DARK SHADOWS FORUMS

Members' Mausoleum => Calendar Events / Announcements '24 I => Topic started by: Gothick on February 24, 2020, 11:38:54 PM

Title: Barnabas Collins sighting
Post by: Gothick on February 24, 2020, 11:38:54 PM

Fans who were around for the 1970s may recall a tabloid-style monster mag called The Monster Times. Issue 27 was a vampire themed number and there are a couple of Barnabas pictures included if you scroll through.

https://www.zomboscloset.com/zombos_closet_of_horror_b/2017/04/the-monster-times-no-27-.html

cheers, G.

Title: Re: Barnabas Collins sighting
Post by: Mysterious Benefactor on February 25, 2020, 12:17:46 AM

I don't think I ever saw that back in the day. Most of the stores I frequented only carried Famous Monsters of Filmland.

Thanks so much for sharing the link.  [snow_smiley]

Title: Re: Barnabas Collins sighting
Post by: Gothick on February 25, 2020, 12:49:12 AM

Really, MB? As far as I was concerned, Monster Times was a huge improvement over FM. Even better was Castle of Frankenstein, but that was published very intermittently and was hard to find.

Here's a 1970 issue of CoF featuring a 1969 photo of Quentin on the cover:

https://www.zomboscloset.com/zombos_closet_of_horror_b/2015/03/castle-of-frankenstein-issue-15.html

G.

Title: Re: Barnabas Collins sighting
Post by: Mysterious Benefactor on February 25, 2020, 01:11:32 AM

I never saw that either.

Nice photos of Barbara Steele.

Though I do wonder what Myra Breckenridge is doing in Castle of Frankenstein? Though on second that, that film is monstrous.  [b003]

Title: Re: Barnabas Collins sighting
Post by: Uncle Roger on February 25, 2020, 01:43:45 AM

Myra Breckinridge is indeed a train wreck of mammoth proportions but I think that the backstage backfighting could make an excellent season of Feud.

Title: Re: Barnabas Collins sighting
Post by: Gothick on February 25, 2020, 06:33:42 PM

I think you don't really have time to read about the fascinating byways of old genre fandom, MB, but this is a short article about editor/publisher Calvin T. Beck and his Castle of Frankenstein:

http://21ca.com/flickhead/2_14_Beck_CoF.html

There's a long thread on the Monster Kids board from a few years ago when Little Shoppe of Horrors ran a two part survey/expose of Beck and CoF. Interesting discussion.

Apart from the legendary cult status of the magazine, Beck is best remembered now because his mother seems fairly conclusively to have been a major model for "Norman's" Mom in Robert Bloch's original novel Psycho. Reportedly, Helen Beck went everywhere with her son but perhaps not to the extent that "Norman's" Mom did.

Castle of Frankenstein was ahead of its time in treating horror films as objects of serious, adult film criticism. The mag ran stills and articles about European avant-garde films and the kind of pictures associated with serious art houses in New York, San Francisco, and one or two other cities back in the Sixties.

G.

Title: Re: Barnabas Collins sighting
Post by: Gothick on February 25, 2020, 07:28:58 PM

Article about Cal Beck and the Psycho connection:

http://www.the13thfloor.tv/2016/10/17/the-other-psycho-will-the-real-norman-bates-please-stand-up/

G.