The Halloween Tree (1972, Ray Bradbury)

Ray Bradbury's scary stories are frequently steeped in the atmosphere and iconography of Halloween, but his 1973 book The Halloween Tree is perhaps the consummate expression of his love for All Hallows' Eve.

The first edition cover art, painted by longtime Bradbury collaborator Joseph Mugnaini.

Set entirely on one Halloween night, it's the adventure of eight boys, each dressed for trick-or-treats as a different spooky archetype (skeleton, Jack-O-Lantern, a witch, the grim reaper, etc.) who are led by the mysterious Mr. Moundshroud on a journey through time and space to experience the various cultural traditions that preceded and shaped our modern Halloween.

This oil painting by Ray Bradbury, titled "The Halloween Tree", precedes the book by 12 years.

The adventure appropriately begins at this exemplar haunted house, home of an old wizard, Carapace Clavicle Moundshroud, who invites eight trick-or-treating visitors to learn why they dress in costumes and go door to door to collect candy every October 31st.

The boys' mode of transportation on this bewitched tour is a giant patchwork kite, pieced together from the leftover scraps of a hundred carnival posters and powered by Moundshroud's magic.

Illustration from the book.

"Halloween", a 1981 painting by Mugnaini that does not appear in the book.

In the course of one Halloween night, Moundshroud and company will visit the burial rituals of ancient Egypt, a Dia De Los Muertos celebration in Mexico, the Festival of the Dead in mythic Greece, and a Druid harvest festival.

The story feels, at times, like merely a framework for Bradbury to hang his anthropological lessons on, but its still an enjoyable and educational read.

In 1993, The Halloween Tree was adapted into a (mostly mediocre) full-length animated film, currently only available on an out-of-print VHS.

UPDATE: Now available on DVD through the Warner Archives burn-on-demand program!


I recommend this radio dramatization performed by the Colonial Radio Players. It's unabridged and fully realized with music, sound effects, and actors performing the dialogue. It's available on an inexpensive
2-CD set featuring this gorgeous cover art.



For the past few Halloween seasons, Disneyland has decorated a Frontierland tree with pumpkins in homage to Ray Bradbury. Photo stolen from flickr.

Each chapter of the book is marked by a drawing of a different Halloween mask. Here they are.

Story and Song of the Haunted Mansion post updated with images

I've updated my August 29th post heralding the arrival of The Story and Song of the Haunted Mansion on CD with scans of the packaging. See it here.

Mystery of the Familiar Feathers

That last post about the Hardy Boys got me thinking about a little mystery of my own I recently solved.

While perusing the music page of this month's Geek Magazine, I came across this album cover from Montreal alt-rockers The Lovely Feathers.

There was something strangely familiar about the graphics, although I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Further investigation was in order.

TO THE ARCHIVES!
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(Walks 5 feet to a milk crate of records in the corner of the computer room.)

Ah ha...just as I suspected! It seems The Lovely Feathers have borrowed the font from the 1968 soundtrack album for the Disneyland attraction The Enchanted Tiki Room!

But allo...wotts this? Flipping the Tiki Room album over, it looks like they also stole a drawing of a tropical flower, then tried to disguise their handiwork with a quick and dirty paint job!

To be entered into evidence as Exhibit A:
Just goes to show that most mysteries are solved by meticulous research... not traipsing around haunted-house themed night clubs.

This isn't the first time I've seen the Tiki Room referenced on an album cover. Here's a circa mid-90s sleeve for the Tiki Tones that overtly satirizes the attraction poster... swapping out the birds for a brain in a jar, (presumably that of "Wilt Disner").

Here's the original poster for comparison.

The Story and Song From the Haunted Mansion gets an official release on CD!

UPDATED WITH PACKAGING SCANS!

Something to look forward to during that long wait until Halloween...

The 1969 classic LP "The Story and Song From the Haunted Mansion" is scheduled to get an official CD release on Sept. 22!

Amazon entry found here.

Members of Disney's new fan club D23 will be able to purchase 12 days before, on Sept. 10. (D23 order page found here.)

UPDATE: Just noticed this in the description posted at Amazon:

Bonus Content: Insert this CD into your computer to enjoy a second session of HiRez Collin Campbell images of his original paintings for the 1969 vinyl release.

UPDATE: Interior illustrations from the original LP are included in the CD (only the rear and front-inside sleeve artwork is missing from this CD release). The disc art is even done in the style of the original album label.

Versions of all the paintings with the storybook text removed can be viewed and printed from your PC via this gallery-themed menu (the candles drift around and ambient mansion sound effects are heard while you make your selection).

The bonus track, titled Grim Grinning Ghosts, is a montage of various renditions of the song as heard in the attraction (foyer, ballroom, graveyard, and exit queue) with Ghost Host narration heard for the foyer and Little Leota dialogue for the exit queue.

99 Cents Only score!

Occasionally I'll browse the DVD and CD section of the 99 Cents Only store to see if I can find any lost treasures buried in there among the public domain movies, old TV shows, and other random debris.

I found this hiding in a stack of music CDs from various none-hit-wonders: Classic Stories For Kids: From the Mouths of Monsters.

My first impression, judging by the generic, barely-trying sleeve art depicting Frankenstein's monster and Dracula, was that this must be a newly recorded scary-story disc for kids... like those AWFUL "Drew's Famous" Halloween CDs you can buy at the party store...

I actually bought the particular item pictured above one Halloween and was so appalled at the horrible production I literally tossed the thing in the garbage within the hour of purchase.

But I didn't want to dismiss "From the Mouths..." so quickly, so I checked the back for a description that might reveal the source of the disc's content. I found this:

"You may know the story of Frankenstein's Monster, but you've never heard it like this. Relive the classic tale from the mind of the monster himself!

You will also hear a tale of the mysterious Count Dracula from the only man brave enough to seek him out."

Doesn't really tell me the source of the recording... is it some lame, modern Party City reject, or a vintage radio-drama, LP, or book on tape?

So then I looked for a copyright date...

Ugh...2005. But that's just the copyright date for the sleeve art, not necessarily the disc content. Then I noticed the banner at the top of the cover sleeve. It's printed in a reflective foil that defies my scanner...but it says "Digitally Remastered Original Recordings." Now that suggests a reissue of older material. Now I'm interested.

You may be thinking at this point... its a lousy buck, just buy the damn thing already. True, the cost is only a dollar, but there's the opportunity cost of waiting in one of the slowest moving cash-register lines in retail.

Anyway, purchase made, I pop the mysterious find into the CD player, and am delighted to discover I've just purchased a reissue of...
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..."Famous Monsters Speak", the classic kids' record from 1963!