MonsterBash 2010, Butler, PA

[toysoldierman2001]

Would anyone be willing to pick up an autographed photo of Julie Adams for me if I sent you the money?
If so shoot me an e-mail.

[whisper0666]

           My husband & I attended the Monster Bash in Butler Pa. on Saturday morning/afternoon. I was surprised that there weren't many attendees, but I'm guessing that it had to do with the economy. There was something else missing as well. The general exciting character vibe. There weren't a lot of costume characters this year (M.I.A. Castle Blood, Baron Wolfstein, Son of Ghoul due to health  & of course, the irreplaceable Mike Thomas as Ygor) & the one's that did attend(Patient Creatures, Ghoul-A-Go-Go, 3 Stooges) didn't stay in costume for very long or weren't roaming around much. The only characters in costume for the whole time or roaming around for the whole time were Penny Dreadful & Co. Maybe this way due to the heat? Although the hotel had air conditioning it was still pretty humid in the dealers room.
            On our part, due to the economy, we have to pick & choose who we can afford to meet. So our focus was on two guest stars in particular: George "the Animal" Steele & Jimmy Hunt. George "the Animal" Steele has intimidated both my husband & myself since we were little kids watching him on various wrestling shows. He was a very interesting character back then and continues to be in real life! He has survived a lot in his life from his battle with Dyslexia to his battle with Crohn's Disease, which led him to retire from wrestling & he fully recovered from. He was very pleasant, funny & interested in talking to his fans.
                Next was Jimmy Hunt, who was a pleasure to meet as well! Jimmy Hunt was the little boy in Invaders from Mars. He told my husband & I some very cool stories from his time filming that movie. He told us it only took them 3 weeks to film it, which is incredible compared to the years it takes to make movies now. He told us that the martins in the movie were played by two guys & their height was legitimate, one was 8 ft. 2 inches & the other was 7 ft. 9 inches (and had to wear lifts so that he would be the same size). He told us that the alien in the globe was played by a midget lady that went to school with his mother. My husband asked him about the bubble shaped objects hanging from the cave tops that the martians created & what they were made of. My husband said that he thought they were balloons. Jimmy started to laugh & proceeded to tell us that they were blown up condoms & he always wondered what the drug store clerks thought when the guy that was sent to buy the 1000+ condoms bought them. He said that they probably thought he was going to have one hell of a weekend! He also seemed thrilled to be meeting fans of his.
           We didn't talk to many other guests due to lack of funds. We almost feel bad about approaching them because you tend to feel obligated and worry that they're expecting you to purchase something. We stopped into the Movie Monster Museum on our way out. They had some very interesting items from Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff & Vincent price among others. We didn't see the UMA display though? Also of note, my husband wanted to meet Ann Robinson but we decided against it because she was charging $20 for 8 by 10's of herself & another $20 to sign them. That was a bit out of our budget so we passed on even going over to talk to her. As for the shows, we never really attend any so I can't really say how they were. One more thing to note, the Monster Bash was putting on a tribute to Mike "Ygor" Thomas on Saturday night and I was a little upset about it because it was taking place at midnight! We didn't have a room so we couldn't stay around but I'm wondering how many people actually showed up for it...

[fmofmpls]

Thanks Whisper for sharing some of your highlights from this years Monster Bash. Wish I could have been there!

[drthomasholmes]

Movie Monster Mueseum? I am a dealer there, all weekend- didn't see any inkling of this. No signs or anything thing?

[whisper0666]

Movie Monster Mueseum? I am a dealer there, all weekend- didn't see any inkling of this. No signs or anything thing?

I'm not surprised that you didn't see it. We were leaving about 4:00 Saturday and it looked like he might have just opened it! It was located by one of the side doors/movie rooms and if we didn't have to leave that way for our car we would've missed it ourselves.

[Scatter]

Whoa. Gotta agree on a couple of those. I don't like what Mr. Buffet has done to Key West. I don't like the bums. I don't like the crime, but Florida has always seemed to have a high crime rate.

Scatter, in your opinion, why does Florida have so much crime?

Quite simply.....unpatrolled borders, gangs, and the drug trade. Mostly the drug trade, because if that's eliminated the other two become almost inconsequential.

[Scatter]

But Scatter, you do have alligators. That's cool.

Indeed..........right outside in the pond used to feed the golf course sprinklers you can find one at times sunning itself.

[Scatter]

Orlando has some pretty cool entertainment areas! Disney, Universal ?

LOVE Orlando........to visit. Universal (despite their almost pathological need to ignore the classic monsters) is very cool. Disney isn't my cup of tea. I find it pretty tedious. But the lesser known attractions that have sprung up to take advantage of Disney's magnetism are a blast!! I'd much rather spend the day wandering through the more obscure tourist traps than wandering through plasticized Disney "fun" (though some of the rides are still pretty cool).

[The Drunken Severed Head]

Being at the right place at the right time, I was the FIRST person (outside of Famous Monsters staff and the printer) to see a printed copy of issue #251!  Phil Kim slid it out of the shipping box he had just received it in, and gave the honor of getting the first gander at it. I felt pretty lucky.



I felt even luckier after I looked it (and issue #250) over!

I also got to buy #250, (it's a fun and nostalgic issue!) but not #251, as it officially comes out at the FM con. ( Of course I looked it over, and I did NOT want to hand it back!)

Here's my report. (It seems off-topic, but it WAS a highlight of the Bash for me.) Issue #250 is a transitional publication between old and new. It has the same graphic design, style and fonts as traditional FM, it's wonderful tribute to the man most responsible for making FM a cherished part of so many childhoods, Forrest J Ackerman.

Issue #251, however, points to a debut of an FM meant for both older kids and adults, and with much more content. Much heavier- and better-- paper than than FM has ever enjoyed before, with a heavy cardstock cover and a far greater number of pages. As someone who loves the original FM, I was nervous about how FM 3.0 would turn out, but I liked what I saw and am looking forward to future issues.

The Rich Corben cover is far more detailed than I thought from seeing on the internet. And thanks to editor Michael Heisler, who pointed out to me that the name "Famous Monsters" isn't a name of the utmost seriousness, but something whimsical, I realized that the Corben cover was a good inaugural image for establishing the tone of the magazine. The nosferatu-with-a-cute-rat image has been criticized by some (me included), but the slightly goofy look is just about right. It says "This is going to be FUN." That's the tone I've always striven for with my blog-- so I'm surprised I didn't "get it" sooner! (I've always been proud of the fact that the site Cool Ass Cinema  has compared my blog to to the original Famous Monsters, but with "an adult-oriented sense of humor.")*

I'm looking forward to reading this magazine, which I know will be featuring some top-notch artists and writers-- I talked to some of them at the Bash!-- but who some of them are you'll just have to wait to find out. I see FM introducing some strong talent to monsterkid readers, and that the list of names in future Rondo nominations for Best Article, Best Cover and Best Pro Artist will be an expanded one.

Sorry to sound like a commercial, but I AM happy with what I saw and want to share my excitement. Forgive me if you see the cross-post elsewhere.


* http://www.coolasscinema.com/2010/01/assorted-bits-pieces-cool-ass-cinema.html

[fmofmpls]

Thanks Max for sharing your impressions of the new FM. I know a lot of our members (myself included) are anxiously awaiting for this latest incarnation of FM all while hoping for the best and expecting the worst. And who can blame them after all that FM has been through? Your review helps lessen some of that anxiety. Perhaps FM does have a future. I look forward to seeing the new FM.

BTW, where's your UMA t-shirt in that photo? I paid you good money to represent the UMA at Monster Bash. I'm sure you didn't forget to bring your Rondo award with you though, did you? 

[Elizabeth]

Perhaps the folks who are using the Pennsylvania Monster Bash show thread for a discussion about the pros and cons of the Sunshine State of Florida might start a new thread in the General Discussion forum?  Maybe the moderators can move the posts to a new thread for a Florida discussion?




Thank you Whisper and Max for your post-Bash posts! I am looking forward to more-- more reviews, more pics.  For the past three years I've been to the Bash, and I was really disappointed to miss this year.

What I'd love to know-- did Mark & the Creepy Classic Band play for the party Saturday night? Any pics? How was that? I was so very bummed to miss the chance to hear them live.

[Gasport]

LOVE Orlando........to visit. Universal (despite their almost pathological need to ignore the classic monsters) is very cool. Disney isn't my cup of tea. I find it pretty tedious. But the lesser known attractions that have sprung up to take advantage of Disney's magnetism are a blast!! I'd much rather spend the day wandering through the more obscure tourist traps than wandering through plasticized Disney "fun" (though some of the rides are still pretty cool).

Scatter, i see we [among other things] both share the same perspective of Disney theme parks...My Family made an attempt at relocating to Florida in 1969 [while they were building Disneyworld] We were in Ft Lauderdale for the entire Summer. My dad was an electrician here in NY and they gave him such a run around down south about getting his license, we ended up returning here that Fall. Thank goodness we didn't sell our home here and chose to rent it out. I was SO BLOODY HAPPY to come home and after all these years i never went back. Although i do have fond memories and some home movies from Silver Springs and a tourist trap called ''The Monkey Jungle'' that  we visited while there. I remember my mom frantically yelling at me to stop filming a huge gorilla who was '' pleasuring himself '' in the corner of his cage!  Good times....

[Elizabeth]

The only characters in costume for the whole time or roaming around for the whole time were Penny Dreadful & Co. Maybe this way due to the heat? Although the hotel had air conditioning it was still pretty humid in the dealers room.

We didn't talk to many other guests due to lack of funds. We almost feel bad about approaching them because you tend to feel obligated and worry that they're expecting you to purchase something.

We stopped into the Movie Monster Museum on our way out. They had some very interesting items from Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff & Vincent price among others. We didn't see the UMA display though?

Whisper, honest to Pete that hotel just has the WORSE HVAC system! Last year was even more horrific, with the guests autograph room having all the charm of an Easy Bake Oven.  I thought we were going to have a Dr. Phibes style massacre of all the stars, baked to death in the autograph room.   You simply can't have that many people gathered together in the heat of Pennsylvania without a proper, working AC.  It's not right, and with older guests its downright dangerous.

I think it's always okay to go up and tell someone you appreciate their work and are glad to see them, even if you are not able to purchase anything.  I think folks always like to hear someone remembers and enjoys their work.

The UMA display was in Indianapolis this year at MaskFest/HorrorHound, and at Wonderfest in Louisville.  Two stops a year kind of tends to be the UMA max.  Probably the two biggest hurdles for the UMA exhibit going places are money to get the display there-- renting a truck, shipping toys, etc. and then people-power and time, because folks have to be available to move the display to the site, and all that generally means taking time off of work, transportation (flying or driving to the site) and hotel expenses. dining out, etc.-- and that can add up for UMA'ers when the display is appearing at multiple conventions in a year.

[whisper0666]

Elizabeth..Still getting Disney/Florida posts on the Monster Bash thread I see...    Yes the Days Inn was once again like an easy bake oven. No, more like a sauna..Or hot tub without the water! I'm not too old and it was bothering me so I can only imagine how the older folks felt! By 4:00 my husband & I felt drained from the heat. Some rooms were worse than others. Everyone looked drained sitting at their tables. It was bad. From what I hear a few years ago the a/c broke. I can only imagine how bad that was and yet it is going to be held there again next year in the heat of the summer?! Go figure.

I agree that most of the stars would probably not mind just a "hi" and words of appreciation but we almost feel obligated to buy something from them. Guess we are silly. I miss the good old days when you could go to a convention, not buy anything, and come home with great photos with the stars. But now they are even asking for money for that! And in this economic crisis it's crazy. While I realize that some of them are retired folk, I imagine that they are getting making more  money then any of us ever will.

I personally did not get to hear Mark Statler & his band play but someone at the convention told me that they actually played on Friday night? Not sure if that is right or not. I can understand about the UMA display & costs. Saw it when it was at the Monster Bash & have some pics I took of it around here somewhere. It was great!

[Scatter]

Apologies for the Florida Diversion. Some of us are a bit less structured than others. Which may explain the current state of my dresser drawers.