June 14, 2010

Day Two: At the Superman 32nd Annual Celebration 2010

Noel Neill Statue Ceremony & Ilya Salkind Arrives at the Celebration
DAY 2 - Friday
By: Sam J. Rizzo

Day Two - The celebration opened with unveiling of the tribute statue to Noel Neill. The ceremony started out weather wise with some rain but the sky opened up. The sun came out just in time before the statue was shown to the masses of Superman fans who stood in anxious anticipation. 

The ceremony was a very heart felt tribute to Noel Neill and the photos of the statue below do not do the statue justice. Every Superman fan needs to see the statue in-person. It was a beautiful and emotional tribute to the very first on screen Lois Lane.   



After Noel Neill statue unveiling, at noon was a question and answer session with Ilya Salkind (Executive Producer: Superman I-III, Superboy TV Series) at the Metro Tent. The Q&A with Ilya was about an hour in length; Ilya talked about the making of Superman: The Movie. His discussion with the fans ranged from how he came about casting Christopher Reeve in the role of Clark Kent / Superman, getting Marlon Brando to play Jor-el and Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor, the script, and finally finding a director in Richard Donner. Ilya also did some great impersonations by breaking out his Marlon Brando impersonation during the Q&A to everyone's laughter. 


Later in the day, Ilya Salkind was at Artist Alley signing autographs for the Superman masses. The line was virtually out the door as fans waited to get Ilya's autograph. The autograph session lasted for two hours at Artist Alley. 

The Superman Homepage after Ilya's autograph signing at 4:30 held a Meet & Greet Session at the base of the giant Superman statue. The Superman Homepage gave out free t-shirts to each of the fans. Ilya was kind enough to come over to chat with the fans and the staff as well as take photos with them. 
 

To wrap up the night, Ilya Salkind gave an intro speech before the screening of Superman II: The Theatrical Cut aka (Richard Lester Cut). The Superman II screening was held at Artist Alley.

Look for the AUDIO in its entirety from both the Noel Neill Tribute Statue Ceremony & Ilya Salkind Q&A coming soon EXCLUSIVELY on Superboy Homepage    

  




1 comment:

VoyagerG said...

Great coverage. I imagine it was a real heartfelt tribute to Noel. The statue really looks lovely in pictures.
I think you mean Clark Kent/Super'man' in the sentence. That's cool they showed the director's cut movie. Had the chance to watch it recently, It was good, but I missed some of the Lester parts, and the rough cut with Lois firing blanks was just that..rough. Not to mention, the fact that Superman reversed time :again: there was no need to go back to the restaurant and sock it to the guy-who shouldn't have remembered anything...hmm, but enough of that. It's great Ilya was there. I suppose there was no talks on Superboy? You surely would have mentioned it if he did. Thanks for sharing the celebration with us!