A couple of weeks ago, I found this great Forry Ackerman photo that I'd never seen before. It was originally part of an article on nostalgia in the December 28, 1970 issue. I posted it on Twitter and had a request to post the complete article. Now you can see what your parents or grandparents were nostalgic about. This article is still relevant to any generation. Just switch out the pop culture nostalgia with your own era's pop nostalgia and then it will apply to you. Be sure to read the last page. The author, Disney historian John Culhane, could have easily been talking about today. (Btw, I want to go back in time and visit that End of An Era store in San Francisco and buy some props from the famous MGM prop auction!)
Come a little closer madam—I want you to watch this 30 second commercial for Monster Vitamins!
The credits for this commercial.
Advertising Agency - SSC&B. Art Direction by Warren Godfrey. Written by Nancy Richmond
Wow! Now that was neato cool!!! I've been wanting to see this "lost" commercial forever and I'm thrilled for the opportunity to share this amazing artifact relating to TV, "kids food" and monsters. Anyone remember seeing this when it first aired in 1974? Of course, I remember taking my Monster Vitamins every morning with breakfast, but unfortunately I have no memory of this commercial.
I've blogged about Monster Vitamins a few times before and hoped the TV commercial would eventually surface. Thanks to Clio award winning art director Warren Godfrey, my wish finally came true. In Warren's archives, he found an U-matic tape featuring a collection of his commercials including the Monster Vitamins commercial. I can't thank Warren enough for his time and generosity for sharing the MV commercial with all of us! (Click here to read my original blog post featuring Warren.)
Print ad from early 1975
Wait! There's one more Monster Vitamins treat! Inside the current issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland Magazine—you can read a Monster Vitamins article written by David Weiner, whose father Joel Weiner helped create Monster Vitamins (along with PALS) for Bristol-Myers.
Be sure to pick up a copy of Famous Monsters #288, the Forry Ackerman centennial tribute issue on newsstands now.
One last thing, as there seems to always be something else hiding in the shadows related to Monster Vitamins. The animation cel below is from my collection and a handful of these surfaced several years ago.
I'd always assumed this was the animated sequence from the Vincent Price commercial. Now after finally watching the VP commercial I now know that this animation sequence is...zoinks...from another commercial. Okay neato readers, let's go and find this second "lost" Monster Vitamins commercial!!
Big thanks to Warren Godfrey and David Weiner for their help shedding some more light on these crazy little Monster Vitamins!
Last year I shared a childhood memory about Frankenstein Glow Putty and gave the internet a better look at the package artwork. This year it's Dracula's turn! I don't have any childhood memories associated with this one, so the only thing to share with you today is the package artwork. Just like the Frankenstein Putty, I painstakingly restored the image. Enjoy!
Just in time for the Halloween countdown, I found a goodie at a neat little antique shop the other day.
Eek! It's a paper bat!
This paper bat is very cool as it's a promotional item for the 1960 film Brides of Dracula, the second Dracula movie from Hammer Films.
I've always been a Hammer horror fan and finding this bat was kind of a thrill. I wonder if it was distributed as a hand out during a screening of Brides. I can imagine some kid holding on to this bat in the dark theater scared silly as he/she watched Peter Cushing fight lady vampires. Neat that the kid saved it for 55 years so I could find it and share with you during the Halloween countdown. Thanks kid!
I don't think all the Clearasil in the world is going to help Teenage Frankenstein. Click on the 1920x1080 and save this to your computer for a desktop wallpaper.
I've blogged about Frankenstein Glow Putty before. The first time was way back in 2006, during the infancy of this blog. Frankenstein Putty showed up a second time in 2010, when I added the Dracula Glow Putty to my collection. As you can tell, Frankenstein Glow Putty is a special artifact from my childhood. Since I hold this 1970s toy in such high regard, I have a fun treat for your Halloween bag today. But first, a time travel trip down memory lane.
Cue wavy lines and sappy music. Okay, we're now in the year 1978 and my eight year old self is cruising the toy aisle at Wal-Mart. It was always toy overload in that toy aisle. So many toys! From Star Wars to Shogun Warriors, Wal-Mart had it all. Sometimes this toy cornucopia aisle would make my stomach hurt. The pressure on what to buy with my three buck allowance was way too much. Usually, I went with a Star Wars figure and got the heck out of there, but on this day in 1978, I spied something different. It was the Frankenstein Glow Putty! Wow! I'd never seen that before. As a kid, I'd go through a baker's dozen of Silly Putty eggs each year. I loved the stuff! The combo of Silly Putty, my favorite monster Frankenstein and glow-in-the-dark powers made for a quick and easy decision that day. "Sorry, Star Wars Walrus Man, I'll have to buy you next week!" In the car riding home, I shredded the neat packaging and popped open the plastic egg. The little glob entertained me all the way home. Later that night when I was supposed to be asleep, I played with my Frankenstein Glow Putty. I charged it with the flashlight and then turned it off for the glow action! This putty really glowed! Of course with any kind of "silly" putty, the temptation was always too great not to roll it up into a ball and bounce it. That's exactly what I did with my glow putty. I bounced it off my bedroom wall and unfortunately it disappeared into the darkness. I got out of bed to look for it and sure enough I found it under my foot, embedded into the gold shag carpet. I was able to pull some of the putty out, but wasn't able to get the rest of it. The bad thing, is that we just moved into our new house and the shag was brand new. It still had that new carpet smell and everything. I don't think I slept too well knowing how much trouble I'd be in the next morning. After a scolding over breakfast, we tried our best to remove the putty, but no luck. For many years after, I had a small glowing spot on my bedroom carpet. A reminder of my Frankenstein Glow Putty.
Sometime in the 1990s, I found some Frankenstein Glow Putty still sealed on the card. I've enjoyed it in my collection ever since. Recently, I noticed the glue that holds the cardboard together, had finally dried up. My card was open. I was bummed at first, but noticed a great opportunity to scan and clean up the artwork for you guys during this Halloween countdown. Enjoy this large scan of Frankenstein Glow Putty minus the glow putty!!
By the way, the putty still glows!!!! Don't worry, I'll be sure to keep it away from shag carpet.
The other night I was watching Dracula's Daughter. The 1936 sequel to Dracula. I've seen this movie a handful of times since I was a kid and I spotted something that I had never noticed before. Towards the end of the movie, a character runs behind a large tapestry. On the tapestry is an image of Bela Lugosi as Dracula (or maybe as Vlad the Impaler). I hit the slo-mo and pause buttons over and over, marveling at this amazing looking tapestry.
If you're not familiar with Dracula's Daughter, the film begins soon after the events in Dracula. Countess Marya Zaleska, Dracula's daughter, shows up and swipes the body of Dracula. She burns Dracula's body in hopes of breaking the vampire curse. It doesn't work and she continues to thirst for blood.
The film suffered many problems for Universal including a revolving door of screenwriters, recasts, battles with censors and budget issues. Besides his likeness of a wax dummy and his likeness on the tapestry, Bela Lugosi did not reprise his role as Dracula. A real shame, because in a few of the early drafts, the movie begins in the 14th century and features the origins of Dracula. The tapestry must be a holdover from those unfilmed scenes.
I went ahead and added some color to the tapestry hopefully making it easier to see some of the details. Bela Lugosi/Dracula stands wearing robes instead of his cape and what looks like two (hell)hounds stand at his side. Is he portraying Vlad the Impaler? I wonder what happened to this amazing set piece? I would like to think that it's sitting in an old trunk waiting to be discovered. Since it looks like it was painted on canvas, more than likely the paint was probably stripped and the canvas was used for something else. After all, Dracula's Daughter was the last of the first wave of the Universal monster films and for a few years it looked like Universal had ended their monster run permanently.
I made this GIF so you can see how it moves in the film. I'd like to see someone attempt to recreate this amazing piece of film history.
Check out this very cool illustrated ad for the Cragstan Creeping Crawling Hand! This ad came from a pull-out section out of a 1960s Better Homes & Gardens issue. (I only have the pull-out section, so I'm not sure the exact year.) --Update-- Karswell has a very slightly different version of this ad from a 1965 Sunset House catalog. Check it out at the and everything else blog.
This is what you got for $5.98. I'd say that's money well spent!
In 2010, the example above sold for $690.00 at Bertoia Auctions and a slightly different version as seen below sold for $676.00 on ebay earlier this year.
I suspect the Creeping Crawling Hand was inspired by the classic b-movie, The Crawling Hand from 1963. It's a movie about a dismembered astronaut's hand that goes on a killing spree.
The dismembered crawling hand has become a true classic and has had many variations by many different manufactures through the years. I'm sure if you visit your local Halloween store you'll find one for sale. For fun, I put together a mosaic of all the different ones I spotted on ebay.
I'll leave you with a Google link for a newspaper article from 1891 about a mysterious creeping hand. Click here to read.
I'm sure I would have been a much better student if there was a chance at getting a Monster achievement certificate. Wow! This 1977 certificate is so neat! I don't know who you are, Merriel, but big time congrats for reaching your reading goal and nabbing a Monster Reading Achievement Certificate.
So is this "monster" a caveman or troll? Since he's working the whole Captain Caveman look, I'll say caveman. I wonder if Merriel handed out other Monster achievement certificates. Monster Math, Monster Social Studies, Monster Spelling, Monster etc., etc. If so, I hope they surface.
Back in 1976 when red, white and blue was a mainstream fashion choice because of our nation's bicentennial, some kids bucked the trend and instead wore monsters on their chests. They probably didn't know (or care) that these monsters were ripped from other artists and copyrighted by Canyon House Inc. Hmm...some things will never change!
I found this ad in a 1976 Boy's Life mag. It was fun playing monster detective trying to figure out what these iron-ons were based after. Majority of the images were swiped, altered and reused from Bernie Wrightson's The Monsters Color the Creature Book from 1974.
This first design is a swipe of Karloff's Mummy from 1932. Maybe Canyon House swiped this from the cover of Famous Monster #58 published in 1969, but more than likely, they simply grabbed a copy of Monster Fantasy #2 off the newsstand back '75 and swiped the Mummy from that cover. At least it's red, white and blue for the bicentennial!
Everyone knows that Medusa's gaze turns people into stone. By the 1970s, poor Medusa was irrelevant. People didn't have to look at her face to get stoned. Medusa is a swiped and altered image of a witch found in Bernie Wrightson's The Monsters Color the Creature Book.
Hey look! Mr. Hyde has his eye on you! Here's another example of raiding the newsstand. This altered image was swiped from 1975's Quasimodo's Monster Magazine #5.
I suppose the title of this transfer is Heart Attack. Instead, it kinda looks like those demons are getting ready to eat a big plump strawberry. The demons/ghouls are swiped from Bernie Wrightson's The Monsters Color the Creature Book.
Arrrrwooooo! I wasn't able to pinpoint the swipe source for this one. It's based after a classic publicity photo from the original 1941 Wolf Man.
I can hear the Canyon House editor say, "Yeah, just add a railroad spike and some blood to the mummy drawing and we're good!" Swiped from the Bernie Wrightson's The Monsters Color the Creature Book.
A poorly altered Wrightson space alien. They took away his space helmet and added some overalls and an ax. Bernie Wrightson's The Monsters Color the Creature Book.
For the cyclops monster, they used a combo of two drawings from Bernie Wrightson's The Monsters Color the Creature Book. It has the head of a giant cyclops and the body of Swamp Thing.
I'm not sure where Canyon House snagged this last image from. He's wearing the classic Son of Frankenstein fur coat, so that's a clue. I guess this one will remain a mystery. Also, what is Frankie holding? Looks like he's flicking his Bic!
If only this book would have been published a few years later than 1974.
Monster Mix: Puzzles and Pastimes for Monster Lovers is a book that I missed out on when I was a kid. I recently picked this copy up at a thrift store just in time for the Halloween countdown.
Published by Xerox Education and written and illustrated by Barbara Seuling.
Each page has ghastly goodies that any monster loving kid would flip over.
Here’s a few sample pages for your Halloween trick or treat bag. My favorite is either the wild looking cyclops or the vampire girl. Of course the Wolfman that desperately needs a haircut and shave is a good one too.
Barbara Seuling is an accomplished children’s book writer and illustrator and is probably best known for her book, How to Write a Children’s Book and Get It Published. You can visit her website here. The University of Southern Mississippi retains some of Barbara’s original artwork and manuscripts. which includes items from Monster Mix. She donated loads of material from her work ranging between 1974 to 1998. The link to the list can be found here.
