I bought a Westercon 19 membership, but it was not to be. Turned out that was the weekend my father would be dying of cancer in Long Beach Memorial Hospital. Same hospital Richard Nixon will someday be treated for phlebitis. I would visit in the days before his death watching his downward spiral. Clearly drugs were taking a toll and he once he asked "Do you have any. . ." making motions as though snorting coke and was crushed when I said "No" but added an interesting bit of his life I knew nothing about. The estimated time of death came and went. Perhaps because his heart was strong from years of dancing, he just refused to croak on schedule. As I sat in the deathly quiet room, I heard the doctors comment "Somebody's gonna have to hit this guy in the head with a shovel!" Don't know if my father heard them, but that night something peculiar happened.
Mind you, he was sharing a room with a college footballer, injured during a game and was now confined ungainly in bed with leg held aloft by way of a sand-bag. During the wee hours, my father got out of bed, grabbed the sand bag and much to the horror of the football guy, threw it out the window! He then bolted down the hall into the elevator making his way across the lobby heading for the exit before being apprehended. He dies early that morning.
Two days later I go into the same hospital for a cardiac catheterization in regards to that heart murmur found by the Selective Service physical. Result: "Don't play sports".
Animated Road Trip
Into the movies of George Pal, Ray Harryhausen and Willis O'Brien it was no secret everyone had sweaty palms for the release of Harryhausen's latest effort "One Million Years B.C.". Doug Beswick heard the movie would be in local release after a stop in Las Vegas so why not see it before everyone else? Bright an early, myself and Bill Hedge piled into Doug's car and left LA for the sizzling sidewalks of Las Vegas! We arrive at the Fremont Theatre on Fremont Street early afternoon, halfway through the co-feature "Prehistoric Women" with Martine Beswick. In all, we saw "One Million Years" twice that day before heading for the horizon.
Pardon if I wax grandiose, but outside of a few distractions, my God this was a good time to be a fan. Particularly in the Count Dracula Society. The awards banquet for 1966 was held at "The Haunted House", an old movie theatre turned nightclub. Guests were Lon Chaney, Jr., Forry Ackerman, Robert Bloch and Milt Larsen.
You enter the Haunted House through a hallway lined with animated monsters: Frankenstein's Monster, The Wolfman, Creature from the Black Lagoon. Once inside the dinner/dance area, there were ghosts flying about the ceiling and "The Phantom" madly sawing on the chain holding up the chandelier. The band would sit in the mouth of a very Wonder Warthog looking creature with gaping maw ringed with nasty fangs. The eyes would light, spin 'round and for an added effect, smoke would shoot from its nostrils!
Dr. Donald A. Reed, Verne Langdon, Don Post, Orriel Smith, Lon Chaney, Jr., Forry Ackerman and Robert Bloch>
Now really, who can imagine being in this wacky building with all these personalities, hob-nobbing and having dinner for only $5.00?! The Dracula Society was the only game in town and cultivated a great list of members. In many ways, Don Reed was the ultimate character whose childish enthusiasm and dedication really made it a success. The invitation for this award ceremony can be seen .
The Haunted House was featured in Ted V. Mikels' musical potboiler "Girl in Gold Boots" followed by a few sad years when the place underwent transformations into a disco then a strip joint called "The Cave".
Monsters on the Loose
There was always a party somewhere. On Halloween, one of the Dracula Society members opened their home for a costume party.
Forry bookended by Carroll Borland and Daughter
Bart Andrews
I was the Marquis De Slan
Carroll Borland didn't like me. I gave a talk on vampire films and said something about her film "Mark of the Vampire" not being a true vampire film because, while atmospheric, there were in fact, no vampires in the movie since at the end, everyone turned out to be actors. The audience turned into the quintessential, enraged villagers! She quickly excoriated me for saying such a dastardly thing to thunderous applause. All the way home Don kept repeating "You shouldn't have said that; that movie is her whole life and you tried to take that away from her!" God help me.
Those Universal Monsters
On occasion, studios would contact us to attend their screenings, appearances and such. Universal Studios had remastered prints for both "Frankenstein" and "Dracula" with a gala luncheon and screening of both films for the entire membership.
<Me, Forry, Walt Daugherty, Karl Freund and yes, that's tomato juice. (Photo by L.A. Times staff Photographer)
