I was thrilled to attend the Dallas Producers Association's annual yuck-fest and fundraiser last night (Oct. 18) at the Studio Movie Grill in Addison, this year's iteration of which was dubbed "Bride of It Came From Dallas." Hosted by local film critic extraordinaire and bon vivant Gary Cogill, along with resident movie archivist/historian (and - we come to find - bit part actor) Gordon (K.) Smith, the evening's entertainment consisted of made-in-and-around-Dallas B-movie clips from the 70's-80's, interspersed with commercial compilations of similar vintage.

The evening lived up to its reputation for delivering a really good time, thanks in no small part to anecdotes of the local entertainment and broadcast scene shared by Gary, Gordon and some special guests who worked way back when on several of the movies profiled.

Most memorable moments:

• A surprise appearance (even to the organizers) by a dapper looking gray-haired lady named Helen Martin, who - 30-ish years ago - portrayed a scandalous hussy in a red dress (what else?) charged with desecrating a corpse in the most rigor mortis-dependent way imaginable on an episode of "Guilty or Innocent".

• Gary's two hilarious stories about his career producing commercials for Channel 39, the first of which involved a furniture magnate with a speech impediment (read: beer) while the other chronicled his travails as he attempted to get a scripted one-liner out of the six-year-old daughter of an auto dealer client. (Let's just say the line wasn't the only thing he ended up getting out of her.)

• Glen Coburn's dry-wit commentary about his experiences directing Blood Suckers from Outer Space ('84), which included his account of a somewhat less-than-enthusiastic premiere screening appearance by the film's lone name star, Pat Paulsen.

It was also very cool to have PegNews mentioned kindly by our hosts in that roomful of film-crazy high-profile Dallas glitterati. (I hereby apologize for the crappy quality of the video clip excerpted from our "Bride" interview - 330 x 280 pixels blown up to movie screen size loses a little something in translation. We promise to have a more capable recording device on hand for next year's interview - honest, folks! - knocking wood...)