Hey son, meet forry

My father worked nights and usually got home very late at night. On friday evenings I would be up watching Nightmare Theatre when he got home. Watching Nightmare Theatre was everything to me, every week when we got the new TV guide the first thing I would do is turn to Friday evening at 11:30 and see what monsters would be scaring me on the double feature for that night. As a matter of fact, just recently at a swap meet I saw a box of old TV guides from the 70's, just like when I was a kid I picked some up and looked right at the magic time and there were those great horror classics I am sure I was up that night watching. Oh how I miss those times. One night while I was enjoying two horror greats, my father got home from work and tossed a bag in my direction. I picked up the bag and took out the contents. I couldn't believe my eyes, a magazine called Famous Monsters of Filmland issue #94
What a moment that was, I will never forget the incredible excitment I felt.
From that time on, until this very day, Famous Monsters has become a major part of my life.
I couldn't read these magazines enough, not just the movie stills, but the behind the scene stories and pictures were amazing and all the goodies you could send away for. What utter treasures. Now the Monster club my friends and I had got even more elaborate as we added our Famous Monster fan club cards and badges to the whole shibang. Forry Ackerman became my mentor in all things monsters and horror and I could never pay back to him all that he has given me. Now I have boxes of those great old magazines (thanks for the help Mike) and maybe someday I'll complete the whole set. I'm definetly up for the challenge.

Hey, do you like monsters?

I was six years old and the new kid the neighborhood. One of the kids from my street came up to me one day and asked me the magic question....do you like monsters? I didn't have any experience with them at that point but I was looking to make some friends so I replied that I liked them a lot. This was the start of two very important friendships for me and from that point on there was no looking back. We spent every weekend watching all those great classic horror movies which we were treated to every Friday night on Nightmare Theatre and Sunday mornings on Creature Feature. To say that watching Dracula, Frankenstein and all the ghouls and creepies didn't leave me completely terrified, would be far from fact but I put up a good front and eventually came to see all these monsters on the screen more as friends than foes. We started our own monster club and began bugging our parents for all the great toys the 70's had to offer. Aurora monster model kits were our main target and the Creature was my first score. Sure you have the re-issues today from polar lights and thank god for those, but if only I had locked those originals away for my future collection. If only.

Classic Horror Lives

Universal Monsters, Hammer horror and all the others who are responsible for bringing to life all the great characters and moments of the classic horror genre, this blog is in your honor and I can only hope that it truly catches the spirit of that which was and is the greats of Classic Horror and how it made a impact on my life and the lives of so many others.
Okay, I've done it and entered the land of blogging. This is all very new to me but for myself and anyone else who gives a hoot, or should I say howl, I would like to throw out there some of my past and present experiences with classic horror. So, as the days go on, I would like to share the times spent staying up late and watching the Wolfman, Dracula and the Creature dare me to go to sleep after the final credits have rolled off the screen, or wait ever so impatiently for the next issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland to be released.
I may be in my Forties now, but I can still be found creeping around the local stores and online looking for the newest monster toys for my ever growing collection. I know I am not alone and I invite all you other closet ghouls to come out and celebrate the timeless treasures of Classic Horror.