One Last Party – Fun Night for Tolkien Fans

By fandomventures in Archives on March 3, 2015April 22, 2021

One Last Party

hosted by TheOneRing.net

Hollywood, California
February 21, 2015

The One Ring.net group has hosted several Oscar parties throughout the years of the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit films being released. This year, the last Hobbit film was released, and TORN had an Indiegogo campaign to raise the funds to host “One Last Party” to celebrate the six films. I had heard about but had never attended these parties, and really didn’t want to miss out on this party. The only way to buy tickets to the party with dinner was through the Indiegogo campaign and it wasn’t cheap. I really didn’t have the money to spend, but I felt that it would be worth eating Top Ramen for a week to attend.

There were plenty of meetups leading up to the big party on Saturday night, so even though I was attending the party alone, I had plenty of people to hang out with at the party. I often go to movies and plays alone and it doesn’t bother me as it does most people. This party is huge (500 guests), and it’s not something I would normally do alone. TORN set up an event page on Facebook and it helped me get to know some people and also see what other little things people would be doing while in Los Angeles.

People came from all over the world for this party, and, though I’ve lived in Los Angeles for 15 years, I wanted to do some of the touristy things with them since I’ve not been or done a lot of those things. There was a meet-up at the Hilton Garden Inn bar on Friday night at 7:30pm, and I had set-up a visit to the Getty Center for anyone who was interested in going. The meet-up at the bar was a fun and casual way to get to know some people.

(Side Note: I did leave the bar early because there was a midnight screening at the Vista Theatre of The Princess Bride with a book signing and Q and A with Cary Elwes. If you live in the LA area, I highly recommend following Nerds Like Us on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook for their monthly midnight movie screenings.)

Another event was set up for visiting the Page Museum and The La Brea Tar PitsSaturday morning before the big party. I’ve walked around the Tar Pits, but I’d never been to the Page Museum so I was definitely interested in going. (I’ll post more on that later.)

Party Day:

The party was being held at the American Legion in Hollywood, and I would have taken the Metro Rail to get there except that I was afraid the Hollywood and Highland station would be closed early due to the Oscars happening on Sunday. Luckily, TORN, sent an email saying that the parking would be free! Yay! I took a little nap and woke up late and didn’t really have time to do my hair or makeup properly, but I’m not good at hair and makeup anyway.

The party and check-in started at 5:30pm and I arrived to the line at about 5:45pm.

Upon check-in we received an envelope with our dinner time, 2 raffle tickets, goody bag ticket, and 2 drink tickets.

There was a green screen photobooth set up outside, but I wanted to get inside and see everything (and eat!). I found the dining room, and got my food. I found a seat and saw one of the girls I had taken to the Page Museum (since I was local I gave rides to anyone who needed it from the Hollywood & Highland Center to the Tar Pits). She got her food and came to sit with me. There were several Gandalfs and one stopped by our table and did a magic trick for Iris. It was pretty cool and very fun!

The dining room of the American Legion for the One Last Party

After dinner, we went back upstairs to the ballroom and found some seats. I had worn a coat and brought a large purse to hold my SLR camera as well as makeup for touchups and my wallet. I saw everyone else with small evening purses and no coats, and I thought I had made a mistake bringing such cumbersome items with me, but these came in handy to save our seats when we got up to walk around, enter our raffle tickets or get drinks. The line for the photo booth was a good 40 minutes so I liked having a seat to give my feet a rest. The best thing about the photo booth is what made the line so long. You could take the picture, then pick which background you wanted to be in. Then you are resized to fit the background (usually one of the posters, but I picked the Smaug image.)

Video greeting from Peter Jackson

Sala Baker

Video greeting from Adam Brown

Emerald Rose performing at the One Last Party

Celtic Band Emerald Rose

California Dreamers performing at the One Last Party

1st performance by the California Dreamers

It’s funny that with the VIPs there, I actually only spoke with CJ Henderson from the Wicked Tinkers when I recognized him. I had a nice conversation with Bernie from Nerds Like Us, too! I was really surprised to see him and I mentioned that I’ve gone to a few of their screenings including The Princess Bride the night before. Nerds Like Us also hosts a Club Cosplay at various comic conventions as well as around Los Angeles and Orange Counties, even San Diego!

CJ Henderson of the Wicked Tinkers (R -In Kilt)

Singing Gandalf!

Since I wasn’t doing much dancing, I really wish I had taken more pictures of the amazing costumes many of the guests were wearing.

Kirstie came all the way from Australia and made a beautiful Arwen

3 Galadriels

Having fun recreating one of The Hobbit posters on the walls

Having fun with the poster

Fantastic Thranduil cosplay at the One Last Party

I had to get a picture taken with this amazing Thranduil cosplay - One Last Party

Some Tolkien elves dancing at the One Last Party

Great Dwarf cosplay at the One Last Party

I had a great time and even ran into a colleague (technically a supervisor) from work at the very end of the evening. I had recently found out she and her husband were Tolkien fans, and I expected her to be there, but I didn’t want to ask at work. She was in complete shock when she saw me, especially as I had been there about as long as she had.

The decorations were really fantastic!