Convention season kicks it up a notch or two during May. Starting things off is the Columbus Moving Picture Show, scheduled for May 22 – 25 at the Crowne Plaza North. The convention’s host hotel is located at 6500 Doubletree Avenue, about 16 miles north of downtown Columbus, near the junction of routes 71 and 270. To book a room at the Crowne Plaza North, click here. You can also book a room by calling 877-666-3243. Be sure to mention the show to get the convention rate.
If you’re a collector of motion pictures and related items or an old movie fan, this is the show for you. You’ll find eighty tables of movie-related collectibles such as posters, lobby cards, press kits, DVDs, and original films in the convention’s spacious main hall, plus more dealer tables in the hotel’s various salons and foyers.
The Columbus Moving Picture Show also features an extensive schedule of classic sound and silent films. This year’s show will feature a selection of W. C. Fields’ films including The Fatal Glass of Beer, Million Dollar Legs, The Old Fashioned Way, and more; Laurel & Hardy; a trio of Buster Keaton films; Walter Huston and Claudette Colbert in The Lady Lies; the 1937 Republic cliffhangerZorro Rides Again; the 1929 pre-Code musical Street Girl; and much more. For a look at this year’s complete film program, click here.
To register for the convention, click here. To keep abreast of the latest details on the Columbus Moving Picture Show, be sure to sign up for their mailing list by clicking here. You can also follow the show via Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter/X.
Coming to Roseville, California, on Friday and Saturday, May 30 and 31 is NCM VII, the 2025 gathering of the Northwest Coast Mangani, the local chapter of the Burroughs Bibliophiles. This year’s gathering of the Mangani will also be co-hosting the 2025 Edgar Rice Burroughs Convention (formerly called the Dum-Dum*), with Henry G. Franke III — the editor of The Burrough Bulletin and The Gridley Wave co-hosting.
The schedule of presentations for the Mangani Gathering on Friday and Saturday is in development, although movie nights are planned for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. An auction is also planned, along with eat-in pizza on Saturday evening. Musical performances by the Plastic Mangani Band will likely be featured and there will be a farewell breakfast on Sunday, June 1. All the activities for NCM VII will be held at the convention’s host hotel. This free celebration of ERB is an annual event sponsored by the Northwest Coast Mangani Chapter of the Burroughs Bibliophiles.
The theme for the 2025 Edgar Rice Burroughs Convention is the centennial of the publication of the first-edition hardcover of ERB’s The Cave Girl, published by A. C. McClurg in 1925. A complimentary program book
and give-away items will be provided to Edgar Rice Burroughs Convention attendees.
On Friday evening, the Edgar Rice Burroughs Convention will host the 2025 Dum-Dum Banquet at a restaurant within walking distance of the hotel. There will be no speakers at the dinner, but at least one Burroughs Bibliophiles award may be presented. Attendees will pay for their meals individually.
Expect an artist session with Thomas Yeates as part of the ERB Convention on Saturday morning. Yeates is an American comic strip and comic book artist best known for illustrating the comic strips Prince Valiant and Zorro, as well as his work inspired by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
NCM VII — the 2025 gathering of the Northwest Coast Mangani — and the 2025 Edgar Rice Burroughs Convention will be at the Best Western Plus Orchid Hotel & Suites at 130 North Sunrise Blvd in Roseville, California 95661, outside of Sacramento. The convention daily rate, available for the nights of May 28 through June 1, is $141.25 plus $20.90 taxes and fees for rooms with two queen-size beds or a king-size bed. Parking, Wi-Fi, and a hot breakfast each morning are free. You can reserve a room at the convention rate online with the link https://www.bestwestern.com/en_US/book/hotel-rooms.05706.html?groupId=7R7NV7M1; or you can call the hotel at 916-784-2222, ext 506 and mention the group name “The Northwest Group.”
For more information about NCM VII, please contact Dwayne Covey at dacmgcsec@aol.com. For further information about the Edgar Rice Burroughs Convention or the Dum-Dum Banquet, please contact Henry G. Franke III at henryfranke3@gmail.com or mail a postcard or note to Henry G. Franke III, 318 Patriot Way, Yorktown, VA 23693-4639.
Although there is no formal registration for the 2025 Edgar Rice Burroughs Convention – given that no registration fee is required for either convention — please let Henry know that you plan to attend. Doing so will help him determine the number of program books and signed art reproductions to print. He will also send out updates with new details about the convention as they develop.
*The Dum-Dum Banquet was named after the gatherings of the Great Apes in Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan novels. The Apes called their gathering a “Dum-Dum.”
Our featured image is excerpted from Clinton Pettee’s cover art for the July 1913 issue of The All-Story, illustrating the first of three segments of “The Cave Girl,” written by Edgar Rice Burroughs. The story and its 1917 sequel, “The Cave Man,” were combined to form the 1925 first hardcover edition, published by A. C. McClurg.
Our lead image is Robert A. Graef’s cover for the October 3, 1931 number of Argosy, illustrating the first of four segments of Johnston McCulley’s “Zorro Rides Again.” The story would be adapted by Republic Pictures in 1937 as a 12-part movie serial.
J. Allen St. John painted the dust jacket art for the 1925 first hardcover edition of The Cave Girl, written by Edgar Rice Burroughs and published by A. C. McClurg.
Our final image is a sketch of Nadara, Edgar Rice Burroughs’ “Cave Girl,” drawn by artist Thomas Yeates and featured in Twixt Two Worlds #3, edited by Dwayne Covey and published by Bud Plant in 2018.
