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.
Here's what O.G. Frankenstein did to me...
ReplyDeleteBefore I watched it, I wasn't afraid of the dark.
After I watched it, I was afraid of the dark.
I can *still* freak myself out come up from a dark basement and run up the stairs like a skittish 6-year-old.
But...
When my kids were about 10, one rainy say, we watched Frankenstein, then Bride of Frankenstein (a better movie). Then, without tipping them off, I popped Young Frankenstein into the VCR. At first, the kids were like, "Oh, Dad, not *another* Frankenstein movie," but as it spooled out, they looked at each other, then me, and started laughing. Because we had watched the previous 2, they got all the infantile Brooks-Wilder call-back jokes, and boy, are there a lot of them.
They still talk about it, more than 20 years later.
Isn't the custom for such exploitation shows as Dr. Silkini's Asylum of Horrors to have a Trained Nurse on hand to care for those who faint of fright? Maybe the Doctor himself revived those who keeled over.
ReplyDeleteI remember seeing a Midnight Spook Show at the Palace back in 1973; don't remember if it was Dr. Silkini.
ReplyDelete