Son of Svengoolie - Creature in 3D

Those creeps who were present at the Phantom's crib this past Friday spent the evening watching Universal's The Creature's Revenge in a slightly belated celebration of the 28th anniversary of the Son of Svengoolie's  broadcast of the Creature's Revenge in 3D. I was only seven back on July 28th 1982, but the event marked a milestone in my young life. This was my first exposure to the Creature from the Black Lagoon, which instantly became, and remains to this day, my favorite monster.

Let me set the table for those who are unfamiliar with the famous 3-D TV event. The Son of Svengoolie was the Chicago-land horror host from 1979-1986. The 158th episode of the Son of Svengoolie featured a special 3-D broadcast of The Creatures Revenge, which was run at prime time on a Thursday evening at 8pm. There is a wealth of excellent Svengoolie information and documentation of the event here.

For those who lived in and around Chicago, 3-D glasses that were sold for the special night at local 7-11 stores. I still remember clearly that Thursday afternoon, before the episode aired,  walking up to the 7-11 with my Mom, Aunt, and 5 year old cousin, to grab our glasses along with a few packs of Wacky Packages. This amazing summer day and night remains one of my most treasured childhood memories.

Images from: http://svengoolie.tvheaven.com/

While this particular event doesn't directly relate to monster masks, it certainly solidified my love of monsters and old school Universal Monsters. Of course, the Creature from the Black Lagoon is still a rubber monster suit, with a rubber monster mask.

To celebrate the anniversary of this awesome event, I'll be posting a series of Creature related articles and posts. Let's call it CREATURE WEEK here at the Blood Curdling Blog of Monster Masks.

Here are a few promos advertising the event, as well as the episode intro and the first break segment...

1950 Topstone Mask Ad

This black and white ad from Topstone Rubber Toys Co., Inc was used as a promotional ad for the 1950 New York Toy Fair. The ad showcases several masks that would be in production for decades to come including the Witch, Clown, Pirate, and others. As noted in the ad, the masks are created and designed by Keith Ward.

Vintage Pics

These vintage photos come from the She Walks Softly blog. I was turned onto the blog from Pumpkinrot and lost several hours over the last two nights checking out the amazing archives full of art, photos and random goodness...

Distortions Batman and Joker Masks Ad

This full-color ad for the Distortions Unlimited Joker mask and Batman mask and costume, which were released back in 1990, was scanned the back cover of Gorezone #10...

A few photos of the Distortions Joker mask I found on HorrorBid a few years ago...

Monster Makers Series #1: Rick Baker

The ol' Phantom is going to try something new this month, with the intent of this becoming a monthly feature of the blog...

The Monster Makers series is a monthly look at the men that made the monsters. Many fx and make-up men started as garage mask and monsters makers. Some graduated to making rubber monster masks or monster suits for Hollywood films. Still others went on to produce revolutionary effects.

The first monster maker to be featured in the series is Rick Baker from Fango #34...

Collegeville Masks on Racks

Collegeville's vacuform masks on racks are featured on page 19 of the 1966 catalog. Ahhh, just look at all that vintage mask goodness...

The Masks of Famous Monsters - Issue #3

Welcome to the third 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 third installment we move to issue #3 which unlike both previous issues,  did not greet readers with a monster mask on the cover. Rather, for the first time in the short history of the magazine, the cover featured a painting of monsters rather than a photo. This was a move that would define the image of the magazine for for decades to come.

Released in April 1959, issue 3 featured several Topstone monster mask goodies. The Super Frankenstein Mask ad would make it's Famous Monsters debut on page 59...

Super Frankenstein Mask Ad

In addition, the Topstone Gorilla Monster would make it's Famous Monsters of Filmland debut in issue #3. The Gorilla Monster would be the first of the many classic Keith Ward illustrations of Topstone masks that would become a trademark of Captain Company ads for decades.

Topstone Gorilla Monster Mask Ad

If you weren't careful, you easily could flip right past the last monster mask to appear in the issue. The Topstone Caveman mask made a brief appearance on page 65, which was the final page of the Monster Club Members page in issue #3...

Check out the other posts in the Masks of Famous Monsters Series:
Masks of FM 1
Masks of FM 2

Don Post Studios Care Sheet

Here's a hi-res scan of a late 80's - early 90's Don Post Studios Care Sheet. Although this specific one came from a "Snakeyes" that I picked up from another collector in the Summer of 2009, this is the tag style I remember being attached to my first Don Post Studios mask, "Herman", which I bought during the Fall of 1990.

Ben Cooper Mask Box Illustrations

Here's some nice hi-resolution scans from a Ben Cooper mask box. I found these last November, and unfortunately didn't document the source. Credit goes out to the original scanner.

The Masks of Goosebump's "The Haunted Mask"

The Haunted Mask was the 11th of R.L. Stine's Goosebump book series, and the was adapted for television where it first aired on October 27th 1995.

Aside from the amazing array of monster masks, the episode itself embodies so much of the magic make Halloween such a wonderful holiday! It's absolutely among my personal favorite Halloween themed television episodes of all time.

 The episode opens with close-ups of these wicked masks...

The episode featured this creepy old school novelty shop and multitude of monster mask shots...

The Novelty Shop from the Haunted Mask

The window of the Novelty Shop

The mysterious store owner emerges!

...

D-Line Topstone Monster Mask Photos

From the LIFE photo archive ...

D-Line Clown and Witch

D-Line Vampire Girl and Devil

D-Line Vampire Girl, Devil and Witch