Gale, Wells & Weissman enchant record crowd at biennial DeLorean Car Show

Pigeon Forge, Tenn. — On a weekend where Dolly Parton and the Oak Ridge Boys were in town making local appearances, the biggest names on the forefront of DeLorean automobile owners' minds were that of Claudia Wells, Bob Gale, and Jeffrey Weissman.

The threesome were celebrity guests at the 2004 DeLorean Car Show held June 17-20 at the Smoky Shadows / Grand Resort where a record number of owners & enthusiasts gathered with their prized automobiles and parts & accessories at the hobby's largest rally held every other year.

The registered crowd of 511 attendees, with many more walk-ins to the public event, flocked around a total of 118 DeLorean automobiles — the largest accumulation of the unique sports car since they rolled off the assembly line back in the early 1980's.

But the show (making its fourth outing) marked the very first time that any of the famed cast/crew from the Back to the Future trilogy had attended the event.  The addition of these celebrity guests was clearly a very crowd-pleasing favorite, and DCS promoter/coordinator Ken Koncelik already expects a return visit by BTTF celebrities to future DeLorean exhibitions.

Claudia Wells, who portrayed Marty's girlfriend Jennifer Parker in the first film, attended the entire show with her 9-year-old son, Sebastian.  Wells, who has owned Armani Wells Distinctive Men's Resale Clothiers in Studio City, California since 1993, spoke briefly to the crowd on Thursday night following a 19-minute video presentation made by BTTF.com.

She is scheduled to be a member of a rotating cast in the upcoming show, Scenes from 40 Years of Masquers Plays.

Back to the Future Creator/Writer/Producer Bob Gale attended the gala for two days, participating in a live Q&A session with Wells on Friday evening & providing the audience with some memorable quotes — particularly regarding his choice of using the DeLorean automobile as a time machine in the original 1985 film.  When explaining that he and Director Robert Zemeckis had to justify their choice of the vanquished vehicle to Universal's Product Placement division who wanted a Ford instead, Gale declared "Doc Brown doesn't drive a [expletive] Mustang!"  The following morning, dozens of attendees were sporting screen-printed T-shirts with the new battle cry.

Gale & Wells also served as show judges on Saturday for "Best Time Machine", later bestowing the title to Time-Car.com's Oliver Holler, one of only four entrants in the newly created category.

Gale, who was mum regarding any firm details on upcoming projects he has on the horizon, recently wrote and directed video segments for the upcoming Back to the Future Vegas-styled slot machine project for IGT starring Christopher Lloyd which is slated for release sometime next year.  While no hints were offered regarding any other continuations or sequels, interestingly, Gale did mention that he felt that the series was ripe to be made into a Broadway musical.

One of the best kept secrets over the weekend was the true identity of the enduring actor portraying "Charlie Chaplin" during Saturday evening's dinner, which turned out to be noneother than Jeffrey Weissman, who portrayed George McFly in the two sequels after actor Crispin Glover declined to reprise the role.  Weissman was introduced by sponsoring vendor Daniel Deutch of Tireflys.com, to which resulted in some of the most comedic moments of the weekend as Weissman participated in a solo Q&A.  The packed audience soon learned what a quick-witted comedian & highly talented actor Weissman really is, who provided countless laughs the remainder of the evening.  Earlier in the day, Weissman had been elected to judge the show's unique categories, "Best Sunstar Model" & "Best Modified Sunstar Model", showcasing the popular 1:18 scale diecast toy replica.

Weissman costars in the upcoming independent film, Weed, expected for release later this year.

BTTF.com was quite pleased and extremely honored to have all three guests to appear in the Back to the Future booth on Saturday to meet & greet fans and to sign autographed photos & other memorabilia.  Their appearance in the booth helped make the site's vendor booth one of the most successful trade shows BTTF.com has been involved with to date.

The weekend was capped off by a raffle of DeLorean parts & live auction of BTTF memorabilia, hosted by all three celebrity guests.  Wells & Weissman served as auctioneers, while Gale continued to call out ticket numbers to hopeful winners.  The auction raised over $2,000 for the non-profit organization's next show, currently scheduled to be held in Chicago, IL in 2006.  For details, visit the show's official website at www.DeLoreanCarShow.com.

Select photos from the 2004 DeLorean Car Show:

— Stephen Clark

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