| Spooky Empire | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Status | Active |
| Genre | Horror, multi-genre |
| Frequency | Bi-annual |
| Location(s) | Florida |
| Country | United States |
| Inaugurated | 2003 |
| Attendance | Around 33,000 in October 2018 [1] |
| Website | http://spookyempire.com/ |
Spooky Empire is an American multigenre convention focused primarily on horror and science fiction, held bi-annually in Florida. The convention, which is billed as "the dark side of Comic-Con", [2] features vendors, a film and tattoo festival, music, and celebrity guests.
Co-founded by Peter Mongelli and Blaine Kimball, Spooky Empire has been held in Florida since 2003. [3] It is held twice a year, in the spring and in the autumn. [4] The first event took place at a Holiday Inn in Broward County, Florida. [5] [6] The convention was held in Orlando, Florida from 2006 to 2019, before moving to Tampa, Florida for its autumn 2019 event due to a lack of sufficient available venue space in Orlando. [3]
Celebrity guests at Spooky Empire have included Gillian Anderson, [5] [7] Fairuza Balk, [1] Bruce Campbell, [8] Neve Campbell, [6] Alice Cooper, [2] [8] David Duchovny, [5] [7] Gunnar Hansen, [6] Kane Hodder, [9] Christopher Lloyd, [1] Malcolm McDowell, [6] Bill Moseley, [9] Cassandra Peterson, [9] [8] Sam Raimi, [2] [8] Burt Reynolds, [6] Christina Ricci, [1] George A. Romero, [6] Felissa Rose, [7] Lewis Teague, [1] Henry Thomas, [1] Danny Trejo, [6] Dee Wallace, [1] and Carl Weathers. [7]
Bruce Lorne Campbell is an American actor and filmmaker. He is known best for his role as Ash Williams in Sam Raimi's Evil Dead horror series, beginning with the short movie Within the Woods (1978). He has also featured in many low-budget cult movies, such as Crimewave (1985), Maniac Cop (1988), Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat (1989), and Bubba Ho-Tep (2002).
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Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party (MNSSHP) is a separate-admission Halloween-themed event held annually during the months of August, September, October, and November at the Magic Kingdom theme park of the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, near Orlando, and at Disneyland Paris Resort outside Paris, France. The party began as a response to the Halloween Horror Nights event at Universal Studios Florida. Disney's event caters to a traditional family atmosphere, whereas Universal's has more of a "fright-centered" event with their monsters.
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OrlandoCon, also known as O'Con, was a long-running comic book and comic strip fan convention which was held annually between 1974 and 1994 in Orlando, Florida. The first comics convention held in the Orlando area, OrlandoCon billed itself as the "Central Florida comic art convention and early TV/film festival." Captain Marvel-creator C. C. Beck was a regular guest of the show; as were many other Golden Age comics creators who lived in the Orlando area.
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This is a timeline of women's suffrage in Florida. Ella C. Chamberlain began women's suffrage efforts in Florida starting in 1892. However, after Chamberlain leaves the state in 1897, suffrage work largely ceases until the next century. More women's suffrage groups are organized, with the first in the twentieth century being the Equal Franchise League in Jacksonville, Florida in 1912. Additional groups are created around Florida, including a Men's Equal Suffrage League of Florida. Suffragists lobby the Florida Legislature for equal suffrage, hold conventions, and educate voters. Several cities in Florida pass laws allowing women to vote in municipal elections, with Fellsmere being the first in 1915. Zena Dreier becomes the first woman to legally cast a vote in the South on June 19, 1915. On May 26, 1919, women in Orlando vote for the first time. After the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, Helen Hunt West becomes the first woman in Florida to register to vote under equal franchise rules on September 7, 1920. Florida does not ratify the Nineteenth Amendment until May 13, 1969.
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