I took the above photo of Tom Savini on May 4, 1985 at the first Fangoria Weekend of Horrors convention in New York City. It was a really nice convention and never felt crowded. I got to meet and chat with Tom Savini and his then wife who were there with their newborn baby Lia. I also got to chat a bit with actor Michael Berryman, actress Caroline Munro and then Fangoria editor Bob Martin (I wouldn't meet future Fangoria managing editor Mike Gingold for another four months). All of them were kind and friendly and generous with their time. The convention also had a nice dealer room. I bought a few things, but only recall for sure that I picked up the limited hardcover 1st printing of Stephen King's "The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger" for about $20.00.
Savini gave a presentation on his work, focusing on then recent and current projects such as his episode of "Tales from the Darkside," "Creepshow" and "Day of the Dead." The child corpse he's holding is from the latter and appears at about the one hour six minute mark in the movie as seen below.
One of the things that makes this corpse so unnerving is that it was fashioned over a real human skeleton. In the mid-eighties it was actually far cheaper to purchase actual human skeletons vs the plastic variety. A ban on importing human remains from India put an end to this in later years, and I often lament not having picked one up when I had the opportunity.
Savini even auctioned off some of his props and appliances, but as a university student my budget wasn't set that high, so I had to settle for my Stephen King hardcover.
I took more photos at this convention, but so far this is the only one that's surfaced.
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