Finding Marty’s Gear

Dave Doering, Costume-Con 23 co-chair, comments on the passing of Marty Gear:

I am sure I echo the feelings of so many other fans that Marty was a class act. A gentleman in every way. Always with a kind word and simply fabulous behind the microphone as emcee. The gods of fandom smiled upon us when they gave us Marty Gear as voice for our creations onstage.

Doering also remembers coming away from the 1993 Worldcon with this resolve:

I simply loved him in ConFrancisco as emcee–which is why we had him do our SF masquerade at CostumeCon in Ogden.

When Doering’s chance finally came in 2005, it came with a bit of unplanned adventure:

Marty’s persona as Dracula–makeup, costume, etc. –shipped in a large crate–which somehow managed to disappear between Baltimore and Salt Lake. UPS said it was likely on this certain truck en route in the city. I had to chase down this UPS truck through the streets in pursuit of what I hoped was his Marty “gear”. (Just try finding a UPS driver on his route when they didn’t do cellphones!)

I ended up running into another UPS truck, and the two drivers said, “Try the parking lot over on 2nd West near Taco Bell”. Which I did. Fortunately, a UPS truck came gliding up. (I can’t imagine what the driver must have thought finding this anxious conchair tracking him down.)

It was then I discovered just how big that crate was–in fact, it was coffin-sized. And I often wondered if it wasn’t actually Marty in there as well–saving on airfare resting on his beloved turf from his homeland. (Though I didn’t open it but merely took it to the hotel for delivery.)

What a bite to lose him. Really going to miss that guy.