LAWRENCE WELK (voiceover): "And, while the rest of us enjoy the sunny skies here in Banff, our guest maestro Barnabas Collins charms us from his basement bachelor hideaway with his very personal arrangement of 'I get a kick out of you.'  Maestro, hit it!"

Penny Dreadful, that's fascinating!  That festival sounds like a lot of fun.

I should have mentioned that before Morticia on the Addams Family, Vampira (actress Maila Nurmi) in the 1950s created a look that was very ahead of its time and may have contributed to the look devised for Morticia.  Unfortunately I have read that NO video footage of Vampira's act exists, but there are plenty of photographs.

G.

I doubt whether this answers your question, but in the uneven (yet often excellent) series Forever Knight (1992-95, filmed in Toronto), the vampires hung out at a Goth club, and several of them did the Goth fashion thing.  It seems to me that at this point the association between vampires and Goth fashions was already established--another film that comes to mind is "The Howling II" (1984) in which the werewolves dress and behave like Goth club kids.

Going back to the late Sixties and early Seventies, some of the modern-day films such as "Dracula A. D. 1972," "The Satanic Rites of Dracula," "The Return of Count Yorga" and even perhaps "house of Dark Shadows" seem to have contained some of the seeds of the Goth look.  There are books out documenting the history of Goth culture; perhaps that would be the place to try to pinpoint the association between this fashion style and vampirism more accurately.

Here in New England, the self-proclaimed "Official Witch of Salem" Laurie Cabot is the one who popularized the idea that Witches run around in yards of dark crushed-velvet fabric with false eyelashes above and below and enough eyeliner to sink the Lusitania.  I know a Priestess who has a shop in Salem who was trained by Cabot in the Seventies and who still dresses this way to this day--she is now a Grandmother.  She is a very sweet person and loves to share what she knows.  I've never tried to discuss the whole weird "Witch fashion" thing which I find over-the-top and unnecessary, although as my friends will tell you, I enjoy a good costume do as much as the next person!

Best wishes,

G.

Definitely sad news.  I thought Elcar defined the role of Sheriff P more incisively than the others who essayed the part.

Other roles in which I recall him were a small but expressive part in Adam at 6 A.M. (with Grayson Hall, too), and an exceptionally fine role in an episode of The Rockford Files in which he played opposite Dennis Patrick.

G.

I loved that drawing room scene, too.  It was so different from what I was expecting.  The muted, naturalistic reaction to the intrusion of the supernatural was so very different from how they played things later on.

I thought that KLS' acting was superb in that episode where she was chatting up Joe.  Perky but with a sly sexual subtext.  Really excellent work.

I think the scenes where it's Roger's shoes going up hill and down dale were shot with extras--not sure why they did it this way.

I agree that Vicki oughta get the hell outta Dodge--except that if she did that, there'd be no show.  Poor Vicki.

G.

I've frequently noticed in reading discussions of various Dark Shadows episodes here that fans born too late to have experienced the Sixties firsthand often seem to doubt whether anybody in their right mind would have furnished their homes or worn their clothes in the styles showcased on the series in episodes set in the present day.  Those of us who were around and aware between 1960 and 1970 have tried to explain the unique ... um, ALLURE, of trends back in the day, but our plain statements of fact are often greeted with braying disbelief and such exclamations as:  "You're pulling my leg!  NOBODY would have been so dumb as to have worn/purchased/displayed THAT!"

Well, Confucius always said that a picture is worth a thousand words.  Take a look at this site:

http://www.houseplantpicturestudio.com/HPS/liquorwebfotos/batch3/liquor003.html

It has it all, from beehive hair to sleeveless dresses, from clunky costume jewellry to women dolled up to resemble Lady Dracula for a night out with their pals; to rebellious, hippie teens and one cool cat who seems to have been going through a "Matt Helm" phase.  Many of the images are dated 1968.

I have to confess, the bathing suit series makes me grateful that Liz never had an indoor swimming pool installed at Collinwood (just think of what Mrs Johnson would have said at the mere suggestion of such a thing!).

Best wishes,

Gothique

Cool!  Maybe they'll run his other Kojak at some point.  He may have had a more substantial role in that one.

G.

I am personally thrilled with how well it turned out.

It looks beautiful and reads great!  Big congrats to RJ!

Steve