Coffin Nails

Oh man, this is so cool! Got it via The Year of Halloween: A vintage musical coffin cigarette dispenser! Remember those cheap-ass skeleton coffin piggy banks you used to have as a kid, where you wound it up, put a coin on the lid and then had to wait roughly fifteen minutes watching a hand slowly drag the damn thing inside? Well, this one easily beats those – even though I sometimes wish I still had mine. And this plays a lil’ tune to boot! Awesome! I’m adding one of these to my watch/wantlist on eBay right now.

Pinhe- uh, pinball!

Oh wow, the amount of  time, love and creativity some music fans are willing to put into their projects! Pinball enthusiasts; Meet the Ramones pinball game! Created by British pinball fanatic (and Ramones fan) Chris Williams (aka Poibug) who in October of 2010 secured an old Gottlieb Genie on eBay and re-themed it into a tribute to the Queens “bruddahs.”

Impressing fans and industry alike when it was revealed at the South Coast Slam he was asked by pinballnews.com to share his story, and for a great read with cool photos of the work as it progressed check it out here.

X-Mas Gift o/t Year!

Well, a lobby card it ain’t, but I lucked out and managed to score a lobby photo from Ed Wood‘s cult classic The Bride of the Monster on eBay this week, so I finished off my X-Mas shopping with a little something for myself. From 1956, approx. 8×10″ with some slight bit of yellowing, it’s a nice start of what I hope will be a future collection of Wood memorabilia, and I’ll make sure to give it a special place on my living room wall. I’m not gonna say how much it cost, but I consider this to be the find of 2012. And unlike some of the other items on the market this came with a reasonable pricetag!

I think it’s a cruel irony that the poor filmmaker that spent a lifetime experiencing ridicule and defeat upon heartbreaking defeat – slowly sending him off on a downward spiral with alcohol – never got to experience how two years after his death in 1978 him and his work starting to gather a loyal cult following. Every piece of promotional material that was thrown away in disgust by frustrated distributors and theatre owners back in the 1950s (and according to The Hollywood Book and Poster interview in Mark Patrick Carducci‘s Saucers Over Hollywood didn’t cost more than a couple of bucks up until the 80s) are now at a feverish point where a copy of the original script will set you back at least $30. And that’s not all. How about a full set of Bride of the Monster lobby cards for almost $1,700? Or a second set for $1,800 – and those are not even in mint condition! I am so envious of a friend of mine (who’s name I won’t reveal out of respect for his privacy) that scored that very same set for the amazing bargain of just $75.

Even though my personal fave from Wood is his 1953 debut Glen or Glenda?, the Bride of the Monster is part of his infamous “trilogy” – peaking with his  Plan 9 From Outer Space in 1959 – but Ed kept going up until the 70s, mainly writing and directing various porn movies (for a dose of true surrealism I can recommend his 1971 Necromania: A Tale of Weird Love starring my fave cutie troll Rene Bond.) The Bride of the Monster is easily available in numerous releases, but you can check it out on YouTube:

Kolchak!

Well, as I wrote some time ago, I initially intended to name The Norliss Tapes either Kolchak, or Kolchak: The Night Stalker after the cult classic 70s tv-series with the same name. This was changed early on as I realized it sounded like a super-corny black metal or death metal name, and bands and musicians got enough struggling to do these days without adding the extra burden of having a name that’ll confuse music fans as exactly what sort of genre they can expect.

Anyway, a predecessor to Chris Carter‘s The X-Files if there ever was one, the debut made-for-tv horror movie Kolchak: The Night Stalker starred Darren McGavin as the tenacious reporter Carl Kolchak who’s convinced that a series of connected murders in Las Vegas are not the work of a serial killer but a modern-day vampire. Originally aired in 1972 the movie was a major hit (it aired in 1 out of 3 American homes) and spawned not only the follow-up movie Kolchak: The Night Strangler but also the ABC tv series that ran one season before folding. Producer Dan Curtis went on to The Norliss Tapes that oddly enough bombed and wasn’t picked up for a series – roughly 20 years later that same concept made Carter a rich man. Read more about that here.

Now, browsing on eBay during a short coffee break earlier today I decided to see whatever memorabilia was available and just lucked out with this  8″x10″ color “lobby card” for the pilot. Pure awesomeness! It’s gonna look great on my living room wall next to The Incredible Melting Man and The Exterminator. And while on the subject: If you don’t wanna buy the two DVD boxes that collects both the tv movies as well as the series separately (available on Amazon.com), how ’bout checking it out on YouTube:

(More) Sounds of X-Mas

Well, here’s UK’s biggest contribution to modern carols: Roy Wood and Wizzard‘s I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday! Heavy on the Spector-influence (is that bombastic production especially fitting for the holiday?), the 7″ single was released in 1973 and despite being a magnificent song (and a month-long Top Ten hit from December to January!) it was actually a release that never broke even on account of the sheer amount of money it cost to produce. And those impressive threads sure couldn’t have come cheap, ha ha ha.

Anyway; one of many staples in December, the song has been reissued twice during the 1980s (both times making a dent on the sales charts), and in recent years (thanks to downloads) it never fails to reach the charts come Yuletide. I’m not too sure how much an original 7″ will cost on eBay, but this is one of those sure-shot songs you’ll find on pretty much any X-Mas compilation album.

NOTE: Garage punkers might wanna check out Sympathy For the Record Industry‘s 1993 compilation Happy Birthday Baby Jesus where it’s covered by New York’s best The Devil Dogs. How about a sample?

(More) Sounds of X-Mas!

Well, considering my last post this is pretty much a given: The bombastic Frosty the Snowman with The Ronettes. Yet another Phil Spector-produced track, this was actually recorded and slated for the ill-timed A Christmas Gift for You album that was released on November 22nd 1963 – the day of the John F. Kennedy assassination.

As expected this just bombed in sales on account of being released in a USA that was mourning the murder of its president. Re-released on The Beatles‘ Apple label in 1972 it has since become quite a classic and a vast majority of the songs included are considered worldwide radio play staples in December. Original vinyl copies are available via eBay (at insane rates I can add!) but it was featured in its original mono mix on the great, but somewhat pricey, Back to Mono box set.

Fan Mail

Awesome! I got this via Art Chantry – one of the greatest graphic designers out there these days. Starting out in the late 70s in that first wave of American punk rock he’s truly old school in his approach as he refuses to use a computer and instead xeroxes, rips, staples, burns and shoot (!!!) his works in order to achieve the desired effects. Ironically enough he hasn’t received half the credit he deserves (despite the sheer amount of emulators out there) and even though he might not be a household name his original posters fetch some pretty impressive bucks on eBay etc. To make that fact even more disheartening he recently stated that the guy who was hired to do the (now iconic) Pulp Fiction poster had admitted to him during a reception that it was in fact “designed to look like an Art Chantry piece.” Well, how about getting the real thing?

Anyway, I guess we all heard the story of the chaos inflicted by Orson Welles‘ radio drama War of the Worlds that aired on CBS‘ The Mercury Theatre on the Air show on October 30th 1938. Narrated by Welles himself the first forty minutes was presented as news bulletins, and with the show being aired with no commercial breaks a lot of listeners apparently took it as a real event – resulting in police departments being swamped by frantic phone calls and witnesses claiming there were suicides and people forming armed posses to deal with the invasion. The outrage this caused in some communities secured Welles’ road to stardom – even though officials in Trenton, NJ at the time probably wouldn’t call the man a genius.

Speaking of which; Have you heard the broadcast? It’s considered to be in the public domain so check it out:

The Night HE Got Shipped Within 1-2 Days

Well, here’s a nifty little item for us horror- and Halloween fans: The Michael Myers 3 3/4″ vintage styled action figure. Yes, seller (and manufacturer?) ‘popsfartberger’ offers this rare collector’s item for $49,95 on eBay and it comes complete with kitchen knife accessory, and sealed in a custom made vintage packaging in the style of the old Hasbro G.I. Joe/Kenner toys. Pure awesomeness.

There’s tons more cool figures available at his eBay store here, but for some reason he does not accept orders from anywhere else than the contiguous United States – and that excludes Alaska and Hawaii. Oh well, grab it while you can if you can.

Thanks to Freddy in Space for hepping me.

Bad Mags

Oh man, trashhounds rejoice! After putting out the two fantastic books Bad Mags on the mighty Headpress Print - “demon gods of pulp” as they call themselves – author/obsessive collector Tom Brinkmann launched a page on Facebook that culls the créme de la créme from his collection (that must be nothing short of jawdropping on account of him admitting he recently sold 200 CDs collecting nothing but scans from said magazines on eBay).

Tons and tons of lurid, sleazy magazine covers ranging from exploitation, tabloid, sexploitation, punksploitation (!!!) to classic horror comics, fanzines and porn. Yes, revel in titles like Startling Detective, Swingers Journal, and Untamed Breasts,and feast your eyes on the sometimes ludicrous headlines offered by the tabloids. My new fave page on Facebook! Check it out here and you should check out the books too!

Bubba

Well, I was hepped to this via the Stan Winston School of Character Arts page on Facebook (check it out here) and this is pretty cool:  over 40 re-imaginations of Boba Fett and Clone Trooper helmets by Legacy Effects! Created specifically for the Make-A-Wish Foundation they’re being auctioned off on eBay right now with all proceeds going to charity – so it not only looks great but is for a great cause too! There’s some amazing pieces of art here so check ‘em out.