October 10 – October 16 (2022)

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

This meme sums up my feelings exactly. ‘Nuff said.

“Calling America” by Electric Light Orchestra is an amazing song. ‘Nuff said.

Monday the 10th – PRINTERS, PROBLEMS & PUPPETS! – After having discovered a mistake in my printing order I received over the weekend, I phoned the printer and they said they’d correct the error right away. Which is good because I needed the printing job for Monsterpalooza this coming weekend. When I got all that settled I headed to my seamstress Shelley’s house to have her stitch around the Donnie Druthers® puppet I made for an upcoming Christoween® promotion at Monsterpalooza. I stopped at the store to pick up a few grocery items, got a sandwich to go at Togo’s, and then headed home to unload the goods, eat dinner, and work around the house. Later I took a short nap in the Puppet Room on the brand new mattress! When I got up later I wrote Wally’s Week, did more miscellaneous work around the house, and made myself a super salad and watched another episode of “The Magician.” My old pal Eugene Roche played the bad guy in that episode. I first met Gene back in 1998 when we shared the same agent and would chat in the waiting room about his work in TV and movies. What a great guy and I miss him! And a fantastic actor! I did a little work on the computer and then hit the hay.

Tuesday the 11th – WALMART, WEBSITE, WENDY’S & WHOOPS! – It’s been very difficult finding the little Cokes in the glass bottles that I so love. I have one ice cold when I watch TV before bed at night, but for some reason none of the usual stores have the six packs in stock anymore. I can find the Mexican Cokes in the glass bottles very easily, but not the domestic ones for some reason. I remembered that I had seen them before at Walmart so I figured I’d give it a try. I don’t usually go to Walmart because the local one is so far away, so I went on their website first to see if they even had them in stock. They did! BINGO! I ordered 8 six-packs, paid for them, and indicated that I would be over later to pick them up. I drove to my mailbox to get my packages, and the replacement printing job had arrived! I also got a new clock for the Tranquility Zone, as the one in there now (with a really cool LED lighting array that changes colors) is starting to have problems with parts of the digital readout burning out. And I also got in my new Munster slide puzzle. It features the cast of the new Munster film (starring my buddy Dan Roebuck as The Count) in the puzzle, but they’re made to look like the old retro slide puzzles from when I was a kid. It’ll display very nicely in one of my display cases. I headed to Walmart and pulled up into the pick-up area, called the number, gave them my name, and they said they’d be right out with my order. But when they came out, only two of the six-packs were the glass bottle Cokes. They gave me the rest in plastic six-packs. I told them I didn’t want the plastic ones, as I could get those anywhere, and I kept the two six-packs of the glass bottles. Rats! As near as I can figure, Coke must’ve stopped making them for a period of time to clear the shelves to make way for the new Christmas design. Every year the six-packs of glass bottle Cokes sport a nifty Christmas design, seeing as how the visual of Santa Claus drinking Coke from a glass bottle is part of Americana. But I need a healthy supply of Cokes in the glass bottles for two very specific reasons. One, my buddy Dave from South Dakota is coming to town for a little bit next week, and our tradition is drinking ice cold Cokes in glass bottles and enjoying a nice cigar. Also, I’m heading to Palm Springs soon and it’s my tradition to enjoy them in the ice bucket as I’m sitting on the balcony in my hotel room watching stars. I hope I can find a greater supply of them soon! I did some other shopping at Walmart, checked out, and then hit Wendy’s for lunch. Krispy Kreme is right next door, so I figured I’d drive thru and pick up a few donuts. I remembered that they discontinued my favorite, the donuts with white cream filling, a little while ago. But I pulled up and was surprised to see them back on the menu for Halloween as the “Scaredy Bat” donuts! I just had to have a dozen! I also had to have a dozen of the strawberry-filled with powdered sugar. Two dozen donuts for one guy. I think I overbought. I drove home and did some work, sliced up the new printing job I just received into the backing cards for the Christoween® patches I’d be giving away, and attached the patches to the cards. I made a video edit to promote the Christoween® patch promotion, and started sewing one of each of the four character patches on my satin spider-web shirt. Then I did auditions. I was exhausted. Whew! What a day!

Wednesday the 12th – LIKE HAVING A PUPPY IN REVERSE! – It was a very humid day, and there was water rushing down the L.A. wash behind my house. It rained somewhere, just not here. When I woke up and went downstairs I found Roxy sprawled out on the marble entryway. There was a huge puddle of liquid below her head, and she was panting furiously. It was all drool from the panting. Apparently she had slipped on the marble and wasn’t able to get back up again, and was stress-panting. I’m not sure how long she had been that way, struggling to get up, but I’m going to need to block her access to the entry way from now on. Her back legs are weak anyway, and she just can’t get good footing on that surface. Oddly enough, I was just looking at that section of the living room the other day and made a mental note at the time to block her access to it. Now I really need to. I picked her back up and she went to her water dish and drank…and drank…and drank…and drank…and drank. Poor girl. When you have a puppy, you block access to all the dangerous parts of the house that will endanger them. Then little by little, as they get older and become more confident in their physicality, you can allow them more access to different places. But now with an elderly dog, it seems that I’m having to block access to a new area with each passing month. I blocked access to the stairs leading down to the garage, in case she missteps and goes tumbling downstairs. So there’s a gate up in front of the stairs, and now I put a big piece of board in front of the marble entryway. She lives exclusively in the living room now, and I have part of the living room gated off, and her area is covered in rubber padding (for accidents) and I have lots of blankets and bedding lying around, and her food and water bowls are down there too. It was nice when she had full access to the house. I even remember when I had to prop the door to the downstairs bathroom open just enough so Spook could get in but Roxy couldn’t. Otherwise Roxy would eat all of Spook’s food in his grazing tray. I just stayed in and enjoyed the gloomy, humid day and sewed some more Christoween® character patches on to my spider web shirt. Later I met my pal Chris Malmin at Bob’s Big Boy for dinner. We hadn’t caught up in a while, and we ended up staying there for 3 hours! I’ve known Chris now for 37 years! I came back home and did my nightly auditions, and sewed the final patch on the shirt. Sewing those patches on wasn’t easy for me, and I shed a fair amount of blood, sweat and tears to get them attached. But it was all worth it because it looks fabulous! I did some accounting work, went through a bank statement and reconciled everything, paid some bills, and then took off for Denny’s to get some food. I watched another episode of “The Magician” before bed. Sadly, I only have three more episodes left after this one. I’m really gonna miss this show!

Thursday the 13th – ANOTHER 3 HOUR FEED! – Roxy was doing quite a bit better today, which was nice to see, and I did some work around the house. I edited together all of the Aspiring Voice Actor submissions I received for this week’s Christoween® story snippet, and then went to Smoke House to have dinner with my pal Bob. He had sold a bunch of stuff for me on eBay, and it had been a while since we got together. It was another three hour, very fun dinner. I got home and took a nap, and then got up later to do my nightly auditions and send them to my agents. I paid some more bills, and cleaned up a few things around the house because the maids were coming the next day. I organized for this weekend’s Monsterpalooza, and fed and walked Roxy on our late-night stroll through the neighborhood.

Friday the 14th – A LITTLE MORE IMPROVEMENT! – It was nice to see that Roxy was having a much better day with her mobility. At this stage in her life she has good days, and she has not so good days. The maids arrived and cleaned up Planet Wallywood, which is always a good thing. I did some more prep for Monsterpalooza on Saturday. I would be handing out promo cards for my Christoween® story series on Christoween®.net, as well as some of the embroidered character patches I had made up. A very fun weekend was in store!

Saturday the 15th – MARVELOUS MONSTERPALOOZA! – It was one of those rare instances when I actually got up early on a Saturday. But this was important. I had a full day planned at Son of Monsterpalooza in Burbank. My plan was to get there early enough that I could get parking on the lot, as parking is gone by early afternoon. I picked up my pal Sara at 10:30 and we drove to the hotel in Burbank for the event. But even though I arrived earlier than I usually do, the parking was completely full. And we had waited a good 15 minutes in line on the street waiting to get in. When we got to the lot the parking attendant said the lot was full, and I told him he should probably go out to the street and let everyone know out there, so people won’t need to wait in line. He thought that was a good idea. DUH! Even the overflow lot was full! We found some suitable street parking and headed in. I saw a ton of old friends and had a great time. Sara and I strolled around the main floor and looked at the booths, and passed out Christoween® promo cards promoting the audible stories on the website. We passed out some character patches and had a great time. We saw some great costumes, and we got a lot of photos with my Puppet Donnie that I brought along. (Think of the old “Flat Stanley” book – similar kind of thing) Synchronicity is always a funny thing. There was a young man in some sort of mask standing in a booth and he approached me to ask if I was Wally Wingert. I told him I was, and he said he was a big fan of my work as The Riddler. He said his name was Jayden and it was fun meeting him and his mom. He was wearing a Slipknot t-shirt (the band) and I told him that one of the band members from Slipknot had just bought into “Famous Monsters” magazine. And that band member was supposed to be at the convention that weekend to make the big announcement about his involvement. Jayden freaked out! So I asked him and his mom to follow me to the “Famous Monsters” booth so he could meet my pal Eben (the other co-publisher) and find out more about it. In addition to being a Slipknot fan, Jayden is also a mask maker and budding special effects artist. He’s only 16 going on 17, so he’s got a whole life and career ahead! I told Eben that I was doing my part to help cultivate the next generation of “Famous Monster” fans! Speaking of special effects artists, brilliant sculptor/artist Casey Wong was in the “Famous Monsters” booth as well, and it’s always great seeing him. I grew up reading “Famous Monsters,” (as did many other people who eventually went into the industry) and the Christoween® stories are heavily influenced by my love of that magazine. I’m glad to see that it’s back and will be printed on the same type of paper that the magazine was originally, even though Eben said that type of paper is a little more expensive than the usual glossy magazine paper. But the “FM” kids want that and will gladly pay extra. Once the magazine launches I’m going to subscribe. I saw my old pals Larry, James, Shawn and Matt; the Monster Party podcast guys. I did a brief interview with them and talked about all sorts of fun things. I also got to see my old pals Kenny and Karen Myers; the make-up artists who helped transform me into Tony Clifton last June at the Monsterpalooza convention back then. Kenny’s one of the top make-up guys in the biz! I also got to see my pal Gary Archer from GA Enterprises. Gary makes dentures and prosthetic teeth for monster and fantasy movies, including for “Blade” and “Austin Powers.” Back when I was doing characters like Austin, Barnabas Collins and the Lon Chaney Sr. “Man in the Beaver Hat” character, I had Gary make all of my prosthetic teeth. In fact, I had just used the Tony Clifton teeth he made for me last June when I performed as Tony. I told him I had some great photos from 20 years ago when I was frequenting his business and he asked that I send them over. Great seeing him again. The restaurant next door was full for lunch and the wait time was considerable. So Sara and I dashed across the street and settled in at Denny’s for a great lunch. By the time we got back to the convention it seemed that the patronage had doubled in size. It was REALLY dense! Sara had plans for later, so after making a few last-minute purchases and taking some last-minute photos, we took off. I came home and downloaded all of the photos, posted some stuff on social media, and then took a well-deserved nap. We handed out about half of our Christoween® promo cards, and I will take the rest of the cards to my upcoming appearances at OG Collectibles in Downey, and Anime Pasadena in Pasadena and hand them out there. Gotta promote promote promote! Later I organized the new weeks’ worth of posts for the Christoween® website, as it refreshes and renews every Sunday leading up to Christmas Day. I did some work around the house, and went to the garage and mounted my new Darth Vader black light poster onto some foam core board. Then I hung it in the Tranquility Zone and it looked amazing! It had been quite a while since I watched an episode of “The Saint” on Saturday night, so I made my traditional Saturday Night Super Saint Salad and enjoyed an episode before bed.

Sunday the 16th – BIG FIND AT GAL GODOT’S! – There’s a really cool store in the Highland Park section of Glendale called Galco’s Old World Market. They specialize in beverages of all kinds; mostly hard-to-find sodas. My pals and I laughingly refer to it as Gal Godot’s, since it sounds so much like Galco’s. I talked to the manager a few days ago, a guy who REALLY knows his sodas, and asked about Cokes in the little glass bottles. He said he had about five cases in stock. It was a bit of a drive, but I was going to do it on a Sunday afternoon and hope for the best traffic-wise. The drive was great and it was top speeds all the way. Oddly enough, just down the street from Gal Godot’s, is the Bob Baker Marionette Theatre! While I was on the freeway I saw a huge truck with the Bob Baker logo on the side. I knew exactly where that truck was going! It was most likely headed back to the theatre after a show, so all I needed to do was to follow it! Perfect! When I got there, not only did I pick up a couple cases of the little Cokes, but I got a case of A&W root beer in the glass bottles, and BONUS…I found four packs of Dr. Pepper in glass bottles! I hadn’t seen them in for quite a while, so I stocked up on those too! I made over $300 in soda purchases, but I’ll be set now for quite a while. I like to keep a well-stocked “wine” cellar of all the great bottled sodas. I hit McDonald’s for some lunch and then drove home. Again, the traffic was beautiful! I did some work around the house, and then my pal Ben called to let me know he and his wife Sydney were available for dinner at 6. And another bonus, our pals Scott and Vickie Sebring would be joining us as well! Roxy was having a rough day, as she was a little bit wobbly. Like I said, some days are good, others are not so good. I went to Barone’s for dinner with Ben, Sydney, Scott and Vickie and we had a blast. While we were there I ran into my old “Family Guy” buddy Danny Smith; one of the producers. He and I have a fun history together as we’re both fans of a lot of the same stuff. This includes “Dark Shadows.” It’s always fun to catch up with Danny, and I really haven’t seen him in about five years! I got back home and relaxed and napped on the couch with the pets. I got up later to do some work, record my auditions, and then I made some lasagna and watched another episode of “The Magician.” In this episode it featured a toymaker and inventor with a grudge against the owner of a major company. And he used marionettes in his revenge plot. At the end of the show, in the credits, sure enough…BOB BAKER MARIONETTES! The very company I had just passed by earlier in the day! What a small damn world! The marionettes they used in this episode were gorgeous!

And how was YOUR week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK

The patches are done! I think, despite all the hard work putting them on, they look pretty fantastic!

My dad is geared up and cheering on the Phillies!

I enjoyed finding these chocolate Twinkies. But chocolate cake with white cream filling…isn’t that technically a Suzy-Q?

I REALLy enjoyed finding these Scaredy Bat donuts at Krispy Kreme!

Hey, the color scheme on those donuts look familiar! Purple, green, yellow…hmmm.

Two cases of Coke in glass bottles, two cases of Dr. Pepper in glass bottles, and one case of A&W root beer in glass bottles. I’m SET!

This is the “new retro” Munsters slide puzzle that just came out. Delicious!

Great advice! These are the shoes we’re turning into Ruby Slippers for my friend Sabrina’s Dorothy costume for Halloween!

My parents unearthed this gem from my Kindergarten days! Remember when you’d do those silhouette art projects, where you’d trace the silhouette of your head? This is me at the age of 5!

To promote my Christoween story series, I handed out promo cards and embroidered patches at the Son of Monsterpalooza convention. It’s always great to run into my pals with the Monster Party podcast!