laughter from the audience.
He
continued “Are you related to some dungball named Baldrick by any chance?” More laughter. “The name is Edmund Blackadder and I’m sure
you’re all honored to be here!” When the
cheers and laughter died down he went on, “And now without further ado, may I
introduce to all of you: M’lords and Ladies, assorted peasants---and that
spotty, little bastard in the front row.” He pointed to no one in particular
and the audience loved it! “I want you
to give an appropriately regal welcome to the so-called ‘Virgin Queen’—at which
point I was still behind the curtain but I made a shrill chirp that meant Her
Majesty was not happy at that so-called crack—Blackadder quickly amended, “The
Virgin Queen, Queen Elizabeth!” As he turned
to join me onstage, Blackadder quipped to Ricky, “It’s all yours, privy
breath!” The audience went nuts as we
playacted across stage and exited.
Now,
the reason I just wrote out Kris’ script was to tell you of a funny thing that
happened while we were in the main area awaiting the judges’ return.
I
watched Kris play ‘Adder to the hilt—the great thing about Kris was that not
only could he easily deliver lines and insults from the show with the proper
cynical invective but he could improvise his own insults to suit the
victim. It seemed that everyone wanted
to be insulted by Blackadder that night.
So as Kris was standing before me, I saw a woman I knew come up to him,
throw her arms around him and tell him that he had given her the best
convention ever! That he’d said things
to Ricky that she’d wanted to say for a long time. She thanked him over and over. Kris stood there completely befuddled and
after she left he asked me if I knew that woman. I answered, “Yes, that’s Ricky’s ex-wife.” (insert rim shot here)
Finally,
it was time for the awards and as we neared the end of the ceremony, the last
award was announced “and Best in Show for the Historical Masquerade of Costume
Con 9 goes to Blackadder and Queen Elizabeth!”
I was
speechless—literally! All I could do at
that moment was giggle because I was in shock.
You see, normally, only a strictly historically accurate costume would
win the Best in Show and our entry was considered historical interpretation.
It
seemed that between that between our pre-judging, documentation, staying in
character, costumes and presentation that we had amassed the most points and
the judges gladly gave us “Best In Show”.
One
judge later revealed that they’d also loved the unique concept of our entry and
the fact that we were true to our period, “Brit TV 1985” also contributed to
our winning.
Another
judge told me “Believe me, the ONE memory I’ve got from the ’91 masquerade was
sitting with my two compatriots after we’d seen everything and immediately
deciding that you had best in show—there was NO discussion of anyone else being
in the running.”
This
was more than another great moment of my life, because I was able to share it
with my friend Kris, who brought my costumes to life, and with our friends who
helped with all of the last minute insanity.
Blackadder and Queenie were the epitome of my long, amazing costumer’s
journey and that event still stands as my own personal “Best in Show”.
RA: You also made a number of appearances as Red Sonja at cons and
in Frank Thorne’s stage show…
AT: I first
appeared as Red Sonja at Phil Seuling’s masquerade in July of 1975. I never dreamed that this particular costume
would take me on such an amazing adventure!
About a year
later my friend, Bob Pinaha, was the first to tell me about an event that was
to feature Red Sonja and her then-artist, Frank Thorne. The event was to premier a Red Sonja theme
song and Bob, having seen my prize winning Sonja outfit the year before, asked
if I‘d like to be part of the fun.
Hmmm…let me
think about that…YEAH!
Bob and his
friend, Robert Andelman, were part of the Fans Of Central Jersey (FCJ) and
together with the Delaware Valley Comic Association (DVCA), worked to arrange
this one of a kind event: a gathering at a local nightspot in Sayreville, New
Jersey to debut ‘The Ballad Of Red Sonja’.
At this time,
Red Sonja was extremely popular with comic fans. She was the first heroine in the Marvel
Comics line to be a genuine, award-winning hit.
Most comic book heroines fail to see their first anniversary but thanks
to Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith, Sonja had been around since 1973 in
comic book form. Also, having another
great artist, Frank Thorne, drawing her adventures was another feather in her
cap. By the way, love it or hate it, you
can blame the very powerful and hot Spanish artist, Esteban Maroto, for Sonja’s
(in)famous iron bikini.
Anyway, Bob
arranged for Frank and me to talk by phone.
Frank has the gift of a child’s enthusiasm and a sense of wonder that
catches everyone up in whatever he’s talking about and I mirrored his
passion. By the end of a very excited
conversation about the upcoming event, we came up with the very first Red Sonja
show.
So one night in
September 1976, I gathered up my costume and wig and headed off for the wilds
of
I met Bob and
Robert at the train station in
It was there
that I actually met Frank Thorne, one of the nicest people on the whole darn
planet. He was even more fun and
engaging in person. We quickly came up
with some minor changes to the show and then he left to allow me to complete my
transformation.
Frank is an
amazing artist but his writing and performance abilities may eclipse even that
talent. He would later refer to me in
his ‘Erotic Worlds Of Frank Thorne’ comic as “the gorgeous, porcelain-skinned
phenomenon…” and mentioned that my eyes “were magnificent charred openings. To see her is to remember those eyes,
ever-rimmed with black eye shadow. They
accent her beautiful cheek-bones like the cymbal crashes at the end of Mahler’s
third symphony.”
THE EYES HAVE IT!
Wow! Me and
Mahler in the same sentence!
‘The Erotic Worlds
of Frank Thorne’ was published by Eros Comix in June 1991. It features Frank in all his linguistic glory
and you can feel the excitement as he traces the entire history of the Sonja
shows. It’s filled with pictures of all
of the various Sonjas and includes Frank’s own rendition of the multi-Sonja
show that we performed at Seuling’s ComicArt con in Philadelphia in July 1977. I believe that comic may be hard to find but
with a little luck, you can get a copy if you search carefully.
Frank also did an
interview that just came out in the Jan. 2007 issue of the Comics Journal #280.
It’s 40+ pages done in his distinctive style and art, tracking his life and
artistic creations (and it’s not for the faint-hearted in some places.)
Anyway, back at
Lily Langtry’s, Frank joined singer Kurt Gresham on the small stage as they
talked about the theme song, which had been written by Mike & Sal
Caputo.
Then Frank began
to summon Sonja with that incredible impromptu act that he does so well. We arranged it that I would wait at the front
of the club behind the audience and, once summoned, I would slowly approach the
stage.
Frank wrote of
my entrance: “A purple absence of sound enveloped the darkened room. A glint of light caught the eye…the parcel of
light bore with it another hint of things to come. The star in the inverted black bowl of my
ignoble career had begun to shine.
Another star, and another. A
small constellation took shape…reflecting the disks that made up Red Sonja’s
iron bikini…for the first time I beheld my creation come to life.”
WOW! Frank
Thorne rules!
Frank
interviewed Red Sonja and I answered in my interpretation of Sonja using my
humor and a slightly accented voice. I
don’t remember what we said but the crowd loved every word and enjoyed Kurt’s
rendition of the song as well.
Afterwards we
posed for pictures and some time later, I would be given a couple of the 45 rpm
records of the song (45 rpm records? Kids:
ask your folks…second thought…your grandparents about this…), which included pictures
of Frank and me on the back of the sleeve.
While looking at this unusual collectible, I had a feeling that my
adventures with Frank Thorne and Red Sonja were just beginning.
Indeed, shortly
after the appearance at Lily’s Frank called me.
He was even more excited than usual as he relayed the news, “Angie! There’s gonna be a SonjaCon!!”
It seems that
Bob, Robert and the DVCA had done it again and organized a convention based on
a single comic book character. SonjaCon
was to be held at the Travelodge just off the Jersey Turnpike in
Marvel would be
represented there with Roy Thomas, Dick Giordano and Frank, of course,
appearing and there would be all the trappings of any good con: dealer’s rooms,
panels, etc. However, SonjaCon was a
different kind of con and to this end there was to be a Red Sonja Look-Alike
Contest.
Frank
enthusiastically told everyone about SonjaCon, using the media, Marvel Comics
and other fans, which resulted in a large number of fans and look-alikes eager
to attend this new convention.
If you loved Red
Sonja than SonjaCon was a dream come true.
The place was alive with fantastic women wearing variations of that
famous chain mail bikini. And it was
there that I would meet a most unique group of fans—those glorious ladies who
would join me in the fun of portraying our beloved red-haired barbarienne.
It was at the
Look-alike contest that I met my fellow contestants: Diane DeKelb, Wendy Snow,
Linda Behrle and Wendy Pini. Just as each
of us wore our own homemade version of Red Sonja, we also brought into the
spotlight a specific insight into this intriguing character.
Diane DeKelb and
Wendy Snow each wore a silver sequin variation of Sonja’s costume and a
cape. Wendy surprised everyone with her
ingenious re-invention of Sonja’s armor by creating a costume that combined the
familiar shoulder yoke with an original one piece design from her own artist’s
mind and hands.
Wendy Snow told
me this: “I was invited to participate at the
I had upgraded
my own Sonja for the Lily Langtry’s event back in September by sewing the
sequins down so that they didn’t flap around, creating a better yoke and
painting them a matte silver while my boots and gloves were recreated to match
Frank’s designs as well.
Linda Behrle had
also made her outfit from metal, taken in part from the fender of her old
car! She spoke of her first meeting with
Frank: “I worked at a store in the Livingston Mall and I was behind the cash
register on the platform when a bearded bespectacled quasi-crazed man ran in
and went down on one knee and, with a glazed look in his eyes (from my
perception), he croaked out ‘Sonja’! I
found out that my then-neighbor John Palmer—a comic book aficionado—had met
Frank that day at a comic book show in the mall and told him that I’d modeled
Red Sonja that year at a Star Trek Costume con and he told Frank where I
worked.
Frank said later
that he thought he was seeing ‘Sonja Incarnate’ when he saw me on the platform
backlit by showcase lighting (I bet he said that to all the girls!)”
Wendy Pini had
crafted an elegant and realistic recreation of the costume. Her husband, Richard remembers, “She did all
the cutting and sewing of the ‘undergarment’ if that’s what I can be called—the
fabric and leather foundation for the metal disks. Then I spent some time drilling the tiny
holes so they could be stitched to the bikini top and bottom—I remember busting
drill bit after drill bit doing that because the steel was tough and the bits
were only about 1/32 of an inch wide.
The shoulder
guards/collar was more of a challenge.
Wendy wanted actual metal so the solution I came up with was to first
build an armature from aluminum wire thick enough to hold its shape but still
be flexible. In essence, the guard (as
Frank drew it) was woven from pieces of wire.
Then the entire thing was wound about with metal adhesive tape, the kind
used on furnaces, to cover all the joints where wires were twisted together. THEN all of that was covered with liquid
solder to make it all look like a solid, forged piece of work.
Once the
shoulder guards were completed the bikini top was attached to that with leather
thongs so that the shoulders would bear much of the weight of the metal
bra. The loincloth was also covered with
steel disks so it weighed some too—the entire costume weighed probably 10
pounds. I found a couple of steel rings
at a hardware store so the the front and back loincloth parts could be attached
to those at the hips. There was always a
fear that a leather strap would give way and the bottom would fall off in the
middle of a show—very embarrassing!
Wendy crafted
the boots from the ground up, as I recall.
She might have used ‘real’ boots as a foundation. I built the sword from an old harpoon I found
at an antique store. Took the blade from
the harpoon and added the hilt and the pommel (which was actually a
doorknob!). Wendy also used four
different wigs, all added together into one mane, to get the wild look that
Frank drew.”
I love the fact
that Richard combined a harpoon blade AND a doorknob for her sword—now that’s
costuming!
There was a
variety of hair styles among us as well.
Both Wendy Pini and I wore wigs while Diane wore her own long red
hair. Wendy Snow kept her blonde locks
and Linda Berhle recounted this about her own Sonja hair: “I thought my hair
would suffice for the character and found that the curlers that I had chosen
had created a sort of curly red volcano of my own very limp hair. I had driven all of the way to the contest in
the curlers and they had set very well.
There wasn’t enough time to recurl or straighten things so my picture
with Wendy and you [Angelique] makes me look like I was doing the ‘big hair’
version of Sonja to say the least… it’s also a good thing for me that the picture
that survives is not in color—I had never tried coloring my hair red before and
I was truly in Technicolor!”
My own red wig
was very full and straight so I would use all kinds of setting gels and rollers
to get that mass of wild curls that Sonja sported. Luckily, the wig could be set the day before
and left to itself without me suffering with it.
Earlier I said
that SonjaCon was a different kind of con and to that end our Look-Alike
Contest was not run from the usual hotel ballroom but from the indoor pool area
instead. Perhaps it was the ‘bikini’
aspect of our costumes that inspired that idea.
Whatever it was,
we dutifully paraded around the rim of the pool and I believe it was Roy
Thomas, who announced that Wendy Pini was the winner of the contest and
deservedly so. In addition to her
excellent costume recreation, Wendy’s passion and commitment to the character
showed in every aspect of her presentation as Sonja.
After SonjaCon,
there was a brief respite until Frank told us about a Sonja promotion and
performance that was to be held at the Quaker Bridge Mall in New Jersey in
February 1977. Frank had been so
impressed by the success of the Look-Alike contest that he devised the concept
of himself as a wizard calling forth the legendary Red Sonja from the depths of
time and space so that he could learn more about her and her times. However, because his wizard was either so
powerful or perhaps, not powerful enough, he ended up with more than one Sonja
to contend with.
I believe that it
was the love of Frank’s life, his wife, Marilyn, a lady as sweet and kind as
her husband, who made a beautiful wizard’s costume complete with a pointy hat
for him. This was a perfect costume for him,
giving vent to the magnificent ham actor that is Frank Thorne. No one, in my opinion, outside of
I was very
excited about going but then, at the last minute I had to do battle with an old
enemy who chose that particular time to re-enter my life: asthma. Like most asthmatics, I’d had it as a child
and thought I’d grown out of it as a teen but that Feb. of 1977, it sucker
punched me from out of nowhere. I was
heartbroken that I was in no condition to travel to the NJ Mall, let alone
perform as Sonja.
Luckily, Linda
and her friend, actor & writer David Meade, along with Wendy and Richard Pini,
were able to join Frank, resplendent in his new Wizard outfit to put on the
very first of the Red Sonja & the Wizard shows.
After some
photo-ops and other promotions at the mall, they headed for the mall’s
nightclub, called Duke’s, which was filled with a large, rowdy crowd of
Here, Frank
began his new found career of capturing the attention of an audience and
casting his own kind of spell as he brought forth Linda in all of her
Sonja-esque glory. Knowing what a
knockout she is, I imagine that she cast quite a spell of her own over the
crowd.
During her
performance, she called out, “Hark then, dogs!
Is there any of you man enough to challenge Red Sonja?”
To which, David
Meade stepped forth and answered, “I, Mikal of Athos, challenge Red Sonja!” and
they went at it with a fury and level of realism that was a bit more real than
anyone expected.
Linda remembered
this—“David Meade and I had a sword fight in the mall as a publicity teaser and
I was using a much heavier sword than I was familiar with. I swung and missed and swung and
connected…with his head! Fortunately he
had a hard head and the sword only grazed him.
After that near miss, I worked much harder to strengthen my arms so I
didn’t do major damage the next time.”
I’m sure that
David was glad to hear that! It seems he
was always taking a beating from Sonja and the audience but then the men in our
group usually didn’t fare very well.
Except for the Wizard, of course.
Linda and David
continued their fight until Mikal was bested.
As he lay on the floor, helpless under her boot with her sword tip at
his throat, Sonja cried out, “What shall I do with him?”, to which the excited
crown answered, “Cut it off!”
Luckily for
David the Wizard was able to dazzle this blood-thirsty mob with his spells and
divert their attention to the next Sonja as she answered his incantations for
her to appear.
Here again,
Frank explains—“Wendy stalked to my side, and we did some dialogue. Then it happened. At SonjaCon Wendy was doing a beauty
contest. Here she became Red Sonja. Alone in the spotlight she did a chilling,
throaty monologue that segued into a frenzied dance ending with her sword
balanced on her bosom.”
Richard had
prepared a tape of the music that complimented Wendy’s performance which
entranced the audience and when it came to the crescendo, “Duke’s exploded with
a standing ovation.”
After the Quaker
Bridge appearance, there were a couple of cons in May: A Creation Con in New
York where Frank appeared as himself, then a comic con in Boston where he was
joined by the local Sonja for the show, Wendy Snow—the lady of the golden hair
and sexy one-piece chain mail outfit.
Then there was
the Big Show. Months earlier, Phil
Seuling had invited Frank to be a guest at his ComicArt Con, which was held in
It was a
whirlwind of almost non-stop events! For
starters, Frank had been contacted by Larry Angelo, the host of a Philly news
show called ‘Evening Magazine’ to do an interview in his studio, followed by
live coverage of the show. I’d been
invited to stay over at the Thorne’s home the night before the con. What a fun group of people! They made me feel very welcome.
The next
morning, Friday, July 1st, Frank and I loaded up his VW and headed
out to Seuling’s con. When we got there,
we met up with Linda and David and eventually, Wendy Snow, Diane Dekelb and
Diane’s sweetie, Walt Rittenhouse.
I was interested
to see that Diane had decided to play Robert E. Howard’s original character,
Red Sonya of Rogantino, with Walt as her nemesis, Retlaw the Mad Monk, which
was a character that Frank created especially for her.
Frank’s friend,
Nick Arroyo, became our own personal documenter as he snapped pictures of us in
the hotel room as we became our beloved barbarienne and throughout the
convention.
I still treasure
the gorgeous shot he took of me standing by the window as Sonja as well as
another of me playfully besting Walt’s Monk with my sword.
When we finally
met up with Frank, we found there was a lot to do. First thing, Frank had a radio interview
followed by Wendy Pini, Frank and myself doing another for the six o’clock
news! Later, there was another radio
interview for Frank while Wendy talked with another news team in the dealer’s
room. Then at 8:30 pm, all of us met the
press—Sonja-style! And on and on it went
until later that night when we all managed to drag ourselves to Frank’s room to
watch the TV coverage. It was the
perfect ending to the perfect day.
The next morning,
we were greeted by several news articles about us as well as a terrific picture
of Wendy, Frank and me on the cover of The
By the way, Mark
Evanier wrote an article about Phil Seuling and Wendy Pini’s appearance on the
Philadelphia-based TV show ‘The Mike Douglas Show’. It’s a nice tribute to Phil and has a great
shot of him and Wendy in all her Sonja finery.
You can read it on Mark’s website at www.povonline.com/notes/NOTES
123104.htm.
Richard Pini
also added this memory, “From what Wendy says, being in the green room
backstage was a hoot…and that when General Westmoreland, another guest on the
show, saw her he commented, ‘I didn’t know we were at war!’ When she walked out at the end of the comics
segment, apparently Mike Douglas was not at all happy, as he was a bit of a
prude.”
Maybe he liked
his comic heroes in unitards?
We spend this
day much as the day before and along the way, we picked up another Sonja. Gita Norby was a tall, pretty girl with an
infectious smile. She wore her Sonja
outfit well except for one thing, her hair was a dark brown bob above her
shoulders. Nevertheless, we kept her
with us because we were equal opportunity barbariennes and that’s how we rolled.
That afternoon
there was an unrehearsed pre-show that we did well before the “Red Sonja &
the Wizard Show” as a sort of introduction of us and a photo-op for the fans.
The Sonjas &
The Wizard!
I remember
standing at the back of the ballroom with the other Sonjas as the Wizard called
for each of us to approach the stage.
Then something really wonderful happened.
You see, being a
Sonja means you’re nobody’s lapdog to be called forth like some doxy and, as a
joke, we let the Wizard know that we were not pleased by his
presumptuousness. Each Sonja had her own
little jibe which she delivered to the offending Wizard in her own way as she
approached the stage. I remember
watching the new-found Gita standing on stage speaking to the audience and then
she kneeled before the Wizard and said, “Please, oh great Wizard, give me back
my hair.” The audience loved the
unexpected humor and I admired Gita’s ingenuity in making a good show from the
lack of a red wig.
Suddenly I found
myself panicking since I wasn’t sure what I would say when my turn came. I didn’t have the Hyborian speak down pat
like the others but at the last moment, perhaps inspired by Gita’s quick
thinking, a flash of inspiration saved me.
So when I was called, I sauntered up the aisle and said in my best Mae
West imitation, “This better be good, honey!”
The audience roared with laughter!
Luckily for me
that Mae West, a very funny writer and comedienne, had been my role-model for
years. That’s how I came up with my
rendition of Sonja for the main event. I
went over some Mae West lines with Frank, who thought the concept was a hoot
and thus my part was truly born! It was
great to see that I really could be funny in front of a crowd.
The show itself
is forever immortalized in The Savage Sword Of Conan #29, highlighted by
Frank’s meticulous drawings of each Sonja’s turn on stage: from his opening
where he invites the audience to witness his spell casting to “conjure the
deaconess of hell from the antediluvian epoch…” (where does he get this stuff?)
to Linda’s entrance, followed by mine, then Diane, then Wendy Snow and finally
Wendy Pini.
Five Sonjas?
“I must have
over-incanted!” the Wizard cried.
However, he was
determined to find the real Sonja among the imposters and so the show began
with Linda and David recreating their exciting sword fight with poor Mikal
again on the floor, saved by the Wizard’s pleas to spare his life.
Then the Wizard
called upon me to ask about a dishonorable king in Sonja’s past. I answered (again in Mae West style), “At one
point, he cornered me and said, ‘Oh Sonja, I’m mad about your flamin’ hair,
your enticin’ eyes, your ruby lips, your pearly teeth, your lush figure.”
“The cad!” the
Wizard exclaimed, and then like a gossip hungry for more juicy details, “What
next?”
“I asked him if
he was makin’ a pass or takin’ inventory!”
After me,
Diane’s Sonya of Rogatino came forth and as she spoke, Retlaw appeared and
another fight was on as she and Walt fought sword against quarter-staff in a
well-choreographed fight that ended in Retlaw’s defeat.
Wendy Snow was
up next as the Wizard asked her about her variance with Sonja’s armor to which
she responded that it was to protect her belly button! They continued on in this funny vein until it
was time to summon the last Sonja.
Wendy Pini
presented another enthralling performance like the one she’d created at the
Quaker Bridge Mall back in February but somehow did it even better as the
cheering audience attested to. The show
ended with all of us ganging up on the Wizard demanding to know which of us was
the one true Red Sonja.
He answered, “I
have, in fact, conjured the aspects of Sonja: the Body, Humor, Spirit, Mind and
Soul of the great Hyrkanian swordswoman!
Each of you is a part of the unassembled total!”
To which we
chased his butt off stage—and in the comic version, he escapes into his pointy
little hat! Then Wendy Pini’s Sonja
suggests that we “…join as one, at least in the alehouse and raise a tankard in
memory of the old faker!”
It really was a
magnificent show!
The Hyborian
Players, including Roy Thomas!
After Phil’s
con, Wendy and Richard Pini worked with Frank to develop the “Red Sonja and the
Wizard Show” into a more professional looking production.
Richard’s
talents with lights, sound and special effects and Wendy’s acting and dancing
skills combined with Frank’s own gift for comedy and improv created a show that
had a nice mixture of wit and flirtatious banter between wizard and swordswoman,
leading up to her enthralling dance amid a flurry of lights and images created
by Richard.
Audiences who
saw the shows that were performed at a
The July 1978 San
Diego ComicCon hosted the last show because Wendy decided that she wanted to
devote her full passion and energies into her newest and most demanding
creation, Elfquest. Frank also had
several projects that beckoned for his attention and so the shows ended.
Sadly, video was
in its infancy at that time and as far as I know, there are no videos or film
of those shows. Perhaps someone reading
this may know otherwise?
The last time I
wore my Sonja costume was at a
Angee &
Linda Behrle
It occurs to me
that Sonja always manages to find creative and fun-loving people to become
her. I remember helping my friend Animal
add dozens of mirrored disks all over a bikini she made when she decided to do
Red Sonja for MarvelCon in March of 1975.
Animal was the first one to recreate Sonja and today, Sonja lives on in
the person of Wendy Potter, who performs her own version of the “Red Sonja and
the Wizard show” in Virginia and Tennessee for a new generation of fans.
Angee’s friend
Animal (as Red Sonja) & Angee (as Satana)
If you’re lucky
enough to catch a performance by Wendy and company, you’ll see that Red Sonja
is well served by this latest incarnation of the barbarienne. By the way, I believe that we have Richard Pini
to thank for the coining of the word ‘Barbarienne’. He recently wrote this to me: “You know, I
have the sneaking suspicion that I may have coined that word “barbarienne”
around 1975. At least, doing a Google
search of the word doesn’t reveal anything older than a couple of years. EQ-Wendy did a portfolio back then of 4
different pre-Elfquest warrior women that Warp published, and I called it “The
Barbariennes” I’d be surprised if I
actually invented the world but so far I haven’t found an earlier reference.”
Ha! Richard used the EQ-Wendy above (for Elfquest
Wendy) because there are so many Wendys (Pini, Snow, Potter) in this area that
we—Richard, Frank Thorne & myself—have all taken to using some kind of
quick shorthand to identify which Wendy we’re talking about!
Now remember the
part in the Big Show, when the Wizard said that the five Sonjas were aspects of
the one true Red Sonja? Well, in that
vein, I’d like to finish this piece with an update of that idea with these
embodiments:
Animal X: the
panache of the very first Sonja (talk about flash!)
Linda Behrle:
the body of Sonja (‘nuff said!)
Wendy Snow: the
individuality of Sonja (a one-piece suit and blonde
hair, now that’s individuality!)
Diane DeKelb:
the literary Sonja (a writer herself who represented
Robert E. Howard’s original 15th century
Sonya)
Angelique
Trouvere: the wit and zest for life of Sonja (Frank Thorne
contributed that one--Thanks Frank!)
Wendy Pini: the
indomitable spirit of Sonja
Gita Norby: the
resourcefulness of Sonja
Wendy Potter:
the continuing legend of Sonja. Wizard played by her brother Dan!
RED SONJA STILL
ROCKS! (and always will)
In closing, I
want to say that my costumes gave me access to a world of fascinating and
creative people. I’ve had the honor of
being the subject for such noted artists as Sergio Aragones, Neal Adams, Ernie
Chan, Frank Kelly Freas, Marcus Boas,
I’m grateful for
their friendships as well as the many writers, artists, editors, entrepreneurs,
fans, costumers, actors, publishers, photographers, comic techs, lightshow
techs, webmasters and lights & sound magicians who populate my life and
memories.
All of you are a
wonderful, bizarre and fun part of my life and I wouldn’t want it any other
way. I’m still in awe at what you do.
Here’s one last
story that illustrates that point beautifully: It goes back to Phil Seuling’s
con in 1976. When I opened the program
book, I found a series of old drawings that were captioned with comic con
humor. The last drawing was of a 16th
century man in all of his 16th century finery who had an incredulous
look on his face as he said, “If you think my costume is something to see, wait
till you see Angelique’s!!” I was
totally floored by this unsolicited compliment.
That was the great and kind Phil Seuling—a true super-hero!
Thank you, Phil
and company, for that sweet gesture. It
was inspirational and I still treasure it.
I’d also like to
thank everyone who contributed to this including: Tony Isabella, Kris Curling,
Frank Thorne, Richard Pini, Linda Behrle, Wendy Snow, all of the Sonjas and
everyone else who helped jog my memories and especially to you, Richard Arndt,
for your patience and good humor. I
promise, upon your death, to nominate you for sainthood!
And in case you
didn’t notice, I had a ball doing this interview and I hope my ramblings have
answered some questions and engendered others.
To that end, I’d like to invite the readers to please send me your
comments, questions, etc to costumaker@hotmail.com. I’d love to hear from you!
Pictures Of Angelique
Today & Yesterday!
RA: Thanks so much, Angee! This was a blast!
--
This interview is copyright 2007
Richard J. Arndt.
© 2007 R. Arndt.
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