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The Buffy Posting Board Party 2003 |
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 ll good things must come to an end and such was the case when the 6th and final Buffy Posting Board Party commenced on Saturday, February 15, 2003 at the historic American Legion Hall in Hollywood, California. Started by the posters at the original WB Buffy board known as The Bronze, the PBP Committee has toiled yearly since 1998 creating an event which lives in fan infamy. The PBP not only celebrates Joss Whedon's series (including Angel) and the dedicated posting board fans but they also raise a big pile of money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Greater Los Angeles in their charity auction. Despite or maybe because this was the last PBP, Bronzers, fans and VIP guests alike were in incredibly high-spirits celebrating the culmination of an era for the event and the show that launched a whole new sub-culture, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Come with us as we take you on a tour of the evenings, revisiting our favorite moments with the fans, cast and crew, bands and a whole mess of demons - let's just say they didn't call it The Monster's Ball for nothing!
FRIDAY NIGHT'S PRE-SHINDIG
Lots of cool items were up for grabs in the Make-A-Wish charity raffles such as Buffy lunch boxes, autographed Firefly scripts and videos, props from Angel, Buffy comics from Dark Horse, and the coveted luncheon with Buffy writers Jane Espenson and David Fury. Brentano's Booksellers sponsored a table of Buffy/Angel-related guides, anthologies, novels, script compilations and musical theme books. Since the main goal of the entire weekend is to raise money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, sponsors were generous enough to donate a percentage of all sales to this wonderful charity that grants wishes to terminally ill children. Eden Productions (Alex Jurket and his staff) also sponsored a table for the first ever Buffy the Vampire Slayer role-playing game and enthusiastic reps were available to play with the fans at their tables. It was exciting and easy to understand, with game play that dedicated fans were more than happy to partake in. SCORE Entertainment (R.J. Boehmer and Matt Carson and their crew) was on hand to demo and give fans a look at their next expansion sets for the Buffy Collectable Card Game. The hotspot of the evening was a special banner titled, Bronze Class of 2003: Congratulations Lowest Mortality Rate Ever! that hung on a wall for fans to sign. Fans expressed their heartfelt emotions with special messages to Joss for all the years of his special type of torture, pain, joy, suspense, horror and happiness. By the end of the evening every spot was taken up on this 8-foot banner with special messages. The banner would later be presented to Joss to keep. Courtesy of Inkworks Cards, the CityofAngel crew was able to give away free promo cards. Eden Studios gave away Angel and Buffy game cards, and from Dark Horse Comics every attendee walked away with a 50th issue Buffy poster! At the end of the evening, the PBP committee handed out free goodies from local retailer Sephora as well as various other items. It was tough getting the fans to end the evening since we all wanted to stay and keep sharing memories but the main event was yet to come on Saturday. Rest was a must if we wanted to take advantage of the great night ahead that would take place just a few blocks away at the Hollywood Legion Hall. So, reluctantly to bed some went with dreams of the Joss-verse in their heads while the more energetic headed off to the Cricket & Ivy After-party in the tradition of Porter Dorm who brought you the "Somebody Sneezed Party" and "DayThat Ends in a 'Y' Party." GET THE PARTY STARTED! The PBP officially kicked off at 6 p.m. at the historic Hollywood American Legion Hall on Highland Avenue. For the party, the Hall was broken into two levels: the upper level where the Bronzers commenced with the mingling and the downstairs VIP area where it was slayer central for the behind the scenes staff and coordinators who worked to facilitate the various elements of the night. Upstairs in the main hall, fans were able to get drinks, food and purchase Buffy and Angel related books from Brentano's Bookstore of Los Angeles. Off the main hall, the PBP staff set up a merchandise mecca for fans. This was the room where fans could purchase the exclusive CD release of Darling Violetta's new album "Parlour", as well as CD's from Adam Busch's band Common Rotation, James Marsters' band, Ghost of the Robot and Velvet Chain. This was also ground zero for the charity raffles and silent auctions which included exclusive items like: commissions from artist Eric Wight (Buffy Animated Series), a stake autographed by David Boreanaz, a Mutant Enemy shirt autographed by Joss Whedon and an Angel Season 4 crew jackets just to name a few of the over 100+ items. As usual, the Bronzers proved to be extremely generous, generating an amazing $13,000 for the overall charity fund from the auctions alone.
Downstairs, the lounge area was hopping early as the bands slated to play throughout the night made final preparations for their performances and VIPs from the cast and crew of Angel and Buffystarted to appear. There was a large area to mingle and a bar where they could relax and prep before going upstairs into the fray and mingling with the fans. Last but not least, the downstairs also served as "Demon Central". With the PBP dubbed "The Monster's Ball," it lived up to that title literally by securing the talents of Angel head make-up supervisor, Dayne Johnson and Robert Hall's Special Effects shop, Almost Human to make up a host of recognizable demons for the event. Dayne's team, including Dalia Dokter, plied their art during the day at Paramount Studios creating the Hideous Demon and the Tragedy Demon from Angel's "Waiting in the Wings" episode. Meanwhile Rob's crew spent the day at their Culver City studio making full body transformations of The Beast, the Uber Vamp, Skip, Initiative's Rat Demon, and the Buffy Vamp from Season 1. While they might have been scary to look at, imagine the reactions of tourists and locals alike along Le Brea as The Beast rode to the event with his horns poking through the SUV sunroof. Terrifying! The makeup crews assembled and put the final touches on all the demons including costume contacts from Dr. Jonathan Gording. |
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JOSS
WHEDON (The Man):
JULIE
BENZ (Darla):
DAYNE
JOHNSON
DEMON
DANCERS 
ALEXA
DAVALOS 
ANDY
HALLETT
ADAM
BUSCH
