1965 Don Post Studios Monster Merchandise Campaign Materials

These scans of the 1965 Don Post Studios Monster Merchandise Campaign are an amazing early piece of DPS history. They appear to layout the framework of the Monster Daze events, which may very well represent the pinnacle of the 1960's Monster Kid phenomenon. More on Monster Daze here, here, and here. Please forgive the profuse watermarking of these documents, but I would hate to see copies of these ever being offered up for sale as originals. A HUGE thanks goes out to Matt Post for making these scans available...

Forry's Frank

The Don Post Studios Karloff Frank mask that appears on the cover of An Evening With Boris Karloff and His Friends record album also shows up in a number of other photos of Forry in various rooms of the Ackermansion(s). This particular copy of the mask is a foamed master with a beautiful finish. While I can't say for sure, it is very likely that Verne Langdon gave this copy of the mask to Forry. I asked Lee Lambert, author of the Illustrated History of Don Post Studios, who had this to say...

"I know for sure that the mask is one of the polyfoam masters. Verne produced the record and the dialog was written by FJA. My guess, based upon the act that Verne used a master instead of a production mask, is that he saw the mask as a key piece of the album cover. Given that, if he didn’t paint it himself, I imagine he certainly would have overseen its finishing very closely. Given that Verne & Forry had known each other for years and Forry’s involvement with the record, I would assume Verne gave it to him."

The following photos were gathered from Monster Bob Morris' Your Props page...

Forry and the Hollywood Horror Dracs

Forry airbrushing a batch of Don Post Studios economy Hollywood Horror Dracula masks...

 Image Source: L. Lambert

Don Post Jr. & Forry - Assembling the Gort

Don, Frank & Forry

Don Post Sr. & Forrest J. Ackerman pose with what appears to be THE calendar Frankenstein mask...

The Masks of Famous Monsters - 1970-72

Welcome to the twenty-second 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.

With the golden years come and gone and new monster mask material in Famous Monsters becoming ever more scarce, we'll be covering issues in blocks of years rather than blocks of individual issues. For this edition, we enter a new decade... the 70's. We'll encounter an odd skip in issue numbers during this post due to the decision by Warren and Ackerman  to skip from issue number 69 in September 1970, to issue 80 in October 1970.

The first issue of the decade (Jan. 1970) would contain no mask ads or articles. In fact the half page ad that would pop up in most, but not all, issues during 1970 had made it's debut several issues ago and was not really anything new to readers of the publication...

Issue #65 released in May, would feature a nice full page photo of the Don Post Skull prop...

The decade would wind down with a brief monster mask glimpse in the Dec. 1970 issue  (#81) with a Frankenstein monster mask in the "Monsters of the Month" department...

1971 would essentially come and go with random appearances from the same 3/4 page ad pictured above. 

1972 would feature a new format for the Don Post Studios mask ad which would shrink down to a half-page format. This scan comes from the January 1972 issue...

Nov 1972 would be the 1st time both a DPS and Topstone mask ad ran in FM since before the Langdon days at DPS almost a decade ago when this half page ad appeared on page 47. This would end a long absence of Topstone mask ads in Famous Monsters of Filmland...

Don, Frank and Forry

Don Post and Forrest Ackerman with a Calendar Frankenstein

Masks of Famous Monsters #38

Welcome to the fifteenth 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.

In this installment, we find ourselves skipping over issue #37, which offered nothing new in terms of monster mask articles, photos, or ads, to arrive at issue #38. Famous Monsters # 38, published in April 1966, arrived on the news stands at what was perhaps the height of the Verne Langdon era in terms of the studio's creative productivity, and public promotions.

Tucked in the pages of issue 38 was an article commemorating what was arguably the greatest series of public promotional stunts that Don Post Studios was involved with... the great super market invasion. Don Post Sr, Verne Langdon, Forest J. Ackerman, and Tor Johnson can all be seen in the article below putting on what looks to be an amazing event. Be sure to click the pages to enlarge the images and read on creeps...

Tor Johnson and Forry

Don Post Sr.

And as a nice conclusion to issue 38, the famous "calendar mask" ad appeared on the inside back cover in black and white print. Not quite as stunning as the color version, but I'm sure this ad still provided plenty of enjoyment for monster kids who drooled over these masks for untold hours...