Zombos' Closet

Susan Gordon July 27, 1949 to Dec 11, 2011

by Professor Kinema

She was small, petite and never lost that little girl look.  Reflecting on the few brief encounters I experienced with her at an occasional Monster Bash, I was saddened to learn that Susan Gordon had passed away on Dec 11. She also went by the married name of Susan Aviner. She left us at the still young age of 62 from thyroid cancer.

At the Monster Bash she usually shared a guest room with her father, Bert I Gordon, and friend (and co-former child performer) Charles Herbert.

Our brief conversations included reminiscences about her most famous big screen and TV appearances.  At the tender age of two, she was featured in a chocolate candy commercial made by her father in Minnesota. She and her father then spoke about her feature film 'debut' in The Attack of the Puppet People (1958). This came about when the original child actor had become ill. Looking around, Mr BIG 'noticed' that nearby was a precocious 8 year old who could fill in.

Soon after, she was appearing in bigger films like The Five Pennies with Danny Kaye (1959). The following year she appeared in The Boy and the Pirates with Charles Herbert, directed by her father. After working a few more times with Herbert, they became and remained friends. The IMDb lists her last feature film credit as Picture Mommy Dead in 1966.

To fans of the classic Twilight Zone series, her immortality was secured with her appearance in the episode, The Fugitive.

She was always cordial, seemed to possess a constant smile as well as williness to talk about her fanta-film and TV work. We shared a laugh when I commented to her father that I considered him "my favorite schlock film director." After a brief pause to contemplate the dubious wisdom of what I had just said, I added, "I truly mean that as a compliment."

She and her father looked at me and gave me a reassuring smile and nod.

Glen or Glenda's Dolores Fuller Dead

"Years after starring in her boyfriend's low-budget films 'Glen or Glenda' and 'Jail Bait,' Fuller became something of a cult icon. She also co-wrote several Elvis Presley movie songs, and founded a record company. She was 88." Read Los Angeles Times Obit

From Professor Kinema:

I swear, they're going right and left. At least her mumified body wasn't found...

I had a very brief encounter with Dolores Fuller. On camera, during the lensing of a Professor Kinema show, I felt one of the angora sweaters she's worn and passed it around for all to touch. I snapped these two photos of her at a Chiller Convention (shown here and below).

On the table in front of her is a print of a nude photo that Ed Wood himself snapped of her. Conrad Brooks gave me a copy of the photo. ZC Note: PK was kind enough to send the photo to me, but it's too risque to show here. 

Bride of the Monster group shot is inscribed by Paul Marco (standing on her right).

Who's next? ZC Note: Doesn't legend have it these things come in three's?

 

Invasion of the Body Snatcher's Dana Wynter Dead

Dana Wynter, an actress best known for her role in the original "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," died Thursday in a California medical facility after a long battle with heart disease. She was 79.

Read more...

And more: In Memoriam: Dana Wynter, Alt Film Guide, Wikipedia.

The following Invasion of the Body Snatchers' photographs, of her with Kevin McCarthy, are from Professor Kinema's archive...

George Melies Graveside

by Professor Kinema

If I were to choose a personal patron saint of sorts, it would definitely be French early Cinema pioneer, George Méliès. A subject of my MALS degree thesis (along with contemporary cinema pioneers Alice Guy Blaché and brothers Louis and August Lumiére), this truly creative man will always be considered the premier cinema autéur. He was the originator of the narrative film, the father of film special effects, and the innovator of lé Cinéma Fantastique.

He was born into a family of successful shoe manufacturers on December 8, 1861. Subsequently trained in engineering and machinery, he was expected to work in the family business. Instead, he chose to pursue an education in le beaux arts, which resulted in his becoming an accomplished artist, stage magician and all around grand showman.

In the winter of 1895, in the company of many other fascinated Parisians, Méliès witnessed his first moving pictures. The Lumiére Brothers, Louis and August, had rented the back part of the Café Indiénne on the Blvd des Capucines and were offering the first screenings to a paying audience. The price for a showing was one franc. After this initial experience, Méliès approached Louis Lumiére and offered to purchase one of their Cinématographes (a reconstructed Edison Kinematograph). The (ultimately ironic) response was, "I'm sorry Monsiéur Méliès, but the Cinématographe is not for sale, it has no commercial future."

But le Grand Showman thought differently. Being an accomplished artist he made sketches of the apparatus and contacted inventor RW Paul in England--Paul was experimenting with creating 'pictures that move'--for the necessary parts to construct his own. With his own custom Cinematographe in hand, Méliès original conception was to record his and his associates' acts of magic and present them throughout his popular stage shows in his Theatre of Magic: the Théatre Robert-Houdin on the Blvd des Italiens.

Soon he decided to take his camera out into the streets of Paris and capture daily life. While photographing the traffic in front of the Opera house it jammed. After several minutes he fixed the problem and continued to record images. When he developed and printed this sequence he was astounded at what was accidently caught on film. The camera stayed in one place while the jamming and eventual clearing action created the world's first 'jump cut.' A bus had magically been transformed into a hearse. His revelation was, 'Not only can the Cinématographe be used to capture acts of magic, but rather, magic can be created within the camera itself.' The fantastique entity of cinematic special effects was born. 

Méliès' output of magical films lasted from 1895 to 1912. He set a high cinematic standard right at the beginning. However, he didn't grow with the industry. By 1912 others had been influenced by him and surpassed him in content and technical expertise. At the onset of World War 1 the French government was seizing materials needed for the war effort. Many prints and negatives of his films were confiscated. They were melted down to recover the celluloid, to be used for boot heels for French soldiers. In the grandest of ironies, this was the fate of the truly magical products of an exceptionally creative and innovative artist--the autéur--who's family background was the business of manufacturing shoes.

By the 1920s Méliès had fallen on hard times. He and his 2nd wife, Jeanne D'Alcy (who appeared as a performer in many of his fantastic films), were operating a newspaper kiosk in the Gare Montparnasse of the Paris Métro. They were recognized. Declared a true cinematic pioneer, a renewed interest was instilled in his work. In 1931 a Legion of Honor medal was bestowed upon him, and he and his wife were awarded a rent-free apartment for the rest of their lives.

His closing act came on January 21, 1938. Along with several members of his family, he occupies a gravesite in the celebrated Paris cemetery; Père Lachaise. A lifelike bust of him adorns his final resting place. During each visit to Paris, I  make it a point to pay a brief visit and pay spiritual homage to Maéstro Méliès.

Not far from the Cinématèque, in the Bercy section of Paris, are many streets and a few small parks named after notable French Cinema innovators. One such park is named after Monsieur Méliès.

During one of my occasional get-togethers with 'Unkka' Forry Ackerman, he was telling me of yet another magazine (of several doomed projects) that he was involved with titled Monsterama (published 1991-92). A feature from the original FM entitled "Wanted, more readers like..." was to be included. I asked if my photo at Méliès gravesite would be considered. He cheerfully said, "Sure, send a copy of the photo to me in Horrorwood, Karloffornia."

Monsterama lasted two issues, but, the photo magically made its way to page 100 of the 'new incarnation' of Famous Monsters, issue # 200 ( May, 1993).

I also got a request to include it on a web page titled 'Morbid Curiosity: Celebrity Tombstones/Me and My Favorite Tombstone,' accessible at http://www.morbid-curiosity.com/id36.htm.

PK/JK

Attack of the 50-Foot Woman's Yvette Vickers Dead

"Vickers, whose credits include the 1950s films Attack of the 50-Foot Woman and Attack of the Giant Leeches, had not been seen for months. Last week, a neighbor, concerned about the cobwebs and yellowing envelopes in Vickers' mailbox, entered her Benedict Canyon home and found the badly decomposed body." (The Hollywood Reporter)

From Professor Kinema..."I dug deep into my cave and unearthed these photos I took of her a few years ago at a Monster Bash. The first is her signing autographs, the second is the cake they prepared for her, and the third is of her displaying the Playboy centerfold she autographed to me.

"Quel dommage! In the very brief moments I had with her we had a very pleasant talk. She was a sweet person."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Graveside With a Super Stooge

A visit to Curly's graveside,
courtesy of Professor Kinema.

"N'yuk, n'yuk, n'yuk!"

If ever a visit to a gravesite conjurs up visions and, especially, sounds of days gone past, it's a visit with Jerome Lester 'Curly' Howard, nee Horwitz.

When one (that is, those of us who truly appreciate the finer art of comedy at it's absolute lowest) thinks of the Three Stooges, the first sounds one hears are the sounds that eminated from the pudgy, hair-challenged one of the trio. For sure, he was the only man in existance who could recieve a pretty girl's comment of, "My, what a beautiful head of bone you have there," and take it as a compliment; "Aw, I bet you say that to all the boys."

Moe was the 'Head Stooge,' Larry was the 'Stooge in the middle' and Curly was the 'Super-Stooge.'

Being the youngest of Jennie and Soloman Horwitz' five sons, his mother always called him 'my baby.' This nickname morphed into 'Babe.' In the first of the 97 short comedies he appeared in for Columbia, without his hair and mustache,  he was referred to as 'Jerry.' This again morphed into 'Curly,' a natural moniker for one sans hair. Like many other beloved performers and personalities, his grave marker carries the surname he was best known as instead of his birth name. Inscribed is Jerome Howard instead of Horwitz.

At Graceland, devoted fans make the pilgrimage to visit Elvis' grave. At Westwood Cemetery, fans make the jaunt specially to touch Marilyn Monroe's crypt. Assorted desciples visit Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris to 'commune' with the ethereal spirits of Kardac and Jim Morrison (attracting two vastly different sects of followers, to be sure). Rabid admirers in turn, including the ole Prof, have paid a special visit to a specific gravesite in the Home of Peace Memorial Park in East Los Angeles. With a tradition reaching back into antiquity, offerings are left at this gravesite, usually stones brought from the visitor's home. Unfortunately, fans tend to feel the need to take a souvenir back with them. This often results in a chip from the tombstone.

It's a true homage to a bygone personality and his contribution to culture (especially the USA's 'junk culture') when his image is used in conveying a message in modern times. Along with Jeopardy's Alex Trebek and former US President Clinton, Curly was asked one of the eternal questions of our age: "Got Milk?"

While visiting a friend in Brooklyn in the 1990s, he led me to a certain nearby billboard. Milk will always remain an excellent source of calcium for stronger bone density, which was especially needed for what Moe always referred to as Curly's 'cast iron skull.'

If asked whether or not he drank a lot of milk, his reply could only have been "Soiten-ey!"

PK/JK

Henri-Georges and Vera Clouzot Graveside

Another graveside visit
with Professor Kinema

Visitors to Paris frequent the Parisian cemeteries with as much interest as the other tourist spots around the city. If walking, a route heading up to the Montmartre section of Paris would take one past the Cimetière de Montmartre.

During the days of the mass obliteration of the Jim Morrison grave contained within another famed Parisian cemetery, Père-Lachaise, a large handwritten sign was placed in a prominent spot at the entrance of the Cimetiere de Montmartre. This sign read, in english, "Jim Morrison is not buried here."

Morrison's mega trashed gravesite (as well as many gravesites within close proximity of it), perpetrated by international fans and admirers, has since been cleaned up. Most pilgrims to the infamous 'lounge lizard' simply had to party on Jim's grave, believing he would've preferred it that way. The sign, consequently, has been taken down.

Although not as large, elaborate, and filled with as many historical names contained within Père-Lachaise, the Cimetiere de Montmartre is just as interesting and fun to explore.

Bram Stoker Graveside

Graveside visit by Professor Kinema

On a shelf in the East Columbarium, in Golder’s Green Crematorium (in Greater London), sits an urn containing the cremains of Bram Stoker. Also contained in the urn are the ashes of his only child, son Noel Thornley Stoker.

Bram’s birth and death dates are listed (8 November, 1847-20 April, 1912) while only his son’s departure date is listed (16 September, 1961). Some sources list his son’s name as Irving Noel Stoker. It was planned that when his wife, Florence, departed in 1937, her ashes were to be added to the urn, but they were scattered elsewhere in the Garden of Rest.

It’s truly ironic that the author of possibly the most famous literary work about vampirism never really achieved true celebrity status until after his death. Like its main character Count Dracula, the novel took on a new life (I’m avoiding using the term resurrected) in the years after its initial publication in 1897.

Visitors to the crypt housing Stoker’s urn these days are required to be escorted by someone from the columbarium personnel. During my initial visit in the early 1980s, I was simply handed the key. One would guess that I didn’t look like I was planning to steal or vandalize anything.

Among the other notables whose ashes are contained at Golder’s Green, either in an urn in the columbarium or buried in one of the surrounding gardens are: Sigmund Freud, Anna Pavlova, and Keith Moon; and actors Gibson Gowland, Joyce Grenfell, Hugh Griffith, Cedric Hardwicke, Jack Hulbert, Frank Lawton, Ivor Novello, and Peter Sellers.

Former husband and wife actors Ian Hendry and Janet Munro are also there. Classic film actor Conrad Veidt’s cremains were originally kept in a crypt in Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York, but were brought here in 1997.

Among those who were cremated at Golder’s Green, but whose ashes are elsewhere, are comedian John Inman and author HG Wells. Wells’ cremains were scattered by his sons at sea (some sources say in the English Channel).

Stoker was born in Dublin, Ireland and died in London, England. A plaque exists commemorating his stay in Whitby, England (a location used in the novel, Dracula).

In more recent times Stoker’s great-grandnephew is attempting to get a statue of him erected in his home city of Dublin.

--Jim K/Prof K

More of Professor Kinema's Favorite Death-related Movie Dialog

The Creature With the Atom Brain(1955)

Frank Buchanan, referring to one of the creatures with an atom brain: “Is he dead?”

Dr Wilhelm Steigg: “He never was alive. Different parts of the body die at different times. My next problem is how to keep them working as long as the heart is beating.”

Buchanan: “Does the brain still die first?”

Steigg: “Always. The brain always dies first.”

I Was a Teenage Frankenstein(1957)

Dr Frankenstein: “There will be no death in this laboratory unless I declare it.”

The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake (1959)

Dr Zurich: “Since you know I’m dead, you know that you can’t kill me.”

Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959)

The Ruler: “What plan will you follow now?”

Eros: “Plan 9.”

The Ruler: “Plan 9? Ah yes, Plan 9 deals with the resurrection of the dead.”

Eros to Tanna: “You know, it’s an interesting thing when you consider the Earth people, who can think, are so frightened by those who do not – the dead.”

…

Col Manning: “Why is it so important that you to contact the governments of our Earth?”

Eros: “Because of Death. Because all you of Earth are idiots.”

…

Kelton commenting on the hulking form of Inspector Clay (Tor Johnson) carrying the unconscious Mrs. Trent: “Clay is dead and we buried him. How’re we gonna kill somebody who’s already dead…dead? Yet, there he stands.”

Steel Helmet (1951)

Sergeant Zack after ‘loosing his cool’ and shooting the Red Korean Officer he was supposed to keep alive to turn over to headquarters as a POW for interrogation: “If you die, I’ll kill you!”

It, the Terror From Beyond Space (1957)

Lone survivor Col Ed Curruthers: “(Mars was) …alive with something we came only to know as death.”

…

Crewman Calder describing the Martian Creature standing in front of him: “There he is, as big as death!”

…

Final summation of the doomed Martian expedition and putting the kibosh on any future expeditions: “Another name for Mars is death.”

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Sheriff McClelland describing the state of the marauding ghouls: “Yea, they’re dead. They’re…all messed up.”

Beetle Juice (1988)

Adam: “Barb, honey... we’re dead. I don’t think we have very much to worry about anymore.”

The Seventh Seal (1957)

Knight: “Who are you?”

Death: “I am Death.”

Knight: “Have you come for me?”

Death: “I have been walking by your side for a long time.”

Knight: “That I know.”

Death: “Are you prepared?”

Knight: “My body is frightened, but I am not.”

Death: “Well, there is no shame in that.”

Knight: “Wait a moment.”

Death: “That’s what they all say. I grant no reprieves.”

Knight: “You play chess, don’t you?”

Death: “How did you know that?”

Knight: “I have seen it in paintings and heard it sung in ballads.”

Death: “Yes, in fact I’m quite a good chess player.”

Knight: “But you can’t be better than I am.”

Death: “Why do you want to play chess with me?”

Knight: “I have my reasons.”

Death: “That is your privilege.”

Knight: “The condition is that I may live as long as I hold out against you. If I win you will release me. Is it agreed?”

The two choose chess pieces.

Knight: “You drew black!”

Death: “Very appropriate, don’t you think so?”

Professor Kinema's Favorite Movie Death-related Lines

Welcome to Death, a new category for an old theme. Professor Kinema's funereal tendencies provide such a wealth of material on Death-speak in the movies, you'll just die with morbid delight.

Dracula (1931)

Dracula: “To die, to be really dead, that must be glorious.”

Mina: “Why, Count Dracula!”

Dracula: “There are far worse things awaiting man than death.”

Lucy Weston: “Lofty timbers, the walls around are bare, echoing to our laughter as though the dead were there. Quaff a cup to the dead already. Hooray for the next to die!”

The Lost Squadron (1932)

Arthur von Furst, giving instructions to background players in a battle scene: “Listen men, when I take that scene, those who are supposed to be wounded, act like wounded. Those who are supposed to be dead, act like dead. Don’t move!”

Babes in Toyland (1934)

Stannie Dum (to the evil Barnaby): “You better come up, dead or alive.”

Ollie Dee: “Now how can he come up dead when he’s alive?”

Stannie Dum: “Let’s drop a rock on him, then we’ll make him dead, when he’s alive.”

Ollie Dee: “Now you’re making sense.”

Man on the Flying Trapeze (1935)

Ambrose Wolfinger (WC Fields), after his pistol accidentally goes off and his wife (Kathleen Howard) faints: “Did I kill ya?”

Ambrose Wolfinger : “My poor mother in law died three days ago. I’m attending her funeral this afternoon.”

Secretary: “Isn’t that terrible Mr Wolfinger!”

Wolfinger: “Yes it’s terrible. It’s Awful. Horrible tragedy.”

Secretary: “It must be hard to loose your mother in law”

Wolfinger: “Yes it is, very Hard. It’s almost impossible.”

After the company head decides to send flowers, condolences and a mention to the press of Wolfinger’s mother in law...

Peabody: “By the way, what did she die of?”

Malloy: “Bad liquor.”

The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

Pretorious: “Do you know who Henry Frankenstein is and who you are?”

Monster: “Yes, I know, (he) made me from dead. I love dead, hate living.”

Pretorious: “You’re wise in your generation.”

Monster to Pretorious in laboratory: “You stay, we belong dead.”

It's a Wonderful Life (1947)

Old Man Potter to George Bailey (the key statement that proves to be totally false): “Why you’re worth more dead than alive.”

Clarence: “So you still think killing yourself is the best idea?”

George: “Well, it seemed like it at the time”

Scrooge, A Christmas Carol(1951)

Opening narration: “Old Marley was as dead as a doornail. This must be distinctly understood or nothing wonderful can come of the story I’m going to relate.”

The Thing From Another World (1951)

Carrington: “I doubt that it (the Thing) can die…at least how we understand dying...think of what we can learn from such an advanced creature!””

Scotty: “The only thing we can learn from it is a faster way to die.”

Bela Lugosi Graveside

by Professor Kinema (Jim Knusch)

In one of life's little oddball quirks, it's truly ironic that a man who's most famous alter ego, Count Dracula, repelled by a crucifix or holy cross, would find his final rest in a place named the Holy Cross Cemetery. He was born Béla Ferenc Dezsõ Blaskó on October 20, 1882, Lugos, Austria-Hungary (now Lugoj, Romania).

In 1931 he became an American citizen, taking the name Béla Lugosi.

On August 16, 1956, at the age of 73 he died, alone, of a heart attack in his home, an apartment on a street named Harold Way, off of Hollywood Blvd. His fifth wife of one year, Hope (more than 30 years his junior), had gone out to buy some groceries. She returned around 7 pm to find him dead.

He had been working with Ed Wood on a loose film project that was supposedly to be called The Ghoul Goes West, or The Phantom Ghoul, or Dr. Acula, or something equally as wacky. Richard Bojarski, in his book The Films of Bela Lugosi, also mentions The Vampire's Tomb and Revenge of the Dead as working titles. Accordingly (some sources say) Lugosi was clutching a copy of the script for yet another wacky Ed Wood project titled The Final Curtain.

The final film he lived to see and benefit from was The Black Sleep. The final film listed in his filmography is, of course, the appropriately wacky Plan 9 From Outer Space. The existing final footage of Lugosi that was ultimately tacked into this film gives no clue as to what project Wood had in mind when he was shooting it. Ironically at least, it does show Béla spreading his Dracula cape onscreen for the last time--possibly the cape he is buried in.

Hope Lininger, a clerk in a film studio editing department and devoted fan, had met Béla while he was in drug rehab and soon after married him. According to some reports, a good portion of his medical treatment was paid for by Frank Sinatra. Consequently, Bela's burial costs were also paid for by Sinatra. Some reports say Sinatra considered Béla a 'pal,' while others state that he had never even met him. Around 60 people attended Béla's funeral, including his son Béla Jr, fourth wife Lillian, Ed Wood, director Zoltan Korda, actress Carol Borland and 'Unkka' Forry Ackerman.

While continually playing Dracula for one theatre group or another throughout his life, he possessed a few appropriate outfits. One, complete with cape, he took with him to his grave. Another made it's way to the vast collection of Forry Ackerman. At one point, during one of my few visits to the Ackermansion, I wore the cape for a few minutes. Tim Burton's film Ed Wood correctly shows him in his coffin decked out in one of his Dracula outfits, but incorrectly shows only a few people attending the funeral.

At Holy Cross Cemetery, in Culver City, LA (not far from LAX) his plot location is Grotto, L120, 1. Nearby are the final resting places of Bing Crosby and Sharon Tate. While visiting the gravesite, I could only wonder, He died alone, he's here alone. Will any family members still alive eventually be buried here with him?

Yet perhaps the biggest irony associated with Béla could be one of his noted quotes - that could almost serve as his epitaph: (on playing the 'undead' Dracula) "It's a living, but it's also a curse. It's Dracula's curse."