Thanks for the tip, Doctor and K9!  I know the Buffyholics on here will appreciate it.

As a side note, I don't understand the whole concept of "soccer mom."  I think I need someone along the lines of Susan Sontag to explain it to me.  The first time I ever heard the phrase was some years ago when a Japanese gentleman of my acquaintance, a former film critic who now works at a very prestigious clinic in town, stated in a newspaper interview that his dearest ambition in life was to become a "Somerville soccer mom."  To quote Miss Winters, I just don't understand.

Thanks to a certain "failin'" political candidate, I now expect to hear the phrase every other minute in 2009.  Ah well.

I wonder, to return to topic, how Angelique would have fared had she attempted a new career as a "soccer mom."  Images swim before my eyes:  "Britney, you will drop that and RETURN TO YOUR PRIUS!"

cheers, G.

M might have been Magda.  I can't remember whether Madam Findlay's shows come after the Carolyn/Chris seance sequence in which Magda spoke through Carolyn--I think this was indeed the case.

I'm having a memory lapse with the name, but the same regular DS stunt guy (who also coordinated the fights when they had them, I believe), who played the werewolf for both Chris and Quentin (this is where those Pom Press "cutenesses" on the "incredibly shrinking werewolf" come in) also played Madam Findlay falling down the stairs.  I remember the sequence being run at a Festival in the mid 90s where this gentleman attended and talked about working on the series.

G.

btw, Grayson was away for a couple of weeks in the autumn of '68 because I believe that that was when the "End of the Road" shoot took place out in Great Barrington, Mass.  I'm not sure about Jonathan.  They made him tour an awful lot that year, but the PR appearances and parades mostly happened on the weekends, I think.

G.

Yesterday morning I spent an agreeable 90 minutes watching The Haunting of Julia, an early 70s English Mia Farrow vehicle that is only available on VHS.  In the evening I watched some episodes of HEX (the recent UK serial) on a VHS tape a buddy sent me.  Later this week I'll watch Maggie Smith in Travels with my aunt, another movie only available on VHS.

The VHS medium is alive and well in my house, but I do wonder what I will do on the day when both my current VCRs kick the bucket.  I figure, however, that if young geek hipsters can keep vinyl LPs and the turntables to play them alive, the same favor can be extended to the lowly VCR.

cheers, G.

Janet, I am so very sorry to read of your loss.  May your memories of Niki bring you comfort.  What a fine, remarkable individual she was.

best wishes,

Steve (aka Gothick)

And here's a perfect example:

Barnabas (looking on with palpably aching desire at comatose Roxanne, obviously fitted with bullet-bra from Grayson's Playtex gig):  "Oh! ... she is ... so beautiful!"

Julia (rolls eyes): *multiple expletives deleted*

My hat's off again to our Darling Mysterioso, el Benefactoro (pardon my hideous mauling of Spanish),

for featuring one of my all time favorite guest players today--the beautiful, flamboyant, fabulous Cavada Humphrey!  When I went to IMDB just now to make sure her surname did not end with an s (my memory is in tatters these days, alas), I was startled to see that Cavada passed away on July 11, 2007.  Was there an obit posted here?  I don't recall seeing it, but I am often away out in the woods and fields doing my Nature Boy routine in July, so perhaps I missed it.

One of my all time favorite moments on all of DS is Madam Findlay's arrival at Collinwood, when she strides imperiously around the drawing room and waves her arms and sways and speaks cryptically of the battle waging within these walls--truly classic stuff.

She also got one of the most melodramatic "farewell" scenes in the series' history. 

Interestingly, her role as Madam Findlay wasn't Cavada Humphrey's sole DS connection.  For awhile she shared rooms with novelist Madeleine L'Engle, who penned the classic children's novel A Wrinkle in Time.  Madeleine L'Engle married Hugh Franklin, who appeared as Collins family lawyer Richard Garner in the 1966 episodes of DS.

Thanks again for featuring such a distinctive, memorable presence from our Dark Shadows memory-hoard!

cheers, G.

MB, I just LOVE today's screencapture!  Julia looks as if she has HAD it with a certain reluctant vampire!  Just love how mean and eee-vil she looks here!

thanks for the holiday cheer!

A Fan 4ever,

Gothick