Lighter Side: O.J. Is Persona Non Grata

Heidi Genoist -- Tradeshow Week, 8/15/2005

Note to talent agencies and speakers' bureaus: You might want to scratch sports celebrities who've been accused of murder from your databases. Organizers, it seems, don't see them as welcome additions to their tradeshows.

Case in point: After signing more than 100 autographs in a little over an hour, O.J. Simpson was asked to leave the booth of Justin Communications at the Natl. Sports Collectors Convention.

Autographs are the highlight of the 400,000 square foot show, held this year at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont July 27–31. The roster of 60-odd celebrities included everyone from Natl. Hockey League Hall of Famer Emile Francis to sports enthusiast and film producer Penny Marshall.

But they all had to submit to a rigorous application process, organizers said, and Simpson was not pre-approved. In case you forgot, the man who was acquitted of stabbing to death his ex-wife and her friend in 1994 was also a star NFL running back in the 1970s and '80s.

The Juice, as he was called then, isn't the only renegade celebrity in tradeshow lore. Back in the early 1990s, Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble were asked to leave the Hanna-Barbera suite at PROMAX & BDA, a conference and exhibition for television marketing executives.

It seems the cartoon characters' offense was horning in on Mickey Mouse's territory: The conference was held on Disney property in Orlando, where, security guards said, only Disney characters were allowed. A few Stone Age puns, however, convinced hotel owners to let Fred and Barney stay the rest of the day.