Mark Simpson calls it his ?Bewitched? museum.
In his Washington home, the walls and ceiling are painted blue with gold stars. One side features the city skyline from the TV show?s animated opening credits. Along the perimeter sit rows of shelves displaying videos, photos and magazines ? all dedicated to the classic 1970s TV show featuring Samantha Stephens as a well-intentioned witch.
?It?s pretty cool,? Simpson said.
What do his two roommates think?
Both have ?Bewitched? displays of their own in their bedrooms. One even designs original artwork and paintings based on the show. All three met while trading ?Bewitched? memorabilia on the Internet.
Yes, 34 years after the last episode aired, there are still die-hard fans of ?Bewitched? ? and about 30 of them are coming to Salem for the show?s annual convention.
Some are arriving from as far away as Florida, Utah, Canada and even Australia. This week they?ll participate in seminars with such titles as ?Agnes Moorhead: Tribute to a Goddess? and ?Elizabeth Montgomery: Remembering the Magic.?
They?ll screen all eight ?Bewitched? episodes that were filmed in Salem, take the Salem Witchcraft Walk and raffle off a Samantha doll.
The fan-run conventions started five or six years ago as a small annual gathering at someone?s house over a long summer weekend. But over the years, it?s grown. Last year?s was held in Los Angeles to coincide with the movie premiere.
?I just felt like ?Bewitched? deserves a little more attention,? said Simpson, the convention organizer. ?I don?t want it to get on the scale of ?Star Trek? conventions. It?d be cool if it did, but I don?t think that will ever happen.?
Simpson has been busy working on a 45-minute PowerPoint presentation on the career of Elizabeth Montgomery, complete with photos, video and 65 slides.
?I was up until 2:15 in the morning trying to get that finished,? he said.
The convention concludes Wednesday with the ?Galactic Rejuvenation and Dinner Dance,? where attendees will dress up as their favorite witch or warlock and sip ?pretend? martinis, a popular drink from the show.
?We?re going to stick with Coke and fruit punch,? Simpson said. ?We don?t want a drunken brawl.?
For Simpson, who collects everything from ?Bewitched? puzzles to photographs to lunch boxes, his obsession with the show is something even he can?t fully explain.
?I?ve just always loved it since I was 6 years old,? he said. ?I?m 47 now. Elizabeth Montgomery ? not in a romantic way ? but she?s my idol.?
Salem resident Peter Alachi will be presenting a 45-minute lecture on the recent controversy surrounding the ?Bewitched? statue in Lappin Park. Alachi has authored a 44-page, 3-D booklet called ?A Pictorial Tale of the Bewitched Statue of Salem, Massachusetts.?
?It?s a very smart show,? said Alachi, who grew up watching it while living in Syria. ?It took the idea of a wife being terrified by her husband over the years and almost reversed it. You have Darrin, who is almost terrified by two witches and her mother. Almost every episode, he was turning into a frog or a monkey ? it was a unique idea.?
This year?s convention also comes just days after vandals defaced the controversial ?Bewitched? statue, spraying it with red paint and scribbling the word ?mockery? below.
?It makes me angry,? Simpson said. ?What?s something like that supposed to accomplish? Don?t these people have anything better to do with their time??
As for the convention, spots in the ?Bewitched? seminars and other events are still available by sending an e-mail to bewitchedconvention2006@yahoo.com.
?It doesn?t matter to me how many people we have,? Simpson said. ?It?s just doing it and having the experience of spending time with people.?
Chris Cassidy writes for The Salem (Mass.) News.
http://www.batesvilleheraldtribune.com/ ... art:int=15
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