Yes--apparently, though, Clarice bought the wig herself.  She wore it to her audition, and it basically got her the job.  I don't know whether you have ever seen photographs of Clarice Blackburn leaving the studio, but she was actually a very attractive lady!

Now Rainey, darling, you really ought to know better than to sip tea while reading *my* posts!

xo, Steve

In the books, from what *I* recall, Wonka was this little old gnome who had a very tricksterish flair and was more than a little dangerous--the sort of being that only a little boy could really love (think the Psammead in Five Children and It--hmmm, I'm sure Dahl was an E Nesbit fan...).

From the stills I have seen, the remake appears to be more an embroidery upon the Seventies film, rather than a revisiting of the Dahl texts.  I've asked repeatedly whether the songs are included in the new flick, but nobody seems to know.  It will really be a crashing bore without the songs... I agree with whoever said the Seventies oompa-loompas looked like Gerard Stiles...

btw, did anybody out there ever read those Joan Aiken books about Dido Twite and her friends and foes--Wolves of Willoughby Chase; Nightbirds in Nantucket; Black Hearts in Battersea, etc.?  Apparently the final book in the series is being published posthumously (Dame Joan went to her reward, aged 80-something, last year, it seems), and it sounds juicy.  The word Witch is in the title--always a good sign.

Steve

Here's a link to a page of Vampira photos:

http://partigirl.www1.50megs.com/Vampirapix.htm

It would be interesting to know whether her act was inspired by the Charles Addams cartoons.  Both certainly owe something to the star of Dracula's Daughter.

G.

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.