For many years, Dr. Silkini's "Asylum of Horrors" made an annual stop in Lorain in October, and consequently has appeared on this blog before. The 1957 edition of the show that came to Lorain had a ad similar to the above. And my blog post about the 1959 Lorain show included a capsule history of the whole phenomenon, with clippings from various newspapers spanning the early 1940s to the 1960s.
Other live (or undead?) horror stage shows visited Lorain over the years as well, including this February 1957 one with Dracula and "the materialization of James Dean."
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It's interesting how every generation has its own horror icons.
When I was a kid, the sight of a stiff-legged, kill-crazy Frankenstein Monster lumbering with arms outstretched was still the very definition of horror, along with the Wolf Man and the Mummy. I guess Universal Studios had done a good job keeping these guys in the public eye (even issuing those Aurora models).
I still remember how scary it was near the end of the movie. Dracula had been planning to transplant Costello's brain into the Frankenstein Monster, and both of them were strapped to hospital beds in the laboratory, in preparation for the operation.
The scene where Abbott is rescuing his partner by frantically untying him from the gurney, with the Monster at the same time angrily bursting through his straps only a few feet away, still gives me goosebumps.
Here's the trailer for this classic movie. If you've never seen it, you're missing a great movie – probably Abbott and Costello's best.
