This past Saturday night was very special. Over the years, as my career has blossomed, I've been lucky enough to spend quality time with many motion picture actors and directors. This has been facilitated by my good friends at Synapse Films, Jerry Chandler and Don May Jr, and my good friend, the historian, scholar and author Carlos Aguilar. Don and Jerry flew in the legendary Swedish actress, model, publisher, and popular culture icon, Christina Lindberg and her friend, promoter and Klubb Super 8 founder, Rickard Gramfors. This is indeed a rare occurrence - Christina retired from the industry many years ago to go onto a very successful career in aviation publishing. Her appearance at this year's Cinema Wasteland convention was THE cult cinema event of the year. Christina was constantly occupied. CONSTANTLY. Her popularity has not lessened or diminished in any way over the last thirty years - on the contrary, she has more legions of fans than she could possibly imagine. But more on that later. One fan, in particular, had driven from Florida for 20 hours STRAIGHT just to see her and get her autograph before returning back to Florida. Now, that is devotion. Speaking of devotion, check out this tattoo -
CINEMA WASTELAND, APRIL 2009
After the con shut down for the evening at 7pm, a small party of us went to a nice local restaurant to have dinner and relax. Rickard had asked, "would you like to sit next to Christina?" A rhetorical queston... What followed was a lovely time and what is and what will remain a very sweet and cherished memory.
In fact, it is VERY difficult to find pics of Christina smiling. I've got a good little behind the scenes pic of Christina on the set of Thriller having a cigarette and coming close to a full-on smile, but not quite (at left). We talked of many matters. Since she had been answering questions about films all day, I steered the conversation more towards aviation, travel, culture, my times in Europe, etc. But, we did talk about Thriller, A Cruel Picture (a.k.a They Call Her One Eye) - she had a lot to say about the making of that film! Some great behind the scenes stories...
Film Historian, Distributor, and Promoter - Rickard Gramfors
(Taken by Christina while I was giving her instructions - hence my weird, Hanson Brother face)
(Taken by Christina while I was giving her instructions - hence my weird, Hanson Brother face)
Always a good time in Cleveland
Christina and Don May Jr.
Our small dinner party had to break up as Christina's cult film "Anita" was playing (on a remarkable 35 mm print English dubbed print) at the major cineplex next door for a midnight showing, which Christina and Rickard were introducing. I headed back to the hotel and chilled with me droog Fred for a bit and then hit the road back to Detroit, with a perma-smile that is still plastered across my face. Thank you Christina Lindberg, Rickard Gramfors, and especially to my good friends Jerry Chandler and Don May Jr. for making this possible. You guys are the best.
10 comments:
You are one lucky guy... but I've already told you that.
I discovered Christina Lindberg, like so many people not well versed in exploitation cinema, through Quentin Tarantino. She is one of those actresses that has something special that is simply indefinable. You can't point at any one thing like her acting or looks and say "that is what makes her special". Suffice it to say, she's just got that certain something.
Wow. That is awesome. You are definitely one lucky guy. Man, I'm so envious of you. I'm glad you had such a great time.
Thanks Lads. Very kind of you to comment on this - it was a great experience. Wish you both would've been there!
I am so thrilled you were able to experience this! And double-pleased you have such wonderful photos to commemorate the occasion! I agree with Keith above...you are one lucky man!
yes a great tale. I have always meant to see Thriller, A Cruel Picture but simply have put it off. Sounds like a memorable evening indeed.
Bill
Man, she looks great! You're a very lucky man indeed.
Chick,
These are some fantastic photos, both of you and the current (and past!) Christina. I really enjoyed this post, very heartfelt; just so sorry I'm coming late to the party.
My dream come true..... what a lucky guy!!!!!!!!
She's such a nice woman, lucky you that had her for dinner :)
Regarding that THRILLER tattoo...that's the first tattoo I've seen copied from one of my DVD illustrations. Plenty of CD covers, but that's definitely a first.
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