Friday, May 08, 2020

Moore Love


As a lifelong fanboy, I'm always mesmerized when I discover others -- especially ones who beat me at my own game. While my bedroom walls were definitely on par with Mary Tyler Moore Facebook group administrator David Davis's, his devotion to the object of his obsession makes me look like someone who bought the single of "Heart of Glass."

David writes:
As many of you already know, years ago, before there was a Facebook, or even an Internet for that matter, I founded The Mary Tyler Moore International Fan Club, starting in 1990. It began as a simple little club with two or three members, who wrote to me from a tiny ad in the back of an obscure celebrity collectors magazine. I would send newsletters to them detailing Mary’s latest endeavors and include trivia questions and feature articles.

The newsletter soon evolved into a glossy color magazine that I self-published, called MARY. After registering with the National Association of Fan Clubs, which added me to their directory, I soon started to receive letters from all over the world from people wanting to join the fan club and subscribe to my ‘zine. It was a lot of fun and I put hours of work into each page, typing stories on an electric typewriter, cutting and gluing them like a jigsaw puzzle until everything fit just right on the page. Then I’d go to the 24 hour Kinko’s and have them printed in color. I eventually had about 300 people on my mailing list, including a few celebs that I would speak to at my job as a switchboard operator.


In 1997, I took a couple of sample issues to A Different Light bookstore in West Hollywood, which had a rack of homemade ‘zines in the back. I asked for the manager and pitched my magazine, and he bought them on consignment. All six issues sold out and helped me gain even more subscribers. (That bookstore is long gone, replaced by a clothing store).

After a while it was no longer financially feasible to publish the magazine, as printing and postage was outweighing the incoming fees, so I hardly made any profit, but it was immensely satisfying. Now that there’s Facebook I can fill that same role in a different forum, but with the same love and devotion that motivated me to launch the fan club 30 years ago.

I feel very blessed to have been able to channel my love for Mary in such away that reaches so many other fans and brings us together to share our stories and viewpoints. Thank you all for being the best fans in the world!


Oh, Mary -- I bow to you!

2 comments:

Jonno333 said...

I loved buying zines at “A different light” bookstore in weho. They were some great ones I wish I still had them. Jackie Beat did a great one called “Carrie, the magazine that can move things”.

Wendy said...

What a great history and legacy David!