JIM LICHNEROWICZ Confessions of a Monsterholic

My name is Jim and I am a Monsterholic. Not to belittle that famous phrase, but ever since I was a kid I have had an obsession with those ghoulish icons of Hollywod which Universal Pictures unleashed eighty years ago. In the early seventies I used to stay up late on Saturday nights with my older brother to watch the double bill of "Creature Features" that Chicago station WGN would air on broadcast TV. Those blurry black and white images displayed on a tiny ten inch screen really made an impact on this eleven year old and ever since then, I was hooked. I couldn't wait until the Sunday morning paper arrived so that I could pour through the TV times listing with the goal of marking down every conceivable monster film that was scheduled for the week. This was before cable TV and DVD and even before VHS when anything you ever wanted to watch you had to wait for. Not like today when everything is on demand and at your fingertips. In these early years we had to wait for a film to be broadcast on TV.

When other kids my age collected baseball cards or car models, I collected monster models. The famed Aurora monster model kits were a popular obsession for kids like me and my brother and we had them all. We assembled and painted them with loving care and proudly displayed them on a shelf. You couldn't play with them or take them out to show friends but it was great just having them. Monsters were my friends when I had none and they were always there for me. My favorite reading material was Forrest J. Ackerman's "Famous Monsters of Filmland", the very same fan magazine that inspired many of today's big Hollywood horror and sci-fi films. I couldn't wait to pour through its pages at the local Seven Eleven, reading as much as possible before putting the unpurchased magazine back in the rack. During the summer when I was in grade school and later junior high, I organized my own Halloween-type haunted house which I dubbed the "House of Horrors." Locals were invited to spend a nickel (and later a dime) to walk through the haunted corridors of our garage where mock ups of Frankenstein's Lab, Dracula's lair and a chamber of horrors would await. I even recruited friends and family members to play monsters like a Salem witch, the Frankensten monster, the Mummy, Dracula and others. We would tour the nickel-paying guests through the mock mazes, and creatures would pop out at unsuspecting times to frighten the daylights out of them. We never made a lot of money but had a lot of fun and each year the local neighborhod kids looked forward to the next installment. I continued the gruesome antics for four summers, but when I started high school the monster obsession went away. The monsters faded, interest waned. Even Halloween was simply another day.

When Roger and I started "Out & About" over twenty years ago, one of our First Season segments took us through the famed Ackermansion, home of Forrest J. Ackerman the famed publisher of "Famous Monsters of Filmland" magazine. It was a dream come true to wander those hallowed halls and recognize props and models which I remembered from the features I followed as a child, There was the Dracula ring, possibly Ackerman's most treasured item; some frayed dinosaur models which were animated for the original "King Kong", life masks of Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, John Carradine, Vincent Price and other horror icons, and enough posters, books, magazines and lobby cards to make even the most seasoned collector salivate. That episode from our first year was paired with another segment about haunted tales from Hollywood and it was appropriately numbered as episode "13."

It was only natural that an 80th anniversary of "Dracula" and "Frankenstein" at the Fox Theater in Pomona would pique my interest in the classic horror icons with which I grew up. The February gathering attracted 600 visitors to view the two classic films in a theater and for many of these fans it was their first time viewing them on a big screen. Considering their age, both features held up very well thanks to the star-making performances of two brilliant actors. Bela Lugosi's portrayal of Dracula is unparalleled as the definitive performance of Bram Stoker's famous vampire. Many actors have played the character since Lugosi hung up his cape but no one has come close to capturing the combination of eerie charm and terrifying presence that made this particular performance so memorable. Lugosi played Dracula only twice: first in Todd Browning's original, then many years later in the horror comedy "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" and his Dracula is still the gold standard for screen vampires. Equally amazing is Boris Karloff's unforgettable turn as the Frankenstein monster. He played the character in three films, most memorably in the first two. The original "Frankenstein" was released when talking pictures were new and Karloff delivers a chilling performance very much in step with the silent films of the era. Karloff's monster is primarily mute with a pantomimed performance punctuated by a few grunts and groans. It is very much a silent film performance of the highest caliber and one of filmdom's most enduring characters. When the sequel "Bride of Frankenstein" was released in 1935, the silent era was history and Karloff's performance reflects this change. In "Bride" Karloff portrays a very different monster, this one armed with the gift of speech. In what could have been a terrible misstep for the actor, Karloff tops himself with a witty, funny, comical and tragic take on the creature, adding shades of gray to a character that was a one-dimensional brute. It elevated this particular sequel to a black comedy of tragedy and horror making "Bride of Frankenstein" one of those rarest of Hollywood breeds: a sequel that is as good or better than the original. To supplement the special screening at the Fox Theater, Karloff's daughter, Sara was there to sign autographs and to share anecdotes on her famous father. Also present was Bela Lugosi Jr. who spoke of being on the set with his famous father during some of his films. Both Sara Karloff and Bela Lugosi Jr. acknowledged the fans who continue to support these flms, and each honor their respective fathers as they maintain their legacy. And when I introduced mysef as a fan, each couldn't have been more gracious as I professed my appreciation for their fathers' work.

Last April the horror convention "Monsterpaloza" trampled its way into the Burbank Marriott unleashing its army of darkness to horror fans eager to glimpse props, models, posters and many of the stars who made these films famous. The contingent included stars like Ricou Browning who performed the swimming scenes as the "Creature From the Black Lagoon" and Haruo Nakajima who famously stomped Japan as"Godzilla." In just a short time, I saw "E.T" star Dee Wallace, glimpsed famed make up hero Rick Baker, the whole time immersed in the same fantasy monster world of my childhood while surrounded by others who shared the same experience.

It's been over forty years since my obsession with monsters began, but I've made strides to overcome it. I no longer collect pictures and posters; there are no T-shirts in my closet sporting the icons of Universal Horror. I even steer clear of the websites that are sprinkled throughout the blogosphere dedicated to horror films past and present. But I still have a collection of DVDs of these classic films and every once in a while I pop in a disc and drift back to those distant innocent days to spend a little quality time with my my old friends. My monsters.

To see the "Out & About" segment covering the 80th anniversary of these two horror legends or to view the "Monsterpalooza" coverage consult the "Schedule" link of the "Out & About" website, or view them online at SCVTV.com.