Remembering the horror that once lurked in Brigantine, New Jersey

The Jersey shore hasn't always been about sand, sun and surf.
There were horrors, too...

As a young kid growing up South Jersey for a few years in the late 1970s, I was mesmerized by the television commercials for Brigantine Castle, a haunted-house attraction located in Brigantine, New Jersey, just a few miles northeast of Atlantic City. The place looked like a schlocky (in the best way) 1960s or 1970s horror movie come to life. I was 8 or 9 years old, so, upon viewing these commercials, it didn't really register to me that these were just a bunch of college kids in pancake makeup making good summer money.¹ (That's an over-generalization, but not terribly off the mark.)

I never did get there. The Castle's heyday ended with a damaging storm in 1982. It closed for good in 1984 and burned down in 1987.

But, because of those commercials, I've remained intrigued by Brigantine Castle. Here are two of them, from YouTube...





While there is a great website and digital archive of the history of Brigantine Castle, which I'll get to in a moment, actual ephemera is difficult to track down on the open market. I did come across this 1977 postcard for Brigantine "Horror" Castle & Amusement Pier a couple years ago. It was pushing the idea that this was "an exciting complex for the entire family." Because homicidal mimes and severed heads make for the perfect day with Gramps and Missy!

The photographs on the postcard were taken by Manos Angelakis, and the card was distributed by Joseph Harris of Brigantine. Here's a look...

If you really want the skinny on Brigantine Castle, the best — and perhaps only — place to go is www.darkinthepark.com, which was created more than 15 years ago by Seph and Bill Cherkasky as a repository of Brigantine Castle history. It was then expanded to encompass three classic dark rides of New Jersey, as the Cherkaskys added Dracula's Castle in Wildwood and the Haunted Mansion of Long Branch. Other dark rides and haunted attractions have also been reviewed and discussed on the website over the years.

But Brigantine Castle remains the centerpiece of the website, and the depth of history and information featured there is such that I hope there are backups and printed archives of all that material. I would hate to see this information become a Lost Corner of the Internet and then disappear altogether.

The Cherkaskys' documentation includes Brigantine Castle's history, three pages worth of photos of the actors who worked there, a large archive of pictures, some of the original sound effects and screams (including one described as "different men laughing with jack-in-the-box sounds"), and a look at what has become of the former site of the attraction in Brigantine. As far as ephemera goes, there fantastic scans of posters and brochures and other advertising material for Brigantine Castle that you should really check out. In particular, this poster is pretty terrific.

And if all that isn't enough, the Brigantine Castle website hosts 15 years worth of emails that the Cherkaskys have received, filled with memories of both Brigantine Castle employees and those who were thrilled and spooked while experiencing the castle back in the late 1970s and early 1980s. That is the part of the website that I most hope is preserved for posterity. Here are a couple of examples of those great memories...

• I was lucky enough to be a member of the Brigantine Castle for the last 3 years. The memories I have from my experiences there are among the most cherished I have. For those of you reading this that share the knowledge of being a "monster" in the Castle or in any other haunted house, hayride or attraction, you understand. ... In the brief time I was employed at the Castle I became acquainted with many people, some of whom are my closest friends to this day, as close as any blood relation a person can have. One of the people I met was a man by the name of Joe Little. His name was a source of pure irony because he easily stood 6'4" if not taller. When he donned the platform shoes, green makeup and metal bolts, he was one of the most imposing Frankenstein's Monsters to have ever scared a shoobie into the fetal position.
• My daughter and I have hysterically funny memories of one visit to the castle in the summer of 1976. My sister-in-law (Dot) and nephew were with us, and I had to lead the way. We spent a long time debating how to get over the hole in the path in the dark forest until the lurking werewolf finally told us it was glass. The Castle was genuinely creepy, even though we knew what it was, but my sister-in-law's terror had her clutching the back of my shirt in a knot and squeezing the kids between us. We did a lockstep through the castle with me laughing hysterically and Dot screaming hysterically. The body that sat up in the coffin really made her scream.

And now you probably want to read them all. Go ahead! Go!
(But you might want to keep a light on.)

Footnote

1. Speaking of which, Ashar, now 16½, is working as one of the scary performers this month at a horror attraction called Panic at the Ballpark in York's downtown baseball stadium. From the brochure: "York's professional baseball stadium, PeoplesBank Park, become[s] a terrifying den of horrors as a force of vengeance and evil wreaks havoc on fans of the great American pastime." The different areas are called Head Basher's Hideout, The Dismemberment Shop and Dead Man's Play Land. An obsessed police officer, using his fingers as a gun, runs around trying to catch an evil, undead ballplayer.

1918 postcard: "That Nightmare Sure Was A Horse On Me"

This non-subtle but punny postcard from a century ago plays off the etymology of nightmare, which, when used in the sense of a bad dream, only dates to the 1820s. The mares, though, weren't literally horses. They were considered to be demons or goblins that "rode" on people's chests while they slept, thus causing frightful dreams (or potentially death, in some cultures).

The word "mare" has a confusing etymology that involves Old English, Norse, Germanic, French and perhaps all the way back to Greek. It was thought that mares could haunt (or ride) more than just people. They could leave horses sweating and exhausted or tangle the branches of a tree. In Slavic countries, some of the methods of repelling nightmares included leaving a broom upside down behind the door or placing a belt atop the bedsheets.

This postcard was mailed in 1918, during the 20-month period when postage was raised from 1¢ to 2¢. It appears to have been mailed to Al Guffey in the unincorporated community of Nettleton, Missouri. The message, clearly written by a child, states:

Dear Al,
The weather is fine here. It is New Year's day. I got a watch [and] a pair of gloves for Xmas.
Marvin.

Book cover: "Galaxy of Ghouls"

Here's a perfectly appropriate vintage book cover for Halloween Week.

• Title: Galaxy of Ghouls
• Incredibly awesome subtitle: A Handy Guide for Vampires and Werewolves, of Spells and Sorcery of Switches on Witches of Shape-Stealers and Soul-Swappers of Demons and Damnation...
• Seriously, is that the best subtitle ever? Yes.
• Did the awesome subtitle appear in the official copyright listing? I don't think so.
• Would this book have been in Catholic school libraries? I don't think so.
• Editor: Judith Merril
• Authors included in anthology: Ray Bradbury, Fredric Brown, Theodore Sturgeon, J.B. Priestley, Richard Parker, Anthony Boucher, Robert Sheckley, Fritz Leiber, Arthur Porges, Leslie Charteris, Bruce Elliott, William Tenn, Clifford Simak, Manly Wade Wellman and Walter M. Miller Jr. Plus one story co-written by Jerome BIxby and Joe E. Dean.
• That's a lot men: Yes.
• Probably white men: Yes.
• What about Leslie Charteris: Man.
• What about Manly Wade Wellman: A very Manly man. But nothing like this Manly.
• But, hey, at least the editor was a woman: Correct. Judith Josephine Grossman (1923-1997) was a pioneering science fiction writer, editor and political activist. Her three published novels were Shadow on the Hearth, Gunner Cade and The Tomorrow People. There are a few collections of her short stories, including two published in the 1970s — Survival Ship and Other Stories and The Best of Judith Merril. She was a peace activist who once, according to Wikipedia, traveled "to Ottawa dressed as a witch in order to hex Parliament for allowing American cruise missile testing over Canada." You can read more about her writing at The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.
• Cover art: B. Thomas
• Man? Not sure, actually.
• Publisher: Lion Library (LL25)
• Cover price: 35 cents
• Year: May 1955
• Pages: 192
• Format: Paperback
• Reprints: Pyramid Books republished this book as Off the Beaten Orbit in 1959 and 1961 (with new covers each time).
• What others say about this anthology:
• Todd Mason, writing on Sweet Freedom, states: "A thoroughly enjoyable anthology of fantasy, sf, horror and Merril's then-favorite term for all fantastic fiction, 'science-fantasy' (often in the specific sense of that which mixes fantasy and sf aspects, tropes and furniture, as well as Merril's more broad sense, which she would eventually trade for a broad definition of Robert Heinlein's 'speculative fiction' suggestion of some years earlier)."
• Reviewing the book on Goodreads, Heidi writes: "The whole book is really a convergence of science fiction stories which have an element of the occult. (A few are just strictly ghost and/or horror stories.) Almost all of the stories here are pretty good and there are a few real stand-outs."
• Margaret L. Carter, writing on Vamp Chix, begins her review by stating: "OFF THE BEATEN ORBIT (1961; first published as GALAXY OF GHOULS, 1955), compiled by distinguished SF writer and editor Judith Merril, isn't a vampire anthology as such. But it does include three vintage vampire tales (two being a couple of my all-time favorites), plus two other stories with some vampire content. It also features two werewolf pieces. This anthology holds a special place in my heart. I first heard of it from my high school boyfriend, who described some of the contents to me but never got around to lending me the book. I'd given up on ever actually seeing the elusive paperback when I stumbled upon it in a used book shop, long before Internet searches existed."
• Just realized. "Switches on witches" is a little kinky, no?: Yes.
• So, definitely not in Catholic school libraries?: Correct.

Halloween is almost here, so get your head out of that pumpkin!

Time has lunged forward and we are now just days away from Allhallowtide, so I'm going to try to squeeze in as many themed posts as possible between now and then.¹

This embossed vintage postcard, which has no publisher listed anywhere, contains a lot of surprises beyond just the central image of a young girl with a large carved pumpkin on her head. There is a flower with a creepy face, two different moons, stars, a ring, a witch, a candle and, of course, a black cat.

The cat has a strange and tiny winged creature sitting upon the tip of its tale. I'm not sure what's up with that. Maybe it's a tiny owl. And, of course, black cats and owls are both extreme omens of death in European folklore, so if you see these two animals hanging out together, it's pretty much a double-whammy.²

This postcard was mailed in 1911 and sent to Miss Martha Lewis, who lived in the small borough of Williamstown in northern Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. (I found some evidence of a Martha Lewis was was born in Pennsylvania in 1902 and was the child of Edward Lewis and Amelia Thresa (Minnie) Temple. Martha also appeared in a 1930 census as a resident of Williamstown.) The short note on the card states:

Hello Martha. How are you getting along.
I guess you thought I was lost.
Leda.

Footnotes
1. And, of course, you can go back and see all the awesome vintage Halloween postcards that were featured as part of Mild Fear 2015.
2. Also, while looking for answers about that Cattail Creature, I discovered these unrelated creatures of world folklore: Tailypo (Appalachia), Bakeneko (Japan), Alp (Germany), Hombre Gato¹ (South America) and Pard (medieval Europe).

Secondary footnote
1. Hombre Gato would be a great name for a band.

Mystery real photo postcard: Family from 100-plus years ago

This old real photo postcard was never used and comes with absolutely no information regarding who these people were. Is this a husband and wife and their three children? That could be the most likely scenario, but it's hardly the only one.

The stamp box on the back indicates that this was a Velox postcard and its design, according to playle.com, indicates that this from "Pre-1907-1910." There is also a line reading "This Side For The Address" on the back, which further supports this being from that period. (Divided-back postcards didn't emerge until 1907. Before that year, you couldn't write anything but the address on the back.)

So this photo is from at least 109 years ago. Possibly more.

Wouldn't it be interesting to know who they were, where they lived and what they did, presumably here in America?

Other mystery real photo postcards

• Toddler in a rocking chair
• Mystery classroom (1907-1929)
• Young woman and young man
• Vintage tree huggers
• Well-dressed girl and chair
• The old man and the boat
• Four women sitting on the ground
• Who were these three kids?
• Just an ordinary fella
• 5 young ladies (4 of them cheery)

Cool illustrations: The New Human Interest Library (Part 2)

For the second installment in this new series showcasing cool stuff inside 1929's Volume I of The New Human Interest Library, here are some additional illustrations from the first section of the book, which is titled "The How-You-Grow Book." I believe that all of these were done by Herbert N. Rudeen; the first one was, for sure.

These illustrations feature Little Georgie, a very non-threatening-looking Sandman, Tommy Tumble, a roster and a gray "a grey kitty, with green eyes."

Fascinating peek into early 1970s world of Long John Nebel

I'm about a third of the way through Long John Nebel: Radio Talk King, Master Salesman, and Magnificent Charlatan, a biography by Donald Bain that was published in 1974.

So far, to be honest, it's not very interesting. The book has been dominated thus far by the "salesman" portion of Nebel's life. That's not what I came to the book wanting to read about. I'm more interested in his many years as an overnight radio talk-show host who dabbled in bizarre and paranormal topics, bonded with Jackie Gleason, and influenced the likes of Art Bell.

The best part of the book so far has been the opening section, which describes Nebel's whirlwind marriage to Candy Jones and his home and lifestyle in early-1970s Manhattan. (Nebel died of cancer in 1978 at age 66.)

These are some of contents of Nebel's cluttered apartment on Manhattan's East Side, as detailed by Bain:

• massive professional tape machines
• a Musser vibraphone
• expensive stereo equipment
• books stacked in every room and corner, including the hallways
• guitars
• banjos
• magazines
• top-of-the-line cameras, never used²
• thousands of record albums
• multiple telephones
• multiple answering machines
• machines for taping phone calls
• telephones that automatically dial when a pre-punched card is inserted³
• automatic clothes presser
• portable TV
• radios
• six bedroom copies of Overcoming the Fear of Death by Dr. David Cole Gordon

The living-room furniture consisted of "a couch, some chairs, and a few tables," none of which were accessible because of all the stuff.

Part of Nebel's "stuff" problem was that he had previously occupied two side-by-side apartments at the end of his hallway, with one serving as his office and recording studio. But, at the time this book was written, he no longer had the office and thus had crammed everything into the single apartment.

But, no matter how much available space he had, I think it's clear that he had some hoarding issues, and this section of Bain's book provides a kind of time capsule of his existence in Manhattan four-and-a-half decades ago.⁴

Footnotes
1. Other current reads:

• The Shepherd's Life: Modern Dispatches from an Ancient Landscape, by James Rebanks (just finished yesterday!)
• Time and Again, by Clifford D. Simak
• Latest issues of The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl and Captain America: Steve Rogers

2. Bain writes: "the best cameras, none of which has ever had a roll of film run through it because Nebel, the former professional photographer, doesn't want to risk scratching them."
3. Some telephones of this type, called Western Electric Automatic Dialers, can be seen here.
4. For a description of some other eccentrics crammed into a different Manhattan apartment, circa 1992, check out "The Mountains of Pi," an article in The New Yorker by Richard Preston.

Mild obsession with typographical variants on Manning-Sanders covers

For some reason, I have only recently started noticing that there are some significant differences in the typography on the dust jackets of some of Ruth Manning-Sanders' fairy-tale books. I assume that the difference is because of the various design choices made by her United Kingdom publisher (Methuen) and her United States publisher (E.P. Dutton). But it's still interesting. Here are a couple of the bigger examples I found...