Hans Holzer's "Ghosts of the Golden West"

This is now the seventh Hans Holzer paperback I've written about, so it's time for a directory. I'll put it toward the bottom of this post.

• Title: Ghosts of the Golden West
• Additional cover text: "Unearthly tales of the living dead"
• Author: Hans Holzer (1920-2009)
• Publisher: Ace Books (28622)
• 
  Publication date: Mystery time! The book was first published as a hardcover by Bobbs-Merrill in 1968, so this paperback came afterward, but there's no record on the copyright page or online of exactly when this edition came out. This paperback is listed as 28622 on the cover. There's a 60-cent Ace Books paperback of Ghosts of the Golden West that's marked as 28620 (pictured at right). So maybe my copy is the second or third paperback publication by Ace Books, perhaps as late as the mid 1970s. This is the "style" of Holzer paperbacks that I remember from Mom's collection, including in our attic in Clayton.
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 190
• Cover price: $1.25
• Chapter titles: The Whaley House Ghosts; The Ghost in the Closet; The Wurmbrand Ghost; The Restless Dead; The Ghostly Sailor of Almeda; The Ghost Lady of Newbury Park; The Haunted Barn; The Millbrae Poltergeist Case; The Ghost Who Refuses to Leave; Pioneer State Ghosts; The Ghostly Monks of Aetna Springs; Pipelines to the Beyond.
• First sentence (not including introduction): I first heard about the ghosts at San Diego's Whaley House through an article in Cosmic Star, Merle Gould's psychic newspaper, back in 1963. 
• What more is known about Gould? In Volume XXII, Number 1 of The Awakener Magazine, there's an article by Filis Frederick titled "Reminiscences of the City of Lost Angels." This is the relevant excerpt: "Another person I met at this tiny New Age gathering was Merle Gould, who published the Cosmic Star and had a bookstore in Hollywood of the same name. He had made several movies; one was 'The Body is a Shell,' another, 'The Prophesies of Nostradamus,' narrated by Basil Rathbone. Merle was one of the first Californians to 'network' New Age spiritual groups and arrange group conferences."
• Last paragraph: If your case is one requiring my help and that of one of my psychic friends, be assured that I will try to come and help you. Just as soon as I can, we will enter our Ghost Hunter's car, the sleek white Citroen, and (almost) noiselessly drive out to see you, if you are within driving distance. If you are far away, I shall get to you when opportunity takes me to your area. You will owe me nothing, dear reader, but cooperation and a full account of what has happened to you, or to those you speak of. 
• Random excerpt #1: But despite a careful search of the fragmentary records still extant about the period in question, no Pierre Devon could be pinned down.
• Random excerpt #2: It worried them, but somehow they got through Christmas and hopefully approached the New Year with a feeling of relief since nothing untoward again happened.
• Rating on Goodreads: 3.7 stars (out of 5)
• Rating on Amazon: 4.4 stars (out of 5)

Previous posts about Hans Holzer paperbacks

• The Witchcraft Report
• The Psychic World of Plants
• Window to the Past: Exploring History Through ESP
• Charismatics
• The Psychic World of Bishop Pike
• The Vegetarian Way of Life

But wait, there's more...

Tucked away inside this paperback was a brochure for the Whaley House, probably from sometime in the 1970s, when admission was just $1 for adult, 50 cents for teenagers and 25 cents for children. The brochure for the historic brick structure makes no mention of ghosts.

Finally, here's Bandit posing with today's book, just for the halibut.

October Postcrossing wrapup

Halloween went wonderfully here in Florence. We had about 120 trick-or-treaters, all in good spirits (pun intended). October was also a good mailbox month. I received several autumn-themed or Halloween-themed postcards through Postcrossing. And the U.S. Postal Service did a perfect job of handling my mail-in ballot for the presidential election.

Kasia from Hungary wrote on her postcard to me: "After a very hot summer, autumn has finally come and I couldn't be happier about this change. Soon we will be able to see views like the one on the postcard during weekend hikes in nearby forest." (I'm so jealous!!)

And a young woman from Ukraine wrote this message on her postcard: "Hello Chris! I'm 19 y.o. Ivanka from Kyiv, Ukraine. For me, Arizona is associated with 5C: cotton, climate, citrus, copper, cattle. This is also the state with sent McCain to the Congress. McCain Str is the one I love walking here in Kyiv.¹ As Russian scumbags destroyed most of Ukraine's energy generation, we spend long hours without electricity. Hence, this postcard is dedicated to energy workers who against all odds manage to keep the grid afloat. With best wishes, Ivanka."

Meanwhile, here are some of the emails I received in October from Postcrossers who received cards from me:

Kristina in the United Kingdom wrote: "Thank you so much for a spooky Halloween card! It reminded me that now's the time to compose a Halloween watchlist -- I'm not a horror person, but I do enjoy my fair share of Halloween-themed fantasy movies and TV shows. Happy Halloween to you and the cats!"

Satu in Finland wrote: "Thanks a lot for your nice Halloween card and stamps. We have quite nice weather now, but weather forecast has promised we will get snow soon. I hate winter. We have 4 Cairn Terriers and they love snow. Take care!"

Huang Yanju in China wrote: “I'm glad to receive your postcard. I really like these beautiful stamps. The building in the picture is very beautiful. It's also autumn here, which is my favorite season, but the climate is still hot now. There is no Halloween event here, but I really like to eat pumpkin. Good day.”

Footnote

1. Kyiv City Council voted in 2019 to rename Ivan Kudrya Street as John McCain Street. "John McCain, a U.S. senator who was a member of the Republican Party, was a strong supporter of the EuroMaidan protests in 2013-2014. He also visited the front lines in Ukraine near Mariupol after Russia launched its war on Ukraine in the Donbas in 2014," the Kyiv Post reported at the time.

Spooky cinema: My 53 personal favorites

Happy Halloween!

Earlier this month I mentioned programming my own Halloween movie marathon. But how could I ever choose just four or five movies?!! Instead, I decided to compile a list of my spooky favorites, including TV mini-series. Other than deciding to exclude outstanding movies that lean almost entirely toward being horror comedies (think Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein), the criteria used here is that these are simply films I love. Not the best, in all instances. And not the only ones I love. Just personal favs.

It's a list of 53 because I'm 53. Maybe I'll revise it every year and add one to the overall number.

Here they are, chronologically. Looking at it myself, I think this list makes it pretty easy to make some assumptions about me and see some trends. The assumptions would be correct. I'm not complex. Also, wonderfully, I still have a lot to see for the first time.

• The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
• Nosferatu (1922)
• Le Manoir de la Peur (1927) pictured at top
• The Old Dark House (1932)
• The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
• Cat People (1942)
• The Curse of the Cat People (1944)
• Ugetsu (1953)
• Night of the Demon (1957)
• The House on Haunted Hill (1959)
• The Brides of Dracula (1960)
• The Innocents (1961)
• Carnival of Souls (1962)
• The Haunting (1963)
• Black Sabbath (1963)
• Kwaidan (1964)
• The Last Man on Earth (1964)
• The Plague of the Zombies (1966)
• Quatermass and the Pit (1967)
• Viy (1967)
• The Devil Rides Out (1968)
• Night of the Living Dead (1968)
• Robin Redbreast (1970)
• The House That Dripped Blood (1971)
• Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things (1972)
• Gargoyles (1972)
• Horror Express (1972)
• Messiah of Evil (1973)
• The Exorcist (1973)
• From Beyond the Grave (1974)
• The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue (1974)
• Black Christmas (1974)
• The Signalman (1976)
• The Man from Nowhere (1976)
• Suspiria (1977)
• Cathy's Curse (1977)
• Dawn of the Dead (1978)
• Halloween (1978)
• Salem's Lot (1979)
• The Shining (1980)
• The Changeling (1980)
• Poltergeist (1982)
• The Midnight Hour (1985)
• The Lost Boys (1987)
• The People Under the Stairs (1991)
• The Sixth Sense (1999)
• Session 9 (2001)
• Trick 'r Treat (2007)
• Let the Right One In (2008)
• The Cabin in the Woods (2011)
• The Conjuring (2013)
• The Haunting of Hill House (2018)
• Midnight Mass (2021)

High honorable mention and/or I forgot about them at the time I wrote the post: The Skull (1965), Isle of the Dead (1945), The Appointment (1981), A Warning to the Curious (1972), Misery (1990), Psycho (1960), The Golem: How He Came Into the World (1920), The Haunted Palace (1963), House (1977), Dead of Night (1945), The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959), Frankenstein (1931), Kill, Baby, Kill (1966), The City of the Dead (1960), Ghostwatch (1992), Burnt Offerings (1976), The Body Snatcher (1945), Tales from the Crypt (1972), House of Usher (1960), Son of Frankenstein (1939), I Saw the TV Glow (2024), The White Reindeer (1952), The Wicker Man (1973), Doctor Sleep (2019), Deep Red (1975).

1967 advertisement for a flying saucer lamp in Saucer News

One of these days, I'll post about the Summer 1967 "Special Convention Issue" of Saucer News that I found years ago. For today, however, here's a groovy advertisement from one of the inside pages. 

It's for a flying saucer table lamp ("a scientific marvel") that was hawked by Amalgamated Flying Saucers Clubs of America, Inc. That group was founded in 1957 and was led by Gabriel Green (1924-2001), who was also a write-in candidate for president of the United States in 1960 and 1972. Apparently, they also made and sold lamps.

The lamp, which was about seven-and-a-half inches across, is described thusly: "The rotating inner chamber projects a miriad [sic] of light beams against walls and ceiling in gentle, soft-radiant, colorful, pulsating, ever-changing patterns. Uses no mechanical parts. Costs only 6¢ per month to use."

For adults, the benefits included meditation, an "ideal romantic atmosphere," relief from daily tensions and help falling asleep. It could also help kids fall asleep, per the advertising copy, and could soothe their "mid-night fears." 

If you're still not sold, how about this: "Moving light beams protect against burglars."

The lamp, plus a record album added to your order for free, cost $4.98. Apparently that included shipping, too. That's about $46 in today's dollars, so maybe the lamp was pretty decent. Who knows?

I can't find any definitive photos or first-person reviews of this lamp. I wonder how many were made. I wonder how many are still around. I wonder if they were anywhere near as cool as advertised. The truth is out there! Please leave coded communications in the comments regarding how we can get in touch regarding the details of this vintage UFO lamp.

Previous UFO posts

• Some spacey tidbits from the Fall 1966 issue of Saucer News
• 1988 UFO Magazine: John Lennon, Gulf Breeze sightings and more
• Galactitags: The must-have accessory in the event of alien abduction
• Book cover: "The Case of the Ancient Astronauts"
• "Fate" magazine classifieds, August 1975
• Book cover plus some bonuses: "The Oak Island Quest"
• 1976 booklet on UFOs, occult from Southwest Radio Church
• Book cover: "Investigating UFO's"
• Questions, answers & mysteries with Hookland's David Southwell
• RIP Art Bell, of the Kingdom of Nye
• Three sci-fi paperback covers with UFOs (and one with a chimp)
• "Secret of the Old Museum," with tangents, footnotes & Nimoy
• Hoping to see UFOs for 1976 bicentennial Independence Day
• Book cover: "Strangers from the Skies"

Triad and Stevie and witches, oh my

Back at it on this lovely (if a bit too hot for October 26) Saturday afternoon in the desert. The haunts, horrors and hexes of October continue today with Mary Leader's 1973 supernatural novel Triad and its various associations, musical and mythological.

By the way, if you're thinking Papergreat has been too consistently unserious with all the ghosts and ghouls this month, please know that writing this blog, especially in this moment, represents my brief opportunity to take a timeout from the real world, which has real ghouls and ghastliness, a few times each week. It's my escapism, my stress-release valve, and it's typically unserious on purpose. It's a momentary respite from life in a nation where being transgender, undocumented, non-Caucasian or, in my case, a journalist puts an immense societal target on you.¹ And heaven help you if you're more than one of those things at once. I cannot even imagine.

Deep breath.

So .... Triad!

I'm betting that a whole bunch of you already know the historic significance of this seemingly random 51-year-old novel, which was one of only two published by Mary Bartlet Leader (1918-2004).

That significance, in a nutshell: Around Halloween 1974, 26-year-old Stephanie Lynn Nicks read Triad and was struck, in particular, by one aspect of the haunting novel. Two months later, she and her then-boyfriend, Lindsey, joined a struggling band called Fleetwood Mac, which was seeking a spark. It got one! The band's next album, released the following summer, featured a hit single that new addition Stevie Nicks had written in a whirlwind, inspired by a certain uncommon name in Mary Leader's novel.

At Fleetwood Mac concerts, Lindsey Buckingham's guitar opens that song.

Then Nicks stepped to the microphone and announces, "This is a song about an old Welsh witch."

Then she begins: Rhiannon rings like a bell through the night...

Plotwise, there's almost nothing in common with the novel and the song lyrics. But that name, Rhiannon, and the supernatural elements within Triad, hung in Nicks' subconscious for weeks after she read it, waiting for the songwriter to put them to paper.

Piecing together some different interviews Nicks did in the mid-1970s, she explained, "I read the name ... [in] a novel and really liked it and thought, 'That's really a beautiful name.' Sat down, tap, tap, tap ... about 10 minutes later wrote Rhiannon."  And this: "So I wrote this song and made her into what I thought was an old Welsh witch. And then I had just, just found out — because somebody from Phoenix found a whole trilogy of books written in 1972 on Welsh mythology — that Rhiannon was a Welsh witch. ... Which is pretty weird because I never saw that. And yet the song is exactly about that. So it is ... just about a very mystical woman that finds it very, very hard to be tied down in any kind of way — and she's uplifting all through the song."

The "trilogy" mentioned is actually a series of four novels by Evangeline Walton (1907-1996)². The novels — The Island of the Mighty, The Children of Llyr, The Song of Rhiannon and Prince of Annwn  —  are based on the Welsh legends known as the Mabinogion.

The best article I've read that gives the full history of "Rhiannon" was written by Bill DeMain and published in September 2023 on Louder. I think, as we all do with big events in our past, that Nicks has spent the decades recrafting the telling of the origin story, compared to what she might have said during interviews in the 1970s. Of Triad, she tells DeMain, "It was just a stupid little paperback that I found somewhere at somebody’s house, lying on the couch."³ The article is a great read, with allusions to bibliomancy⁴, birdsongs (very crucial for "Rhiannon"), and how Fleetwood Mac bandmates took the "skeleton" of her lyrics and built a fully-alive song around it. Nicks also discusses a "trippy" time visiting Evangeline Walton at her Rhiannon-themed home in Tucson, Arizona.

* * *

Let's circle back to Mary Leader's book, Triad, and its beautiful cover for the hardcover publication.

On Newspapers.com, I found a terrific article in the April 30, 1973, edition of the Herald-Times-Reporter of Manitowoc-Two Rivers, Wisconsin. (One of the two photos with the article is shown above.) Leader was a guest speaker at a library to discuss her book, and the article has details I haven't found anywhere else about Triad.

For one thing, that wasn't the original title! Leader had titled it The Elephant's Tail. But famed dust jacket designer Paul Bacon couldn't do anything with that, Leader said. So she suggested changing the title to Triad, which Bacon could work with. (Would Nicks have picked up a book titled The Elephant's Tail?) 

The novel had an interesting genesis, according to the article, which was written by Herald-Times-Reporter News Editor Marjorie Miley:

"Mrs. Leader didn't start out to write a novel. She was working on her thesis for a master's degree in English at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. A course in Arthurian romance further developed her longtime interest in Celtic mythology. 'Celtic myths are fully as fascinating as Greek myths,' she stresses.

"Mrs. Leader had added a creative writing course to her schedule thinking she was better suited for fiction than scholarly writings.

"About this time in the pursuit of her degree, (which incidentally was granted) she was relaxing by watching a television show. 'It was one of those doctor things where someone has a psychological problem. I started doing some constructive dreaming (as opposed to dozing off) and the idea for Triad came to me ... The concept of the triple goddess. But my story would be a modern story.'"

In a 2017 review of Triad on Goodreads 2017, Julie wrote: "Even if it hadn’t experienced a kind of cult status, this story really is a rare gem. It’s not a very long book, but it’s filled with vivid imageries and is very well versed in Welsh mythologies. It is a very effective story, even for a jaded reader like me. I can imagine the impact it would have on readers in 1973. Once I started reading it, I found myself hypnotized by it. This is a moody, dark, atmospheric supernatural tale, that certainly stands the test of time."

Another Goodreads reviewer, Justin Glanville, makes mention of the novel's final sentence: "But one thing I do know — Rhiannon and I will meet again and again until someday, at some turn of the spiral, we will come together in our last struggle and I will win."

Sound familiar?

 

Will you ever win? is an oft-repeated verse in Nicks' "Rhiannon."

Witches — mythological, literary and musical — work in mysterious ways.

Footnotes

1. For example: At a presidential campaign rally two days ago, about an hour's drive from my house, the candidate said of journalists: “They are just bad people. And until we get a fair and free press in this country, they’re just bad people. ... They’re the enemy of the people. ... They are the enemy.” The crowd cheered American journalists being called "the enemy of the people."

2. Walton was featured in a 2017 Papergreat post about her novel Witch House.

3. And in other interviews over the years, Nicks has said she bought Triad in an airport, to read on a flight.

4. Since it's sitting right here, I practiced some bibliomancy with Triad. Letting fate choose a random page, I closed my eyes and placed my finger on a passage. It reads: "Before we go into that, I must tell you that you are probably basically a good person, conscientious to a fault, or you wouldn't suffer so much remorse."

The Crestwood House monster books

Stripe, with her spiffy bowtie, helps with today's post.

It's a happy coincidence that her colors match the Crestwood House books.

Full disclosure: When I was a kid, I wasn't too interested in the Crestwood House series of hardcover books that focused on the Universal Classic Monsters, Godzilla, King Kong and other iconic films. I was drawn more to the Contemporary Perspectives/Raintree books about paranormal phenomenon and cryptozoology, and, of course, Ruth Manning-Sanders' fairy tales books. Public school libraries had so much cool stuff! 

But now I see how awesome the Crestwood House books are, and they're also an incredible historic record of some foundational monster and science-fiction movies in U.S. film. I've picked up a few well-worn ex-library copies over the years, including Dracula and Frankenstein, with Bela and Boris on their covers.

Here are some representative memories about the series I've curated from all around the web:

From a Facebook post on the "Mid Century & Vintage Halloween" group:

• "I credit the Godzilla book with making me a huge Godzilla fan as a kid. I used to check out that one all the time."
• "I would look forward to library day, because of these!"
• "OMG!!! These books taught me how to read!!!"

From a Reddit post earlier this year:

• "My grade school library had most of them. I absolutely loved these books. Being the early to mid-eighties, these things were an absolute treasure."
• "I loved these books. My elementary school library had them. Started my love of classic horror films."

There's a seven-page message board forum about Crestwood House books on the Universal Monster Army website. The first post was in December 2007 and the most recent one is from August 2012. In 2007, one poster wrote: "I was a librarian and teacher in another life, and had the Crestwood books on my shelves -- and they certainly were popular! I can't recall now if there was a different publisher or just a different 'line', but some were purple and some were orange. Maybe horror set vs sci fi set? I found the best info about them in UMA member Rick Stoner's MONSTER MAYHEM periodical."

A few posts later, the full Crestwood House monster series is listed. I'm sharing it here for posterity, hopefully to boost the ease with which people can find information about these beloved childhood books. But credit goes to that 2007 poster, who was reposting from an even older message board!

> Here's a list compiled by our very own Richard Olson from his article

> published in the Stoner's Monster Mayhem Fanzine (Series, publication

> release, ISBN and author):

>

> MONSTER SERIES (Orange Books):

> FRANKENSTEIN * Ian Thorne * 0-913940-73 * 1977

> DRACULA * Ian Thorne * 0-913940-74 * 1977

> GODZILLA * Ian Thorne * 0-913940-75 * 1977

> KING KONG * Ian Thorne * 0-913940-76 * 1977

> MAD SCIENTISTS * Ian Thorne * 0-913940-77 * 1977

> THE WOLF MAN * Ian Thorne * 0-913940-78 * 1977

> THE MUMMY * Ian Thorne * 0-89686-189 * 1981

> CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON * Ian Thorne * 0-89686-190 * 1981

> FRANKENSTEIN MEETS WOLFMAN * Ian Thorne * 0-89686-191 * 1981

> THE BLOB * Ian Thorne * 0-89686-215 * 1982

> IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE * Ian Thorne * 0-89686-216 * 1982

> THE DEADLY MANTIS * Ian Thorne * 0-89686-217 * 1982

> THE INVISIBLE MAN * Ian Thorne * 0-89686-372 * 1986

> THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA * Ian Thorne * 0-89686-373 * 1987

> MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE * Wm Sanford/Carl Green * 0-89686-374 * 1987

>

> MOVIE MONSTERS SERIES (Purple Books):

> BLACK FRIDAY * Wm Sanford/Carl Green * 0-89686-258 * 1985

> BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN * Wm Sanford/Carl Green * 0-89686-259 * 1985

> DRACULA'S DAUGHTER * Wm Sanford/Carl Green * 0-89686-260 * 1985

> GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN * Wm Sanford/Carl Green * 0-89686-261 * 1985

> THE MOLE PEOPLE * Wm Sanford/Carl Green * 0-89686-262 * 1985

> THE RAVEN * Wm Sanford/Carl Green * 0-89686-263 * 1985

> TARANTULA * Wm Sanford/Carl Green * 0-89686-264 * 1985

> WEREWOLF OF LONDON * Wm Sanford/Carl Green * 0-89686-265 * 1985

> THE BLACK CAT * Wm Sanford/Carl Green * 0-89686-310 * 1987

> HOUSE OF FEAR * Wm Sanford/Carl Green * 0-89686-311 * 1986

> HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES * Wm Sanford/Carl Green * 0-89686-312 * 1987

> REVENGE OF THE CREATURE * Wm Sanford/Carl Green * 0-89686-313 * 1986

>

> CRESTWOOD HOUSE/MCMILLIAN CHILDS GROUP "FILM SERIES"

> HORROR FILMS * Rhonda Nottridge * 0-89686-719 * 1992

>

> Maniacally,

>

> Rick

> Stoner's Monster Mayhem

If you want even more Crestwood House memories, check out this 2010 post on the Titans Terrors and Toys blog, and this 2008 post on the Cavalcade of Awesome blog. (I hope these blogs stick around forever; they are treasures.)

It seems appropriate to end this post with feral neighborhood cat Drac, aka Little Baby Dracula. 

She looks just like her sister Mercury, who lives with us.

Advertisements in the final 1960s issue of "Horror Monsters" magazine

Horror Monsters was published by Charlton Publications for 10 quarterly issues in the mid 1960s. This is a very ragged copy of the 10th and final issue, which is listed as Winter 1964-65.

The magazine was a competitor to Famous Monsters of Filmland and, ultimately, didn't seem to succeed in that endeavor. The monster market wasn't big enough for both of them.

Horror Monsters gave it the good college try, though. This final issue includes an extensive feature story about Vincent Price, photo-filled looks at Mario Bava's Black Sabbath (of my favorites) and Hammer's The Curse of Frankenstein, and a feature article about alleged true-life cases of vampirism throughout history. 

It also has cool advertisements aimed at an audience that was composed primarily of teenage boys. There are a decent number of ads, but they are from just a handful of companies — Cult of Horror, Victor Specialties and World Wide Specialties — which was likely another sign of the magazine's flagging viability. 

As you'll see, there is both a Do-It-Yourself Vampire Kit and a Do-It-Yourself Werewolf Kit. They cost $1 apiece and, while that's $10 in today's dollars, I can't imagine the package kids got back in the mail were too exciting. But maybe someone has happy memories of getting their kit.

Finally, this small advertisement, nestled among chattering teeth, a shark-tooth necklace and a plastic snake, made me smile. The Worry Bird was a minor phenomenon in the 1960s, though no one seems to know much about the official origins of the big-beaked, sad-eyed creature.

Chilling prediction tucked away inside 1968's "Dwellers in Darkness"

I don't get to experience the pure delight of Tucked Away Inside items much anymore. It used to be one of my favorite things about sorting through boxes of used books to assess their viability for possible sale on Amazon.

But I recently picked up a used copy of the 1968 paperback Dwellers in the Darkness: The Enigma of the Supernatural, by John Macklin, and found an intriguing — and somewhat ominous — piece of paper folded up and tucked away inside. Weirdly, this is my second Macklin book this year that had something inside. Challenge to Reality, which I wrote about in January, still had its original receipt inside.

It's a long note, written in flowing, left-leaning cursive. As I worked my way through the whole message, I'll admit I started to get a feeling of minor dread in the pit of my stomach. I think we can guess this was written in 1968 or the early 1970s, at the latest. The book is pristine and clearly hasn't been handled much over the decades. 

Here's what the note states:

Brad

In his town where he will live, he will be hailed as a genius. Soon he would be found to be terribly conceited and they'll pay no attention to him. He will get poorer and poorer. Then a lady will come into his life, someone of nobility or royalty, and he will become rich. He will become powerful and somewhat evil or have a less extent of will applied to good ends. Nevertheless, he will have something to do with advances in education. Will grow more evil and when faced with charge of being too cruel or not doing much for something or another he will cancel it with a legal hearing, freeing him. Will receive more power, but will make mistakes and have disconnect with something important. Ill fortune — wife will die — but he will remarry and grow richer. He will lose position in gov. and go bankrupt. Will still have wife, but will be surrounded by false friends. Will live happily with wife.

Adding to the weirdness of this, the bottom-right portion of the sheet of paper has been torn off. Was something else written there?

I'll let you draw your own conclusions, as I'm sure some interesting ones formed in your mind while reading this — fortune? Prediction? Harmless outline for a character in an acting class or a writer's group? 

I ran it through a plagiarism checker and it came out as 100% unique, for whatever that's worth. And the text doesn't come up in any Google searches. 

There's also the added context that this was tucked away inside a book that states on the back cover: "These are the Dwellers in the Darkness — the people who seem to be just like you and me — but who are in reality, like nothing you have ever encountered."

And who is Brad?

Brochure for the Boris Karloff Wax Museum in Niagara Falls

Every October needs a little Boris Karloff. This is an undated brochure for the Boris Karloff Wax Museum, which was located at the corner of Oakes Drive and Buchanan Avenue in Niagara Falls, Canada. It was a longtime fixture of the entertainment district known as Clifton Hill, a touristy spot near the falls filled with museums (usually hokey rather than prestigious), arcades and similar attractions.

I can't find an official history of the museum, so much of what I've assembled here is via two sources:

• Reddit: History of Clifton Hill Part 3: "Wax Monsters and Mini Golf" (which is excellent)
• Universal Monster Army: A three-page message board thread about the Boris Karloff Wax Museum

The museum opened around 1968, and I found evidence on Newspapers.com that it still existed as late as 1992. It was built and managed by Robert Dunham, an entrepreneur behind numerous popular attractions in Niagara Falls. The Dunham family had a company named Waxattract that constructed wax figures and other components. Waxattract had a subdivision named Enter-Tech.

The brochure notes: "Once you step inside the Boris Karloff Wax Museum be prepared to enter an entirely different world. A world of the supernatural ... a chilling, eerie world ... a world that will eliminate common everyday thoughts and feelings. Thirty-three different scenes will boggle your mind and thrill your senses." It goes on to specifically mention Jack the Ripper, the Phantom of the Opera, the Mummy, the Hunchback of Notre Dame, Medusa, zombies and the Devil himself.

But the museum wasn't entirely horror, it seems. You should read the entirely of the long and well-researched Reddit thread on the museum, but here's an excerpt: 

"The structure the museum was housed in had formerly housed the motel restaurant and gift shop on the lower floor and suites on the top floor. The bottom floor became the museum and gift shop, and looking at old photos it appears the rooms were kept above, but cleverly integrated into a castle-like facade. ... It was the first horror themed wax museum, but was by no means a total haunted attraction. What limited photos exist in the brochures show it being fairly well-lit, and describe many non-horror scenes like Charlie Brown, MLK, Santa, Lincoln and Snow White. It's heavy animation, lighting effects, sound design, and unique theme made it a massive success."

The thread on the Universal Monster Army message board includes images of some different brochures for the wax museum. Plus images of some nifty pennants from the gift shop. Several people also share their memories of touring the museum as children. This anecdote made me laugh: "My parents took me to Niagara Falls around 1970.  After a lot of begging, my parents dropped me off at the Wax Museum. As I recall, it was attached to a hotel. I bought my ticket in the lobby and looked at entry to the museum. It was all blinged out in cobwebs, skeletons, and other scary s**t. Well, I was too afraid to enter. I stood in the lobby for an hour and waited for my ride. When my parents showed up, I made up a complete description of the museum."

Writing for The Junior Reporter Club in the July 12, 1968, edition of The Evening Standard of Uniontown, Pennsylvania, young Judy Zajac shared her story about a family trip to Niagara Falls: "Both falls were very beautiful and I had a very enjoyable time. When we were leaving, we stopped at a wax museum. The name of the museum was Boris Karloff's Wax Museum of Horrors. When one enters, there is a statue of Boris Karloff. Some of the things in the museum are: The Living Heart, The Electric Chair, The Creatures, The Mummy and many more. They also had such things as Santa Claus, Little Red Riding Hood, and Snow White for younger children."

In July 1973, someone stole Dracula's red-and-black cape, valued at $300, from the museum, according to police reports. (That sounds like a good opening hook for a horror movie.)

Finally, here's a groovy advertisement from the August 30, 1969, edition of the Niagara Falls Review that describes a "ghost party" movie marathon at Hollywood Drive-In that was done in conjunction with the Boris Karloff Wax Museum.

The Sunbonnet Women of America and their 1925 Halloween seance

Witches! A seance! And a dance!

Oh my. It's a History Mystery. I want to know everything that can be known about the Sunbonnet Women of America. There are only a handful of clippings, all from 1925, about this group on Newspapers.com, and there's zilch on Google.

It's the above clipping that first caught my eye. Headlined "Wicked Witches Listed At Pre-Halloween Seance," it's from the October 18, 1925, edition of The Sunday Star of Washington, D.C. — exactly 99 years ago today. The Sunday Star was the Sunday edition of the Washington Evening Star.

The first paragraph states: "The Sunbonnet Women of America wish to solve the problems of their business brothers and sisters, so they invite them to come and help invoke the wiles of the 'wickedest witches' in a pre-Halloween seance and dance Thursday evening, October 29, at the Central Armory, Eleventh and Clifton streets northwestern."

The invitation itself is in verse:

So the ancient near-witch, Sunbonnet Sue,

Extends a summons to all of you

Who'd dance and laugh and brew and plot

To try the luck of the witches pot.

Disguise yourselves in Halloween hues,

If you'd be favored in the pot that brews,

And present your card at the door of Fate

For the fun begins at half-past eight.

There are favors that may be got,

So be on time to brew in the pot;

You may not know, but it sure is true,

Sunbonnet girls are among the few

Descended from the Salem witches

And work their wiles for Halloween wishers.

"Now, come you all, so eager to learn

If Fate for you her wheel will turn.

The business men do recognize

The worth of Sunbonnets wary and wise,

So they have placed in the witches's pot

Some lovely things which they will plot

That may be won by only those

Who please the witches by their clothes.

Now, brothers and sisters, eager and true,

Dress up quite well, it may be you."

Yes, the 1920s were certainly roaring. This was not an event to be missed. Keep in mind, though, that it was held in the midst of the Prohibition. Given the very public nature of the event, it's unlikely that there would have been any alcohol openly served. But perhaps some was smuggled in or, ahem, conjured. Maybe some historians who are most astute than I am about the skirting of Prohibition laws see some hints within the witches' invitation regarding what would be available at the dance.

The last paragraph lists some of the newest members of the Sunbonnet Women of America, "all prominent in Government, professional and business circles." I'm going to list them here, because maybe this post will help someone track down something new about one of their ancestors:

Mrs. Susie Moore

Miss Helen E. Burnett

Miss Helen C. Clark

Miss Nita S. Hinman

Mrs. Amelia E. Byrne

Mrs. Elsie C. Gulli

Miss Elizabeth M. Wall

Mrs. Mabel Driver

Miss Elizabeth K. Prender

Miss Mabel J. Carter

Miss Bertha V. Zeller

Miss Alice M. Blandforth

Miss Margaret R. Shedd

Miss Annie Louis Carroll

Miss Edith L. Tate

Miss Madeline Diers

And just imagine, all of them descended from the Salem witches (wink).

Sifting through some of the other Newspaper.com clippings from 1925 sheds little light on the Sunbonnet Women of America. They are first mentioned in early May and seem to be associated with the National Club of the Younger Business Women. That month, they were organizing "the first annual organdy dance of the Sunbonnet Women of America."

An October 9 article specifically mentions the "Washington branch of the Sunbonnet Women of America" and its meeting to discuss the upcoming Halloween dance. 

And that's pretty much it. How long did the organization last? Did it actually have branches in multiple cities? Were they really witches? Did they all vanish after the October 29 seance and summoning? 

Maybe we should do a new seance and try to contact "Sunbonnet Sue" for an eyewitness recap. Stuff like that always ends well in movies. 

The terror of AI image generation

Deep into the spooky season of Mild Fear 2024 seems like a good time to check in with one of this year's most existential horrors: artificial intelligence. It's fairly certain at this point that AI will lead directly to the the doom of civilization, if not the entire Earth. But while we passively wait for the apocalypse — whether it's from economic collapse spurred by AI, autonomous AI warfare or simply the AI servers swallowing up every available joule of energy on the planet — we can also just sit back and do stupid things with AI.

I asked AI, for example, to generate images of me writing a Papergreat post. So here they are:

My cats and I have no further comment. 

1978 Halloween movie marathon at MacArthur Drive-In in Orange, Texas

This newspaper advertisement (via Newspapers.com) was in the October 27, 1978, edition of The Orange Leader of Orange, Texas. It showcases a five-film Halloween movie lineup that was slated for the next night, Saturday, at the MacArthur Drive-In. It's an interesting slate that would have ended just a few hours before dawn, for those who stuck it out (or fell asleep in their cars).

Based upon movie lengths and allowing for about five-minute intermissions between movies, this is roughly when the movies would have started:

7:30 p.m. — The Legend of Boggy Creek (1972, PG)

9:05 p.m. — Return to Boggy Creek (1977, G)

10:35 p.m. — Nurse Sherri (1977, R)

12:10 a.m. — House of Psychotic Women (1976, R)

1:45 a.m. — The Mysterious Monsters (1975, G)

3:15 a.m. — It's over! Go home!

Children under age 12 were allowed to attend. I reckon the idea was that they'd have fallen asleep in the back seat by the time the R-rated films started, lest they see something that scars them for life.

The Legend of Boggy Creek is a super-low-budget, documentary-style horror film about an Arkansas cryptid that was fairly popular on the 1970s drive-in circuit. Parts of it served as an inspiration for The Blair Witch Project, decades later.

Its unauthorized sequel, Return to Boggy Creek, has nothing to do with the original and can barely be termed a horror movie. It's definitely the clunker of this MacArthur Drive-In lineup and was probably included because the licensing rights were dirt cheap. Of note, it features Gilligan's Island's Dawn Wells and Diff'rent Strokes' Dana Plato. One reviewer on IMDb called it "a movie that would make some Walt Disney movies look dark. Really, this movie was just a bunch of light fluff with virtually no boggy creek creature to be seen."

Nurse Sherri has a rating of 3.8 out of 10 on IMDb, so it was no prize either. But, in attempting to follow in the footsteps of The Exorcist, it probably had enough shocks, blood and titillation to keep the adults awake and eating popcorn from the snack bar. It also features the horror of this sofa; imagine that on a huge drive-in screen.

At first I was confused in attempting to research House of Psychotic Women, because that's also the title of a 2012 memoir/film studies book written by Kier-La Janisse. It's also the title of a themed collection of movies that Severin and Janisse teamed up to release a few years ago. Then I figured out that House of Psychotic Women is the title of the edited American release of the 1974 Spanish horror film Blue Eyes of the Broken Doll, starring Paul Naschy. The American title served as the inspiration for Janisse's book title. Anyway ... Blue Eyes of the Broken Doll is definitely not a film you'd want your kids in the backseat to wake up during. They might catch an eyeful of eyeballs in a bowl of water, for one thing. 

Last up was The Mysterious Monsters. Its rating is incorrect in the advertisement. It's a G-rated documentary hosted by Peter Graves that discusses Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster and other popular 1970s cryptids. It's fairly well-regarded, as that genre goes, but I can't imagine it was keeping many people awake that deep into the witching hour. Maybe it should have replaced Return to Boggy Creek as the second movie! 

I'd love to program a Halloween movie marathon for a group of horror fans. I think it would be more fun at an indoor theater, with quality picture, quality sound and no worries about weather or bugs. Maybe, after some ruminating, I'll do a post later this month about what movies I would include in such a marathon. And I'd love to hear in the comments what your dream Halloween movie marathon would be!

But drive-in theaters represented a wonderful time in the history of movies, too. And they definitely helped to further the horror genre through the 1970s. There's a Facebook page devoted to memories of the MacArthur Drive-In in Orange, Texas. According to that page, the drive-in opened in 1950 and, in January 1983, "slipped into history like most drive-ins."

Intellivision's "Night Stalker," my first survival horror video game

Thanks to Dad's business connections, we were among the very early owners of an Intellivision home video game system. Sometime in 1979, we hooked it up to the hefty television set in our living room in Clayton, New Jersey, and played Major League Baseball, The Electric Company: Math Fun, and Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack.

(Interestingly, our next-door neighbor was an early adopter of a different sort — upstairs, he had a massive personal computer that, from my memory anyway, took up a third of a room with its CPU, monitor, and disk — or cassette — drive. He wowed my friend Mike and I with a computer baseball game, a game that involved exploring underground passages and avoiding a troll and, as I very hazily recall, a detective game that was mostly text. It seemed, in retrospect, to be something that he put together himself, not one of the smaller commercial computers that would have been available at the time, such as an Apple II or TRS-80. But I'm trusting my memory as an 8-year-old here.)

Over the new few years, we acquired many more Intellivision cartridges through Dad's ongoing business relationship with Mattel. It was an awesome perk, and it made us bit of an outlier in a world where the more-popular Atari home video game system was outselling Intellivision about 6 to 1. 

One Intellivision game we eventually had was Night Stalker, which was released in 1982 and became a family favorite, although perhaps not quite as addictive or popular within the household as Astrosmash. (Other family favorites included Snafu, B-17 Bomber, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Treasure of Tarmin, and Utopia, which was a bit ahead of its time as a sim game.)

Looking back, I view Intellivision's Night Stalker as forerunner of the gaming genre that would eventually be called Survival Horror. That term came into popular usage around 1996 with Resident Evil, and, generally speaking, it describes games in which the player has limited resources and other obstacles to overcome while facing overwhelming supernatural enemies. The website Retro Refurbs agreed in this 2021 post that Night Stalker fits the bill as early survival horror.

I haven't played a ton of survival horror over the years, because I'm fairly mediocre at videogaming. But some that I've played are Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, Resident Evil – Code: Veronica and Realms of the Haunting (a PC game). I dabbled with Silent Hill and Dino Crisis, but didn't get very far. I think Infocom's The Lurking Horror also counts, even though it's a text-based game. The Lovecraftian writing by Dave Lebling is terrifying at times. The most recent survival horror I've played, probably, was a Slender Man game on my iPhone. That creepypasta creep is too creepy for me.

Anyway, Night Stalker is a great game that's still deeply embedded in my memory. All you can do is try to survive to until the next level. There is no winning. It's just mounting panic and stress until your lives run out and you die. Fun times! The gist is that you're stuck in a maze with bats, spiders and an endlessly spawning battalion of killer robots that are increasingly deadly. Your ammo is limited and it's a constant scramble to acquire more. So, half the time you're totally defenseless, unless you choose to hide in your centrally located bunker, a strategy that merely delays the inevitable. The killer robots start out stupid and escalate to Terminator level, even gaining the ability to destroy your only sanctuary. The most advanced killer robot is invisible. Death is inevitable, and there is no catharsis beyond shutting off the gaming console and going outside for some fresh air. Maybe I'm taking the analogy too far, but it was perhaps a fitting game for the 1980s, in which we lived with the constant fear of nuclear armageddon.

Retro Refurbs wrote: "There’s no way to win. But in many ways, this means that it is survival horror in the purest sense: the entire point of the game is simply to survive for as long as you can. And that’s it."

Night Stalker's sound effects are limited mostly to bullets being fired and explosions. But behind them on the soundtrack, there's an unwavering electronic pulse that fits perfectly with the game's existential dread. As one YouTube commenter noted: "I remember the sheer terror and excitement of this game. That deep, twanging bass noise in the background haunts me to this day."

As a final note, I wonder now if the title of this 1982 game is a tip of the hat to the 1972 TV movie The Night Stalker, which featured the debut of Carl Kolchak, the journalist who investigates supernatural phenomena. Killer robots would have been right up his alley, though he would have found a way to actually defeat them.

Here are some of the pages from the Night Stalker manual...
 

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Spooky frontispiece in an Edward Bulwer-Lytton omnibus

This is a perfect-for-October frontispiece from an omnibus edition of Edward Bulwer-Lytton supernatural fiction published by Hooper, Clarke & Co. of Chicago (year unknown, probably circa 1880-1890). The hardcover book is falling apart, with a fully detached spine. I picked it up super cheap in order to read the 1859 short story "The Haunted and the Haunters: Or, The House and the Brain," which H.P. Lovecraft praised as "one of the best short haunted-house tales ever written." There are modern collections that include "The Haunted and the Haunters," but if you'd rather just read a critical summary, here's one from Dark Worlds Quarterly.

The frontispiece, meanwhile, is from the novel A Strange Story, which leads off the omnibus. That novel, which was first published as a serial, deals with a physician who is staunchly on the side of science and rationalism, yet finds his worldview shaken as he confronts dark magic and supernatural forces. Some reviewers say it's a bit on the bloated side and filled with lengthy tangents in the footnotes, which is both par for the course for Bulwer-Lytton and makes sense if you're getting paid by the word for a serial novel. The woman standing beside the tree in the frontispiece is likely meant to be Lillian, the doctor's love interest in A Strange Story. Perhaps she's been mesmerized — not by the doctor, but by Evil Forces^TM.

The final Bulwer-Lytton offering in the omnibus is his 1842 novel Zanoni. It is also occult-themed, centered around Rosicrucians and the secret of eternal life. But, as one Goodreads reviewer notes, "This is most emphatically not a novel that treats the occult as something evil. The occult in this novel is rather a seeking for wisdom. On the very rare occasions on which Mejnour does interfere in the affairs of humanity it is always on the side of good. Zanoni frequently intervenes in human affairs, and again always on the side of good."

Here's LP, aka Licorice Pizza, aka Lady Samantha Penguin.

Scholastic book: "Chilling Ghost Stories"

We must have at least one spooky Scholastic book from the olden days each October!

• Title: Chilling Ghost Stories
• Author: Bernhardt J. Hurwood (1926-1987). Another of his books was featured in this 2021 post.
• Awesome cover illustration: Don Dyen. There's also one uncredited interior illustration of a skeleton standing at a child's bedside.
• Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
• Year: First published in 1973. This is a Scholastic reprint from the late 1980s or early 1990s, though there's no confirmation on the copyright page. The front cover is missing the TK 2167 that appears on the original editions.
• Pages: 110
• Format: Paperback. 
• Dedication: "To Laura"
• Some of the story titles: The House That Didn't Want Anyone to Live in It; What the Gravedigger Saw; The Pirate Ghost of Gombi Island; The Woman in Green Velvet; The Headless Princess; The Banshee Whose Feelings Were Hurt; and The Poltergeist with the Heart of a Genie.
• Random excerpt from the middle #1: He was mean to his family and to his hired hands alike, so when he died no one was particularly sorry to see him go.
• Random excerpt from the middle #2: Of course, everyone in the village tried to guess what it was that the ghost had told Tom, but he never would say anything more about it. 
• Random excerpt from the middle #3: Moya loved to tell wild and hair-raising tales about ghosts and goblins and wolf-men and fairies.
• Rating on Goodreads: 3.32 stars (out of 5)
• Goodreads review: In 2020, Gary Sites wrote: "This is one of the first books I owned. I was 10 years old when I selected it from the Scholastic reader at school. What wonderful memories of going through that thing, choosing a few books. (They averaged about .75 cents) Then, in two or three weeks, we'd walk into the classroom one morning, and find stacks of new paperbacks that our teacher would pass out at lunch time. Do they still do this in schools? I hope so. This book of little ghost stories isn't very remarkable, but I loved it as a ten year old." (Yes! I remember walking into my classrooms and seeing the new books on the teacher's desk and/or along the long shelf under the window.)
• Rating on Amazon: 3.8 stars (out of 5)
• Amazon review excerpt: In 2013, Mark Geary wrote: "I was about eight years old when I bought this book from a Scholastic Book Fair, and it was probably my favorite book for the longest time. ... While there were other collections and anthologies put together over the years from Scholastic, 'Chilling Ghost Stories' still stands out as the best, at least, the best to me. I recently was able to get a copy and after 35+ years, I went back and read it. The book still holds up fairly well, and I look forward to sharing it with my Grandchildren."
• Another view: Kristi Petersen Schoonover raved about this book on her blog in 2011, concluding "Even if you’re an adult, you’ll want to own this. I can guarantee a scare in under three minutes. And if you’re as busy as I am — well, then there’s a certain beauty in that, too." [Her blog is still going strong, too.]

What vintage Scholastic books most say

"October" or "Halloween" to you? 

Share your memories in the comments section.

I believe this is Socks' first photo appearance on Papergreat