The Masks of Famous Monsters - Issue # 33

Welcome to the twelfth installment in The Masks of Famous Monsters Series. Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine was an absolute treasure trove of early mask history. By combing through the 191 issues published between 1958-1983, it's possible to gain a good understanding of the decades of evolution and history of Don Post Studios and Topstone monster masks. The eventual goal of this series is to catalog and archive each monster mask appearance in the pages Famous Monsters.

Last month's installment of the Masks of Famous Monsters saw the introduction of Don Post Studios mask ads into the pages of FM for the very first time. Issue #33, published in May of 1965, would again offer monster kids everywhere another Don Post first, with the first appearance of Don Post Masks in a full-color ad. Before we get to that ad, let's take a look through the pages of issue 33 in the search of rubber monster heads...

Page 40 greeted readers with a three page article featuring the premiere of Tomb of Ligeia, starring Vincent Price. The article contains some fun photos of a life-sized Frankenstein Monster and Dracula that were on display in the theater lobby on the first two pages...

It was page 42, however, that we can find some early Don Post Studios masks in action...

Early Don Post Hunchback of Notre Dame Mask

Don Post Studios "Smooth Frank"

The full-sized monster madness would continue again in another article from pages 52-58 with an article featuring photos from the Chamber of Horrors in San Francisco's House of Wax...

Issue 33 would contain almost identical Don Post and Topstone ads as the previous issue...

Within the realm of monster maskdom, the crowning jewel of the May 1965 issue of Famous Monsters would definitely be the back cover, where the first Don Post color mask ad would appear in a Warren Publication. The ad is affectionately referred to as the "sweater" ad for obvious reasons. The ad features early copies of the Don Post Universal monsters masks, including the ultra-rare "Smooth" Strange Frank mask...