Interesting to learn about the "horror rolodex" compiled for use by the DS writers. I didn't realize that the "rolodex" even existed in the 1960s. You wouldn't be able to fit very much information on those cards, I wouldn't think.

I obtained a copy of the book I mentioned " 'Very Unusual': The Wonderful World of Mr. K. Nakamura" which is still available in hardcover from the Philosophical Research Society in Los Angeles, and have read about a third of the stories at this point, from the beginning of the book. Something that caught my eye in a 1956 story titled "The Conoisseurs," resonated closely with the DS episode in which Mr. Nakamura appears. In the DS episode, Olivia Corey manages to temporarily obtain a landscape painting by Charles Delaware Tate which she has a special interest in. She has engaged the services of Japanese rare art dealer Mr. Nakamura, who surreptitiously has the painting  X-rayed for her. In a later episode we learn that the landscape is painted over a previous portrait by Tate of Olivia Corey (who shouldn't now be the same age as she was in the portrait of many years ago). (I'm already slightly hazy on the details though I rewatched several episodes covering this just a few weeks ago.)

In the story by Hall, the American friend of Mr. Nakamura, who visits Nakamura's art store in each story, witnesses an experiment by blind students to describe various works of art using intuitive or psychic impressions. Various aspects of a  beautiful painting of the Buddha are described by each student based on their psychic impressions, and only one seems to be mistaken. A young girl describes the full face of the Buddha where in the actual painting, half of the Buddha's face is shadowed by a curtain. Mr. Nakamura brings out an infrared light which he holds to the painting, and lo and behold, the full face of the Buddha can be seen, having been painted over by the artist.

In another story, a small hidden room in the art store is revealed behind shelves, which immediately reminded me of the hidden room off the parlor in the Old House. Hidden rooms are not exactly unusual, so that could be a coincidence. But the combination of a Japanese dealer in rare art named Mr. Nakamura, and a painting that has been partially painted over by the artist and revealed by modern technology (infrared light in the story, X-ray in the DS episode) seems to point to a direct source of inspiration.

The DS episode with Mr. Nakamura was written by Violet Welles, according to the closing credits.

Sometime in 2004 (yes, more than 20 years ago) I commented in a post on this forum :

"Mr. Nakamura, an art dealer associated with Olivia Corey, was played by Japanese born actor Sho Onodera.

"Incidentally, I discovered the inspiration for this character a few years ago, but I've lost the specific information.  A little-known series of occult-supernatural novels featured a Japanese art dealer/detective named Mr. Nakamura."

Despite years of searching I was never able to come up with anything. I remember for certain that the book was hardcover and I remember it as a dark blue and rather nondescript -- nothing to really draw one's attention. I can pinpoint the approximate time frame (late 1980s) and the bookstore where I saw the book in Minneapolis. The bookstore had an extensive Occult or "Alternative Spirituality" section. Most of the books were non-fiction paperbacks. So a hardcover fictional book was a bit different than the others. My memory, as my 2004 post shows, was that the book I came across was perhaps one of a series of novels featuring an occult detective and Japanese art dealer named Mr. Nakamura. The book seemed to be an older book that was surprisingly still to be found in a bookstore.

It turns out that my memory was very close but not exact. My discovery today (using the same Google search terms that I have used for many decades in trying to track this down) shows the main difference is that this was not a series of novels but a series of short stories published together in one book featuring detective and rare art dealer named Mr. Nakamura. I had a brief flash of insight when I began searching today that "maybe it was a series of short stories" rather than a novel, the first variation in my memory about this since 2004. And that flash of distant memory was the right one. Amazingly, though, I didn't use "short stories" in my string of search terms. Another difference is that I thought this was a hardcover with no dust jacket, but photos of the book that I found today show that it did have a dust cover in the colors and general description that I remembered.

The main thing I misremembered -- which through me off --  is that I thought this was translated from Japanese, and that it might date from an earlier decade of the 1900s, perhaps from the 1950s.

There is no doubt that I have finally found this series of stories, as even the detective's name, "Mr. K. Nakamura," is an additional detail that jogs my memory. The book was by esoteric researcher Manly P. Hall (not a Japanese author), who I may not have been familiar with at the time, and was published by the "Philosophic Research Society" he was associated with. The book was hardcover and images of the cover show it to have been a very plain cover, half dark blue and half grayish blue. The title is " 'Very Unusual': The Wonderful World of Mr. K. Nakamura." A description of the book is as follows:

A book of choice for the lover of mystical tales and mysteries, this series of related short stories is a work in which fiction and fact combine to give insights to spiritual paths and fantastical events. Mr. K. Nakamura is a fictionalized dealer in artwork and antiquities in Kyoto, well-schooled in the legendry and lore of his country. He has the shrewdness of a successful businessman combined with a magical air. Each story presents a situation in which there is no clear demarcation between the commonplace and the supernatural, where strange happenings and powers appear to be taken for granted. Published 1976.

Where I was really wrong in my conclusions, though, was that this book must have been the inspiration for DS's Mr. Nakamura. Since the book was published in 1976, that couldn't have been the case (unless by chance the stories had been published somewhere earlier and collected in book form in 1976). It could have been the other way around  --  Mr. Manly Hall might have based his detective on DS's Mr. Nakamura!

*  *  *

This gives me hope that some day, some how, I will find the answer to a question that has been even more pressing for me. In Junior High somewhere around 1972 - 1974 in the "Language Arts Resource Center" at my school, I read a story which at the time I was not sure whether it was fictional or true. It purported to be the last pages of a diary kept by Edgar Allan Poe as he descended into madness. This story made such a great impression on me that I have been trying to track it down ever since  -- nearly 50 years now. It was in one of those weekly or semi-weekly digest-size magazines for students that I think may have been "Read," which was published by Xerox (according to my research in recent years). Another possibility might be "Scope" published by Scholastic. There was also a "Junior Scholastic" and possibly others, but the one that meets the description that I'm sure about as far as size (small, not a "magazine" size) and the type of content is "Read" magazine. If anyone has a clue to this or remembers the story I would be very grateful to hear!

*  *  *

To try to make this long post more relevant to possible discussion --  does anyone have any comments or thoughts about Mr. Nakamura or his brief role in DS?  I'm tempted to take out my DVD(s) with this storyline, which I don't think is one that's discussed as often as several others . . .

-Philippe
August 1, 2025

Article and trailer from the June 2, 2025, Hollywood Reporter :

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/netflix-frankenstein-trailer-reaction-del-toro-theaters-1236235616/?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us

Netflix’s ‘Frankenstein’ Trailer Has Fans Clamoring for Theatrical Release

The stunning trailer for Guillermo del Toro's dark passion project — a remake of the classic monster tale — is getting a reaction that's good (and bad) for the streamer.

Oh my gosh, you aren't kidding, Josette! Did you say that this house is near where you live? Were you aware of it before? I wonder what they mean about it having been "inspired" by Seaview Terrace  -- what was the architect's connection with Seaview and how did he (assuming "he") know about Seaview Terrace? Assuming this was the front of the house, it's strangely reversed (terrace in front) from Seaview.

(As an aside of interest to no one - I recently discovered a family connection to Pennsylvania, which was a total surprise - a previously unknown great-grandfather found via research plus DNA matching with descendants.)

M.B. will you ever explain your comment about how the MPI snow globe Collinwood so significantly departs from the actual mansion?

The cut-out clothing options shown for Barnabas and Julia look like familiar things they wore, but does anyone recognize Angelique's little cocktail dress as anything she actually wore on the show?

Did you find and read the story, Patti? I did provide a link above to the story online at the estimable website of the Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore:

https://www.eapoe.org/works/stedwood/sw0305.htm

"Thou Art the Man" by Edgar Allan Poe

A couple of days ago, I stumbled upon yet another scholarly article, available on academia.edu, presenting the case that Poe's pastiche on Lord Byron, "The Assignation," also conceals a murder mystery. I'm just getting into the article now.

The original TV miniseries with David Soul, Lance Kerwin, James Mason, and Bonnie Bedelia had a major impact on me, though not when it aired in 1979. Unfortunately I was unaware of it at that time, at a college where no one watched TV. I first saw it maybe in the late 1990s when I first got cable and DS was airing on the Sci-Fi channel. Those were the days . . . I agree with MB that the biggest drawback was the portrayal of the vampire as a Nosferatu type creature - why depart from the original concept of the novel? (Though I have to admit, I only started the novel once, set it aside, and never got back to it.) The Rob Lowe version had some plusses, some minuses, and was less memorable for me - I can't recall at all how the vampire was even portrayed, and I didn't care much for the kid who played the boy. Thanks for linking to the clip of the new version. I think I'll just stick with the oldie.