Um, I think I just did.

:::heavy sigh:::  I am soooo not ready for the Capn Barnaby action figures...

G.

No new content of note, but a brief report about the Festival appeared on the new website for the magazine Cinema Retro, http://www.cinemaretro.com.  The notice included a familiar publicity photo of Jonathan Frid as Barnabas (probably dating to 1968) and mention of the Johnny Depp movie project.

G.

Golly, both the entrances of Jonathan and David sound so fun and memorable!  I can't believe JF got into the coffin once more just to make his fans happy!!! Let's hope he had more leg room in the 2008 mark coffin!

I'd vote for Quentin Collins for president!

G.

The mockup for the cover and verso designs looks excellent.  Nice to see that Karlen is featured on the verso.

MB, have you read the review on the DVD Talk site of DS The Beginnings vol. 5 yet? It's a regular riot!  (I don't agree with his comments about the work of David Henesy and Joan Bennett on the series, but he expresses even opinions that I disagree with in such an entertaining, campy, fun way!)

G.

Another fun one is "Dracula's Daughter" also produced by Joe Meek in 1964.  The vocalist on this gem is "Screaming Lord Sutch" who continued on to quite a career after Joe Meek's death in 1967:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvutGdUYGJw&feature=related

Enjoy!

G.

Fans,

here's a brilliant youtube clip (no video to speak of; just photo of the original 45) of the Joe Meek-produced instrumental, "Night of the Vampire," by "The Moon-trekkers" (I don't think the band had an existence outside of Meek's London studio), released in 1961:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8oBFIwB5rA&feature=related

Apart from the vampire connection, the ending of this song reminds me of the ending of house of Dark Shadows--you'll hear flapping batwings and a strangulated shriek.  The screeching electric guitars are very Blue Whale-esque, too.

Fun stuff!

G.

Some of what derailed it had to do with other projects that cast members left to pursue.  Both Thayer David and Dennis Patrick left halfway through to do movie projects.  It was because Dennis Patrick was unavailable that Dan Curtis (or whoever was guiding the plot at the time) came up with that stupid thing with that other ghost. 

The other thing that seriously messed it up is that they changed track abruptly twice during the storyline--first, in response to hate mail from fans, they began to make Barnabas more sympathetic and resistant to the Leviathans much earlier than originally planned.  And then, again because of hate mail but also, I suspect, because of the shooting schedule for the first movie, the storyline was hastily wrapped up a month or two earlier than originally planned.

I still find Leviathans perhaps the most fascinating storyline just because they really tried to do something different.  For all its faults, after Leviathans the stories basically re-hashed what had worked before--the Angelique thing in PT 1970 (which I do love because it was so stylish and had such great scenery-chewing opportunities once they brought the regulars back), the ghosts and possession and Satanism, etc. in Summer of 1970 and 1840. 

Nevertheless, I mustn't forget the brief sojourn in 1995.  *That* was really bizarre, even by DS standaards!  Sy Tomashoff and the crew deserved Emmies for what they did with the sets for those two weeks!

G.