From 1964 Jack & Jill

Here's the do-it-yourself calendar page from the October, 1964 Jack & Jill.  The days of the wek don;t match this year, but it's still fun.

 

See you tomorrow.

Behold a Crown Jewel

My big brother Robert is nine years older than me.  And when I came along, he was forced to share his bedroom with me.

Now that I am a grown-up, I feel like constantly apologizing for his having to put up with THAT!

So when he went to college . . . got married . . . moved out . . . some things got left behind.

And believe it or not, there are some of these things, that I did not break!  Here is one of them . . .

Here's a first-issue 1961 Frankenstein model, in a photo taken last month.  It makes me smile and be happy just to look at ol' Frank.  He's proof that I didn't ruin EVERYTHING pertaining to my childhood. 

I don't remember if I have ever offered to give him back to Robert, but why start now?

Next to Frank is HIS OWN pesky little brother, the provenance of which I don't recall.  Its arms move and I think his green head and his hands are supposed to glow in the dark.

You'll meet a couple of Frank's cousins later this month.  See you tomorrow, kiddies!

More Halloween Stuff from the Attic

 

In case you couldn't tell by their color, these monsters from Marx Toys glow in the dark!



 

Notice that, as with Aurora's Frankenstein, the preferred face-under-the-makeup is not Boris Karloff, but Glenn Strange.

How many of you know that many of us Baby Boomers got to know Glenn Strange by his real face, on Gunsmoke?

He played Sam Noonan, the barkeeper at the Long Branch Saloon, from 1961 until his death in 1973.

More Coloring Pages of Scary Guys (and Gal)

Somebody (named Melissa and now 21 years old) got to the above page first!

When, in their song "D.O.A.," the group Bloodrock sang, "The girl I knew has such a distant stare," I don;t think they meant THIS kind of stair!

Monster Hot Rod Craze

The resurgence in popularity of monsters started with the "Shock Theatre" release of Universal monster/sci-fi movies to TV stations in the late 1950s.  By the early 1960s they had permeated popular culture and trickled down to the youth scene.

Many Boomers grew up with monsters in our living room -- wasn't it grand?

A nice synergy developed when somebody in marketing decided to cross-pollinate monsters with the surf-driven car-customizing crowd.  And so we got, monster dragsters!

These are all re-issues of original Aurora kits.  I haven't opened them yet.

My big brother had Frankenstein's Flivver.  I can tell you from experience that Aurora did a smart thing by reusing pieces of the ORIGINAL Aurora model.  The thorax, head, and left arm of the Frankenstein Monster were identical to the original kit!

From the looks of things, they might have re-used Dracula's original head in his kit.  And Wolf Man's Wagon could have used the head, body, and right arm of the original.

Perhaps someday when my in-the-womb grandson is old enough, we'll open these kits and I'll give him a little monster schoolin'.

See you tomorrow!

The 2010 Spook-Tacular

Here is my 2010 Halloween compilation. It has been unavailable until now because the hoster, Mega-you-know-who, is no longer extant.

Here's what's on the plate:

1 Halloween Sale Goodwill 0:59

2 Attack Of The Fifty Foot Woman The Tubes 4:25
3 It's a Nerdy Halloween Herbert Midgley 2:42
4 Frankie-Stein Robbie Robison 2:58
5 This Is Halloween Panic! At the Disco 3:27
6 I Only Have Eyes for You Spike Jones 3:26
7 Horray For Horrorwood Frankenstein Drag Queens 2:18
8 It's Halloween Greg Conley 3:07
9 Zombie Dance The Cramps 1:51
10 Mummy Beach Hot Lava 2:59
11 Love Song For A Vampire Annie Lennox 4:12
12 Creature with the Atom Brain JezusFactory 2:40
13 Saturday Evening Ghost Frankie Stein and His Ghouls 2:01
14 Halloween Song Evangelicals 2:15
15 Mummy Walk Contrails 2:36
16 Main Theme Dracula Twins 1:32
17 Vincent Price Zombina & the Skeletones2:19
18 Monster Mash Misfits 2:34
19 Kids Halloween 10/30/2008 ASK U 1:14
20 Halloween Linda Book 2:52
21 Feed My Frankenstein Alice Cooper 4:40
22 Dead Man's Curve Jan & Dean 2:25
23 Creature from Outer Space Big EyedBeans from Venus 3:05
24 Bo Meets the Monster Bo Diddley 3:03
25 TV Theme Gigantor 0:52
26 Frankenstein Stomp Count Lorry & The Biters 2:01
27 The Skeleton In The Closet Louis Armstrong 3:08
28 Frankenstein Twist The Crystals 2:53
29 Frankenstein Meets The Beetles Jekyll & Hyde 1:51

The link is http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?qfnb06p202cx3jt .

See you later, kiddies!

Another Piece of Faded Love

Aurrora came out with this model, "The Witch," in 1964.  I bought one and built one.  However, below you can see what I have left!

She lives in the attic with our Halloween decorations.  She doesn't even have any feet left . . . or a right hand . . .

Next to here in the photo is another candy topper like the Mummy shown previously, the cap to a plastic tube of M&M-type things.

Tomorrow, a Musical Monday cross-post with Spock's Record Round-Up!

From the October 1964 Jack & Jill

Another great kids' magazine was Jack & Jill. Here is some stuff from its October 1964 issue.

 

 



 

"At My Desk" was, as you can see, reders' submissions.  A couple are about Halloween.

See you tomorrow!

Age Hath Taken Its Toll . . .

Once upon a time I built monster models from Aurora. One of the latter-day ones was their version of Bride of Frankenstein . . .



 

 

She was supposed to look like the above depictions.

Alas, wear and tear can happen to the best of intentions.  When I first got my Bride model around 1969-1970, it doubtless looked something like the lovely tableau above.

However, 40 years later, this is all that's left of her:

Yep -- no table, no lab.  Not even a left hand!

Next to her is a relic of some 1980s candy packaging.  There were little candies similar to M&Ms that were sold in clear plastic tubes (like oversized test tubes), and this mummy guy was the topper for the tube.

These two relics, along with some others I'll be sharing with you, are kept in the attic in our Halloween stuff for 11 months out of the year.

Who knows what I'll dig up next?  Tune in tomorrow and see!

An Antique Calendar

From the 1965, October issue of Golden Magazine, here's an activity calendar for October.

 

Even if the days of the week don't match 2012, it's still fun to read!

 

And check out the spooky Headless Horseman!

 

 

Note the costume advice at the top center of the bottom calendar page.  Come to think of it, I have never seen anybody dressed as a radish OR as a rocket!

See you tomorrow.

This Drink Chills Itself!

Back when I used to haunt thrift stores, I came across this thermos. However, I've never seen the lunch box that it presumably was issued along with.



 

 

Note that there is no problem with using a likeness of Glenn Strange for the Frankenstein Monster.

The Mummy really has no face.  The Phantom of the Opera is definitely Lon Chaney (Senior).

 

But who is that Dracula guy?  Count Floyd?  "Bleahh!  Scary, kiddies!" he says, complete with pointed ears.

 

The "Wolfman" -- one word here -- looks like Lon Chaney, Jr.

Stop back tomorrow to see the next fright -- or fun!

Enter Freely, and of Your Own Will . . .

 

For Day Two of Blog-o-ween, let's hearken back to pages from a 1991 Universal Monsters Coloring Book!

Notice how very carefully the art DOES NOT resemble any of the actors who played these roles.  After all, the heirs have the rights to the actors' FACES -- not to the CHARACTERS.



"Hmm," thinks Harker.  "Seems legit."

But who are these gals wandering around in Snuggies?

And why is Count Dracula challenging me to a breakdancing contest?

Perhaps, dear reader, you will find out in a few more days!  See you tomorrow!

MA-23 - Disc of Doom

WELCOME  TO  BLOG-O-WEEN . . .

Here it is, Halloween Time!  Time for Blog-o-ween, a celebration of that fun and funky time of year!

And this is this year's spooky and silly music compilation.  These are the tracks:

1)  Count Chocula Intro    13 Days of Halloween    0:40

2)Trick or Treat       Halloween       3:11
3)Have You Ever Seen?      Boss Martians     3:16
4)Spook Opera        Hawaiian Pups   2:55
5)TV Monster Show  The Munsters    2:05
6)Land of the Dead   Voltaire   1:59
7)Dracula's Deuce     Freddy & the   Four-Gone Conclusions  2:37
8)It's Spooky in Here     Baha Men     2:41
9)Green Slime The Green Slime 2:18
10)My Body's a Zombie for You Dead Man's Bones 4:30
11) Spooksville Nu-Trends 2:37
12)The Mummy Radio Ad 0:48
13)The Ballad of Vlad the Impaler Bettie Blackchurch 1:31
14)Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? Matthew Sweet 3:11
15)Exorcist Theme Halloween Remix      4:59
16)I'm Gonna Scare You Sue Rose 2:39
17)The Bat Children of the Night 2:37
18)Munsters Theme (Halloween edit)  Figure 2:42
19)Return of the Living Dead Ghoultown 3:35
20)Martian Hop    Ran-Dells 1:28
21) Halloween Party Music Andrew Gold    3:04
22) The Haunt of Room 402 Wally Wingert 3:00
23)Cockroach That Ate Cincinnati Rose & The Arrangement  2:12
24) Rockin' in the Graveyard Jackie Morningstar 2:37
25) Banditos Halloween Mash Jonathan Rubinger 4:49
26) Phantom of the A-Go-Go Don  Hinson and the Rigamorticians 2:32
27) Castin' My Spell Marci Lee 2:09
28) Attack of the Killer Tomatoes Lewis    Lee  2:54
29) Werewolf Five Man Electrical    Band     3:28

Here is the link: http://www.mediafire.com/?5y7tknnny5ulc3l 

 

Enjoy, I hope!  And see you tomorrow for more . . . BLOG-O-WEEN!