My Encounter with the GH Stars

The story begins on the evening of September 12th. Tony Geary, Maurice Benard and Steve Burton were scheduled to make an appearance for the 1997 Beauty Bash at the Novi Expo Center in Novi, Michigan, so of course I had to buy a ticket because their was no way I was going to let this once in a lifetime opportunity pass me up. I saved every penny that I got my hands on so I could buy the VIP ticket for $100 that included a private photo session with the GH stars. The days to follow are broken down for everybody. The times aren’t exact...

I checked out of school early and went to a great hair salon here in Windsor called “Obsessions” for my 3 PM hair appointment. Unfortunately, Dave (who does my hair) was running late and I didn’t get out of there until after 4 o’clock, but my hair looked great and I got it done for half price because it took so long. Then I rushed home to get dressed up for the evening’s festivities. I was all ready to go by 4:45 PM and my father (I don’t drive) and I got into the car and headed over to Novi, Michigan. It was a pretty uneventful drive and the directions that we had were pretty straight forward. Despite the fact that it was rush hour on a Friday afternoon we only ran into one tie up along the way. A little after six we found the exit that we were looking for and headed into Novi. We pulled into the Novi Expo Center at quarter after six and I got out of the car clutching my General Hospital Scrapbook and my father sped off to explore Novi.

I was bursting with excitement just thinking about the fact that shortly I’d be face to face with one of my idols, the incomparable Tony Geary. I entered the Expo Center and went over to the side desk to pick up my reserved ticket, then I went to enter the main section, but I was told that I had to sign in first, so I went back over to the side counter and they told me just to go in. As I went in, they tore off the end of my ticket and put a purple sticker on me that said “Let’s Bash” that would give me access to the food area. I didn’t have much of an idea of what the whole event was, but it didn’t take long to figure out that it was mainly just a bunch of company’s that had booths set up to push their various hair, nail and skin products. I walked around a bit looking at the various booths, not many of the products were for guys, so I was basically just killing time. I was expecting a sit down dinner, but that isn’t how it worked, they had a bunch of booths set up for the many restaurants in the Novi area and you could try various dishes that were offered at each booth. Before I could eat anything I had to find someplace to put my GH Scrapbook, so I went over to the Nailco Salon booth and bought a few brushes so I could get a bag to put the book in. Bag in hand, I headed back to the food court. I tried a chicken quesadilla that was absolutely delicious, I also had some pasta that wasn’t bad either. Prior to the event I had been invited to meet up with Cathy who runs a great Sonny and Brenda website located at http://members.aol.com/CATKNSN/Reunion.html I had walked past Cathy about seven or eight times before I finally got up the nerve to introduce myself. I felt uncomfortable at first and just walked away because of the awkwardness. I went around and tried a bit more food and while at one of the stand-up tables, I overheard the most horrible thing, that Tony Geary couldn’t make it tonight because of some sort of family emergency. I dismissed it as only a rumor and hung onto the hope that he’d be there, maybe just late. Then I met up with Cathy again and we got in line for the private photo session with the GH stars in the Adell Room and it wasn’t quite as awkward this time around. With Cathy was her friend Beth and a very nice lady named Barb who had brought her daughter, Sandy to see Maurice, I don’t think we were ever really introduced, I just learned their names a few days ago when Sandy E-Mailed me. We stood in line chatting about GH for a while and then finally the door to the Adell Room opened and people began rushing in.

As soon as I got in, I could see Steve and Maurice, Tony was nowhere to be seen, regardless I started taking pictures. A woman inside the door was handing out postcards with Maurice’s picture on them, Maurice had signed and wrote “God Bless” on each one. We were close to the front of the line and then they had Maurice and Steve move to the other side of the room, so we were back at the end of the line again, none of us were too happy at this change. Beth went over to complain to one of the coordinators and she told her that she’d try to get some order to the newly formed lines, but then she just disappeared and the lines were still horribly screwed up. People were moving in from all sides towards the stars. For a minute I thought that I had caught sight of Mr. Geary, but alas it was only a security guard with a blonde crew cut. By this time I had run out of pictures on my current roll of film, it was a friend’s camera that I was using and I didn’t know how to load it, so I asked the woman next to me in line and after a little trial and error, she managed to get the camera loaded. We were finally getting close to the stars and a woman came around serving glasses of wine, my throat was parched, so I took one and almost gagged on it, I’d never tasted wine before (I’m underage) and for some reason I had expected it to be sweet which it certainly wasn’t. Not to look silly, I downed the glass in about 30 seconds and avoided making strange faces while doing so. I was finally next in line, I handed the stuff I was carrying over to the woman who was taking the pictures, I shook Mr. Benard’s hand and I think I shook Mr. Burton’s too. I handed Maurice a note that my friend Rebekah had asked me to give to him. I said that I thought they were both great actors and that I really admired them, Maurice said “Well, we work hard.” Then Maurice and Steve posed with me for a picture, the odd thing was that I was taller than both of them! I thanked them for taking the picture with me and they said I was welcome and it was over.

When exiting the room, I was given the picture that was taken of me with Maurice and Steve in a frame and a rolled up autographed picture of all three GH stars, I have my doubts that they actually autographed it though. Then it happened, I noticed a sign that said that the amazing, multi-talented God, Tony Geary wouldn’t be able to make it that night. How I managed to prevent myself from bursting into tears, I’ll never know, it was like someone had reached into my chest, tore out my heart and played tennis with it. I realized that there wasn’t much that I could do about it, so I better just learn to grin and bear it. I met up with Cathy and Beth shortly after that, they had gone back into the Adell room to try and get a picture of the both of them with Maurice and Steve. I went out to the main plaza to get us all good seats for the upcoming show, but it turned out that the other lady and her daughter (I wish I knew their names) had already gotten us some front row seats. I sat down and chatted with the lady for awhile and eventually the others joined us in the front row.

First out on stage was Kevin O’Neal from the local Q95.5 Radio Station, he was a nice guy and a good choice for MC. Kevin talked a bit and made a few jokes and then he brought out the President of Nailco Salon’s, Larry Gaynor. He talked for another bit and then brought out Jean Vickers, the executive director of the St. Vincent and Sarah Fisher Center, which is a charity that helps women and children who are abused in the Detroit area. Ms. Vickers told the audience a bit about the charity and thanked everyone for supporting it. Then Mr. Gaynor called out two of the Nailco employee’s with one of those huge checks for $25,000 made out to the St. Vincent and Sarah Fisher Center. Then Kevin O’Neal reclaimed his MC duties and announced the Nailco Salon Dancers. Two attractive women and a handsome man in leather pants came out and started dancing, they were pretty good, only one or two slip-ups that I caught. Shortly after they started dancing, the women removed their nylon pants and the guy took off his shirt. Now scantily clad, they continued dancing for about seven or eight minutes, then exited off the stage. Now the moment everyone was waiting for, the GH stars were about to be brought out.

The dancers then brought out three chairs, presumably for the actors and my hopes of seeing Mr. Geary went up again, but unfortunately the third chair was for Kevin O’Neal. Maurice Benard was announced first and he was escorted on stage by the two female dancers and then down the walkway, he then went back to the chairs and had a seat. Kevin O’Neal went over his stats and asked a few quick questions. Then he announced Steve Burton, who was also escorted down the walkway by the dancers, he stopped halfway down, bent over and shook his butt for a minute, then he went and picked up his chair and moved it closer to Maurice’s and sat down. Kevin went over Steve’s stats and asked him a few questions too. Maurice then talked Steve into reading a humorous poem about GH that he had written. After Steve was finished, Kevin went to a jar that had a bunch of questions that people had written down earlier in it. He pulled a few out, most of them were a waste of time, things like “Steve, will you go out with me?” and “8 hot ladies want to escort you to Greek town tonight.” They really should have screened the questions earlier. One of the more relevant question asked whether Kimberly McCullough would be returning to the show and Steve said something to effect that she had dropped out of school and would be returning GH in the near future, which put an even bigger damper on my evening because I absolutely loathe Kimberly McCullough and Robin and had hoped that she would never return to GH. I don’t really remember any of the other questions that were asked. Maurice and Steve had only been on stage for a short while and they were told that they had to go, both actors looked shocked and Steve even said “That’s it?” as he walked off stage.

The Nailco President came out again and he had some great news, he said that Mr. Geary had sent his apologies for not being able to make it that night and that the VIP ticket holders that were there today would be able to get into a private photo session with just him on Saturday, between shows. Now the only problem would be convincing my father to bring me all the way back the next day. Mr. Gaynor then went on to give away various raffle prizes, none of the people that I knew there had won anything. Finally they had an auction for two items, the first item was a script from Maurice’s last airdate, September 22nd that had a personal message and autograph from him on it. The bidding started at $50 and after it reached about $600, it was a bidding war between Beth and this woman behind us. Unfortunately, the woman behind us was unrelenting, she finally got it at $1400. The next item was a script from the September 9th show that was autographed by the entire cast, bidding started at $100, the same woman that bought the other script kept driving the price up, but eventually let someone else have it for $1600. The two new script owners went up on stage, the one woman who paid $1600 was very happy to get the script, but I think she was in shock over paying so much. The other woman announced to the audience that the reason that she bought the script was because Sarah Fisher (The founder of the charity) was her great grandmother, which pissed off a lot of people in the audience. The woman probably didn’t even watch GH or care anything about what was going to happen.

The five of us stood around the stage for awhile waiting to see if we could hear how Sonny would exit the show. I pilfered a handful of autographed pictures when they said to take one, oh well, I was ticked off. Cathy, Beth and I said goodnight to the woman and her daughter and then proceeded outside and chatted with a few other GH fans. Then I said goodnight to Cathy and Beth and told them that I hoped I’d be able to make it back the next day to see Tony Geary. My car was easy to spot, I went over to it and my father was nowhere in sight, so I waited a little while and finally I saw him walking towards the car, he had gone over to Bob Evan’s for a late dinner. We got in the car and I promptly began begging him to bring me back to the Expo Center tomorrow so I could meet Mr. Geary, after about ten minutes of incessant whining, he grudgingly agreed. The drive back home was also uneventful, when I got home I went straight to sleep, so I would be alert and ready for my dream of meeting Mr. Tony Geary. And so ended the first day of my two day extravaganza!

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