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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.
To Glow, Or Not To Glow?
I built the kits....The Mummy, Dracula, The Wolf Man, The Phantom, Frankenstein, King Kong, Godzilla... Aurora sure hooked me in to re-buy these models, because now they glowed with "Frightening Lightning!" Parts of the models were the whitish glow plastic and the bodies were the regular colored plastic (for painting). At night that soft eerie green glow happened across my bedroom shelves. So cool. But then, during the day....they just looked weird, unfinished. Parts of them painted, but then, the hands, claws, heads, little rats (glow parts)...all were just an off-white. It drove me crazy. Neat looking at night, but kinda unfinished and not so nice looking during they day. The dilemma. I was torn. Should I, heaven's to Betsy, paint over the glow parts so they looked right during the day? But then, the groovy glow would be lost that lit up my nights. It really frustrated me. An unforeseen perplexing strain on my little brain. Well, I compromised. I painted the hair, eyebrows, eyes and various highlights...leaving the skin sections to glow through. They still didn't look quite right during the day...but it actually looked pretty good at night with the distinct dark eyes, mouths, etc. The learning experience of compromise for a difficult situation. Ah, the life lessons of a young Monster Kid in 1969. Ron Adams
Howdy, Just read the latest news with the piece about glowing models - HA! Yes, the things that we used to spend time debating, going over, fussing with - amazing! I guess we had a lot more time on our hands back then. Funny how what seemed so important now just seems silly. I do try to keep this in mind though as a teacher. When a kid is telling me the story behind their latest drawing or they're really concerned about whether to use magic marker or chalk for Godzilla's skin color, I try to keep in mind that for the moment at least, this is the most important thing in their world. It's actually a good reminder that sometimes the proper skin color for a dinosaur or how many eyes a monster has is well worth thinking about.
I’m with you, Ron. It was quite a dilemma. I chose to let them glow. After all, monster kids love the night! -Brian Nichols, Bryan, TX
Hi Ron, As always, a great trip down memory lane. Your compromise on how to mange the glow-in-the-dark models was a bright idea. ;-) I wish I could attend your Drive-in Monster Bash. But I'm still stuck over here, where Le Monster Bash n'existe pas. Maybe next year. Your article reminded me of another glow-in-the-dark product from back then - "Lightening Bug Glow Juice." Remember it? A greenish goop you squeezed out of a bottle and rubbed on your skin. When you turned out the lights, you became your own glow-in-the-dark monster. Wondering what made this stuff glow, the Wikipedia entry says it was "doped strontium aluminate." Supposedly harmless. Maybe so. I used a lot of it and I've not turned into a real-life glowing monster yet. Anyway, it had to be less harmful than all the "Plastigoop" vapors I inhaled when cooking up Creepy Crawlers. And it didn't lead to 2nd degree burns, either. Keep on glowing, Bruce Gurney, France Wow, Bruce, I don't rember that glow goop! But I sure do remember that pungent Plast-Goop from Creepy Crawlers. Instant memories. It all came back to me bout 19 years ago when I got a Creepy Crawlers set for my daughter. The goop still smelled the same. -Ron
I was 10, also when the Magical world of Aurora Models made my acquaintance. The Christmas of 1971, living in Fort Baker CA (across San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge), I received a BIG package from my Aunt Nancy from Jonesboro Arkansas. Opened it to find SIX of the models in there-The Hunchback, Dracula, The Phantom of the Opera, The Wolfman, The Mummy and The Creature From The Black Lagoon-truly bliss! Moved to Norfolk VA the Summer of 1972 and managed to get the other six -The Witch, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Frankenstein's Monster, Godzilla and King Kong (from Aunt Nancy for 11th Bday-a Cool Aunt or what?) and The Forgotten Prisoner of Castlemare that Xmas. I suppose I was lucky, as ALL my Models glowed in the dark. I tried to paint The Hunchback, but it just didn't seem necessary or maybe I was lazy. Had all of them around my Bedroom and it looked so neat seeing all the Glowing figures from my top Bunk Bed. Good times and Good memories.
Hey Ron and fellow Monster Bashers, Thanks Ron for sharing your dilemma of whether to use the “glow parts” or the “regular parts”when building your Aurora monster model kits. The only kit that I recall using the glow in the dark pieces on was The Forgotten Prisoner of Castel-Mare. He looked pretty cool glowing in my room at night. I was thrilled to have the extra pieces of the Aurora monsters. It was usually an extra head, hands and some other miscellaneous part. I would take these model parts and glue them onto some other model. At the time I was aware of the cool Monster Rods that had been previously released, but I never acquired any. So I decided to build my own Monster Rods. Usually I was able to scrape up enough allowance money to buy a cheap car or tank model for 25 or 50 cents and build my own Monster Rod. Sometimes building those monster cars was as much fun as building the real monsters. I proudly displayed them as well on another shelf. Here is a picture of my Franken-Tank. Hope everyone is doing well and I’m looking forward to when we can all “Monster Bash” again. Take care... Dave Heywood New Port Richey, Florida
Hi, Ron: As a “Monster Kid” and a serious Aurora Monster Model maker/painter, I would NEVER use the Glow in the Dark parts. They were always unused pieces that were thrown out with the trash. The Wolfman was brown, Dracula was pale, The Frankenstein Monster was green, the Mummy was gray. None of them glowed in the dark and to recreate them for display in your room with glow in the dark parts bordered on sacrilege! OK, maybe NOT sacrilege, but it just wasn’t done. Not if you took your model making very seriously. That’s my two cents worth on the subject. Beast Wishes, Jonathan Murphy
Hi Ron, I loved your piece on the Monster Aurora Model Kits, which I have loved since this Monster Generation Kid, fell in love with the Universal Monsters as well as King Kong and Godzilla! Christmas of 1973, Little Steve, decided to ask Santa Claus for those monster model kits, which he happened to see in Paul's Hobby Shop in East Rutherford, New Jersey (it is no longer there, but their selection was unmatched by any store in the area!). That Christmas morning, I must have been a good kid that year, because there were Frankenstein's Monster, Count Dracula, The Wolf Man, The Mummy and Godzilla under the Christmas tree and to top it off, Grandma Jay, got me The Phantom of the Opera (that one, to this day, glows in the dark as well as Count Dracula. The others did not, I wanted to mix it up a bit and I did, variety is the spice of the afterlife (LOL), Ron! That dilemma also plagued me too, but I stuck to my guns and picked only the two I mentioned, and Godzilla as well. I mean the thinking behind "The King of the Monsters" was that when he fired his Atomic breath, his backside and enormous "Jaw" light of the night sky, so why not, Ron (Ahh-Run-LOL). To this day I still have each and every one of those Model Kits still in one piece and displayed in "My Hobby Room" and yes, they have been repainted over the years, to give it a newer look, but they are forever part of this Monster Generation Kid's past and I even added to that collection most recently by completing "The Invisible Man" Model Kit. That was a real challenge with all the different color Testors paints needed and the many pieces included with the kit! So, thank you once again, Ron, for bringing back some amazing memories of building models in my youth and even now in the present...Enjoy the pictures! Sincerely, Steve Wyka
Rondo Remembers...Those East Side Kids Movies
For me they branded my early years, just before the age of ten. The group of "kids" in the movies usually had the core line-up of Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan, David Gorcey, Gabe Dell, Sammy Morrison, Billy Benedict, Billy Halop and Bernard Punsly. Later, in The Bowery Boys, Leo and David's dad Bernard Gorcey would join in as Louie the soda fountain store owner. They were a street gang of kids looking for fun, adventure, laughs....the very things that most ten year olds were looking for. Only these guys were snide, sarcastic, fighters and goofy. The kind of behavior that moms and teachers aren't very keen on. Although most of the films had a good moral in the end...about friendship, loyalty and honesty. Something moms would appreciate.
WOR played the East Side Kids on Sundays afternoons. I latched on to their later incarnation, The Bowery Boys, on Saturday afternoons from WNEW, Channel 5 out of New York. At some point I caught the more serious, earlier films when they were the Dead End Kids. They co-starred with the likes of James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart.
I think many of us found that coming-of-age independence alluring. A rebel spirit that is just part of growing up. It's just more pronounced in some. Yeah, much more pronounced. They had a handful of films that were spooky or involved monsters: SPOOKS RUN WILD, GHOSTS ON THE LOOSE (also with Lugosi), BOYS OF THE CITY (a haunted house one), MASTER MINDS, SPOOK CHASERS, THE BOWERY BOYS MEET THE MONSTERS. Those were the initial catalysts that brought me into the fold...where I felt I was just part of the gang. Ron Adams
Rondo, I think you and I were separated at birth! I discovered The Bowery Boys - in all their incarnations - through their monster films. They were great fun, with lots of laughs and a few cheap thrills. I also recall seeing some of their earlier, more serious, films and being shocked. Those were much grittier, and darker in tone. If I’m being honest, I prefer the later films where the comedy was the main draw. Still, any Dead/East/Little Tough/Bowery Boys movie is better, in my opinion, than any of the bloated CGI-fests that have overrun today’s movie theaters. Brian Nichols, Bryan, TX
Above photo submitted by Dave Heywood from Florida. It's left to right: Thom Shubilla (impersontng Huntz Hall of The Bowery Boys), Monster Bash's Ron Adams, Leonard Heyhurst (impersonating Leo Gorcey of The Bowery Boys) and Brandy Gorcey, the daughter of Leo Gorcey.
Hi Ron, You've taken me on yet another trip down memory lane - watching all those Bowery Boys films when we were kids. I had a real-life encounter with non other than Huntz Hall. Yes, I met one of the greats! I'm sure I saw every Bowery Boy film at least twice, but I can't recall a single complete story line or plot. It was really character driven. It's the characters that are permanently etched in my mind. Do you ever wonder how different our lives would have been without WNEW, WOR and WPIX? Those three stations were purveyors of past culture, transferring the popular entertainment of one generation to the next - along with a lot of commercials. (Fudgey the Whale, where are you?) Some of what they showed wasn't that good. But so much of it was, in whole or in part. And all three stations seemed dedicated to keeping the "classic" films of the past alive. And in every genre as well. We were lucky. That style of broadcasting is gone with the wind. -Bruce Gurney, France
Above: A photo of fan Steve Wyka's wall with Dead End Kids salute! Hi Ron, So, I was very happy reading your memories of the Dead End Kids/East Side Kids/Little Tough Guys/The Bowery Boys and their incarnations over the years. To be honest I am a Huge Fan of the Dead End Kids-I have seen every film and serial that group of street/tough/resourceful kids have appeared in, Ron. It started back in the early 1980's when I first watched Angles with Dirty Faces (1938) when I got my first exposure to the Dead End Kids (Billy Halop, Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan, Gabriel Dell and Bernard Punsly). Not only is this film one of my all-time favorites, the chemistry between each kid and James Cagney (Rocky Sullivan) and Pat O'Brien (Jerry Connelly) is amazing. And there battle to keep the local kids, who admire Rocky, but are not sure which path to take the wrong or right path? At that point, like you, I watched a hand full of East Side Kids/Bowery Boys on WOR Channel 9 and WNEW Channel 5, but never was I so taken with The Dead End Kids. From that time forward I made it a point to purchase and watch every film and serial that they appeared in. Dead End (1937), was the 1st film they appeared in, then the forementioned: Angels with Dirty Faces (Is Rocky really scared to die at the end or does he put on an act for those kids, to show them that crime does not pay and don't end up like me?) Of, course, their timeless films had more serious overtones and themes, compared to their future incarnations, but I just love them. Crime School (1938), They Made Me a Criminal (1939) and Hell's Kitchen (1939). Universal borrowed all of the Dead End Kids except for Bobby Jordan and Leo Gorcey and made twelve films and three 12-chapter serials under the team names of "The Dead End Kids and Little Tough Guys." Then The East Side Kids (1940-45) 22 films in all, for which I have seen over the years on WOR, WNEW, TCM or from the Critics' Choice DVD's I own! Of course, Spooks Run Wild (1941) and Ghosts on the Loose (1943) are my favorites because Count Dracula himself Bela Lugosi appears in both films. And finally, The Bowery Boys 48 films in all and were released by Warner Brothers on DVD in 12 volumes! Some favorites: Master Minds (1949) with Glenn Strange (Frankenstein's Monster himself as a guest star), Jungle Gents (1954) (Laurette Luez as Anatta-WOW-LOL.) Spy Chasers (1955) Princess Ann of Truania arrives at Louie's Sweet Shop, so what could possibly go wrong-LOL. And The Bowery Boys Meet The Monsters (1954) a vacant lot, a trip to Long Island, a house full of insane family members equals simple laughs and madness. I do agree with you Ron, I have rekindled my love of these street kids, with way too much time on their hands and in search of fun and adventure over the last few years. Do I have a favorite "KID"? Billy Halop and Leo Gorcey (his butchering of the English language is beyond hysterics and just plain funny). Sincerely, Steve Wyka
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It's funny how when a dilemma hits a ten year old...it's such a big deal and kind of a new experience. This is when one of my first big life dilemmas his me. It was the release of the Aurora monster kits...the glow versions.
Hi Ron and everyone,
Whether you saw them under the name The East Side Kids, Dead End Kids, Little Tough Guys or The Bowery Boys...they probably made an impression on you. Good or bad, ha! 
How I got drawn into this series of films with the motley crew was through Bela Lugosi and DRACULA. It was in the TV Guide that I saw the listing for SPOOKS RUN WILD with a write up about the boys meeting a vampire, Bela Lugosi! Then, I warmed up to these rebel kids looking for their way in life. Finding a job, helping mom pay the rent, resorting to crime at times, but finding their way back on the right path. It was on channel 9, WOR out of New York (Secaucus, NJ actually) that I caught that initial movie.
Through my twenties and thirties I found their sarcastic humor grating and I stopped going out of my way to see those films. But now, that endearing quality has come back. I enjoy them once more.
Nightmares From Movies |
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The movies that are most unsettling to me are the original THE WOMAN IN BLACK (1989), THE GHOST OF RASHMON HALL (1948), THE INNOCENTS (1961), THE GHOST AND MR. CHICKEN (1966, hey when you're six years old in the theater!), an episode of the WILD, WILD WEST that featured a house with a soul of its own, THE TINGLER (1959, when the windows go up and down on their own). Also there's HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1958), BLACK SABBATH (1964..."The Drop of Water" segment), and....THE HAUNTING (1963).
Burned and branded into my brain is the scene in THE HAUNTING where the two girls (Julie Harris and Claire Bloom) hear the thumping and pounding in the hall. The chorus of unholy voices as the wooden ornamentation of the door begins looking like the face of a soul in torment. The lights come on and the one girl is holding her hand in the air (thinking she was holding the other girl's hand). She wavers, shakily saying "WHOSE hand was I holding?"
These are the films and scenes that fill my nightmares. Personified haunted houses and malignant ghosts. They have since I was small.
The classic monsters are more like wonders from a distant land to me.
Ron Adams
Ligonier, PA
September 2020
Hi, Ron,
Interesting to hear that "The Haunting" is near/at the top of YOUR scary movie list, as it definitely nis the one that I have the most creepy reactions/recollections of as well, notwithstanding that you have seen WAY more scary horror films than I have ever seen. Of course the context of WHEN we saw it at such young, impressionable ages plays a part. But I totally agree with you that it really engaged your imagination in a way that made the watching experience more personal - and therefore more indelible.
Thank You!
Todd Spidle, PA
Ron,
Glad to see you mention the 1989 version of THE WOMAN IN BLACK. That’s an excellent ghost story. Most people talk about “the scene”, but for me the spookiest parts are out in the Eel Marsh house. There’s about a twenty minute stretch that is as nerve-wracking as anything I’ve ever seen. Brrrr!
Ghost stories are difficult to pull off, because if you show too much it spoils the atmosphere, yet if you show too little it becomes a bore. The films you mentioned all get it right. One other movie I’d include is THE CHANGELING with George C. Scott. That’ll give you some dreams.
-Brian Nichols, Bryan, TX
Back To the Drive-In
It was the late afternoon on a hot September day. It was the day of the drive-in. I think everybody that grew up in the 1950s-1980s had the experience....and some lucky ones might still have the experience today.
My dad was washing and waxing the car. I helped him rub off the foggy gray-green wax to leave a clean, shiny finish on the Dodge station wagon. It was metallic gray and the interior was Twizzler red. My mom was inside getting blankets and pillows for the back of the car.
Off we went to the drive-in. We pulled up to the booth and my dad shelled out for the admission. As the family car pulled past the booth, there was the crunching of gravel under the wheels. 
And you could hear the other vehicles snapping the rocks as everyone vied for that ideal parking spot. Pulling up on the hump with the front wheels to hopefully see over the vehicle in front of you. Close to the poles that had detachable speakers on them. You hung it on your driver's window.
My family didn't go to many horror movies...it was a family outing. BUT this night, it was MUNSTER GO HOME! The monster-comedy that was a spin off of the TV show. Kids played at the small playground to the right of the big screen. The announcements echoing through the parking area. My sister and I had blankets and pillows in the back. The back seat folded down so we could stretch out. We were ready for the previews and the movie!
There was a second feature, I can't quite remember which it was...maybe a Disney film with Dean Jones or Kurt Russell. In between films, my dad and I ventured out, the gravel sounding under the soles of our shoes now. A beeline for the snack bar. Ice cold Pepsi-Cola, pizza pie, hot dogs and all kinds of candy.
Those were days of magic, days of the drive-in theater.
Ron Adams
Ligonier, PA
September 2020
Ah, great times at the drive-ins as a kid, then a teen and (finally) as an adult. For a while, Universal put MUNSTER GO HOME out on a double bill with THE GHOST AND MR. CHICKEN. (Which, sadly, I didn't get to see.)
-Bob Stazer, Richmond, IN
Wild West Monsters
I grew up liking dinosaurs at an early age. My mom would help me check out books on dinosaurs from the town library when I was only four and five years old. I still love the smell of those old hardback library books that were clothbound, but were coated with a type of paint. That smell of those books...I still love it. It brings back all those great book memories. At our school library I would take out those dinosaur books over and over.
Now dinosaurs did lead me down the road to monster movies. I've written about that before. But I was reminiscing again and I came up with a missing link. A missing link between dinosaurs and the monster movies.
I was around four years old, maybe five when I watched a movie with my dad on TV. I know it was that age because we still lived in the "brown house" on College Avenue in Grove City, PA. We moved from there in 1964. The movie on the television was THE BEAST OF HOLLOW MOUNTAIN (1956). My dad liked cowboys, army and sci-fi movies. There, in this movie, was a dinosaur. That sparked my interest in seeing more movies that had dinosaurs...and then, monsters.
That all came together with the marketing on monsters through Aurora models, little monster rings in bubble gum machines, trading cards...the explosion had begun, and I was there...surrounded by it. And, loving it. FAMOUS MONSTERS magazine would come just a little later for me. When that happened, I was branded for life with the love of classic monster movies. Thanks to James Warren, Forrest J Ackerman and magazine cover artist Basil Gogos.
But that wild west, south-of-the border movie THE BEAST OF HOLLOW MOUNTAIN with its cowboys and dinosaur, was instrumental in segueing me into a world of monster movies.
Ron Adams
Ligonier, PA
September 2020
So, Beast from Hollow Mt. was what started it all. I had a fascination with this movie around the same 5-9 years old age frame without ever seeing the film. I had seen a still from the film in one of those late 60s/early 70s monster movie books from the library with the B&W pictures - you got the book out over and over just to look at the pictures.
From then on, it was on my "must see list" (in those pre VCR days). Plus, the title was cool, THE BEAST OF...HOLLOW MOUNTAIN....evocative. But, it was one of those movies that showed up in the TV listings always on some station we didn't get. There was a Scranton station south of us that seemed to show a lot of genre stuff and I remember thinking: wish I knew somebody in PA where I could go see these things. ("Hey, Ron. Can I come over? There's a really cool monster movie on").
-Nick Pocengal, FL
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Hi Ron,
Just read Your post on Dinosaurs and really took Me back! Remember reading that Roy Chapman Andrews book in Second Grade, which sort of lit the Dino fever and frequent searching for books in the library on the "Terrible Lizards." Andrews also wrote a book on Prehistoric mammals...not sure of the title, recall the cover had a sloth (??) in a Tar Pit with a leaping Sabre-Tooth, not knowing he would be stuck too!
-Steve Schimming, NH
Halloween 2020 Looking Back
The years do flip by, like the flapping of vampire bat wings. There's a chill in the air, the leaves are now turning: vivid yellows, yellow-greens, orange, red...it's Halloween season again. A time most of us love and cherish with a bundle of childhood memories.
There's high school football happening Friday nights, the distant cheers from the high school football field wafting over quiet streets. A smell of apples in the air. Pumpkins turning up on porches with stalks of dried corn. Some are six feet tall with wonderful maroon and cream colored Indian corn cobs.
It was like yesterday that I sat on my grandparent Adams' living room couch. There next to me was a glass bowl of Halloween candy called mellocremes. Small candy corn flavored candies that were in Halloween shapes. Yellow moons and corn cobs, orange pumpkins with green stalk tops, brown witches and bats.
On my front closed-in porch in Grove City, PA with my blanket for Dracula cape on. Watching leaves spin, dance and fall from the tree-lined street. Mom had put up those paper-board Halloween decorations on the windows. The ones with the metal clip joints. Pumpkins, witches, ghosts.
At school, the chatter was feverish about trick-or-treating. Costume finds. Around six years old I landed the cool Frankenstein costume. It was a silky one piece thing with a plastic mask, held on your head by a rubber band. It came in one of those windowed boxes from a department store. Probably G.C. Murphys. How can you ever forget the sweat building up, clammy and cold on your face while wearing those type of costumes. In the cover of night, my plastic pumpkin filling up with candy bars and the less desirable Necco wafers and Sweet Tarts. Ah, but pop corn balls were always cool. Apples...nah, too healthy.
Much later, when I was older....ha, like eleven, it was watching those great Halloween movie staples on TV. The classic FRANKENSTEIN (1931), HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1958) and, one Halloween, MAD MONSTER PARTY (1967). And, of course, IT'S THE GREAT PUMPKIN, CHARLIE BROWN.
Wow, were Halloweens special. I could keep going. I bet you have a hay wagon full of Halloween flashbacks yourself.
More on Trick-Or-Treating to come in the following weeks as we near October 31st.
-Ron Adams
Ligonier, PA
October 2020
Hi Ron!
You really got to the heart on that post with Halloween. I remember the town parades we had where all the kids showed off their costumes. Halloween parties and contests through the entire school on October 31'st or the Friday before if the day fell on a Saturday or Sunday! (Do they even still do this nowadays?) You brought back so many great memories: Trick or treating with my cousins and brothers. I swear we were out all night, hitting every house in town...not just the two or three streets around our own. We came back with filled pillow cases filled with candy ...in which some of the less popular candies still lying around the house could be found close to Thanksgiving. I always enjoyed dressing as one of the Universal Monsters back in 1969 and into the early 70's. GI Joe was another favorite to be, but that was during a time when Vietnam was raging. So, having my parents trying to hunt down military style clothing for my costume was not easy back then.
Once back home from a night of prowling on the streets with the jack o lanterns starting to fade, we dumped the candy out on the living room floor, and dived into the piles like wild men from the Island of Lost Souls. And the movies would be playing on the television- Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman, Ghost of Frankenstein , The Mummy, and some other one that almost caused me to have an accident in which some zombie was stirring to life with voodoo ritual playing all around it. It was black and white and I cannot recall the title.
I wanted my mother to keep the Halloween decorations up all year! But that would not do as you know. Somehow, I always found a way to find some of those decorations stored boxed up in the attic, and would pull them out and hang them up in my room - especially those small rubbery skeletons that bounced around. The glowing ones were the best! Also with the approach of this holiday, I would look at all the Monster magazines I had, the collectible monster cards (You'll Die Laughing), and monster themed games like Dark Shadows and Green Ghost! (I still have them today). Nowadays, I get my rush of monster themed material by collecting monster and horror themed autographs. Here (above right) is a sample from my collection. And HAPPY HALLOWEEN TO ALL!
Darrell Pinckney
Honesdale, PA
Above is a great vintage Halloween card sent in from Ronald Sapp.
Ron, Scott Moon (Planet X Magazine, bobwilkins.net) here.
I always enjoy your emails, not only the images, but your descriptive writing style that really stimulates the memories. I thought I'd send you some photos I have in my archives of my past Halloweens.
Halloween 67 (above): I was 10 years old in 1967. I'm in the Mummy mask and I'm with my 4 other siblings and two neighbor kids. Two years after this, I discovered over-the-head rubber masks (my first was Frankenstein), body paint and spirit gum.
Halloween Monsters: Me, on left, about 7 years old, and my brother 4 years old. Truth be told, my brother really was a monster! (picture left).
Me and Bob Halloween (photo right): The very last time Creature Features host Bob Wilkins went out in public (for a Halloween "Trunk-or-Treat" event sponsored by his church). This was in 2008. That's me in one of my favorite costumes.
Wilkins Pumpkin Contest: Since I design and maintain Bob's site, I get some interesting things from fans. (This is photo below): Anthony Perry (right) and his brother went to the San Francisco Zoo in the mid-70s where Bob Wilkins was judging a pumpkin contest. BTW, in 2008, Kelley Jones, the artist for the Batman graphic novel BATMAN: GOTHAM AFTER MIDNIGHT, drew Bob into a couple panels of the October issue. Kelley grew up in Sacramento and was a big fan. He sent me a pdf of the uncolorized panels before the issue was published.
Have a fun Halloween,
Scott Moon, bobwilkins.net - planetXmagazine.com
Hello Ron,
Hard to believe, but Halloween is coming up fast. Very much a chill in the air and Fall colors are striking in their majesty!
Father being in the Service, so was in different houses each year, but had made enough new friends by Oct 31 so We could all venture out in search of yummy treats! Pretty much liked anything I could get; don't remember apples, but popcorn balls were always welcome. But not as much as Hershey Bars , Reeses, Almond Joy, Milk Duds, Mr Goodbar, Snickers etc.
Halloween of 1971, not so much fun as I had Braces on my teeth and my Orthodontist frowned on consuming such things. Found that sucking the chocolate slowly instead of eating it wasn't so bad,, with Krackels not putting up much resistance. That Halloween was also the first time I didn't wear a Ben Cooper costume (Previous years being John Robinson from LOST IN SPACE, Popeye, Spider-Man and a Ghoul whose facial features reminded many of The Creature from the Black Lagoon) and put on a Rubber Mask-another ghoul-which made Me sweat and afforded subpar vision. Biggest consolation was still had candy left over in the Spring of 1972 when Braces came off.
No Trick or Treaters where I live, so after the Wife puts up decorations, old Horror movies come out and watching in October is always special, especially if they are Black and White. Have so far viewed NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, SLAUGHTER OF THE VAMPIRES, THE LAST MAN ON EARTH, THE HAUNTING, THE BODY SNATCHER and CAPTAIN KRONOS , VAMPIRE KILLER with CURSE OF THE MUMMY'S TOMB and NIGHT OF THE DEMON scheduled for the weekend.
Happy Halloween Everyone.
Steve Schimming
Sanbornton, NH
Remembering...The Halloween Party
It was in about 1973, I was fourteen years old and mom commandeered a Halloween party for myself and my sister. Two distinct groups that didn't really match up as my sister and her friends were five years younger than me and my friends. So "events" that my mom held were done on a separate time table that night. She managed it all.
This wrangling of kids by my mom for a Halloween party was only done once in my memory. Thinking about the dynamics of a pack of fourteen year old boys and a gander of nine year old little girls, I can now see why. The boys didn't want to be anywhere near the little girls and vise-versa.
And, yet...somehow it must have been pretty successful as I still remember some highlights...almost, gulp, fifty years later. There was a gray metal tub (my dad supplied) with water and apples for "apple bobbing." I remember not wanting to do that....everyone sticking there head and slobbering in the same basin of water. No thanks. I think all us boys passed on that. There was frozen pizzas baked up and slices cut for all us kids. Bowls of candy and hard pretzels. Iced Halloween sugar cookies.
The events on this night stand out as iconic Halloween memory...all branded in my brain now. The lights in our basement family room were clicked off. We all sat in a circle on the red indoor/outdoor carpet. One candle was lit. My Mom, playing the host "witch," brought down a large plastic mixing bowl. She sat with us and gleefully passed around "things" in the dark. She told us that these were eyeballs. Squishy, peeled grapes...yuck. Skin from one of her victims, torn slices of bologna...and various other unidentified gory gruesomeness.
Was THIS the mom that had told me CREEPY and EERIE magazines were too gory and wouldn't let me buy them? This was my mom in crazy thespian mode at her finest. Whew. What fun, what flashbacks of a Halloween, friends and innocent times.
Ron Adams
Ligonier, PA
October 2020
I love the Creepy Classics Newsletters. I too had that Frankenstein costume. I can recall having the Phantom Opera & Herman Munster as well.
My earliest Halloween memories are Mom got me a Bugs Bunny one and my brother a Litterbug costume. My whole family is gone now, friends too. Time goes so fast, all we have left are memories and photo albums.
Mom took an interest in whatever me and my brother liked, bless her, one of the many monster toys one Xmas was Creepy #1 !
-Ron Sapp, DE
Weirdest Trick or Treat
I was going to talk about those great Jack O-Lantern memories...but I decided to save that for next week. I'm remembering my most bizarre Trick or Treat encounter. I've told it in the past, maybe three or four years ago, but it's worth telling again. Pretty nutty.
Now this wasn't a scare, or something bad for kids...just plain weird. I was maybe ten or eleven. No parents needed. A Halloween mission.
It was a perfect night for Trick-Or-Treating. Maybe 50 degrees with a bite in the air, but no rain. Jeans, sweatshirts and costumes. I think this was the year I had my painted rubber Frankenstein monster mask. I didn't like the coloring it came with and used my Testor's model paints to give it a real green look and make those scars stand-out, blood red. I was joined by Dennis, Chris, Scott and Billy...the neighborhood gang.
Off we went with our paper bags, pillow cases and plastic pumpkin buckets. We planned not to miss out and hit every single home in the neighborhood. The night was ahead of us as it got dark. Our bags and buckets were filling quickly. Various candies, Sweet Tarts, an occasional apple or baked good. It was going to be quite a haul this year. We had one particular neighbor that was a very generous older couple. I wish I could remember their name...but they loaded us up and were so delighted to see us.
It was getting late, the bags were heavy with treats. It's been dark pretty much the whole adventure. I stepped up at the next home first and knocked at a door. No answer, but the lights were on. I shifted on the doorstep, leaves crunching underfoot, A breeze whistling through the eye holes of my rubber mask. My face covered in sweat from marching around for a couple of hours. I knocked again.
Finally the door opens and there stood a skinny, long-haired, bearded guy in jeans and a tie-dyed t-shirt. The pungent smell of incense rushed out to meet us kids. A haze of smoke made it hard to see anything inside. This was like 1970. He looked at us kids, as we reluctantly announced "Trick-or-Treat." He seemed to waver a bit as if on a seafaring ship.
His words were something like, "Whoah, is it Halloween? Just a minute and I'll get you kids something." Should we leave, run? No, we would take what we could get, our bags open. He came back and very quickly plopped something in each of our bags. He said "Happy Halloween" and closed the door faster that I thought he was capable of doing. This was before I ever had heard Cheech & Chong records. But, there was a distinct connect there.
We walked away into the night and stopped under the street light. Inside our bags were melting Fudgesicles. They were making our loot sticky and wet. We pitched them in a bush and wound up the night. It was to be forever etched in my brain as my first encounter with a real-life hippie. My weirdest Trick-or-Treat encounter.
Ron Adams
October 2020
Far out, Ron, far out. Wow, what a weird story - I was almost expecting you to say he dropped some weed in your bag...or rocks ("all I got was a rock").
-Nick Pocengal, FL
Halloween Rituals
It's Halloween weekend and I've pressed the GO button on my instant flashback machine. The images flicker by at a high rate....ambers, yellows, greens, reds, orange and black. The smell of pumpkin pie, apple cider, latex rubber masks. The sound of hard corn kernels hitting the window, giggling children at the door peering into buckets of candy, a roar of a high school football game in the distance, a dog barking like crazy in a neighbor's yard. Halloween year after year filled with smiles.
Prepping for Halloween, that anticipation and excitement. It usually began with the hunt for a pumpkin. Whether it was the grocery store where they were piled up outside, Long's Dairy or Harner's (a local apple farm)...it was the selecting from a pumpkin patch. I liked the tall skinny ones best....ones where I could do more of a Frankenstein Monster or fanged vampire face. Dad usually did the run for the pumpkin with me and my sister. Then it was at the kitchen table with Mom. Drawing with magic markers the fiendish face that first came into my brain onto the bright pumpkin. Careful not to make the lines too tight (difficult cutting). Then the steak knife...and the guts. Yes, the gooey, stringy guts with slimy seeds. Thankfully Mom didn't seem to mind helping yank the innards out. Slopping them onto the spread out newspaper.
Digging with a tablespoon a hole for candle placement. Finally, putting the Halloween masterpieces on the front porch. The wrangling, getting a match at the right angle. Not wanting to burn our hands as we lit the carved creations. The glowing glory of the season looked so great in the dark.
Inside, Mom made cookies and IT'S THE GREAT PUMPKIN, CHARLIE BROWN aired on television. Costumes went over coats and sweaters, tightly. Masks strapped on or pulled on...large grocery bags that were specially printed for the season were locked on our arms...ready to be loaded as we marched off into the night.
I got to re-live this all with my daughter for years too, and the great thrills were still intact.
Gee. Halloweens were, and are, magic.
Ron Adams
October 2020
Ligonier, PA
Greetings Ron, enjoyed very much your walk down the Halloween memory lane and Halloween rituals. I remember those too. I would add one though. Blaring car horns in the night with dad getting out of bed and tromping outside cursing the little kids under his breath that pinned the car horn with a piece of tree branch. Oh yeah, soaping car windows too. Terre Haute, Indiana was my Halloween stomping grounds.
Best wishes, and Happy Halloween, Jeff
The above photo from the 1970s was sent in by MONSTER BASH regular, Nick Pocengal from Florida. It's such a great, joyful, spirited photo from a past Trick-Or-Treat night...had to share it. Thanks Nick!
Rondo Remembers: When We Had Free Time
It's kinda weird to reminisce about this....but it's something that has actually become nostalgic to me. Strangely and sadly.
When I was a kid there were times I was bored....even into my first few years out of school. Mom would drag me shopping, or I would be at a friend of my parent's house. After school with no homework. Cartoons over on a Saturday and just walking around the neighborhood wondering if other kids might come out.
There was a solution for this and it often came to the rescue. Comic books, monster magazines and, sometimes, an old movie on TV. Heaven forbid none of those would be available. We didn't have cell phones with the stuff we like at our fingertips.
There were many times, Mom would run into the grocery store and I'd ask if I could "stay in the car." The reason would be that I had an old copy of FAMOUS MONSTERS that I had taken with me, or a FANTASTIC FOUR comic book that I would be happy to re-read. If I didn't have reading material, I might go in and "B-Line" for the magazine rack...usually no FAMOUS MONSTERS or comic books in the grocery store...maybe a MAD or CRACKED magazine to look at. Or, I'd just have to walk the aisles searching for any monster or superhero on a food product.
Simpler times. Times you could actually get bored with nothing to do. Times when books and imagination would come to the rescue. Boy, I sure wish I had time to get bored now.
Ron Adams
November 2020
Ligonier, PA
A Christmas Frankenstein
Our local radio station has started playing Christmas music....Thanksgiving is getting very close and the trees are bare now. It's got me thinking of the holidays and some of my favorite times. Close family and friends, popping from house to warm house...I will always remember. But, once in a while a certain gift will be indelible. Something special.
It was Christmas Eve in about 1969 and I got to open one gift early. I didn't question the reason for opening this one early. Looking back through the decades, I think I know now. My Grandfather Shorts (my mom's side) wanted to see this gift as much as I would! He wanted to see it in action.
I ripped the Christmas wrapping paper apart, not sure what was in this oblong box. There, there, there was this Frankenstein Monster coming through a castle archway on the box's cover. Wow! I slid off the box top and pulled the monster out. The thing was about a foot tall. He was on a metal stand with a red button on it. My grandfather beamed as he handed me a couple of batteries. I put them in the bottom of the metal stand.
Don't push the button! My grandfather instructed that we go to the bottom of the stairs where it was darker, no windows close by. I placed it on a bookcase downstairs. "Now!" commanded my red-haired, smiling grandfather. I pressed the button like I was launching World War III. It came to life. With the grinding sound of its mechanism, the creature's arms moved and I was frozen with amazement. Pop! The pants of the monster dropped, revealing striped shorts and it's face went from the pale dead green to a glowing red!
My grandfather and I laughed. Of course, now I had to run the thing upstairs to show my dad, my mom, sister, and great aunts. That thing followed me through the years. Through moves with my parents, when I moved over the years and is still here with me. One of the very few childhood gifts that has stayed with me, all these decades.
Thank you, to my grandfather. Thank you to my parents who brought me two wondrous families that both had Christmases to always remember. And, thank you, Christmas.
Here's a You Tube demo of this Blushing Frankenstein: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_8pqK1coBY
Ron Adams
November 2020
Ligonier, PA
Above: Dave Heywood's Frankie.
This from Dave Heywood in Florida:
After all these years, I still have mine too! Thanks for sharing your story.
Holiday Shopping The Toy Aisles...For Monsters
It's November, Thanksgiving and KING KONG are on the way...more on that next week. There's that cold wind and it feels like the holidays. It feels like shopping.
A tradition when I was a kid...the family loading in the car and heading out for holiday shopping. Malls were relatively new. And that's exactly where we were heading. I was bundled in my brown winter coat and a Charlie Brown styled hat with ear flaps. My sister in a white, with flowers print, hooded coat. Dad at the wheel of the blue Chevrolet and mom commandeering the shopping plans from the navigator seat.
In the mall, Grants Department store was where the action was. This store had aisles and aisles of toys. I was released loose to cruise. My eyes beamed in on Creepy Crawler sets, Monster Makers, dinosaur sets, and ahhhh, amidst all the airplane and car models...the monster model kits! I scanned and scanned locating monsters, creepy things, weird board games and comic book characters like The Hulk and Thor on sparkle paint sets. I don't know how Mom and Dad put up with the endless list of monsters I wanted (well, needed...as I would beg) for Christmas.
Outside of the Toy Department there were two other locations I would gravitate to. Over in the photo and camera department there was a display of 8mm movies that featured condensed versions of the films I loved. Even though I didn't have a projector (too expensive of a gift to hope for), I still liked looking. The other place was the pet department. There in aquariums were turtles, chameleons and baby alligators. Just cool to watch.
Sooner or later I'd be dragged by one parent to shop for others. I now realize this ploy was so that the other parent could shop for me and my sister. I get it, I get it...now. My allowance, with help from the parents, would assist me in getting a wallet for my dad, maybe a colorful fashion scarf for mom, a Colorform set for my sister.
It was quite the Saturday of shopping. An excitement that I can remember more than many of the gifts. Back at home there was the Sears and Montgomery Ward catalogs. Ready for my finely aimed pen to circle all those cool toys in there.
It wasn't the gifts, though I loved them at the time. It was the experience and excitement of holiday shopping with family.
Ron Adams
Ligonier, PA
November 2020
Wow, haven't thought about Grant's department store in ages! Ours went out of business while I was still in grade school. (I remember the store had a fire, but I don't recall if that was connected to the closing of the store or if they were two separate incidents...way too long ago to remember, alas.) I remember the family Christmas shopping in there (and in Ayr-Way, which had a fantastic toy department), and spotting the Aurora LOST IN SPACE robot model on one shelf, which I strongly hinted would be perfect for Christmas. (My folks were of a different opinion!) And I well recall gazing longingly at those 8mm films on display, even though I didn't have a projector. I would eventually get a toy one for Christmas a few years later (thanks, Grandma!), and those little reels of film would become the perfect stocking stuffer in the years that followed. I do recall seeing turtles and chameleons in the pet department, and even the Creature From the Black Lagoon aquarium figure (air-operated action!), but no baby alligators. (Pretty sure the parents would have said no to that, though.)
I do recall the day after Thanksgiving. "Black Friday" as we know it now was not the order of the day. There was the Santa Claus Parade down Main Street. And, on the corner of 8th and Main, stood the Tivoli...a grand old movie palace with a massive lobby dedicated to showmanship. Stills and lobby cards of upcoming attractions dazzled my young eyes. And the holiday kiddie matinees were always highly anticipated: PINOCCHIO IN OUTER SPACE, SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS, THE WIZARD OF OZ, etc.. When the Albert Finney musical version of SCROOGE came out, a theater employee dressed as old Ebeneezer Scrooge himself paraded up and down the sidewalk in front of the theater, passing out candy to the kids. You won't find those promotional flourishes at the local mall's multiplex. There was just something about seeing those films up on a B-I-G screen (something else multiplexes don't have) with a full house that added to the experience. Sadly, I don't think the folks were quite as enchanted with some of those films as I had been. (Although, years later, I think my dad enjoyed the then-new GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD as much as I did!)
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
Bob Statzer
Richmond, Indiana
Hi Ron,
When I read your last article and saw the Sears catalog it felt cosmic as I'd just spent time the day before looking at old Sears catalogs on-line to find the entry for my first stereo (which I did - see above).
And, just like you, as a kid I used to spend hours at the condensed "Castle" films section of my local department store - though in my case it was a store called "Two Guys" back in New Jersey where we lived till moving to State College, PA at age 10. They had dozens of 8mm versions of classic films, but I could never afford them. My dad did purchase a few Chaplin and L&H and WC Fields shorts. Great fun. But no creature features, alas.
I also remember back in '77 visiting someone who showed me their condensed, 200 foot color super-8 version of Star Wars - with sound. Seemed amazing to me at the time, in the days before home video.
On the attached stereo ad - from the 1971 Sears Winter Catalog. This was my big, special Xmas gift that year.
Memories. Take care.
-Bruce Guerney, Paris, France
Funnily enough, we had a Grants store in Johnson City, NY just up from Binghamton NY. I didn't know it was a chain, but must have been. It ceased operation sometime in the mid 70s. I remember seeing Santa there when I was very little. I remember seeing super 8 films on the shelf of a Binghamton K-Mart in the mid 70s. We had a super 8 projector and had a couple SF films, at least one Harryhausen film (Earth vs flying saucers possibly) - a very big deal, as you know, to own "a film" which you could watch at home, at that time.
Gearing up for thanksgiving and planning on watching Toho Giant monsters/SF films ea. night with a festival of films Fri. (Kong will be on Thurs. here for sure!)
Have a great Thanksgiving!
Nick Pocengal, FL
Read more flashbacks, CLICK HERE!
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