74
August 29, 1997

Conventions

What happens when people with one common interest gather in monstrous, fluorescent-lit halls for the weekend? Sometimes they drive each other crazy, sometimes they fall in love.

Convention worker

Andrea worked at a bakery under a convention hotel in Chicago. The conventioneers used to drive her crazy because people act so different when they're in a crowd of their own kind. (3 minutes)
Act One

Dark Shadows

John Connors has very mixed emotions about attending a convention for viewers of the TV program Dark Shadows. (18 minutes)

John Connors at the 1997 Dark Shadows convention, wearing a red burgundy crushed velvet Pierre Cardin jacket and rhinestone brooch. Courtesy John Connors.

Act Three

When Worlds Collide

John Perry Barlow, a founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and former rancher and Grateful Dead lyricist, on an experience that began at the boundary of two conventions. (20 minutes)

Song:

“Black-Throated Wind” by The Grateful Dead