What wonderful memories!  Thanks, Midnite, for those links.

G

The Hotel is actually located in Elizabeth (the one aspect that seems to fit with a Dark Shadows theme).  It's a 5.5 mile drive from Newark Penn Station.  The website says it is a $23 cab ride from the Airport to the hotel which seems to be comparable to how much a cab from the train station will cost.

Believe it or not, the hotel website describes the venue as "chic." 

FWIW, it seems to be smack dab in the middle of nowhere, off a highway that goes to the Newark Intl Airport.  Bring your granola and peanut butter sandwiches as the snooty waiters at the tiny hotel restaurant may run out of provisions when the place is jammed with tired, hungry conventioneers foraging for food in the great wilderness of the airport hinterland.

G.

Hooray for Hollywood.

I'm immensely enjoying the Movie Quotes slideshow.  Thanks, MB!

G.

I just became a huge fan of Guillermo del Toro even though I have seen none of his movies (and doubt whether they would prove my cup of tea)--thanks to his commentaries on the Night Gallery season 2 DVDs which I rented via a popular subscription service.  I was stunned at how literate, even erudite, del Toro is about not just classic horror cinema, but the classic fiction of the 20s and 30s including some of the now obscure authors such as Seabury Quinn and Donald Wandrei.  He is also a very astute observer of actors and bothered to research the careers of performers I love such as Barbara Rush who are now pretty much forgotten.  (His remarks about Yaphet Kotto in the commentary on "The Messiah on Mott Street" shows great insight into qualities of Kotto's that would go right past the casual viewer.)

I'm sure that del Toro watched reruns of DS as a child in Mexico, and I'd be very surprised if he had not seen the films as well.

Last night, inspired by MB's new series of shots from NoDS, I got out my tape of NoDS (from the old laserdisc) and watched several scenes.  I really can't get over the beauty of the camerawork in that film.   The scene with Quentin on horseback slowly "tuning into" the flashback of Angelique's funeral could have been shot by Claude Renoir.  In the funeral scene itself, I was started to catch a brief close-up of Clarice Blackburn I'd never noticed before.  Always a treat to revisit a favorite film...

G.

These are all good questions, and I have no answers.

I have seen references in the PomPress books about the opening narration from the post Summer '67 period that it would be taken on by "anyone available, so long as they weren't in that first scene," but of course since Alex was doing ALL of them during the first year or so, they must have been able to allow for pre-recording in at least some cases (e. g., she was onscreen bound, gagged, and at the mercy of mad Matthew Morgan while her voice was reciting the latest sheaf of purple prose overhead). 

Since Alex was paid for doing those voiceovers even if she wasn't in the action of the episode, they may have expected her to come over specially each afternoon to do them.  Or she may have been able to do several at one go and then have them get added along with the music cues on Sybil's giant vinyl records during taping.

As for the billing, I don't think that was maintained consistently for the entire five years.  I've certain seen episodes where Grayson's name came first even if Joan was absent and there were other male actors on scene.

The whole thing about the contracts, or lack thereof, is a fascinating subject that I've heard various rumors about over the years.  Quite a few of the players on the show worked without a contract.

G.

Wow.  I'd love to hear anything you can report about what Dorothy MacGowan says.  If there is a q & a and you feel moved to do so, I would love to have you ask MacGowan what her memories were of working with Grayson.

Just so you know, Grayson is in the very beginning of the movie, and then there's about 45 minutes until her next scene.  A lot of the movie is a rambling pop-culture kind of filmic collage, sort of like the Beatles "Hard Day's Night" or "Darling" with Julie Christie or other films of the mid Sixties that had a certain Beat/Pop edge to them.

G.

What excitement!  Incidentally, I *loved* the Liz/Roger snapshot featured above--and it's delightful to see it again in this thread!  Superb choice, MB!

G.