June 14 - 2003
Our third annual meet at the Fantomen theme park in Eskilstuna.
With: Hasse Lindahl & Stefan Nagy
Thirteenth Event
Eskilstuna, June 14 2003
With Honorary Member Hans Lindahl & Special Friend Stefan Nagy
From ParkenZoo: Tommy Eriksson
Eskilstuna, June 14 2003
With Honorary Member Hans Lindahl & Special Friend Stefan Nagy
From ParkenZoo: Tommy Eriksson
Attending Members: Brian Jensen, Torbjörn Onegård, Jan-Ola Sjöberg, Bosse Engberg, Mikael Bällstav, Magnus Eriksson, Björn Ekman, Per Gudiksen, Patrik Axelsson, Henrik Bengtsson, Mikael Lyck, Niklas Egeltun, Ulrik Lundin, Per-Åke Sjögren, Lars Fagerstedt & Johan Ekman
Once again it was time to visit Parken Zoo in Eskilstuna with the Phantom theme park. The arrival was bit of a chock; even the car park outside the zoo was crowded, this because of a huge flea market. ”The little one” as Tommy Eriksson from ParkenZoo put it, I wonder what a big one is like?
At the entrance of the conference centre Brian and Jan –Ola, two of the chapters founders, met all the members as they arrived and invited us to go upstairs and start with the coffee and sandwiches that was waiting for us there. They also gave all free tickets to the park including the friends and relatives the member’s had brought. The tickets are a present from the park to the chapter, apparently they like having us!
When everybody had arrived and taken there seats Tommy Eriksson welcomed us to the chapters third annual meet at the park and told us all the story of the Phantom theme park. How they had an empty bear cave and wondered what they should do with it and how they found the perfect solution - the skull cave. He also showed press cuttings from the time, of moral panic that awoke when it was known that ”American imperialism” would invade the Zoo! The quite harmless children’s park has now been a success for about seventeen years. When asked what they would do at the 20:ieth jubilee, he answered, “Well, one of the first thing would of course be to invite the Scandinavian Chapter!”
Next part was the traditional member introduction where the member tells a little something about himself and his interest in the Phantom and those who had brought some unique objects i.e. “dräggelobjekt” showed them. To name some examples, Niklas Egeltun had a T-shirt from Bali with the text ”Phuck its the Phantom” and Henrik Bengtsson had a Phantom magazine from Russia and some Phantom underpants. Henrik pulled down some hearty laughter when he said “I have worn them sometimes, but don’t worry I have washed them!” Torbjörn Onegård told us about the milestones in his Phantom collection.
When the Phantom himself arrived everybody had the chance to take photos of the legend. It was also great to take pictures of the attending artists together with the Phantom. The good guys among us were marked with the good mark. Fortunately none of us appeared to be a bad guy cause the Phantom never used the skull ring!
For the second time in the history of Scandinavian Chapter a lottery was arranged, again with great prizes. The top prize was an original drawing by artist Stefan Nagy. It was also possible to win a poster set from the Phantom motion picture, signed art by Sy Barry and even some Phantom candy from America donated by Pete Klaus.
One of the important parts of a Scandinavian Chapter meeting is the possibility for members to trade objects and that really blossomed on this meeting, Norwegian trading cards, t-shirts, magazines, books and much more changed owners. The content of the goodiebag was, as we have been spoiled with over the years, great! Signed art, a lot of autograph cards and the Phantom musical on CD. Attending members got Sy Barrys signature signed in gold on their cards and as mentioned before the chance to win prizes.
It’s always good to attend a meeting, those who don’t really miss out!!
After this it was time for lunch and we all went to a restaurant in the park and ate a tasty, all you can eat, tex-mex buffet. During the lunch attending Honorary member Hans Lindahl told us fascinating things about his work and the trouble he sometimes had to read a script when the author for example changed a letter missing on the typewriter to another! English scripts can also be misunderstood; mummy for example, can mean two things. Another artist, Hans never told who, once draw a one armed bandit i.e. “enarmad bandit” in definitely the wrong way!
After lunch we walked around in the park together with the artists. Hans wanted to take a lot of pictures of all the animals to use in his work. We split up with them when we members by a magic force all was drawn into the shop who had a lot of phantom objects. During a short but heavy “tropical rain” we took cover under a roof and had time for even more Phantom talk before we visited the deep woods and the Skull Cave. Unfortunately the Phantom disappeared while we was there, maybe he ran out on a mission?
The walk trough the park continued and we tried to find the place where the Scandinavian Chapter was founded but the “famous” bench had been moved and instead there was a bird garden on this unique place. The next thing to find was somewhere we could buy some ice cream it was a hot day! All ice cream stands closed just minutes before we arrived. Despite that we got no ice cream it was a fantastic day and we all long for the next meeting. Thank you Brian and Bosse for a great meeting!
Magnus Eriksson #14