Bill Blake and Friends

Logan's Trot was a fascinating fan project created by Bill Blake. It was a comedy parody of the movie. This film was shot in 1977 and made the convention circuit in CA during 1978 and 79. One of the most interesting things about this film to me was it was filmed in a wide screen super 8mm format. yes they did make lenses for cameras and projectors for 8mm, but they never became common. The movie was filmed on some of the same locations as the actual movie including the pond and dry river bed at the Fox Ranch. It also stared Janet Dastrup as Jessica and Fred Folger as Francis. Author (and creator of Kolchak the Night Stalker ) Jeff Rice played the Old Man. Bary Burge played Doc and Pamela Gangstee as Holly. Gary King was the Assistant Director, Susan Dastrup was in charge of wardrobe and production stills, Douglas White handled makeup and special effects, Jim Parsley and Erney Cervantes created sets props and miniatures. I never managed to catch the film. However I have spoken to people who have seen it and they thought it was well made.

Left to right: Bruce Burge, Susan Dastrup, Gary King, and Janet Dastrup

Bill aso did some stunt work on the Logan's Run movie, though what I know not.. The photo to the right shows Bill firing his original movie prop at the Fantasy Symposium in 1978. His biggest recent project was the restoration of an original maze car. he had quite a job as it was the one modified heavily for use in the move Nightfliers. if you have not seen Nightfliers it is used at the end as an escape vehicle. I have not heard anything form Bill in several years now. If you are out there Bill, drop me a email!

Bill Blake also ran a mail order catalog of beautifully constructed props form the movie. he and Janet made appearance at many CA conventions in 1977-1979 selling wares from the 23rd Century Emporium. Bill also had a working flamegun form the movie and took it apart to see what made it tick. He created a wonderful set of hand drawn blueprints from this information. His flamegun reproductions were simply the most amazing ever created. The barrels were black anodized aluminum and the weapons looked better than any I have ever seen since. If you have an Bill Blake flamegun you want to part with please let me know! He also made facemasks off an original, nice repro followers, and the nicest lifeclocks ever produced. Bill was in the original movie as an extra in the Carousel sequence. Someplace I have a picture of him sitting in the crowd shouting 'renew!' but I have to locate it. I understasnd sometime in the past he produced a series of blueprints of the TV, and Movie guns as well as one of a Maze Car. These were sold at Southern California conventions.

Susan Dastrup was the sister of Janet Dastrup. She was also a Logan fan and made appearances at many conventions. Here she appears at Intercon (The Intermountain Star Trek/Science Fiction Convention) in Utah. This picture was taken on Aug 13, 1976. Here she is dressed as a citizen.