My calendar changeth over.

Waiting on Guy Zombardo & the Orchestra to play in the new year...

A prosperous, joyous 2013 to you all!

DUMDUMSHREKPOPthechampagne!

To the Phantom, a phavor.

Welcome, S&P-brains!

I'm taking a tiny break from all my torturing tinkering in the dungeon laboratory to come up to the pub and share a round with everyone. Making monsters is thirsty work!

I see the ol' place has acquired a few more cobwebs and a blanket of dust since I've been away... and it feels just right.

Hey listen, while we're up here relaxing, maybe you can help me out with a little biznizz for a buddy of mine. I sure hope so.

My friend Cortlandt Hull is a legend in the Monster Making world, and probably needs no introduction to most of you loyal S&Pers. You've probably seen him here once or twice -- he doesn't drink much, but he's got some of the best pub-time tales about our favorite monsters (and movie monster makers!) you've ever heard.

The amazing Joe Moe (L), your pubkeep and Cortlandt Hull (R) goofing for the 

camera in front of the always gorgeous Witch's Dungeon display at

Monsterpalooza '11.

Cortlandt is a real ar-teest -- a fantastic painter, makeup artist, graphic designer, illustrator, and most famously to Monster and Hallowe'en Kid fandom, a writer, producer, director and the wonderful horror figure maker and creator of the historic Witch's Dungeon Classic Movie Museum, a Bristol CT monster museum that just this past Fall celebrated its 45TH year delighting and thrilling Monster Kids (and their kids!) every Hallowe'en season.

Well, Cortlandt's latest horror-iffic homage is in the works, and needs the help of all us Kooky Monster Kids.

Just watch this, please. He'll explain everything...



If you would please shamble over to Cortlandt's Kickstarter page for The Phantom of the Opera: Unmasking The Masterpiece and consider any donation you can handle. There are many levels of funding and each comes with its own perks and Phantom-ish swag.

It is more than a worthy project to fund -- it's a chance to help preserve one of the most iconic films in cinema history, and of our Hallowe'en and Monster Kid heritage.

There are only 27 days left to raise the needed funds, and the planned DVD set is going to be such an awesome addition to every avid Horror Lover's movie library that you will be very, very glad you had a part in making it happen.

Please tell your friends, and refer them to the Kickstarter link above.

A toast -- to Cortlandt, the Witch's Dungeon, and getting full funding for Unmasking The Masterpiece...

DUMDUMSHREKPOP!

Dead Wood.

"Greetings my friends. You are interested in the unknown, the mysterious, the unexplainable. That is why you are here.


My friends, can your hearts stand the shocking facts about the 32nd anniversary of the death of Edward D. Wood, Jr.?"

Eddie

(10/10/1924 ---- 12/10/1978)

I've written about him before, and I'm not going to get into it much more deeply here. I just want to note that he's one of my heroes, which might explain my high level of fail half the time, but even as an anti-hero, Ed Wood teaches, and his life is a fascinating and difficult object lesson about self-awareness, self-promotion, and the self-destruction that comes from denial and fear.

 Angora'd, smoke'd, and happy.

 Consecrat'd by Bela. Definitely happy.

On this date in 1978, Wood was found dead of a heart attack in the bedroom of a friend's home, where he'd been living while trying to break himself of his alcohol dependence and get his career back on track.

Sad.

If he'd lived, in just another couple of years, he'd have seen the beginning of his cult-like following, and become the darling of every horror and sci-fi convention throughout the last few decades.

He likely would have found plenty of legitimate, established Hollywood talent begging to be a part of his next project.

As it is, he's at least being remembered and appreciated -- if not for his skill or talent, then for his early optimism, ambition and inspiring mediocrity.

Until we get you your cenotaph at Hollywood Forever Cemetery...

                                        ... rest in peace, at sea, Edward Davis Wood Jr.

 

And remember...

Future events such as these, will affect you in the future.

DUMDUMSHREKPULLDESTRINGK!

"Girls, do NOT come alone..."

"... you will have nightmares for a week!"

It's good to see all of you again. I have been very busy with all kinds of silliness, and I've been missing my regular visits to the S&P.

I see you've been taking good care of the place, as ever. I appreciate it.

Most of you are aware that I am a working performer, musician, singer, yada-bada-dada. I have always been enamoured of the stage, and of theatres -- the older and darker and more haunted, the better!

Over this past week or so, I've had occasion to visit one of the older theatres in my hometown (which is full of them). This one had been around for decades, but had fallen into disuse for a number of years, and is now being fixed up for another run of shows.

No, it's not an opera house from the '20s or anything as exotic as that, but it's still been around a long time, and is plenty dark and dusty and full of black corners and catwalks and 'mind your step's and 'whatever you do, do not stand there's... and in one or two of the darkest, dustiest corners, a 2x4 being used as a shelf -- a long dead 9 volt battery, a piece of black trickline string, a pencil with a rubber band coiled around it, a receipt for something or other, a cigarette butt stuck in years-old coffee dregs like a broken brown crayon at the bottom of a styrofoam cup.

Excellent.

Now... it should come as no surprise to anyone who has been paying even a little attention to the entries here that every time, I mean every time I'm in an empty theatre, my immediate thought is "Oh man! This would be the perfect place to put on a midnight spook show!"

Of course I do.

The midnight spook show. The ghost frolic. The mix of stage magic, monsters and blackouts. A once-beloved American theatrical tradition, now long dead...

One of the greatest inspirations in my desire to one day (well, one dark midnight, to be precise) put on a ghost frolic of my own was published in 1991 by magician, writer and tireless researcher/collector Mark Walker...

Ghostmasters is a remarkable book, full of rare images and fascinating stories about the performers, the shows, the theatres, and the incredible birth, life and death of the American movie house midnight spook show.

The book has been out of print for some time now, and prices (when you can find a copy) begin at around $40 (I've been seeing pristine hardcovers selling for over $100 recently!). I thought a glance at some of the contents might be a fun show and tell around the fireplace for those of you who aren't lucky enough to have this volume in your collection. It's always available for perusal in the Library here at the S&P.

Here are some of the numerous adverts on display throughout the book, posters full of colorful invective, incredible claims, and stunning imagery:

Most shows followed a simple formula: at midnight, the show begins with magic tricks, stage illusions, seances and sight gags, building up to the Big Blackout, then the movies start.

Some shows were more comedic than frightening, others went for the jugular trying to scare the audience witless.

The most talked about and important aspect of the ghost show was the Blackout, when for a very brief time (three minutes was a standard) all the lights in the theatre would be extinguished (even EXIT signs in the '30s and '40s!) and the audience would be treated to a menagerie of glow-in-the-dark madness in the form of flying ghosts, skeletons, giant spiders, worms (wet mop strings), bats, all kinds of creepy things dropping, flying, screaming all 'round them.

Using simple decorations and props like these:

... the performer and his assistants would delight and terrify their audiences into a frenzy:

This rare picture was snapped in mid-blackout by an assistant to the magician Philip Morris during one of his '50s spook shows. I love the kid with his fingers in his ears, and the guy sitting on his buddy's lap...

The midnight spook show was a financial powerhouse for many years, and a staple of American theatrical culture for nearly 40 years (though by the late '50s it was already a dying art, there were still touring spook shows well into the '70s). Many performers like Bill Neff, Philip Morris, Francisco, El-Wyn, Greystoke, and even the legendary Blackstone all spent years, some decades, bringing American moviegoers a bit of Hallowe'en when they came to town.

After WWII, the classic Monsters began to take their place in the festivities:

This backdrop for Dr. Silkini's Frankenstein set needs to be clicked and enlarged to be appreciated fully. Amazing.

In 1947, Bela Lugosi added his dark charms to a tour from master spook show magician Bill Neff.

Oh, the spook show was successful alright...

By the way, when was the last time you saw a billboard that large displaying mayonnaise?

I could go on and on. 

Wouldn't it be a swell thing to have a midnight spook show again?

Oh, I know there are magicians who do a one or two night special performance, usually around Hallowe'en, and that is always welcome and fun... but wouldn't it be something to have a real, honest-to-goodness American midnight spook frolic in a real, honest-to-goodness old dark theatre in the middle of Summer on Saturday nights? 

One of these days... one of these days...

BE-SPIDERED!