Not As Off Topic As I Thought

[Uncle Roger]

I was poking around imdb this afternoon and was amused to see that Wayne Tippit, who played Dr. Fisher on the NBC Dark Shadows had an unbilled role as a drunk who gets killed in the camp classic The Horror of Party Beach. Mr. Tippit was quite the multitasker. He was also the film's assistant director and is said to have worn the monster costume for at least one sequence.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

What a hoot. Thanks for sharing, Uncle Roger. 

[Gerard]

What a blast from the past:  The Horror of Party Beach!  When I was a kid, the film was legendary - we somehow believed that it was one of the most frightening flicks ever made, never mind the fact that absolutely none of us had seen it.

And then, decades later (maybe on MST3000; I don't recall), I finally get to see it.  All I could think of were the hotdogs the monsters had stuffed into their mouths.

Gerard

[Uncle Roger]

I first saw HOPB when I was a freshman in college and I found it to be absolutely hilarious. The fact that glorious, exotic Party Beach turned out to Stamford, Connecticut (which had the good sense to masquerade as Long Island) struck me as quite funny. The monsters looked like Muppets on acid. And the film is especially notable for the iconic performance of Eulabelle Moore as, well, Eulabelle. It's the voodoo, I tells ya!

[Bob_the_Bartender]

MST3K’s presentation of “The Horror of Beach Party” is currently on You Tube.

By the way, I wonder how much a Wayne Tippit - The Horror of Beach Party autographed movie poster - will go for?

[Uncle Roger]

I don't know about a signed movie poster from HOPB; I have never seen any of the movie's alumni on the autograph circuit. I know that Eulabelle Moore passed away shortly after the movie was completed. So that is indeed her last hurrah.

I dug a little deeper and found that Mr. Tippit had a couple of more DS connections. He played Hank in an early Off Broadway production of Boys In The Band at the same time that Don Briscoe was in the cast. He also replaced Stacy Keach as the title character in MacBird. MacBird is a very 1960's concept. It merges the plot of the Shakespearean play with the assassination of John F. Kennedy. This play is where Roger Davis was discovered for DS.

But the most unusual thing I found was a 45 RPM by Wayne Tippit and The Texas Mountaineers called Coronation Stomp. It was on Buddha records, the same fine folks who brought us the Lemon Pipers and The 1910 Fruitgum Company.

[Bob_the_Bartender]

Uncle Roger,

Gerard is so correct, “The Horror of Beach Party” IS a blast from the past! No doubt, you and your fellow residents of the great state of Connecticut are as “proud” of the fact that THOBP was filmed in the Constitution State as we are “proud” of the fact that “Eddie and the Cruisers” was filmed in the Garden State!

THOBP has a neat rock and roll soundtrack, kind of like 1959’s sci-fi film, “The Giant Gila Monster,” featuring the songs of the late Don Sullivan. Incidentally, the rock and roll band in THOBP are the “immortal” Del-Aires, the “pride” of Patterson, NJ.

I didn’t know Roger Davis was in an off-Broadway play when he was discovered for a part on DS. I wonder if RD   rubbed his hair vigorously in that production? I remember seeing “Moon-Children” off-Broadway in the mid-1970s. The playbill mentioned that Kenneth McMillan, one of the actors in the play, had appeared on DS. I couldn’t recall who Mr. McMillan portrayed on the show. It wasn’t until years later that I saw him as sailor Jack Long, the man who tried to help Paul Stoddard break his Leviathan bargain, on a PBS station in NJ.

Buddha Records had some really “big” names on its label, the Lemon Pipers and the 1910 Fruit Gum Company! I remember seeing the Lemon Pipers perform “My Green Tambourine” on one of those oldies concerts on PBS, which Jim Pierson produced, I think. And, did the 1910 Fruit Gum Company record “Yummy, Yummy Yummy, I’ve Got Love in My Tummy”? David Henesy and his mother identified that “classic” 1960s song on a game show during DS’ run.

[Uncle Roger]

The Zombie Stomp, by The Del-Aires, is indeed the living end. The choreography in HOPB speaks for itself.

Yummy, Yummy, Yummy was recorded by The Ohio Express. Sort of. There was indeed a band called The Ohio Express but the voice on the single was that of studio musician Joey Levine. He was also the song's cowriter. Levine had a very distinctive whine to his voice that no one from the real band was able to recreate live. Years later, Joey was the voice of Reunion on the song Life Is A Rock But The Radio Rolled Me. He does the occasional live show (saw him and the 1910 Bubblegum Company in NYC about 10 years ago.). But he has had much more success as a writer for commercials. The Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't is his.

So, do it to me, Chewy. Chew me out of my mind.

[Bob_the_Bartender]

I always get the Ohio Express and the 1910 Fruit Gum Company from Linden, NJ confused. Of course, the latter group recorded such all-time “hits” as “Indian Giver” and “ Goody, Goody Gumdrops.”

By the way, I wonder if Joe Haskell ever took Carolyn Stoddard to see “The Horror of Beach Party” at the Collinsport Cinema? If Joe did, maybe Carolyn was intrigued by that motorcycle gang leader in the film, prompting her to eventually date Collinsport’s own resident motorcyclist/iconoclast, Mr. Buzz Hackett?

[Uncle Roger]

That's quite understandable, Bob. The bands on Buddha were pretty interchangeable. The records were done mostly by studio musicians. If there were actual bands by those names, they were usually unable to approximate the sound of the records in person. Shades of Milli Vanilli.
Perhaps Joe would have taken Carolyn to see HOPB. I doubt very much that he would have brought Maggie to see it. Thinking about it now, I can easily see Carolyn and her boy of the moment going to see this at the local drive in. And their windows would have been very steamy.

[Bob_the_Bartender]

I can remember back during the 1960s when some drive-ins actually had employees with flashlights, walking up and down the rows of cars to see if couples were becoming “overly” amorous in the cars!

I wonder if Barnabas and Vicky ever drove to the Collinsport Drive-In to see some current flick, like “Easy Rider” or “Barbarella”? I suspect Mr. B. would be somewhat taken aback by Jane Fonda’s opening scene in “Barbarella.”