Showing posts with label Dark Shadows. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dark Shadows. Show all posts

Thursday, October 31, 2019

SOME HORROR COMICS OF MINE

Here are the covers of some horror comics I have. I have more somewhere. If I find them before tomorrow, I will post them. Click on them to enlarge.










Saturday, December 24, 2016

CHRISTMAS MOVIE CONNECTIONS TO HORROR MOVIES


In an earlier post, I listed how many of our favorite Christmas movies were connected. Since I love to watch horror films at Halloween, I decided to show how many of the Christmas films have a connection to some famous horror films watched at Halloween.

Henry Travers, who played Clarence in It's a Wonderful Life and Horace Bogardus in Bells of St. Mary, also played Dr. Cranley in The Invisible Man.

Lionel Barrymore, who played Old Man Potter in It's a Wonderful Life, was in the Mark of the Vampire and The Devil Doll, which takes place at Christmas time.

Una O'Conner, who played Mrs. Breen in Bells of St. Mary and Norah in Christmas In Connecticut, in most famous for her roles in The Invisible Man and Bride of Frankenstein.

Ernest Thesiger, best known at Dr. Pretorius in Bride of Frankenstein, Horace Femm in Old Dark House and Laing in The Ghoul, plays the undertaker in the future sequence in the 1951 movie Scrooge.


Edmund Gwenn, who played Kris Kringle in Miracle of 34th Street, was in the horror films The Walking Dead (1936) with Boris Karloff and Them! (1954), which also starred James Whitmore (above with Gwenn), James Arness, Fess Parker and Leonard Nimoy.

Ramsey Mostoller designed the costumes for Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. He designed the costumers for Dark Shadows, as well as the movies House of Dark Shadows and Night of Dark Shadows.


Jose Elias Moreno, who played Santa Claus in the 1959 Mexican film by the same title, played Dr. Krallman in Night of the Bloody Apes.



Bob Clark, who directed The Christmas Story, also directed Black Christmas and Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things.


And last but not least, Roberts Blossom (that's how he spelled it), who played spooky Old Man Marley in Home Alone, played the Ed Gein-like Ezra Cobb (above) in the 1974 horror classic Deranged. Maybe that is why Kevin was afraid of him.

Sunday, October 16, 2016

DARK SHADOWS TITLE BUMPER CARD


Here is a title bumper card (I think that is what they are called) for Dark Shadows. This is obviously later in the run of the show (1970), because it features Roxanne Drew (Donna Wandrey), who was Barnabas Collins love interest at the time. Also, you'll notice Jonathan Frid's hair is not in those plastered bangs that he wore in the earlier episodes.

The title bumper card usually was seen when the network was having "technical difficulties."


Thursday, October 29, 2015

SCARY RANDOM HORROR TRIVIA



Stuntman Alex Stevens was the werewolf (top photo) on Dark Shadows. He also was the clumsy baker (bottom photo) at the end of the counting sequences on Sesame Street. On Dark Shadows, they used a sound effects for the growl (sometimes badly slip cued). On Sesame Street, they overdubbed the voice of Jim Henson, announcing the number of fancy pastries he was going to drop on the way down the stairs.

Speaking of baking, Vincent Price's grandfather invented baking powder.

At the time he was making Night of the Living Dead, George Romero and his Image Ten production company was also making the "Picture Picture" sequences for Mister Rogers Neighborhood.

The mid-60s British horror film The Deadly Bees, features an uncredited appearance by the British band The Birds (referred to on MST3K as "The Skinnys") which featured guitarist Ron Wood, later of the Jeff Beck Group, The Faces and the Rolling Stones.

Actor/director Paul Naschy wrote several paperback Western's under the name Jack Mills.

Donnie Dunagan, who played Basil Rathbone's son in Son of Frankenstein, was also the voice of Bambi.


At the time she made The Brain That Wouldn't Die, actress Virginia Leith (above), who played "Jan in the Pan," was married to actor Donald Harron, best known as KORN newscaster Charlie Farquharson on Hee Haw.

Actor David Hess, who played Krugg in the original Last House On the Left, wrote Pat Boone's hit song, "Speedy Gonzales."

Lon Chaney Sr. made more than 150 movies in his lifetime, but only 40 of them survive intact. One of the lost films is London After Midnight, which was remade as Mark of the Vampire.

The 70s Ghost Busters

The 70s Monster Squad

Besides being cult horror comedies of the 80s, Ghost Busters and The Monster Squad both share their names with live action Saturday morning TV shows of the 70s.

Wes Craven named Freddy Kruger after a kid that used to beat him up in school.

The term "horror" as a movie genre was not used until 1934.

To make his face appear sunken, Boris Karloff took out his bridge work, while playing the Frankenstein monster.

Valarie Hobson, who was in Werewolf of London and Bride of Frankenstein, was later married to British politician John Profumo, who was involved in the sex scandal that was the subject of the 1989 film Scandal.

Mexican actor German Robles was the first movie vampire to have fangs. This was in the 1957 film The Vampire. The second was Christopher Lee in 1958's Horror of Dracula.

Fredric March was the first actor to win an Oscar for a horror movie for the 1931 version of Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde.

Speaking of Fredric March: A play by Alberto Casella, "La Morte in vacanza," was filmed twice. First as Death Takes a Holiday (1934) with Fredric March and Meet Joe Black (1998) with Brad Pitt. Brad Pitt also lived in a mansion March had built while he was making Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde.

The 1932 film The Mummy was not based on a fictional work but an original idea from Universal Pictures. Much of the film was parallel to the 1931 movie Dracula. The ankh was used a substitute for the crucifix. Edward Van Sloan's character, Dr. Muller, is similar to Dr. Van Helsing, which he also played in Dracula. Both use Swan Lake as their opening theme song.


The original design of the Creature from the Black Lagoon was based on the Oscar statue. The final design was created by a woman named Millicent Patrick (above), who was also an artist for Disney. She was not given credit for the design.


In an interview, actress Lenore Aubert (left) said making Abbott & Costello Meets Frankenstein was stressful because she was suffering from stomach flu and most of her wardrobe for the film consisted of white dresses.

The human characters from Scooby Doo were originally designed for a cartoon based on the TV series The Many Loves of Dobbie Gillis, to cash in on the success of the Archie cartoon series.

Bette Davis was unavailable to overdub some of her dialog in the made for TV horror film, The Dark Secret of Harvest Home. She asked for it to be overdubbed by actor/comedian Michael Greer, who stared in the horror film The Messiah of Evil. She had seen his imitation of her on the Tonight Show.



Artist Gene Colan based the look of the Marvel Comics Dracula on actor Jack Palance. One year later, in 1973, Palance played Dracula in a made for TV movie. 







 
  


Saturday, October 10, 2015

DESDINOVA'S HALLOWEEN PODCAST 1

I love Halloween oriented music and think it should be on the radio for at least a week before Halloween. Many of the big corporate radio stations will probably start playing Christmas music this month. I've decided to give you more than one podcast this month. They will be filled with Halloween music and horror movie trailers. Enjoy!


BTW: This podcast contains the following:
  • "In the Hall of the Mountain King" - Sounds Inc.
  • "Halloween Mary" - P. F. Sloan
  • "The Pumpkin Man" - The Little Golden Records Orchestra
  • "My Girlfriend Is a Witch" - October Country
  • "The Monster Hop" - Bert Convey
  • "Werewolves of London" - Warren Zevon
  • "Creature with the Atom Brain" - Roky Erickson
  • "Batman, Wolfman, Frankenstein and Dracula" - The Diamonds
  • "Barnabas Theme from Dark Shadows" - The First Theremin Era

 

Sunday, September 20, 2015

DESDINOVA'S PODCAST 5: ANOTHER TRIP TO THE PSYCHEDELIC LIMITS




Next podcast will not be Psychedelic Limits. However, this one is and it will flow through your brain with The First Edition, Chocolate Watch Band, Small Faces, Fever Tree, Electric Prunes, John's Children, Cream, Love and a censored version of a Monkees song. Along with appearances by Blue Boy, Barnabas Collins, Charlie Sheen, and Dr. Migilito Loveless. Also Leigh French forecast the weather, Dan Rowan forecast the future of the post office, John Newland eats mushrooms, and a little kid sees "ding dongs."

Saturday, June 6, 2015

DESDINOVA'S PODCAST 2

Here is the second podcast mix of retro mayhem. Featuring the music of Marshall Hain, Teegarden & Van Winkle, Diesel and Lighthouse. Enjoy!

Saturday, November 1, 2014

THE THINGS THAT CAME FROM DESDINOVA'S LAIR

Trying out an new camera by taking photos of some things in my apartment for Halloween/monster kids.
When the batteries were good, this little guy would say, "Boo! Did I scare you?"

An original Shadow novel from the 30s.







Speaking of shadows, an original copy of the Dark Shadows soundtrack LP with the poster included.

The Eerie 1972 Annual

This is a mangled library copy of the Crestwood Frankenstein book. I bought this at a Friends of the Library sale. I believe it was in the Springfield R-12 Public Schools library system. To answer you Seinfeld fans out there, there were no "pee-pees or wee-wee" drawn on the monster, but I believe one page is missing. Below is what the book looked like in good condition.






And I leave you with a selfie of me.







 

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

A SCARY #THROWBACK THURSDAY

A #throwbackthursday featuring scary, monster people.

LON CHANEY
LON CHANEY Jr (His hair was perfect)
BELA LUGOSI
BORIS KARLOFF
VINCENT PRICE
ALFRED HITCHCOCK
ROD SERLING (with his parents)
STEVEN KING
COFFIN JOE
JONATHAN FRID/BARNABAS COLLINS
ALICE COOPER
OZZY OSBOURNE

Thursday, September 11, 2014

HOW IS THIS FOR A #THROWBACK THURSDAY?

Many people on Facebook have a photo for Throwback Thursday or #throwbackthursday. I found some photos on Pinterest recently that I decided would be fun for a #throwbackthursday feature for this blog. Remember when you were a kid thinking that older people "were never young"? Well, here are some #throwbackthursday photos of some familiar older ladies of TV "back in the day."

MRS. C

MAUDE

MAMA CARLSON

ENDORA


JESSICA FLETCHER

GRANDMAMA ADDAMS

JULIA CHILD

DR. JULIA HOFFMAN

GRANNY CLAMPETT

AUNT BEA

MAW MAW THOMPSON

JUDGE JUDY
COUSIN MINNIE PEARL

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