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"Forbidden Rendezvous" John and Dorsey Flynn won a workmanship award and "Best in Class-Journeyman" award for their entry of romantic love in which two lovers on a far off planet, conspire to meet secretly despite the taboo against their love for one another. During the opening narration and music, John's character stood on stage waiting for his lady love to appear. Moments later, the audience was stunned when Dorsey rides in astride a very large and completely mobile beast. As she dismounted the beast, she removed her helmet and embraced her love and together they led the beast offstage. The beast was worn and operated by John Garrity and Daniel Coggins and was created by John Flynn who explained its creation, "The beast was made out of 2x3 inch boards run lengthwise at the mid section, on top, and on the sides. The boards were purposely warped (for a rounded appearance) and formed a skeleton structure. Chicken wire was used to fill in the sections, and then styrofoam stuffing filled out the body section. The legs were nothing but 2x3inch boards which were wired to the body and moved about 30 degrees back and forth. Over all of this, we used a fabric that was brown and orange fur. The neck was of more 2x3 inch boards also wired to the body. The head was made using paper mache. The beast did not weigh all that much, but when you added a saddle and rider, that's when the weight increased. Marty was aware of the problem we were facing, and had a platform built that raised up and lowered. It was not a forklift but operated like a forklift."
Correction, it was a platform on a fork lift. We rented a gasoline powered forklift only to discover that it could not be operated in an occupied building. Fortunately the Convention Center had a forklift that could be used, but for a brief while we weren't sure that this costume could go on stage.
Photo by Dave Clark
From the collection of Angelique Trouvere
Information updated by Marty Gear