I think it’s a good idea to ask that question once a week, whether it makes sense in your present context or not.
We’re venturing into Vincent Price territory once more, so I think we should have, as an appetizer, another episode of his radio show, The Price of Fear. This is an episode from 1973: “Waxwork.”
Holy mackerel, we’re already at the halfway point! Time flies when you’re launching it from a trebuchet. We kick off tonight’s festivities with a bit of old-time radio. It’s the show Sleep No More, with readings by Nelson Olmstead. This episode, “The Storm,” is close to a half-hour in length, so that makes it post-1956 when the show was expanded. The show ended in 1957.
So it’s a night of screaming, apparently. That started with choosing the feature film and it just extended through the rest of this. So let’s get some of it out of our system. The first minute of this is the only part that’s really relevant, though, so bear that in mind.
First up, holy crap, somebody posted another Procession of the Ghouls from St. John the Divine Cathedral in New York. Not only that, they shot it with a 360 camera, going behind the scenes and the whole nine. Check it out and make sure to whip around a bit to check everything out. Sweet.
It’s a Friday at 32 Days of Halloween, so let’s relax with some Looney Tunes. First up, the classic Hyde and Hare from 1955, directed by Friz Freleng and with voicework by Mel Blanc (naturally).
At Disneyland, they shut the Haunted Mansion down for a while in order to transform it into a Haunted Mansion/Nightmare Before Christmas mashup. And each year, there is a bigass gingerbread house featured during the ride. First up, here’s a quick run-through of the houses up until last year. Warning: this video has jaunty music which could cause seizures in the over-caffeinated.
It occurred to me we hadn’t had any full-on sci-fi mayhem this year, so we’re going to go Beyond the Time Barrier in just a bit. But first, back to two different versions of the classic panel show (yes, we did have them over here), I’ve Got a Secret. Here are two full episodes. The first features Peter Lorre and is from 1954. The second features Vincent Price and is from 1973. They are full episodes so if you want to skip ahead to the gist I won’t blame you, but classic shows like this are hellacious fun, so you should really treat yourself.
For tonight’s Halloween madness, before we get to our feature from 1942, we need to stop back with what’s probably the only spoken word bit I have yet to post from Closed on Account of Rabies, the amazing two-disc Poe tribute from 1997 that I can’t believe is still out of print. But hey, at least the used prices seem to have come down since the last time I looked. This is Marianne Faithfull reading “Annabel Lee.” Please excuse the unnecessary imagery.
What would 32 Days of Halloween be without Rox of Spazhouse, curator of the good stuff? Well. Here she is.
It’s that magical time of the year again. I am talking about autumn, the time of the year that changes drastically (though we in Florida have to wait another month for the temperature to change). In folklore it is the time when the veil between this life and the next is the thinnest. Our imagination is on fire with with fantastical images of dancing skeletons and lit jack o’ lanterns. It is also, the time of year for Need Coffee Dot Com’s 32 Days of Halloween. The bestest holiday in the entire year.
Before we get to what’s making Christopher Lee look like he needs to sneeze, let’s do some Twilight Zoning, shall we? What we have first is the non-pilot for the original series. Non-pilot in that it aired not as its own thing but as a part of the Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse. And yes, if you wondering where you remember “Desilu” from, just hang tight, you’ll remember about fifteen seconds in. It stars William Bendix (A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court) and Martin Balsam (yet another of those “oh, that guy” character actors who’s been in freaking everything, including Psycho and 12 Angry Men). Dreams feel really real, right? Sometimes too real. That’s all you need to know going in.
