: With blizzard condition forecast for this part of the country,
Marilyn Gould started receiving calls on Friday concerning the
plans for the Wilton Holiday Show scheduled for Sunday, December
7. One call came from a California collector who had flown east
for the show and was, at the time, in Philadelphia, as his flight
had not been able to land in New York. "What was the best way to
get to Wilton by train?" he had asked. Unfortunately, the answer
was "don't come, the show has been cancelled."
"We had a 1 pm meeting with school personnel, including
custodians, in the cafeteria at the Wilton Field House Friday to
consider all questions and problems the snow would present to the
operation of the antiques show," Marilyn Gould, show manager,
said. "Of course, I was in favor of having the show regardless of
snow conditions, as we had faced them before, but the school dug
in its heels and would not let us have the facility," she
continued.
The main stumbling block was the parking lot and being able to
keep it clean and ready for the opening of school on Monday. Two
events were scheduled for this past weekend at the school, a
concert on Saturday night and the antiques show on Sunday. Since
both events shared the same parking lots, the school people felt
it would be impossible to keep the place clear as there would
always be cars in the way. Marilyn Gould offered a solution to
this concern, promising to work all Friday night bringing the
dealers in and thus causing less congestion on Saturday, the
scheduled move-in day. The school people did not buy it.
"We went through the blizzard of 93 when we had 30 inches of
snow, and we also had six inches of snow last year on set-up day,
and it all worked out," Marilyn said. Many of the people involved
in the operation of the show, such as walls, electricity, food,
etc., attended the meeting and the actual set-up of the show had
not begun before the decision was made at 4:30 pm to cancel the
show. "At one point we even had the football coach involved in
trying to keep the show going as it is a benefit for the John G.
Corr Memorial Award Fund and the money we raise for the show is
necessary in order the make the annual presentation," she said.
"It is difficult enough to run a good antiques show, but it is
really twice as hard to cancel one," Marilyn said. Calls were
made to four of the area hotels where dealers were staying,
including the Marriott that had 26 exhibitors registered, while
most of the 130 dealers were called directly at either their shop
or residence. About 30 radio stations received a fax message and
by 11 pm Friday most everyone had been contacted. Some of the
exhibitors, including Jane Wargo and Judy Milne, called other
dealers to spread the news. A good number of the dealers,
including Charles Wilson, in turn notified their clients who had
planned to come to the show. In total, about 800 calls were made
and received in Wilton over the weekend, "and we had another 50
waiting for us when we opened the historical society on Monday
morning," Marilyn said.
"We covered our bases pretty well in a short length of time,"
Marilyn said, and only two exhibitors, R.E. Vandall from New
Hampshire and Jim Hirsheimer from Pennsylvania, appeared at the
field house to set-up. Michael Gould spent part of his time on
both Saturday and Sunday setting up signs to announce the
cancellation of the show and to inform any visitors who arrived
to attend the show. "Some people had not heard and did show up on
Sunday," he said.
"The financial loss is considerable, somewhere around
$40-45,000," Marilyn Gould said. That number will increase,
however, as she has decided to credit each dealer with 50 percent
of the show deposit. Antiques and The Arts Weekly will also be
extending a credit to those exhibitors who took part in the
Special Show Sections that appeared in the paper a week before
and the week of the show.
Based on inquires and phone calls prior to the show, Marilyn said
"there was an overall feeling that this was going to be a good
show as both the general public and the dealers were up-beat and
really looking forward to the show." Over the weekend, "we had
lots of encouraging messages from some of the exhibitors and
customers, including suggestions to run the show a week later or
to have it between the Christmas and New Year's holidays,"
Marilyn said, "but such re-scheduling is really out of the
question." The next show in Wilton will be the 37th annual
benefit for the Wilton Historical Society on March 20-21.
