Back from the BASH--

[typhooforme]

Gang, Had a very good time at the Bash, and will make a detailed report of some of the doin's when I get a night's rest.  Highlights for me include watching THE MAGICIAN (Paul Wegener and Alice Terry, 1926) with great Kevin Slick musical accompaniment; having dinner with Donnie (SON OF FRANKENSTEIN, TOWER OF LONDON, BAMBI) and Dana Dunagan; seeing the beautiful room with the UMA Linda Miller display, Frankenstein toy display, and Joe Moe's Forry display; having some good talks with Janet Ann Gallow (GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN'S "Little Cloestine", Yvonne Monlaur (one of the most memorable Hammer horror beauties), Gary (TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN, LAND OF THE GIANTS) Conway, Lou Ferrigno, three favorite NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD zombies, and acquiring a tremendous sculpted/cast HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME display mask.   But as is always the case--always a treat, too--talking with friends.  And did many hours of that, late hours, lunch hours, happy hours--but no early morning hours!  I have to draw the line somewhere!  More later.  Time for go to bed!

[raycastile]

Yay!  A Bash post.  I was wondering when we'd start seeing some news about the Bash. 

[Richard]

... seeing the beautiful room with the UMA Linda Miller display, Frankenstein toy display, and Joe Moe's Forry display;...

I'm waiting to see what this finally looked like. I hope Max didn't hang everything upside down 

[typhooforme]

Sorry for mis-posting this, Ray--the new threads came in while I was gone (is that an excuse, since the thread announcing it was right in front of my eyes?  my tired, late-night, Bash-ing eyes?).  There's a piece of cool news I do want to post now--UMA member monsterphile, Rob, had been keeping it a secret that he was going to come to the Bash this year--we wanted to surprise the other UMA attendees and we surely did!  New Jersey's 3 day loss was definitely the UMA's gain at the Bash.  He and my friend Jill (ghoulchick) and our Elizabeth and Joe Moe all pitched in and worked with Max & Jane putting together the UMA/Forry room--photos were taken and will be posted, but I'm not the one who took 'em, so you'll have to wait a little while for them to be posted.  The room looked GREAT, I can tell you that!

[raycastile]

  The room looked GREAT, I can tell you that!

Thank goodness.  The UMA wins the day again.

[monsterphile]

Here's a link to my flickr account with some pictures.  Check out page 1 & 2.   I'll provide a write up tomorrow when I've rested, but some pictures are always fun.

Rob

skip this and see my new posts below.

[raycastile]

Thanks for posting the photos!  Let's see more!

[BaronLatos35]

Great pics Rob, thanks for posting them.

[typhooforme]

Well, let's see--Got to Bash on Thursday--on the first day, I was up at 6:00, breakfasted, and was back in bed by 8:00--by Saturday, I was up at 6:00, breakfasted, and back in bed by 6:30.  No, no, no--that's a Groucho routine.  I was up by 9:00 and asleep by 1:30 most of the time, and still didn't have time to talk enough or see enough.  I mentioned yesterday that I got to see THE MAGICIAN, which was very good.  Also went to see Brian Nichols' latest, ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT GHOUL, another funny Nichols "home movie"--this one starring his daughter Liana as the 50 foot ghoulgirl who gets revenge on the school bully (and I'm pretty sure that getting an atomic wedgie froma 50 foot ghoulgirl is MAJOR punishment!). 

Saturday night, of course, was Max & Jane's soiree, and his 10 min. Drunken Severed Head film was--uh--well, it was a horror pun-fest that only our Max could have  created.  My prediction is that he will be up for an Academy nomination OR an atomic wedgie (can you give a severed head a wedgie?).  The company that evening was wonderful--Cuz Sara and friend Jill were there with me, of course, and Miss Drac, HarryHammock, Monsterphile Rob, Miss Drac, CHFB's David Colton, Brian Kallenberg--I'll be forgetting many, so forgive my decaying brain!  Joe Moe came, actor/artist Mark Redfield, GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN'S Janet Ann Gallow all came, too.  Besides the Severed Head entertainment, Max had arranged for live magic demonstrations, and he and Jane provided a wide array of food and drink.  The Frankenstein decor in the room made for that "just like home" feeling.  Good times for all!

A couple of my favorite times at Bash were being able to spend time in the dining room, at breakfast one morning and other times during the weekend, with comic Don Reese, who is truly one of the funniest men I've ever met (UMA buddy Monsterphile runs a close second!)--dinner one night with Donnie and Dana Dunagan, from whom came this suggestion for something good to eat:  ARMADILLO EGGS!  Donnie and Dana love 'em, and Dana says do this:  take jalapeno peppers, slice open and remove all the seeds and white ribs from inside, and stuff 'em with cheese of your choice--put the jalapeno back together, and wrap it in a good portion of Jimmy Dean sausage (you can use the hot kind or regular, depending how spicy you like food), making what looks like an "egg" of sausage, making sure you cover all the jalapeno completely.  Stick 'em on a rack in a pan in the oven and bake them 'til they're completely done, all crispy on the outside.  THEN you've got some good eatin', Texas SON OF FRANKENSTEIN style!

One day at lunch I went over and butted in on producer Richard Gordon, who was having a perfectly good lunch happily alone, and invited myself to sit down for a little talk.  Mr. Gordon is a great gentleman and was very welcoming in spite of my rude intrusion on his fish & chips.  We talked Karloff mainly, me talking about Sara K. and him talking about Boris, whom he knew so well (Mr. Gordon produced CORRIDORS OF BLOOD, HAUNTED STRANGLER), and we talked food (a subject near and dear to my heart, as you well know if you know me at all).  I told him I like Marmite, a British sandwich spread made out of brewer's yeast sludge--and he said, "Well, you're the only one!"  He said his mother used to give him and brother Robert those sandwiches when they got home from school, but they hated them--his brother preferring ANCHOVY PASTE sandwiches!  Hmm.  Yeast sludge or fish paste?  I love 'em both, but--you can kind of see why American kids prefer peanut butter!  Richard told me a line I'll share with you here.  He got a Christmas card from Boris during Karloff's later years and below the signature Karloff wrote:  "Old actors never die--they just lost their parts!"

Enough of this for now.  Here are a couple photos though:
Sent some flowers to Janet Ann Gallow, GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN's little Cloestine--to make up for her ball being thrown up on the roof by the bad bully boys!  What a sweet lady she is--I never saw her when she wasn't smiling.

Here's a shot of Forry's longtime caretaker Joe Moe (left) with Cortlandt Hull, nephew of Henry Hull (WEREWOLF OF LONDON and scores of other great films).  In the background, some of Cortlandt's tremendous figures from his and Dennis Vincent's WITCH'S DUNGEON in Bristol CT:

[monsterphile]

Part 1

As was mentioned before, I made relatively last minute arrangements to go to the Monster Bash this year.  I went to my first Monster Bash last year and once again, I braved the Greyhound bus to get me to Pittsburgh. 

(Note: Special thanks to Jeff Barnes and his girlfriend Gitta for getting me to and from Butler from Pittsburgh.



I arrived midday on Thursday and almost immediately started running into other UMA members.

Here are Robert Taylor, Jill Rice, and Sara Waugh hanging out and chatting.



Gord Shriver, Author of "Boris Karloff: The Man Remembered" and Harry Woodbury.  This was my first time meeting Harry.  What a funny guy.  A true pleasure.


An unfortunate thing happens to me when I'm at the Bash.  I get so caught up in talking and having fun that I forget to actually use the camera around my neck.  When I got home I relized that there were so many more pictures that I should have taken and hopefully I'll be able to get copies from other people.  I got to spend various amounts of time with UMA members (never enough) and missed getting pics of some of them.  I was fortunate enough to spend a lot more time with Elizabeth Haney this year, some of it while helping to set up the dislay room where Linda Miller's art was displayed along with Max's Frankenstein toys and Joe Moe's Forry items.  More on that in a bit.  Elizabeth's got a great eye for setting stuff up nad how to arrange things.

On Friday, Robert Taylor took Mario's (lugosifan) Teenage Frankenstein mask to Gary Conway to get it autographed.  Gary was so impressed with the mask, that he made sure to copy down the Bump in the Night information off of the tag.  I wouldn't be surprised if Gary gets one of his own soon.  He even showed the mask to Lou "The Incredible Hulk" Ferrigno who was sitting next to him.  Apparently Gary was Lou's inspiration to get into bodybuilding. 


At the Bash, you never know who's going to be wandering through.  Here's a great makeup job of the Frankenstein monster that came wandering through the restaurant.


Here's Eyrdie Robinson (MissDrac), her mom Connie (Momula), Jill Rice, and Robert Taylor (typhooforme).  This was the first time that I got to meet MissDrac and her mom.  They are 2 very nice ladies.  I missed getting a photo of another member of their family that I got to spend quality time with, Gypsy the Chihuahua.  She was a cutie pie that would set up and beg for attention.


Another great treat was meeting and listening to Michael Roddy (again another photo that I missed!).  He got us very excited about the new Wolf Man movie.  He works for Universal and saw an early version.  Although they went back for some reshoots, we're all convinced that it should still be good. 

[monsterphile]

Part 2

I am a big Abbott & Costello fan and had a good time watching imitators, Bill Riley and Joe Ziegler, doing their act.  They had the body movements and mannerisms down perfectly.  This was followed by Lou's daughter, Chris Costello showing home movies from Christmas 1950.  I also got her to sign my copy of her book--"Lou's on First"



Here are some visitors to the display room.  Again, people were amazed that Linda's artwork weren't photos.  There was also great posters made by Richard Olsen featuring the Frankenstein monster's image from toy packages.






Here are some closeup shots of Linda's work.




There were alos some special visitors to the room including Ron Chaney, here with our Drunken Severed Head Max

I was also there when Tom Savini visited, but missed getting a picture.

While I was there, Moe stopped by to abuse this knucklehead  NYUK NYUK NYUK

[monsterphile]

Part 3

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD's Bill Hinzman, the film's first zombie and me


Some of us were able to get together for a little group photo.  Pictured are: (from L to R) :  Brian Kallenberg, Sara Waugh, Robert Taylor, Jill Rice, Max Cheney (kneeling), and Jane Considine. 

The Bash can be so chaotic that it's very hard to assemble all of us at one place at one time.  More chaos soon broke out, as Robert Taylor and Jane Considine began dueling with canes.


I got to meet long time UMA member Brian Kallenberg for the first time and spend time with him.  Here he is with Brian Kallenberg (michblk) with Grim and Kuzibah of The Patient Creatures and Masque of the Red Death Phantom.


Max got to debut his his Drunken Severed Head show to a packed house (or is that the crowd waiting to get out?)  If you look closely, you can see the original LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS' Seymour, Jonthan Haze (seated in front of the door on the right)


Also in attendence was Janet Ann Gallow, Cloestine from GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN


Jim Clatterbaugh won a Forry award for all his work in the monster community.  Pictured here with the other half of the team, his wife Marian


Another highlight was seeing the monsters from ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN (rumor has it that the Frankenstein monster was UMA's own Michael Roddy).  The Wolf Man was played by Ron Chaney, the grandson of Lon Chaney, Jr.  Make up man Ron Chamberlain said later that he felt like Jack Pierce. 




I got to talk with UMA member artists Daniel Horne, Chris Kuchta, and Steve Bejma.  I got prints from Daniel and Steve to add to the print I got from Chris last year.  I also got a cool t-shirt from Steve and 2 keychains from Chris.  I also drooled over the Laughton Quasimodo head that Robert Taylor got from Daniel Horne.  It's great to patronize UMA member artists and so easy to do when they are as talented as theses guys are. 

Probably the coolest thing I saw at the Bash by far was at the Chaney Entertainment table.  They had lenticular prints (in three sizes) that show Larry Talbot transforming into the Wolf Man.  They also had Chaney Sr. as the vampire from LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT.  One of my kind and generous friends gifted me with a Wolf Man one.  They're brand new and should be listed on their websiter pretty soon. 

I also got to speak and listen to my friend Kyle (who will join UMA or be beaten), Penny Dreadful and Garou, comedian Don Reese, and Cortland Hull of the Witch's Dungeon.  I'm 100% positive that I missed someone or some detail.  I had a great time.

[Bogey]

You know, Rob, for those of us that cannot attend these pics are wonderful to look at.   Appreciate all of you taken time to post them here.

[typhooforme]

Now we're chuggin' along--Rob's photos are great!  They capture the wide variety of things that catch the eye of every red-blooded monster fan and keep us from watching where we're going ('scuse me, ma'am, beg your pardon for mowing you down like that!).  Although this Bash was dead-icated to Frankenstein, it was actually all over the place--and I like that.  I'm a NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD fan, and it was a huge treat for me to meet Russell Streiner and George Kosana--Johnny, of "They're coming to get you, Barbaraaaaaa...." fame, and the Sheriff, whose line "They're dead--they're all messed up!" went straight to my brain and stayed there when I first saw the movie in 1969.  Here's a shot of my cuz Sara with "Sheriff" George Kosana, who has the draw on cuz with his trigger finger:

And here I am with a guy who gave me the creeps 40 years ago--Russ Streiner, neither an evil brother nor a brain-eating zombie, he's really a nice guy!

[Illoman]

I didn't get to attend, but *really* appreciate Max's thoughtfulness at displaying my portrait of the Monster and his Bride. That means a lot to me.

Max you're the best!!

Mike