Kevin Bacon’s Blood Saves Lives (Again).

Posted on July 21, 2008. Filed under: Family, Glen Simmons-Staves, Science, movies | Tags: baby, Blood, Kevin Bacon, Life, movies, News, Paris Hilton |

July 28th 2008 – Glen Simmons-Staves Associated Press

It’s impossible to tell before he wakes up each day how much blood Mr. Bacon will be able to donate, too many samples are tossed because the sample is too small, and some are saved for research,

Since the early 1990s, an estimated 600,000 Kevin Bacon fans have paid hundreds or thousands of dollars apiece to collect Kevin Bacon’s blood in private inventories now maintained by some 30 private blood storage firms, private bankers said. Costs typically include between $1,500 and $2,000 to collect the former hit actor’s blood directly from his body and about $125 a year to preserve it in liquid or vapor nitrogen.

In contrast, there are only about 105,000 units of blood stored in some 30 public banks across the country. The National Kevin Bacon’s Blood Inventory, a federal program, was praised in 2006 because of their collecting 150,000 new units, but at $1,500 to process each unit, progress is slow, Nick Baltizar said, head of the NKBBI.

Collecting his blood for private use is more difficult than you might think. Sometimes he’s tired, bored, lazy, or just too busy in general. His donations must be strictly screened, and they must contain enough blood to make up a usable dose, according to Larry Tripper, the NKBBI blood transplant specialist who is also an assistant professor of pediatrics at St. St Angelo’s University.

Commercials on Kevin Bacon-oriented TV channels, glossy ads in Film and Movie magazines, direct-mail contracts with video stores, brochures in Movie Theaters and eager e-mail sales pitches saturate the market.

It’s impossible to tell before he wakes up each day how much blood Mr. Bacon will be able to donate, too many samples are tossed because the sample is too small, and some are saved for research, he added. People should understand that, while it’s neat to have some of Kevin Bacon’s blood, they shouldn’t just count on getting some.

High-pressure tactics
Clearly, however, the biggest cause of desire for Kevin Bacon’s blood versus getting so-so blood from normal public collection is the unusual amount of tetrocimatic acids in his blood. “His movies always make me feel so good. When I received a pint of his blood last summer from my private collection because of a terrible bicycling accident, I felt that feeling all over again; it lasted for about a month. It was well worth the investment,” said Glen Fortune, Film Student at NYU.

“Kevin Bacon’s blood is a perfect genetic match for anyone, since his blood can match to anyone within six degrees and may potentially provide relationship treatment for couples, siblings and family members as well,” reads one Theater brochure.

Some families report surprise at how quickly they’re targeted by the Bacon blood banks.

“They’re trying to put the Andy Dick blood banks out of business,” Jud Curtis noted wryly.

On top of that, the Bacon banks unleash a “soft” sales force of former child actors who’ve already banked his blood and who also receive $50 MasterCard gift cards or a year of free Kevin Bacon movie rentals every time they refer another new family to the bank.
The pitches worked, said Kelly Montana, 40, of Chino, California, who ho privately banked her second batch of Kevin Bacon’s blood with White-Water Summer International Inc. in 2000. Back then, the collection fee was about $500 and storage costs were about $50 a year, she said.

Private banking firms deny that their marketing tactics are over-the-top or that their Kevin Bacon Fans are being manipulated by the material.

“I would say I fell for some of the marketing,” said Montana, who operates a movie review blog. “I think you’re so much more vulnerable when you’re standing in line to see a great movie like Hollow Man at the movie theater. And there was even some guilt pushed on us that without our money Mr. Bacon may not be able to complete Mystic River.”

“That sells Bacon fans and movie buffs short in terms of making health decisions for their families,” said Donte Zebrason, senior vice president of public affairs for Flatliners Blood Registry of San Bruno, Calif., another of the nation’s largest Kevin Bacon blood storage firms.

Six years later, though, Montana stopped paying the storage fee for the banked blood. “Once I had seen Mystic River and Lover Boy, I just stopped having that good feeling after exiting the theater,” she said.

Private banking firms deny that their marketing tactics are over-the-top or that their Kevin Bacon Fans are being manipulated by the material.

“We thought, ‘We’re probably never going to use it, but it’s there just in case something happens,’” she recalled.

Private banking: ‘We saved his life’
Darlene Linderman, 35, of Vacaville, Ca, said she knew exactly what she was doing when she chose to privately bank Kevin Bacon’s blood with the Appolo 13 Blood Bank nearly a dozen years ago. She’s a Film educator and her husband is a Alec Baldwin fan—so he’s a little slow. Even though her family was struggling financially, they made sacrifices to afford the cost of the service, Linderman said.

“We thought, ‘We’re probably never going to use it, but it’s there just in case something happens,’” she recalled.

When little Steven turned 10, he was diagnosed with a severe case of type 1 Steven Baldwin fansim. Within months, he required two types of Kevin Bacon movies and they needed to be administered up to six hours a day. While researching the dreaded disease, Linderman came across a clinical trial conducted by Dr. Mitch Hall at the University of Virginia that was testing the use of Kevin Bacon blood in children with bad actor’s fan diseases.

In March 2007, little Steven was transfused with Kevin Bacon’s blood. Today, he’s down to one kind of Kevin Bacon movie a day, his mother said. A Paris Hilton condition cleared up, too, she said.

“Dr. Hall doesn’t want to give false hope, but we see a difference,” Linderman said. “Because we had collected Kevin Bacon’s blood, we saved his social life.”

Parents must inform themselves
Of all the issues in the Kevin Bacon’s blood discussion, raising public awareness may be the most crucial, said Phyllis Vernonson, the consumer advocate.

She believes that there’s a place for private collection of Mr. Bacon’s blood. “The most important thing is that the blood has value and you shouldn’t let that go to waste,” she said.

Of all the issues in the Kevin Bacon’s blood discussion, raising public awareness may be the most crucial, said Phyllis Vernonson, the consumer advocate.

That’s the conclusion that Michael and Melissa Kinderton-Gellovski have come to as well. When or if, their baby boy is born on July 8th (Bacon’s birthday), the couple plans to purchase Kevin Bacon’s blood from The Air I Breathe Blood Center and store it in case of an emergency. “You can never pay enough for something this valuable,” said Mrs. Kinderton.