Local artist Cece Bibby was invited to participate in a Space
Autograph Show held over Labor Day weekend at the Burbank Hilton
Convention Center, near Los Angeles.
The show featured astronauts, cosmonauts, aerospace
engineers/scientist, movie and television stars and others.
In attendance were 17 astronauts who had flown Gemini, Apollo,
Skylab and other missions. Among them were Buzz Aldrin, the
second man on the moon, and Gene Cernan who was the last man on the
moon.Three of the four remaining Mercury Seven astronauts were
also there: Scott Carpenter, Wally Schirra and Gordon "Gordo"
Cooper. The show was a reunion for Bibby who worked as an
artist with the original Mercury astronauts at Cape Canaveral,
Bibby designed and painted the logos for John Glenn's Friendship 7,
Scott Carpenter's Aurora 7 and Wally Schirra's Sigma 7.
Also at the show was Dee O'Hara, the first nurse to the
astronauts. O'Hara established the biomedical medical facility
at the Cape.
Two Russian cosmonauts were also at the show.
A formal banquet was held on Saturday night and guests were
seated with an astronaut at each table, which made for an
interesting and entertaining evening.
The master of ceremonies at the banquet was comedian Bill Dana,
known as Jose Jimenez, who entertained with his spaceman act using
Wally Schirra as his straight man.
The next space autograph show is tentatively scheduled for August
2005, possibly in New York City, and Bibby has been invited to
participate in that show. For more information about these
events, visit www.autographshows.net.