Their comic tendencies picked up momentum during Jim Black’s first period chem class of their junior year (1977-78). A host of new groupies joined in on the fun...accelerated brains from the PCS class of 1980, equivalents to Pasteur and Von Braun.

Soon, a play called "The Wizard of Kansas" was completed, instigated by Delmo Milne and his sister Moira. Chem Class associates Lee Burgess, Mary Frair, Preston V., Sandy Nothem, Mike Schott, and others quickly (and unbeknownst to them) became characters in the play. "The Wizard of Kansas" got rave reviews from the five or six people that wrote the damn thing.

The next natural step was to move from playwrights to filmmakers. After consulting with Dustin Hoffman (Bob Connell Sr. knew a few important media people, including Bob Flowers and others), they stole the Pancio family super 8mm movie camera, purchased one roll of film at Blumenthals, and headed off for the Big Apple.

Unable to afford gasoline for the Connell VW Beetle, Jerry, Boomer and Milney bummed a ride on Deano’s riding mower, but only made it to North Union in Olean. There, they hooked up with Russ Pancio at G & G Music. A quick phone call to playboy Joe Snyder and the dudes had themselves a cameraman.

Total fans of Lennon and McCartney, they threw together a lip-synced movie version of "Get Back", all done in one take, and lasting about 3 minutes in length.

Dubbed "The Beatles Film," the endeavor signaled their entrance into legendary cult film status. Word quickly spread around PCS circles about their creative genius, after the music video debuted in Anderson’s health class.

"That’s when I started feeling a lot more loved and accepted by a larger peer group...a personal and crucial developmental landmark. Before that, I often felt like Aaron Burr at the Hamilton family reunion," reflected Milney in a recent interview.
"But we may have fallen into relative obscurity if it hadn’t been for our regular doses of Apple Records, Mary Jane, Eleanor Rigby, SNL, and Monty Python," Milne expounded.

Pan-Con’s youngest member, Rob Pockalny, noted in a "Good Housekeeping" article, "It cultivated a Shakespearean spirit that was driven by sexual changes, boredom, and rock music".

One fateful day after track practice, Jr. class members Con and Snydes were joined by fellow artist, Renny, in kidnapping the senior mascot, a Tigger stuffed animal. The unplanned event triggered bullshittin’ sessions around Moke’s Chevy Nova, and the boys decided to make a movie of Tigger’s jungle capture and return.

Fresh on the heels of their success with the Beatles’ spoof, Pancio was informed of the idea at an emergency executive meeting that Boomer called. The pre-production wheels were put in motion by the Pan-Con machine.

Calls were made to heavyweights like Dan Aykroyd, Steve Martin, Belushi, Colonel Klink, and Dom Deluise, but the crew decided to go with the local talent pool of Appalachian hicks.

"Project Tigger" was filmed in one drizzly day at the Dodge Creek portal into the Irish Basin wilderness. Gary Swetland was chosen as the commander of an army patrol team whose mission was to capture and return the doll to the senior class.

The team members included Pan, Con, Snyder, Renny, Moke, and Warney. Native babes Cindy Harrison, Sue Wormer and Sandy Nothem completed the makeshift cast. In the name of art and school spirit, the filming gang had to skip school all day to accomplish their bold task and meet the deadline of the Junior-Senior Banquet. banquet.

Renny notes, "We had primitive technology that now reminds me of the opening scene from 2001. Forced to engulf tons of literature and live up to high social standards, we needed to purge ourselves of data and information in a twisted, creative way that continues to be analyzed by entertainment historians."

Undaunted, the teens threw together an adventure that was filmed while romping through the woods for several hours up in Obi, New York.

Limited to a shoestring budget, a few rolls of film, and minimal skill, filming Project Tigger was an experiment in the elementary aspects of motion picture. The level of sophistication was only one step up from Edison’s machine and not even a "talky."

Pan and Con edited the silent footage, and all the crew members anticipated the film’s opening at the Junior-Senior Banquet on Prom night, 1978.
Boomer narrated the story from the banquet podium, and the project was a huge success with the mixed crowd of teachers, administrators, and students. The actual return of Tigger to senior hands was the apex of the memorable event, propelling Pan-Con into the next thirty years of gradual stardom.

Like most other adolescent males, their main motivation for doing the film was quite basic: "to get laughs and to get babes", according to Warney.

"Pan-Con became famous in Portville on that night," noted Milney in a recent interview. "Taking advantage of their new star status, Moke and Swetland became bigger chick magnets, roles that carried them through high school like single studs on a ocean cruise."

Fueled by the anticipated calls from Tinseltown, Pan and Con whipped up a short list of actors who could advance the troupe’s cause. Swetland, Hoffman, and Belushi declined the offer to join the elite crew. Undaunted, Pan-Con Productions went ahead with a full force of creativity.

Pan-Con History Continued Here