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<\/a>\nAfter doing research in my later years I heard that Glenn Strange had done a tour of live appearances where he performed as the monster in movie theatres. Could Glenn\u2019s tour have possibly taken him through the Midwest, and had dad actually seen the REAL Frankenstein monster in person?! WOW!<\/p>\n
I had always been intrigued by the Frankenstein monster, and was particularly enamored with the craggy face of Glenn Strange as the monster. This frightening visage was plastered on everything from candy to Halloween costumes. Unlike Boris\u2019 portrayal, where he seemed like a scared, lost child, Glenn played him with raw power and brute strength. This was just the ticket for a growing pre-adolescent boy who wanted to bend the world to his will.<\/p>\n
I still remember that day at Four Brothers market in Aberdeen, South Dakota. My 13 year old eyes spotted a magazine on the rack which featured a beautiful painting of Bela Lugosi as Dracula on the cover. I paged through the magazine and was transported into a world far away from the snowy, cold days that were typical of a brutal Midwestern winter. Unlike some of the other magazines I had seen that featured only illustrations of monsters, these had REAL pictures! Of REAL MONSTERS! Real pictures of the movies I wasn\u2019t getting to see on TV in my town. That was the day I adopted a new uncle, Uncle Forry, and purchased my very first \u201cFamous Monsters\u201d magazine. (I STILL have that issue in my collection!)<\/p>\n
Every year as Halloween rolled around I took my paperboy earnings and headed to the local Woolworth\u2019s on Main Street. I bought all of the Scar Stuff, plastic fangs, and Halloween wigs I could afford. I was determined to BECOME some of the monsters I enjoyed seeing in the pages of \u201cFM!\u201d And with a greenish gray rubber swim cap, a lid from a coffee can, and a black Halloween wig, I built my very own Frankenstein monster head piece.<\/p>\n
I always enjoyed playing with Silly Putty as a kid, but after I saw \u201cThe Planet Of The Apes\u201d I started to ponder new uses for the flexible, fleshy fare. If I could just form it into the muzzle of an ape, and stick on some hair from a Halloween wig, I could become an ape; at least for a brief period of time before the Silly Putty started to sag and fall off my face. But thank God I had a mom who brandished an available Instamatic camera and possessed a fast trigger finger!<\/p>\n Viewed through the prism of the pages of \u201cFamous Monsters\u201d magazine, my 13 year old brain became familiar with the names Boris Karloff, Vincent Price, Basis Gogos, Bela Lugosi\u2026and of course, the great Lon Chaneys (both Sr. and Jr.!). Many a cold, snowy afternoon were whiled away in my bedroom eating a box of Red Hots, listening to the song \u201cBrandy\u201d on my transistor radio, and perusing the pulpy pages of the latest \u201cFM\u201d issue.<\/p>\n The \u201cDark Shadows\u201d board game, a Mattel Thing-Maker, and yes, MORE Silly Putty were always items that ranked high on my Christmas wish list. If you would have asked me what my favorite horror movie was at that point in my life I would have given you several, as each one of my favorites appealed to a different part of my growing monster fascination. It could have been a monster classic, or a Hammer film, or possibly even \u201cHouse of Dark Shadows;\u201d depending on which horrifying monster personality I had decided to embody that day. In the easily distractible, hummingbird brain of a pre-adolescent, favorites were a very fluid thing.<\/p>\n In the 80\u2019s my reading of choice had matured from \u201cFamous Monsters\u201d to \u201cFangoria.\u201d Before the word cosplay had even been coined, I was busily constructing home-made versions of a Michael Myers and a Leatherface costume to wear at various events. My childlike monster obsession had given way to an undying love of the films \u201cHalloween,\u201d \u201cTexas Chainsaw Massacre\u201d and \u201cDawn of the Dead,\u201d and the \u201cNEW\u201d luxury of being able to watch movies at home on something called a VHS player! Those films were the trifecta of terror in my life at the time.<\/p>\n But imagine my thrill when, decades later, I was playing monster characters for real! And best of all, making money doing it! I had moved to Los Angeles to make the leap into professional acting, and the first film I ever participated in was \u201cReturn of the Living Dead 2.\u201d I was an atmospheric zombie we affectionately called Burt the Zombie; for his resemblance to a half-decayed Burt Reynolds. It was a wonderful headpiece created by make-up\/effects legend Kenny Myers. A decade later I\u2019d get made up as another zombie by another make-up effects legend Rob Hall for \u201cThe Bogus Witch Project.\u201d<\/p>\n In the late 80\u2019s I had been cast to play Freddy Krueger from \u201cA Nightmare on Elm Street\u201d in two national TV commercials promoting a 1-900 phone line. This involved flying to New York with make-up\/effects maestro David Miller, and being made up in the famous foam latex prosthetics that had been created for Robert Englund. On the plane trip back to L.A. I remember telling David my assertion that he, in creating Freddy\u2019s signature look, was responsible for creating \u2018the Frankenstein monster of our generation.\u2019 The expression on his face conveyed a thankfulness for what was probably the best compliment a successful monster kid like David had ever heard!<\/p>\n A short few years later, I found myself at the world-famous Universal Studios theme park making myself up as Beetlejuice to perform in a slate of daily live shows in \u201cThe Beetlejuice Rockin\u2019 Graveyard Revue!\u201d (The experience of making myself up as monsters in my basement all those years had paid finally off!) Here I was, drawing a paycheck from the very studio that was responsible for creating most of the favorite monster fare I enjoyed as a kid! That magical fact was never lost on me during the four years I worked at the park. Many times I was called down to the \u201clower lot\u201d to make publicity appearances at the famous \u201cFrankenstein arch,\u201d where they filmed numerous scenes in the classic films I loved! I still get goosebumps thinking about it!<\/p>\n Soon my career veered away from performing on-camera, and into the wonderful world of Voice Acting, which was very much like discovering my true love. Now I could give voice to a varied collection of fantastical animated creature characters without any regard for how I looked physically. I could add screeching mumblings to the Green-Eyed Skeleton Man in \u201cScooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed.\u201d I could voice demon, zombie and monster characters for all sorts of movies and TV shows like \u201cPower Rangers,\u201d as well as for the burgeoning field of \u201cvideo games\u201d that was just starting to grow!<\/p>\n When I met Daniel Roebuck at Rob Zombie\u2019s birthday party, where I was performing as Beetlejuice, we exchanged numbers and stayed in touch. He was like a brother-from-another-mother, with an origin story very similar to my own. By then I had designated one of the rooms in my house as The Chaney Room, which was a fully functional make-up studio and costume room. And like Daniel, I had also become a voracious collector of high-end, life size \u201cwax museum\u201d quality figures.<\/p>\n When I was given the opportunity to produce the DVD boxed set release of \u201cThe Groovie Goolies\u201d in the mid 2000\u2019s, I knew this was something Dan and I would both enjoy doing together. \u201cThe Groovie Goolies\u201d represented everything I loved about entertainment; animation, monsters, and rock and roll. I vowed to someday create a property that was the culmination of my diverse interests. Like maybe\u2026monsters, Dr. Seuss, Halloween and Christmas?<\/p>\n After noticing a woeful lack of monster-themed Christmas items in the marketplace, I decided to create prototypes of my own line of monster Christmas stockings back in 2018. And when I showed them to a buddy who\u2019s a marketing genius and an author, he suggested that I write stories about how each of the monster stockings were created and pitch them as book-and-toy sets. That\u2019s all I needed to hear. I was off and running with a series of short stories, all revolving around the growing line of monster stockings.<\/p>\n Since I was a regular attendee and participant at many of the monster conventions, I started noticing a growing interest in the hybridization of Halloween and Christmas. They were calling it \u201cdark Christmas.\u201d This was due in part to the popularity of Tim Burton\u2019s \u201cA Nightmare Before Christmas.\u201d But aside from that film, which was already decades-old, there wasn\u2019t a goodly amount of readily available horror-themed Christmas items in the marketplace. And I was seeing many \u2018monster families\u2019 enjoying these conventions together as a familial unit \u2013 with the entire family dressed in cosplay as their favorite monsters! (Where oh WHERE were these conventions when I was a kid?!)<\/p>\n It was for these adult monster kids who celebrate Christmas in their own unique way, that I \u201ccreep-ated\u201d the fictional observance of \u201cChristoween.\u201d The 13 short story series features an odd young boy obsessed with monsters, Halloween and Christmas, and his consequential creation of the Christoween Monster \u201cStalking!\u201d Being a life-long fan of Dr. Seuss books, particularly \u201cHow The Grinch Stole Christmas,\u201d I composed the stories in \u201cSeussian\u201d rhyme scheme to give adult monster kids a tinge of nostalgic whimsy as they shared the stories with their own monsteriffic menagerie.<\/p>\n After over two decades in the Voice Over industry, I knew the perfect studio who could take my narrations of the stories and professionally sound-design them for release. To increase familiarity with this new franchise, I\u2019m posting a new free audible story every Saturday from early October through Christmas Day on my website Christoween.net. It\u2019s my hope that the property will garner enough interest among adult monster kids to attract the attention of a publisher, toy manufacturer and animation studio seeking to become a strategic partner.<\/p>\n Coming full circle in 2021, I\u2019ve rediscovered my roots and am enjoying the classic monster films on TV shows like \u201cSvengoolie.\u201d (Blu ray is nice, but there\u2019s nothing quite like settling in on a Saturday night and watching old monster films on the tube!) And I\u2019ve since watched \u201cThe Oblong Box\u201d on DVD and now find it goofy fun; still quite uncertain as to which exact scene propelled my 9 year old self into the theatre\u2019s lobby in such a state of fear! Is it a favorite horror movie of mine? Absolutely. But for reasons far beyond just being a goofy, enjoyable film. It\u2019s a favorite of mine for providing a nucleus for what was to come.<\/p>\n At this point in my life and career, it was a dream come true \u201ccreep-ating\u201d and writing the Christoween short stories, and reimagining Frankenstein and his Bride in a dark Christmas setting. Or turning the Mummy into a wrapped, gift-wrapping rapper. And mixing the lore of the werewolf with one of Santa\u2019s reindeer and concocting a Were-Deer. And even addressing the issues of bullying, loneliness, sacrifice, compassion, courage, jealousy, and yes\u2026even love. Like the kind of love I\u2019ve carried through my life for monster and horror movies. And for all those, like me, who enjoy them.<\/p>\n It\u2019s my humble wish that adult monster kids will share the \u201cDonnie Druthers\u2019 Christoween Capers\u201d stories with their various offspring, curled up by the fireplace on a cold, crisp Christoween night! That would make me one HAPPY little monster! Wally Wingert<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the summer of \u201969 I was not buying my very first six string at a five-and-dime, as the song goes. Far from. My 8 year old feet were pedaling my bicycle all around the neighborhood trying to work up the courage to see Vincent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-12091","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12091\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>
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\nLuckily, my parents were VERY supportive of my burgeoning interest in special effects make-up and character performing. By the time I was 13 I had already established a repertoire of characters that were well-known (and sometimes eschewed) around our simple and humble neighborhood. While other boys my age were engaged in various forms of games involving some sort of a ball, I was donning plastic fangs, wearing capes, finding suitable tree twigs to represent the shape of a silver wolf\u2019s head cane, and chasing down the neighborhood girls to put the bite of \u201cBarnabas Collins\u201d upon their necks!<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>
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\n\u201cScary Christoween to all\u2026and to all a good fright!\u201d<\/p>\n