RONDO REMEMBERS!

Ron Adams goes back to the 1960s-1980s...growing up with monsters, music and days filled with fun. A pop culture ball of wax from days gone by.

The Space Age

I'm remembering one of my earliest memories of getting a toy I thought was cool. Nope, it wasn't a monster toy...but those followed very quickly. I was probably three or four years old. I was with my mom at G.C. Murphy's store in Grove City, PA. I'm thinking 1962 or 1963. So I was young...three or four years old. We all called Murphy's the "Five-and-Ten." Decades earlier you could probably buy a lot of stuff for five or ten cents. The toy....a John Glenn silver plastic ring. He was the man that went into space! The first American to orbit our planet.

That little plastic ring said a lot to me. I was just a little boy, but I knew it meant adventure, excitement, the mysterious world of space. I thought that kind of adventure was for me! It stirred this kid's imagination. Thanks mom, don't know if I ever thanked you enough for that little plastic ring. It had John Glenn's face in a space helmet on it in relief. I had it for a while because I remember some of the silver paint on it chipping off a little. It revealed black plastic underneath.

Then things escalated as we wound through the sixties. More space shots, the moon was a destination. Wow. My mom bought the 45 R.P.M. record "Telstar" by The Tornados, I would ask her to play it over and over. Astronauts drank Tang (an orange drink). I had to have some...although I never liked it. Regular orange juice tasted better. There were plastic astronauts in all sizes. Spacemen were incorporated in my favorite comic books. Sci-fi movies on TV with my dad and I watching.

Then the end of the sixties neared. The moon mission was on. Walter Cronkite, CBS newscaster, was on television showing mock-ups of what would happen. A hot July afternoon....and my mom, sister and I headed to a neighbors who had a big TV to watch as Neil Armstrong took that first step out onto the moon. The radio delay in communication between Mission Control here on Earth and the astronauts only added to the anticipation and excitement.

We were in space and on the moon. I had been imagining all this adventure in advance with the comic books I read, the movies I saw, and pictures of space films in FAMOUS MONSTERS magazine. That John Glenn ring said it all to me when I was three or four years old.

Ron Adams
Ligonier, PA
May 2020

Read your remembrances about the Apollo 11 and before. I'm thinking You're in my age range (12/07/61 for Me) and I certainly recall most of it, although at 7, I really was more put out that I couldn't watch my cartoons. We had just moved to Jonesboro Arkansas and remember my Grandmother visiting and in the yard with me pointing up to the Moon explaining more of what it meant. Later during that Xmas of 69, my Mom drove Me and my Brother to Sandusky OH to visit Godparents. Believe we went past Neil Armstrongs Home, as least that's what she told Me. I also wasn't crazy about Tang, but I sure did like Space Food Sticks-do You remember them?

-Steve Schimming, NH

Steven I'm a bit older than you...tail end of the 1950s for me. I don't know how Space Sticks eluded me. Maybe mom steared me away from them in the aisles knowing that I'd be begging for them! Ha! -Ron

You’re right about Tang.  For as popular as it was (probably because of America sending astronauts into space), it really wasn’t that good.  More or less glorified Kool-Aid.

-Bernie Sherry, PA

You mentioned Tang, but let's not overlook that other staple of a Sixties Spaceman diet:  SPACE FOOD STICKS!  I always took a couple with me to Little League practice. 

-Bob Statzer, Richmond, IN

Dear Mr. Adams,

Another great newsletter.
Astronauts were our heroes back then. When I was 5 I had my Major Matt Mason action figure, and I remember well watching an episode of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood where he had actual astronauts with moon rocks on his show.

My first Halloween costume was that of an astronaut.

I also used to listen to a .45 single my parents had of JFK's famous "We choose to go to the moon" speech.

-Kevin Browne, CA

 

Late at Night...Parents Asleep...The Glow of the TV

While most of my movie viewing on TV, when I was a kid, was done Saturday nights at 8:30PM, after school or weekend afternoons, there were some late night memorable scares.

These late night movie viewings were, more often than not, done alone. I'm talking movies that started around midnight or later. I bet I am not alone in taking in some chills from solitary viewings in a living room with the lights out, parents asleep and the sound low (as not to wake those who may not approve). The bluish glow of the screen would flicker and weakly illuminate the room like an electronic lantern.

A few of these events were branded in my brain.

I saw a lot of the European, dubbed films from Italy, Spain or Germany on WOR-TV out of Secaucus, New Jersey...New York metro. They included bizarre films like THE TORTURE CHAMBER OF DR. SADISM (with a forest of hanging corpses), DR. TARR'S TORTURE DUNGEON (Trippy weirdness, Mom would have had a fit), SLAUGHTER OF THE VAMPIRES, and one that made my head spin...THE HOUSE THAT SCREAMED. I could not believe my eyes on that last one. This was on TV?! A "girl's school" that featured a pretty risque shower scene, strange relationships and a young teenage boy that crawled in the ventilation system to be a "Peeping Tom" and kept mummified body pieces in a hidden room. Oh, my...this was no Universal Frankenstein movie.

Also, there was cool stuff that major network, CBS, would screen at 11:30PM on their THE CBS LATE MOVIE. I remember watching a lot of the Hammer and 1970s AIP films (that were still fairly new at the time) on this forum. My Jr. High buddy Kevin Slick and I watched DRACULA, PRINCE OF DARKNESS in his parent's family room, lights out and a bowl of pretzels. I believe it was THE CBS LATE MOVIE where I first saw THE HAUNTING (1963)...alone. The hair standing up on the back of my neck. The other one that did that, late night, was THE INNOCENTS (1961) when you see the woman-ghost across the lake in a black dress. Yeeeowww.

Then, when visiting my grandparents on many a weekend, it was more late night viewings. Lights out, everyone in bedrooms...except me. The TV tuned to Pittsburgh's CHILLER THEATER with host Bill Cardille. One distinct night I was watching ISLAND OF TERROR (1967) with Peter Cushing. Those tentacled "blob-things" killing people...and there I was, my chin retaining the coarse fabric pattern of my grandparents Adams' sofa arm. Imaging those creatures sliding across the kitchen floor, just a room away.

There's a special, memorable fear that locked itself in the back of my head from those late night viewings.

Ron Adams
Ligonier, PA
June 2020

You have done it again my friend..you're talking about CBS Late Movie Showings and I just found this EXTREMELY rare CBS Late Movie footage from Oct 1972 (!), footage I've gotten from a collector out of Chicago which I wanted to share with you. You may have actually seen this showing. Click link below to view; it's only a couple mins. long; please watch all the way through. Really neat to see this since the movie in question was actually having it's US TV premiere showing on CBS Late Movie + there's a neat TV commercial at the end for another interesting film.

Enjoy being transported back to 1972:

https://1drv.ms/v/s!Asi9_qXSIyHJgRl1Ws2atXEEnBT1?e=UygWjS

Dear Ron...once again, another warm fuzzy from the cerebral vault of memories.

My singular vivid memory of late night, sneaking around the house to watch monster movies involves a purely accidental moment. It was a Friday night/Saturday morning around 1:30 a.m. in 1972. I woke up suddenly to use the bathroom. Afterward, I noticed the blueish glow from our living room television set. Upon entering the room, I noticed the big feet of my father's hanging off the end of our sofa. I crept in, careful to not wake Dad. I eased onto the sofa to see what he had fallen asleep to. Well, of course in sinister black-and-white, was Night of the Living Dead on WABC-TV, channel 7 in New York City. Of all the scenes in that movie for an 8 year old to see for the first time, mine was the scene where the Living Dead were devouring the guts and intestines....slobbering,, slurping, and gurgling!! My eyes bugged! What a sight to behold for a Little Monster Kid.

Well, Dad never did stir and I returned to bed after several more minutes of Night of the Living Dead. Whenever I sit down to watch that George Romero film now, I always remember that dark night in our livingroom back in 1972 when my 8 year old eyes first stayed up past my bedtime to unexpectedly catch a late night Monster movie on television...all without Mom and Dad finding out. You gotta have your memories...good stuff to revisit.

Chris Moniz
Cortlandt Manor, N.Y.

Hi Ron, I did have a chance to read your Rondo Remembers: Late at Night...Parents...The Glow of the TV:

Late at night, was a given when it came to Friday and Saturday nights in the 1970's and 80's. THE CBS LATE MOVIE, so many fond memories and scares to go with it, my friend. My first exposure to the Hammer Horror World was on THE CBS LATE SHOW. The first Hammer film, I did see was Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1969), when Castle Dracula is exorcised by the Monsignor, events leading up to this brings Count Dracula back to life. He is hellbent on revenge and preys on the Monsignor's niece and friends! To me it is one of the best of all the Dracula films Hammer produced.

Others on THE CBS LATE SHOW included: Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969), again another first, with this the 5th installment in the Frankenstein series from Hammer, but the first I would see, CUSHING, Veronica Carlson, Freddie Jones, Simon Ward and another failed attempted to make his creation perfect.

Village of the Damned (1960), celebrating 60 years this month (UK). Sanders, Shelley, Stephens and a village of extraordinary mutant children and its sequel Children of the Damned (1964) similar storyline with the mutant children destroyed once again.

Also, Theatre of Blood (Vincent and Diana) with revenge, murder in very interesting ways and Price at his melodramatic best. One of my favorites, Willard (1971) a social misfit, played brilliantly by Bruce Davidson, befriends a rat, who has many other friends, RATS (LOL)!

With cable television in its infancy, we were lucky to get the Boston channel WSBK, which introduced me to many of those super-sleuths/agents! Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson (I was able to watch all 14 of that classic series,) with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce.

Then Peter Lorre as Japanese secret agent; Mr. Kentaro Moto: and I saw all 8 of this fun and action-packed series! And let us not forget WOR-TV in Secaucus, NJ, just a few miles away from my home in Garfield, NJ. And yes, some bizarre and low-budget B-Horror movies: The House that Screamed (1969), Slaughter of the Vampires (1962), has a newly wed couple move into a mysterious mansion. Now what could possibly go wrong in this instance (LOL).

And at least once a month a cult film by William Castle, that I just loved as a kid, Let's Kill Uncle (1966) a 12-year-old orphan who has just inherited a fortune is trapped on an island with his uncle, a former British intelligence commander who intends to kill him? Who can forget the pool with the shark, just waiting for his next prey!

So being a Monster Generation Kid, bring on all those creatures that roam in the night, and those murder mysteries to keep us guessing of who the real culprit (s) and murderers are that committed (Note: I should be committed staying up so late to watch such films-LOL) those deadly and often ingenious and horrible crimes. And for those wondering, the volume was low and a towel was across the bottom of the door. Really, did you think I would advertise to mom and dad I was up watching these movies-Ha-Ha-Ha!

Sincerely,
Steve Wyka
Wallington, NJ

 

Rondo Remembers: 8mm Retro Movie Making!

When I was in 6th grade I met a kid that also like monster movies. His name was Bruce Guerney. We'd visit each other's houses listening to vinyl records of things like Orson Welles' WAR OF THE WORDS broadcast, old SUSPENSE radio shows, CHLLING THRILLING SOUNDS OF THE HAUNTED HOUSE and FAMOUIS MONSTERS SPEAKS. One time I was over at his house and we talked about how cool it would be to make our own monster movies. Like lightning struck him, he said he would ask his dad if he could borrow his dad's 8mm movie camera. It was used for chronicling family outings...but, soon, it would be the vehicle for making monster movies.

Bruce got the okay and bought some film. That was the beginning of a series of horror and science films that lasted about five to ten minutes each. There was space footage. Bruce came up with using black poster board with holes poked in it and a bright light behind to create a star field. He did some test dinosaur claymation. Then we began in earnest.

Our biggest epic was something called CURSE OF THE FURFACE! I can't remember if Bruce actually got permission, but he cut a chunk out of a fur coat of his mother's! He applied the fur to my face using stop-motion. I became a rack-shamble werewolf ("The Furface") and did things like jumping out of a tree house to attack Bruce's little brother. Yes, ketchup was involved. We never realized how bad ketchup could start smelling in the hot sun. There was another film that involved packing oatmeal on my face with stop-motion. Ever try to get dried oatmeal off your face. Ouch!

I was lucky enough to have another friend, Dave Lewis, that also had access to an 8mm camera. We made more home made films. They included THE PHANTOM OF THE ATTIC....me wearing a fake cape and always with a red filter light. A NOSFERATU kinda crazy thing where I was discovered in an old home's attic and came down to terrorize. We had seen NOSFERATU where Murnau utilized stop-motion in a few scenes for a jittery effect. We did the same with "The Phantom" popping across a room.

There was also a renegade little move we made called BADGER. We were in 10th grade at this point. BADGER was a Clint Eastwood/Charles Bronson type vigilante film. Dave came up with some pretty amazing way to do "bullet hits" with fake blood. I was Badger wearing my fake leather jacket and an overly-serious attitude! Downtown State College, PA was the background, subbing for New York City. Many scenes set in a parking garage where we couldn't be seen too much. A filming permit? What was that? We just got chased out of places, like a local donut shop.

I know I was not alone in trying to make movies when I was a kid, like the ones we loved to watch. I sure wish I could track down Bruce or Dave to see if those films still exist. I've tried. I haven't seen them since the 1970s.

See Monster Kid movies on this Monster Bash link: https://www.monsterbashnews.com/8mmMonsterMovies.html

If you have vintage home made monster movies you can post on You Tube send me the link if you'd like yours included on our web page.

Ron Adams
Ligonier, PA
June 2020

Filming permits? We don't need no stinking film permits! Yes, back then the idea of getting permission to film somewhere rarely (if ever) occurred to me during my high school filmmaking days. (I got better about that in college, though.)

The only time there was an actual issue with unauthorized location shooting came about while making my half hour Frankenstein epic. We were shooting in an old, isolated cemetery in the middle of nowhere. A county sheriff happened to drive by in the midst of filming and spotted three teenagers wandering around a graveyard with a pickaxe and shovel. Needless to say, he was concerned. Fortunately, once he spotted the camera and tripod, he immediately realized what was going on and everything was OK.

(So, for you Future Graverobbers of America, when you go off to do a bit of bodysnatching...always remember to take a camera along as an alibi!)

Bob Statzer, Richmond, IN

Hey Ron,

I can sure relate to your reminiscing of making “home made super 8 monster movies.” One afternoon my older brother and I went to see War of the Gargantuas at the theater, and came home so excited from that movie. He said “let’s make our own giant monster movie.” At the time, my brother had a pet Iguana and my dad owned a nice 8mm movie camera. So we set out to make an epic film!

We owned a Hot Wheels play set that folded open with buildings and roads plus very small army men to create the scenery for the movie. After it was set up, we filmed the giant Iguana walking through it all and knocking things over. We put his Iguana on the picnic table with its head peering over the edge and filmed it from below so it looked like a giant. Next we filmed my father walking across the yard with a wheelbarrow and he pretends to see the giant Iguana. He flipped the wheelbarrow and ran in terror!

To kill this beast, we called upon the air force. I used fishing line on my model airplane and had it swoop in. Attached to the model planes underbelly was a Dixie cup filled with acid (water) to destroy the giant lizard. We poured it on his Iguana and it started licking up the water on the film. We filmed the monster lying still and then it became a skeleton. The air force did it again!

At the time I had a Dark Shadows/ Barnabas Collins board game which came with plastic skeletons. That’s what we used for the dead Iguana’s skeleton. Even though Hollywood didn’t come knocking on our door to back this movie, it was so much fun making it. My brother still has a copy of it and we will both always remember the classic film, Day of the Iguana!
Take care for now and it’s only 4 short months till Monster Bash October! Can’t wait to see everyone there !

-Dave Heywood, FL

Ron,

Loved this story. I retired in 2018 from my job overseeing Texas’ theatre contests. I worked for the University Interscholastic League. The League oversees and regulates competition in athletics, music and academics for Texas’ public schools. The 1200+ entry One-Act Play Contest I inherited had been around since 1927. Some years ago I was watching Super 8 at a local cinema and it brought back so many memories of making Regular 8mm films. Shooting on my friend’s Brownie 8mm camera, the anticipation of getting the processed film back (It took weeks) and literally "cutting and pasting" on my Elmo editor brought back powerful emotions about the passion of committing to the art storytelling.

These “Monster Memories” motivated me to start the UIL’s Young Filmmakers Festival. It has grown! Last year we had over 800 films submitted. Like the NCAA tournament it leads to State Championships in the different categories and in different school size divisions. The final screenings are at the historic Paramount Theatre in downtown Austin, Texas. They even get a red carpet! Thanks for another flashback to wonderful times. Keep the stories coming!

Luis Munoz
Austin, Texas

Here is the link to a movie I made with my best friend in High School, It is called Yangorus: Monster From Space.
It is 25 minutes long. A parody of Godzilla type films. We knew we couldn't make it good so we tried to make it funny.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuF0zKWQvJo&t=5s

-Dave Mason, IN

 

Above: My mom and dad (Jan and Tom Adams) with Frank in between at a Florida wax museum.

Life-Size Monsters!

I've always had this fun, but creepy wariness of wax museum figures and even those stone-faced store mannequins with plastered-on fake smiles. There's something about them. Unnatural and scary.

When I was very small, maybe three or four years old, there was a J.C. Penney store in Grove City, PA. My mom liked to shop there. She would drag me there and I would just wonder around the tight maze of circular clothing racks. No toys. The racks were far taller than me at that time. I would avoid the store mannequins. Those unblinking eyes and unchanging faces.

A few years later, I was reading comic books and I came across the ad for six foot monsters. Frankenstein or Dracula! For a dollar, it was a 6 foot monster! I thought it was a three dimensional mannequin of a monster. How scary would THAT be! The fear turned to fascination. I wanted one...but a whole dollar. At five or six years old I was dealing in dimes, not dollars; it was 1965. Of course, I found out years later from other kids duped by this that it was a piece of thin plastic with the monster printed on it. But, I didn't know that and I reeled at the daydream of a scary six-foot figure standing in a darkened corner of my bedroom. Wow.

Soon, I was visiting wax museums....still fascinated by un-human life-size figures. There was the wax museum at Gettysburg depicting scenes of the battle. A close look at those shiny glass eyes gave me the willies. During a family visit to Niagara Falls...a museum that had some monsters! Later, a Florida vacation and yet another encounter at a wax museum display and life-size monsters.

I would build those Aurora monster model kits that were nine inches tall, or so, and image them as six or seven foot creations. Then at the MONSTER BASH conferences, real monster figures would decorate the halls from friends like Bill Luciani, Tony Pitocco, Jerry Armellino, Mark and Diane Mazurczak. Maybe that creepy fascination will spill down to a new generation.

Wait, I think one of those figures...just moved.

Ron Adams
Ligonier, PA - June 2020

Ah, the life-size Frankenstein and Dracula...good thing they didn't offer life-size Kong or Godzilla!!! Curiously, I never saw the Dracula one, but I knew a lot of guys who had Frankenstein. During a vacation to Tennessee when I was in grade school, we went to a couple of wax museums. I was fascinated by the displays but, after the wax menaces of HOUSE OF WAX and episodes of GET SMART and VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA, I was disappointed we didn't see anything scary on display. Before the trip was over, we visited Christus Gardens, which had a wax Satan that kind of creeped me out. In my teens, when I started making 8mm and Super 8 movies, I thought a wax museum horror film would be cool, maybe using carefully staged close-ups of my Aurora monster models as the wax dummies. But, like a number of projects, it took a back seat to other things.

-Bob Stazer, Richmond, IN

 

 

I Tell Ya, Kids Just Don't Get Early for the 4th Anymore!

Rondo Remembers

When I was pre-teen, all of us neighborhood kids would gather our arsenal of junior fireworks together first thing in the morning. The dawn was cracking and parents were still asleep. I'd open my desk drawer and grab every box of caps and loose red rolls I could find. The caps were on paper red strips with a tiny amount of black powder in a little circle inside the paper layers. I might find a sparkler or two under the kitchen sink and locate a pack of matches in the "junk drawer."

Other kids had hidden ammunition magazines in the dark spaces of their room. A firecracker or smoke bomb bought from an older kid in school for a quarter. The feared M-80's might be three quarters!

We all converged on a quiet street. A bird chirping in the distance. We were ready...it was usually between 6AM and 7AM. We were ready for the all-out 4th of July assault on the sleeping neighborhood. The five or six of us pooled our resources. Cupped in our hands, the whiff of tangy black powder.

We lit firecrackers (running like the devil...we saw movies with nuclear blasts). Beyond the curb was the shelter and proper distance. Ka-bang! Pop! Sometimes one of my daring friends would actually twist firecracker fuses together...then, look out. My main mode of operation was to use a concrete block lifted 3 feet above a whole box of cap rolls and drop it. Quite the little explosion. Sparks would frequently bite my shins, so I learned to jump back quickly.

Then came the less noisy stuff. Sparklers and the so cool growing black snakes that you lit. A pellet that would grow into a fluffy charcoal serpent right on the sidewalk.

The day was begun...it was Fourth of July. The night would bring fireworks, the adult magic that we could only aspire to. If the 4th was a Saturday, even better. Because there would be fireworks AND monster movies on TV.

Today the neighborhoods seem quieter on the 4th of July mornings. I would actually welcome being woken up by those ten-year-old urchins. I was one of them.

Happy birthday to our country. Get yourself a box of caps and celebrate.

My buddies and I eagerly embraced the 4th of July as teens for multiple reasons. There was, of course, the various fireworks big and small (the stuff we could buy and the professional stuff shot off at the park).

But, we also loaded up on extra smoke bombs, M80s, Roman Candles and other such stuff for our 8mm epics. Many's the classic plastic spaceship model that got blown up for the sake of our amatuer movies. (As a kid I thought it was great. As an adult, I realize I could have sold those kits today and retired. LOL.)

We tried to make sure we had enough extra pyrotechnical treats to last through the year, should some future filmmaking need arise before the next summer holiday. Thankfully, our parents never knew what went on in the garage during all that "special effects work."

While it never crossed my mind at the time, today I realize that just a few yards away from that exploding starship was the can of gas for Dad's lawnmower. We might have had a disaster bigger than anything Irwin Allen ever dreamed of!

Happy 4th, everyone!
Bob Statzer
Richmond, IN

Thank you for the great memories re: caps - took me right back to being a preteen; had forgotten all about those. They had that pungent/gun powdery smell to them which you could almost taste. I too remember wadding them up and using something heavy to drop on em to get a bigger bang. Cap guns were cool as well!

Nick Posengal, FL

Rondo,

I’ve never heard of this tradition! Wow, fireworks at 6 in the morning. My mom would’ve tanned my hide.

Speaking of fireworks, about 20 years ago I bought a big Titanic ship firework display. It was about three feet long and shaped just like the Titanic. We put it in a pool and lit it. First, each of the smokestacks fired off, then the side windows lit up as the inside began to ignite. The front part burned first, which caused water to come in. It sank just like the Titanic, bow first. It was really cool!

Brian Nichols, TX

 

 

Monster Kids Excited About Mail Order

It's a very hot summer afternoon. The sun is blazing and its 1969. There I am, with neighbors Brett Springfield and Scott Orr hunched over an issue of FAMOUS MONSTERS magazine. We're on our knees, on a concrete patio. All of us between eight and ten years old. What are we doing? Looking at the ads in the back of that magazine. Wishing and dreaming about the things we could get (if we only had $1.98 and 50 cents shipping).

There was something about getting mail order back then. It wasn't as common as it is today. Most people did not get things through the mail. Getting mail was something different and special. It was where adults got letters and you might get a card from an aunt for your birthday. But no one ordered mail items on a regular bases. Mom and Dad shopped at the stores, plazas and those new things called malls.

But, look at the things in these monster magazines. We never saw these things in stores. Rubber monster masks, all those back issues of the monster magazines...look at those tiny cover images. Wow! One with King Kong, there's Christopher Lee climbing out of a coffin, Frankenstein's monster fighting The Wolf Man, a snarling werewolf, Bela Lugosi as Dracula. Maybe we could save our allowance and get Mom or Dad to mail for one. But they'd have to write a check, might be tough to convince them.

And look on this page, a coffin bank with a skeleton hand that took your coins. Wow...scary paperback books we never saw in the stores or at school in the Scholastic Reader offerings. Photographs of all the monsters. Record albums that had scary stories and monsters. An 8mm film projector and the movies. Image that!? Owning some of those movies to play on film anytime you wanted. I wonder how long 200 feet of film was? Sounded like a lot...little did I know these were like five minute condensed versions. And look there, real monster wallets. You could carry a wallet with your favorite monster on it. Or, own your own six-foot monster. There's a floating ghost. What?! A live monkey in the mail. Gee, Mom won't go for that.

Those mail order items were magic dreams for ten year olds. And when you convinced the parents to order something for you...the four to six weeks of checking the mail box daily only built the excitement.

Ron Adams
Ligonier, PA
July 2020

Rondo,

I remember ordering something that cost about $1.50 and I paid for the whole thing with nickels and dimes! I just put ‘em in an envelope, with the order form, and 4-6 weeks later my package arrived. How all that change made it through the mail I’ll never know.

I ordered many of the items: smoke from your fingertips, fake blood, fake brick, fake dog poop, X-ray glasses, shocking joy buzzer, the list goes on and on. My biggie, of course, was the life-size Frankenstein with glowing eyes. Ooooh! It was a plastic sheet, about the size of your bedroom door. The glowing eyes were just little stick-ons that you’d put where the pupils were. It did look pretty cool. I remember being disappointed when the small manila envelope arrived. “How can a life-size Frankenstein monster be inside this little envelope“? Life is a big learning lesson, and some can be cruel.

The holy grail, of course, was the submarine! Never was able to afford it, but I thought about it a lot.

Brian Nichols, TX

I remember, before malls and in a rural town in South Texas, for the mail to arrive. The first thing I ever ordered was a some gags from Honor House Products. My older brother ordered onion gum! Of course, he tried it on me. To this day I gag at the thought of onion in my food! Messed up this boy! I remember getting a rubber hot dog, a “Whoops!” Rubber vomit and the Shock Monster mask. We had saved up that summer. Best to to you and thanks for the memories.

Luis Munoz, Austin, TX

 

 

Rondo Remembers: Long Lost Monster Kid Found

Rather than the usual reminiscing here, I want to thank the readers that assisted in helping me locate a long lost friend. I had talked on a few occasions here about a childhood buddy that made 8mm home monster movies. He involved me in a number of projects...that were really just the sharing of our mutual interests in fantastic film.

First thanks to all the folks who searched and came up with emails and contact info. Most were outdated, but one friend came up with email and phone that clicked. Thanks to Don I was able to re-hook up with my old friend Bruce Guerney.

Not only is it great to speak with him through a series of emails, but he actually saved some of our projects from over 40 years ago!

So many of us Monster Boom Generation kids share similar times from our youth. It was FAMOUS MONSTERS magazine, watching our local TV horror host present the cool monster movies...and, in some cases, making our own movies and recordings.

So I'd like to present to you two retro "Monster Kid" projects that were archived by Bruce. Let's go back now to 1971 and 1972 and hear, and see what many of us were doing:

A six minute audio story produced and written by Bruce Guerney...with Bruce and myself acting in. That's me as the announcer and cookie sales person. Bruce is doing his best imitation of Bela Lugosi and Peter Lorre. Part old radio show, part MAD magazine, part Warner Brothers cartoon and part monster movie themes...but all Monster Kid Fun. It's THE HOUSE OF DARK DARKNESS (1972):

https://www.monsterbashnews.com/Audio/Bozo_Miller_Mystery_Theatre.mp3

And now, a two minute and change Monster Kid home silent movie. THE ROOM OF HORROR (1971) was directed and written by Bruce Guerney. We both act in it, I'm the victim/monster and Bruce is the evil genius/vampire:

https://www.monsterbashnews.com/Audio/Room_0f_Horror_v1A.mp4

These two projects all came back to me in a flood of great memories as I heard and watched them. Thank you to everyone involved, especially Bruce Guerney.

Ron Adams
Ligonier, PA
July 2020

Hey Ron

Really enjoyed the radio show. Well done and original funny stuff!
The 8mm reminds me of my own stuff I used to do and back then I thought I was alone in my ventures. Innocent times and good clean fun with friends, as they say.

Beast Regards
John Andre

 

 

Hot Summer Days & Nights

I remember many of those summer days of my childhood. In the mornings, still a slight chill in the air...enjoy it. It would be gone soon. Nothing like riding your banana seat bike on a quiet Saturday summer morning. Hearing the tire rubber hissing on the asphalt.

I did some of those iconic things like kicking a can down a gravel road, reading comic books and monster magazines under a shady tree. Of course, I'd have to brush off ants that might sneak onto my jeans. Sharing an orange soda pop out of a bottle. Having to be back inside when it got dark after being outside the whole day. All the windows open in the house with metal fans blowing out some of the humidity.

On most Saturday summer nights I would arrive home a bit before dark to see the TV country variety show HEE HAW on the black and white, rabbit-eared Zenith. Knowing that it meant..it won't be long until CREATURE FEATURE came on channel 5, WNEW. I would greatly anticipate seeing movies like BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, HORROR HOTEL or INDESTRUCTIBLE MAN on that forum of Saturday evening frights. After the movie, the announcer would ID the station and say...."It's 10 O'clock, do you know where your children are?" Of course, I was right there...heck in front of the TV, another satisfied monster movie viewer.

There were nights on the grandparents Adams front porch after nightfall. The street lights on, the road silent except for a big "bug spray" truck that would fog the neighborhood on Jackson Street. Killing mosquitoes, but more importantly, making a foggy mist that I could envision Frankenstein's Monster or Dracula moving through.

Then after a late night of viewing more TV horrors, all were asleep in the family. It was up to me to turn the TV off and head to bed. But after viewing some late Saturday night movie like SLAUGHTER OF THE VAMPIRES, I had to keep the covers pulled up over my neck. Sure, it was too hot for covers, but you never know. There may be vampires outside with those chirping crickets. A vampire that turned to mist could get through that screen. I made sure those covers were up, as I sweated the night away.

Ron Adams
Ligonier, PA
July 2020

Hi Ron,

I enjoyed your "Hot Summer" article. Brings back similar memories, but with Diet Pepsi instead of orange soda. Also waiting for Creature Feature on 5. And wondering where my children were.

Best,

Bruce Guerney, France

Another great newsletter. I will bet the guys doing the spraying were not wearing safety equipment either.

Summer meant long walks in the woods in Cunningham Park, then a stop at Warren's Candy Store to see if any new X-Men comics had arrived.

If we were feeling extravagant than we might have splurged 50 cents for a bus ride. If not, we would walk half a mile to the library, for the air conditioning as much as for cool summer books like "Hold Zero!," and "Andy Buckram's Tin Men."
Throw in a Bomb Pop from the Mr. Softee truck, and late night firefly catching while listening to playground fireworks and you had a certain summer....

-Kevin Browne, Fountain Valley, CA

Hi Kevin,

Thanks for sharing your memories.....METAL MEN and X-MEN comics...I'm totally with you on that...ice cream trucks! I miss the musical bells that came from them, all the kids in the neighborhood, networking shouts "ICE CREAM TRUCK, ICE CREAM TRUCK." Dashing to get 15 cents from Mom.... -Ron

 

 

Scare Scenes Remembered

When you're, say between the ages of five and twelve, some scary moments stick with you. They may not be scary now...but you remember that eerie, fright that made an impression on you. It sticks with you, years, decades. It's an initial scary moment or thought, or felling that happens to you at an impressionable age. Many a movie scenes did it for me. Not necessarily scary now...but scary for the time. I'm sure you have some of those memories that you'll never forget.

Here are a few of mine that come to mind. I've found over the years, when talking with other fans, that some of these scenes "did it" for them too. Some solid spooks for us wide-eyed kids sitting in a darkened living room or bedroom...glued to a flickering TV screen. Here we go:

The white, shock haired house keeper in HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1958), appearing to float across a basement...her face suddenly right there in front of the heroine in the movie. Yikes!

The hitchhiking warlock that disappears suddenly, in mid-sentence, from HORROR HOTEL (1960) on a foggy night...in Whitewood, Massachusetts.

The slow moving close up of ornamentation on an old door as unholy murmurings and distant voices emanate from the soundtrack...as seen by a young girl in THE HAUNTING (1963). Also from that film when Julie Harris awakes thinking she was holding her roommates hand...only to find her hand empty...saying "whose hand was I holding!"

In THE TINGLER (1959) when, in a dream-state, the deaf-mute woman sees the apartment apparently gain a mind of its own. Windows opening and closing on their own.

Across the lake, a ghost woman in a black dress, face indistinct, stands...from THE INNOCENTS (1961). She is unmoving as the wind blows. I still feel those chills.

In BLACK SABBATH (1964), another "floating" witch woman, recently deceased is upright, gliding across the floor with claw-like hands and waxen face. I'm in my parents darkened living room watching this on TV late at night (everyone else in bed). I could swear by hair stood up on the back of my neck and my head hit the ceiling.

In the Mexican horror film, THE WORLD OF THE VAMPIRES (1961), a female fanged vampire's face is super-imposed on a flapping bat's head. A nightmare vision that never left me.

I'm sure you have your own brain-branded scares from films you saw when you were young. For me they are etched for a lifetime. They come back in quiet moments, in certain situations, to do there job....again.

Ron Adams
July 2020
Ligonier, PA

Hi Ron,
Enjoyed Your recollections of being frightened out of Your wits when younger by a Movie and have some of my own . You are right that even if it doesn't have the same impact now as an "adult", it certainly did as a Pre-Teenager.

BLACK SABBATH (1964). Like You, the Dead Witch in "A Drop of Water" truly made an impact.

HORROR OF DRACULA (1958). Seeing this on the big screen for Halloween 1973 and being jolted with Chris Lee bursts into the Library.

HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1958). The older Lady is a Keeper!

GHOST STORY (1972). A MFTV film with pregnant Barbara Parkins hearing odd noises. The scene towards the end with the "Former Occupant" coming towards Barbara absolutely terrified Me at age 10. Remember saying to myself "It's just a Film...It's just a Film!" Sadly, did not age so well watching it in my late 30's.

PSYCHO (1960).. The Shower Scene. Enough said.

THE LAST MAN ON EARTH (1958). Vincent Price reunion with Virginia was frightening in the extreme.

Steve Schimming
Sanbornton NH

Hi Ron, I enjoyed reading your “scare scenes remembered” and it brought back some of my most memorable scare scenes of my youth, some of which are:

Becky stares emotionlessly at Miles in INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS

The “Dance of the Dead” in CARNIVAL OF SOULS

Count Orlock rises out of his coffin with his back straight as a board in NOSFERATU

The spider closes in on the hybrid fly-man caught in the web at the end of THE FLY – some find this scene a little kooky, but seeing that poor little scared face screaming with that high voice scared the wits out of me!

Karloff’s dead corpse falls over onto Henry Daniell during the climactic carriage ride in THE BODY SNATCHER

The blob suddenly moves up the stick onto the old man’s arm in THE BLOB

The victims fall off into the sand pit in INVADERS FROM MARS

The faces of the hospital staff are revealed in “Eye of the Beholder” from THE TWILIGHT ZONE

Thanks!

Tom Baxter, Gibsonia, PA

Rondo,

Love your scary movie memories! Here are a few of mine:

Princess Ananka digging herself out of her swampy grave in The Mummy’s Curse. Brrrrr!

The greenish/bluish head in the box in The Frozen Dead. The arms hanging on the wall also scared me.

Kolchak in the vampire’s lair at the end of The Night Stalker. This entire sequence terrified me as a kid.

I saw Blacula in the theater, and the slow-motion shot of the vampire woman running down the morgue hall was the stuff of nightmares.

These are just a few movie moments that scared me — and stuck with me over the years. Don’t even get me going about JAWS!

Brian Nichols, Bryan, TX

Another great article.

I too remember "The Haunting," but for me the scene was when Russ Tamblyn dropped the wine bottle as he watched the walls breathing.

The decapitation scene in "The Brotherhood of Satan" stayed with me too.

Even the corny movies had their moments. The montage of dead bodies at the end of "It Conquered the World," and its somber voice-over put a dramatic tack to it.

Have you ever considered an article on scary Disney moments? Their films are very sanitized now, but as a child I was struck by the tone of anger and vengeance from the 7 Dwarves as they stalked the evil stepmother, as well as Lampwick's donkey transformation in "Pinocchio."

Too bad about the convention. Hope to see you guys in 2021....

Kevin Browne, Fountain Valley, CA

The childhood scares: the slow motion scene from Gargoyles with the gargoyles breaking into Cornel Wilde & Jennifer Salt's hotel room at night to retrieve their dead one and the attack on their station wagon; the ending to Phantasm with the Tall Man suddenly revealed in the mirror in Mike's room at the end of the film; actually the 6 Fingered hand opening to Chiller Theater on WPIX NYC was always very spooky for my friends and I with that animation and its weird sound fx collage; In Search of or Boggy Creek Docu-dramas dealing with Bigfoot and then going into the woods out back behind my grandparents' house - he could be out there; The Last Wave - the whole film is full of these kinds of moments you are describing and still unnerving/scary to this day - a modern day masterpiece of Val Lewton-esque horror (see above photo). 

-Nick Pocengal, FL

 

 

Rondo Remembers: Daytime Halloween Parade Leads To a 50 Year Old Mystery

There's something that's been bugging me. Well, bugging me for about 55 years. So this is a long term frustration...but, I take it well.

It all started on a Halloween back in 1964, 1965 or 1966. I narrowed it down to those years. It was a magical Halloween. I lived in little Grove City, Pennsylvania. The leaves were all yellows, oranges and reds. They littered the old slate sidewalks. I was walking down Jackson Street with my Grandmother Adams and some cousins. I think Debbie, Karen, Judy and Doug. Three of us around six years old and two, Karen and Judy a bit older.

Grandma Adams herded us down to Broad Street to catch the Halloween Parade about four blocks away. We hadn't got half of a block before I stumbled on an uneven slate sidewalk that had probably been pushed up by tree roots. My knee bloodied, we had to retreat back to the house where Grandma generously dabbed peroxide on my knee. Boy, that stuff stung, but I guess it killed all the germs...my teeth gritting.

We restarted our journey and saw the colorful parade of monsters, marching witches, sound tracked by the high school band. Local officials and flatbeds covered in hay passed by. There were pumpkins, Indian corn and waving local store owners. Near the end of the parade was a car, maybe the mayor (?), tossing out little wrapped candy treats that we kids scooped up off the road and curb.

Returning to Grandma and Grandpa Adams' house post parade....the intrigue started. Grandma fed us, maybe some of her macaroni goulash of stewed tomatoes, tomato paste and ground beef. We all played on the floor in the living room as she babysat this gaggle of grand kids. It got dark. Just before our parents came to pick us all up...bam, my older cousin Johnny and a friend of his burst through the front door. They had just seen a double feature at one of the two theaters in town (there was the Guthrie and the Lee at that time).

It was a Dracula and a Frankenstein double feature. They said they were REAL scary movies. There was blood and the "Frankenstein" monster looked like my finger, Johnny said. I had burned my finger a few days earlier on a hot light bulb. My fingers was all crusty and scabbed over. His excitement grabbed hold of this little blooming monster kid. I was fascinated by his descriptions.

Now, I never found out what these movies were. It would have been 1964, 1965 or 1966. Could it have been THE EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN released in 1964, maybe paired with an older Dracula film like HORROR OF DRACULA? Or was it a re-release of HORROR OF DRACULA with CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN? Some other films altogether? I know EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN was doubled featured with Hammer Studio's NIGHTMARE on its initial release...but maybe the theater mixed and matched? This question as to what those movies were has bugged me for decades.

That's it, I'm calling my cousin this week to ask him. Though I doubt he will remember the names, or even that night. His excitement after seeing these weird films sure made an impression on me. I'll let you know next week what he said. He'll probably think I'm crazy..."Johnny's" John, in his mid-sixties now. No doubt, he will be stunned that I remembered this little incident, on a long ago Halloween.

Ron Adams
August 2020
Ligonier, PA

Hey Ron,

In 1964, Horror of Dracula and Curse of Frankenstein were re-released as a double bill. Evil of Frankenstein and Nightmare I think were released together originally, but I’m not real sure. But I’ll bet the one you’re thinking of is the former….

-Mark

Hey Ron,

Forget when this reissue double bill happened, but my first guess is this might have been it. The tagline was "Frankenstein spills it...Dracula drinks it!" Here are some posters from this Hammer reissue....

Bob Statzer, Richmond, IN

Hello Ron,
I love reading your Monster memories! Reminds me so much of my childhood.

Dave Whittington, Kerneysville, WV

Ron,

I ran across a couple ads for double-features that might fit the bill.

Brian Nichols, Bryan, TX

Hey Ron. Your cousin & friend do seem to be talking about Hammer since "blood" was a big deal in those 2 movies (and in color no less) + they seem to be describing the Lee Frankenstein Monster as your burned figure since the Kiwi Kingston monster from Evil of Frank is less horrific looking.

If your cousin doesn't remember exactly, there was a re-release double bill of Curse of Frankenstein & the '58 Dracula (distributed by Seven Arts), and, these were re-released in 1964 (Wiki says Dec. but I don't think that's correct, certainly not Xmas fare, these). Geez, Hammer AND the Beatles all in one year! I am asking around to see if anyone knows exactly when the re-release was as I'm curious as well - seems Oct more likely. Otherwise, it's possible, being a small town theater, they may have gotten the double bill later in '65 for Oct. My home town theater and Drive In in Central NY would sometimes get things the next year after they premiered elsewhere; cheaper for them to show 2nd run.

Another clue: the attached mag which I'm sure you have was apparently issued to tie in with the double bill/re-release (note the "Seven Arts" mention for both films on the cover. Their original releases would have been under Warner Bros for Curse and Universal for Drac.)

Will email back to confirm official month of '64 re-release if I hear anything from a person who viewed it (or if it was '65 in the States)

Nick Posengal, FL

Ron,

I'm taking a wild guess as to which movies your friends might have seen but I think based on it being 1965 and that Frankenstein was burnt looking I think it was Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster and the double feature was Curse of the Voodoo. These two films were released in August and September and could have been around at Halloween.

-Stuart Basinger

Thanks Stuart, and all....I'm thinking it HAD to be the CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN/HORROR OF DRACULA double feature. Based on his description of the Dracula movie having blood and the Frankenstein Monster movie looking all burned/messed up. I'll talk with my cousin this week and see if he remembers that long ago Halloween. -Ron

 

 

Just Looking...For Monsters

Back when I was between six and twelve I did a lot of window staring. Just a lot of time looking at stuff in stores...for what store keepers probably deemed as, well, a little too long. It was called "window shopping" generally by ladies looking at dresses...but, for us kids, it was "monster shopping."

Mom and Dad couldn't afford to buy us everything we loved, so while they shopped other areas in the stores (boring areas) we would scout for monsters. Toys, masks, magazines...anything with movie monsters, or creepy things.

One of my very earliest places to be looking at these amazing, cool monster items was in a Murphy's store (commonly known as the "Five-and-Ten"). It was the early sixties and I was maybe six years old. There, in one corner, where there were neat airplane and car model kits...now appeared Aurora monster models. I couldn't reach the kits on the shelves, but there was a display model. All built up and painted on the shelf was "The Phantom of the Opera." This kit had a mad, skull like monster who, apparently, imprisoned some poor bloody soul in a below ground dungeon. I stood there fascinated while my mom spent a half hour or so shopping. I imagined what this scene was all about. It was so cool. I didn't get a model that day, mom took me by the hand a pulled me along to the check out. Man, that Phantom made an indelible impression on me.

Other things I spent much time simply staring at included live baby alligators in store aquariums, boxes of crazy rubber monsters, gory black and white horror comic magazines (Mom pulled me away faster on those!) and plowing through a bin of rubber masks. The intoxicating (and probably toxicating, ha!) strong aroma of latex about knocking me over. The excitement of a long ago Halloween season sending my little brain into the stratosphere.

In the toy departments what might I find? Monster board games like The Green Ghost, The Haunted Hulk, MPC Pop-Top Monsters, Creepy Crawlers, Fright Factory, Monster Makers, Strange Change machines, monster wallets, dinosaur sets. Things that called to me.

I didn't get a lot of this stuff, or at least not right away. It took begging, planning and pleading to get some of it. But, I could look. And look, for long periods of time, I did. In my mind I still remember mom taking me along when she had to clothing shop, or grocery shop. "Mom, I'll be in the toys....just looking."

Ron Adams
Ligonier, PA
August 21, 2020

Hi Ron,

Thanks for the great memories. I feel as if I'm right there with you in the Murphys of old, looking at all that same stuff.

I seem to recall a model called "S'Ghoul Bus," or something like that. Always wanted it. Never got it.

Also, spending lots of time in the back of the store grazing through their basic record department, and the their offerings of cheap radios and stereos.

Then there was the occasional trip down to the basement level to marvel over their fine home decorations - provided you like pink ceramic panther statues and poorly painted plaster wall ducks.

Those were the days.

- Bruce, France

Hey Ron,

I've got a lot of love for the Aurora Phantom of the Opera kit -- it's the first Aurora monster model I ever owned. I'd yet to see the film as a kid in grade school, but that box art was awesome. I could only try to imagine what the story was about. Around the time I got the model I started seeing photos from it in Famous Monsters of Filmland, which only increased my determination to see it.

I had a little toy movie projector, which only took those little 50' reels, so that limited what movies I could buy. I noticed that Famous Monsters offered a 50' 8mm reel of the Phantom's unmasking scene but, WHEW, that price tag! (What FM wanted for a 50' reel was what the local K-Mart was asking for 200' films!) It wasn't until high school, when I got a real projector, that I got to see highlights from The Phantom, via a 400' (roughly 16 minute) digest of the film from Blackhawk called "Great Moments from THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA." It wasn't until right after I graduated high school that a local library ran a 16mm print of the Lon Chaney feature for Halloween that I finally got to see this holy grail of horror.

You had a local store that sold real live baby alligators? Wow!!! And I thought our local Woolworth was cool, selling an air-powered Creature From the Black Lagoon figure for our fish aquarium!

All the best,
Bob Statzer, Richmond, IN

Today’s piece reminded me of finding the Aurora Frankenstein at Klink’s Drugstore. I would hang out there and Viking Magic while my parents visited friends and relatives at the hospital. I lived in rural Texas and those trips were a 40 mile drive.

My brother and I pulled our change together and begged for an extra 50 cents to buy the model. (That’s 4 comic books we did not buy) What really impacted my life was a gift coupon in the box. A free Famous Monsters magazine! We couldn’t get home fast enough to mail it out and then start on the model.

It seemed like and probably was an eternity before it arrived. FM’s 1965 Yearbook. I still have that issue and in the late 90’s FJA signed it at the Son of FM convention in LA. To call it “life-altering" may seem dramatic but that’s exactly what that model and magazine were. Keep the memories coming.

Luis Munoz, Austin, TX

Hi, Ron:

I am a Monster Kid. I always was, I always will be. I collected magazines, models, toys and books because of my love for monster movies, especially the vintage Universal Movies of the 1930’s and 1940’s. These classic films were usually viewed on Friday and Saturday nights on grainy, snowy UHF stations and they weren’t always on TV whenever we wanted to see them. What was a Monster Kid to do? The answer was found at the local department store and in the back pages of Famous Monsters of Filmland... BUY THE CLASSIC MOVIES YOURSELF!

Thanks to Castle Films, all the great movies that we knew and loved were available to Monster Kids for a reasonable price. You only needed an 8mm movie projector, and most families had one in those days! The Wolfman, Dracula, The Mummy! They were all there. You could start your own monster movie library.

So thank you Universal Studios for producing such classics and thank you Castle Films for allowing kids to bring these greats into their own homes for every day viewing!

Beast Wishes,

Jonathan Murphy
Wellington, FL

Hey Ron and fellow Monster Bashers,

Once again Ron, your monster kid reminiscing triggers memories in many of us. I too enjoyed going to those Department stores and Five and Dime stores that had a toy section and just stare at all the cool monster stuff. The minute we entered the store, it was understood that I would walk as fast as I could to the toy aisles. My mother would know exactly where to find me when she was finished shopping. I was either staring at the Aurora monster models, plastic dinosaurs or the 12 inch G.I.Joes. Those army men came with an awesome foot locker and also had jeeps and space capsules. Sometimes my parents would let me get something, but most times I left the store with just the images in my mind. But it was always fun to look.

My family quite often visited relatives of ours in Corning, New York and that's where I first saw The Phantom of the Opera model kit built up and painted. It was around 1965 and we were visiting family. At one cousins house, I saw the Aurora Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein models. I had seen these kits in the stores before and just loved looking at them.

The next day we were at a different cousins house and he had the Phantom! That model horrified and mesmerized me. The corpse looking Phantom standing over the victim in the jail cell was just too much. The poor man in the prison had a disfigured bloody painted face. I thought the Phantom ripped off the prisoners face and was holding it up the air. It wasn’t till years later that I realized the Phantom was holding a mask.

In my mind, The Phantom of the Opera was the most gruesome thing I had ever seen. How could he pull off that mans skin? Did he reach through the bars and grab his face ? So many questions...

Thanks again for sharing Ron and for creating a place where we can all share these memories. Keep up the great work! Take care...

Dave Heywood, New Port Richey, FL

 

Read more flashbacks, CLICK HERE!

Creepy Classics Video
P.O. Box 23, Ligonier, PA 15658
Phone: (724) 238-4317