Astronaut Autographs
Dr. Harrison "Jack" Schmitt
Custom Signing 2005 Report
Moonwalker-geologist Dr. Harrison "Jack" Schmitt was at our gallery for an unprecedented signing of mailed-in memorabilia in early February 2005. Schmitt is one of the younger Apollo astronauts, turning "only" 70 later this year (2005). He still has a full head of salt & pepper hair, in contrast to the Apollo cottonheads we usually have.
Dr. Schmitt and wife Theresa drove down from Albuquerque, as a speaker for a meteorite dealer at Tucson's annual mineral & gem show, the #1 such event in the world. Dr. Schmitt's talk was a slide show and DVD presentation. The audience was about 200, mostly Apollo-aged folks, with a few youngsters. After the presentation, Schmitt posed for pictures, answered questions, but would not sign autographs despite some overly agressive autograph hounds. Sally and I introduced ourselves to him and his wife and made final arrangements for the signing session at the gallery the next day (Monday).
Dr. Schmitt and Theresa showed up at Novaspace Gallery bright and early the next day. We signed everything from models to globes to an antique geologic hammer, along with the typical photos, posters, books and art until about 6 o'clock p.m. Schmitt was subdued early on, concentrating on the task, but gradually warmed up and started talking more as the day wore on. We had lunch at about 1:00.
Dr. Schmitt was very intelligent, no surprise as he was a Fulbright scholar and Harvard and Cal Tech graduate. He never seemed to talk over your head, though. He could rattle off Apollo specs, as well as provide insight into trajectory mechanics. He is a Real Astronaut, not some scientific pretender to appease critics of the program.
Dr. Schmitt has written a book manuscript; working title "Return to the Moon", which should be published in late summer/early fall. Unlike most astronaut books, this one contains no autobiographical material, but is a collection of his essays about Helium-3 and other lunar resources, and private enterprise in space. We hope to have him here for a book signing in the future. Instead of using a ghost writer, Schmitt wrote the entire manuscript himself, very adept at language arts.
Wife Theresa was very friendly and personable, and asked lots of questions about our operation that we were happy to answer, and she volunteered some amusing stories about Dr. Schmitt, like the time they went to Norway (where he attended school on a Fulbright Scholarship in the late 1950s) dined in a local restaurant, and Schmitt, being dark-complected, was mistaken for Harry Bellafonte! Theresa is a professional writer, writing under her maiden name. She writes nonfiction magazine articles on all subjects. She spent most of the day reading a biography of President John Adams.
The second day, Dr. Schmitt was very talkative and asked lots of questions about other astronauts that we've dealt with and more that we haven't. As with most signings, they volunteered amusing anecdotes about other moonwalkers and Apollo astronauts and some shuttle astronauts. For example, he asked about shuttle astronauts that we've dealt with, and we told him that we handled Bruce McCandless. "You mean Loose Bruce?" and proceeded to tell us the story of some geologic field trips where Capt. McCandless would wander off into the distance and be spotted by the group as a speck on some distant cliff. Bruce on the loose. He became known as "Loose Bruce." Now, every time Schmitt sees the famous photograph of McCandless flying the MMU untethered in space, far away in the distance, he thinks to himself, "Yep, that's Loose Bruce!"
Before one survival training trip to Panama, McCandless asked the Houston zoo if there were any indigenous animals they needed, he could bring back. "Sure" they said "a Fer-de-lance" which turned out to be the deadliest poisonous snake in the Hemisphere. Well, McCandless bravely captured one, and brought it back in a bag, much to the consternation of U.S. Customs officials.
The second day was devoted to signing the remaining Moonwalkers lithos. Dr. Schmitt had only signed about half of the edition 20 years ago. Also, there were 15 way oversized 4'x5' photo blowups of the print, which are personalized by each of the signing moonwalkers to all of the other moonwalkers.
It was a greuling, but enjoyable two days. Now the real work starts: Getting everything back!
--Kim Poor
