Wednesday, October 31, 2007

The Tale of Vincent, Edgar Allan, and me...

...for your Halloween reading.

For the most part, I had a normal childhood. We kids went to school, our dad worked, and our mom stayed home. We ate dinner together every night and got together with our relatives for major events. Nothing too remarkable, except that major movies, and get a relative to take our little brother or take him with her (one kid was easier to handle than three).

Now this was the early 60s: you could leave kids at the movies then. And anyone could sit through a bunch of matinée movies without getting kicked out of the theater. That's when I fell in love with horror movies; I couldn't get enough of them! Maybe it was being exposed to death and funerals at an early age, but I found them only a little scary, but wonderfully entertaining. (And, no, I didn't have nightmares after them...)

Pumpkin 2001
We saw a "Brides of Dracula" and "The Leech Woman" double feature; and repeats of the Creature from the Black Lagoon movies and "Bride of Frankenstein." But the best movies were those based on Edgar Allan Poe material: "The Tell-Tale Heart," "The Pit and the Pendulum," "Tales of Terror," and "The Raven" were my favorite movies.

Vincent Price and Peter Lorre became my favorite actors. If there was a Vincent Price or Peter Lorre movie playing at the theater, I'd ask to go. Any time one of their old movies came on TV, I'd watch. It didn't matter to me whether it was a horror movie as long as they were in it. As a result, I got to see some great movies, like the "Maltese Falcon," "Laura," "Arsenic and Old Lace," some classic horror movies like "House of Wax" and "The Fly," and some not so great ones ("Muscle Beach Party" anyone?).

Skeleton by Hallmark

When I could get to the library, I'd check-out books on the works of Poe. I also discovered that we owned some old literature text books at contained some of Poe's poems. I read many of them over and over again. There was something about their meter and the frequent macabre turns that appealed to me. What can I say...I was a strange kid. Eventually, I put Poe aside for other things, but I still watched every Vincent Price or Peter Lorre movie that I could.

My teenage years were a time of great turmoil and I did not feel comfortable with myself, much less with others. I took long walks at night, by myself, and lamented my sad life (, woe is me!). I started writing {bad} poetry with death, lost love, and loneliness being the main topics. I unearthed Poe's works again and memorized "The Raven" and "The Bells." I told everyone I wanted to become a mortician (I know!). (If I was growing up now, I might be all Goth...)

A Raven

Anyway, my pal Edgar Allan was there for me and my BFFs Vincent and Peter were there in movie form. They, with a little help from The Addams Family and The Munsters, got me through my teenage angst. Thankfully, I passed through the morbid stage and came out the other end a fairly sane person. (And, no, I did not become a mortician!) However, I never lost my fondness for Vincent Price or Edgar Allan Poe (I can still quote portions of The Raven and The Bells after all this time).


One of my greatest joys was to meet Vincent Price when he gave an art lecture at San Jose State in 1968. After the lecture, I went back stage and overcame my shyness enough to ask for an autograph. The only notebook I had with me contained sheet music paper. He was very kind, made a joke about my music notebook, and signed his autograph. The 10-year old me who sat through many Vincent Price movies would have never dreamed of meeting him, much less getting his autograph. How cool was that?!

So what better day to celebrate my best buds, Vincent and Edgar Allan?

Happy Halloween!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's wonderful how you got VP's autograph, as much as you admired him. Yes, I remember the days when it was okay to leave kids in the movies...Terry

marie said...

And when you got left at the movies, you'd actually behave because you knew if you didn't, you'd catch h*ll, first from the theater manager and then from your parents!

Anyway, thanks for the comments, both today's and yesterday's!

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