CURVES AHEAD: PAT BARRINGTON + BONUS!

I guess you could consider the panty parade of topless dancers in Ed Wood's ORGY OF THE DEAD is the "highlight" of the film, that is, if it had one. They're all attractive, but they all look like they're on Thorazine, if you ask me.

My favorite of the bunch is the fabulous Pat Barrington playing a dual role as a blond and a redhead. Miss Barrington played in one other genre film, THE SATANIST in 1968 (and guess what--she was a dancer in that, too!). 

Barrington was also a popular pinup subject, and this pictorial in MAN'S LIFE from May 1969 claims she was the most popular cover girl in England. I always thought Harrison Marks had that market cornered, but maybe she was at the time.

Here's a link to a clip on DAILY MOTION that shows Pat Barrington doing what she did best: a striptease. From THE GIRL WITH THE HUNGRY EYES (1966): https://dai.ly/x7ttijl

BONUS!

A favorite of Ed Wood, the pop culture prognosticator Criswell appeared in ORGY OF THE DEAD, PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE and NIGHT OF THE GHOULS. This two-page article from FOR MEN ONLY (September 1968) features excerpts from his book, CRISWELL PREDICTS with his divinations for the year 2000. A word of warning: Don't read these while holding a hot cup of coffee.

VAMPIRA IN COLOR

Pre-orders are now being taken at MONSTERS IN MOTION for the Vampira "Color Version" action figure from Executive Replicas. The figure stands about 12" tall and comes with various accessories.

Vampira Color Version 1/6 Scale Figure with Couch

Pre-order price: $349.95

From the Bleeding-Heart of Hollywood comes Vampira! You’ve never met Vampira… but you will. She’s been waiting for you for a long time. Perhaps you’ll run into her in one of those dreams that leave you icy. Still, if you’re lucky, you’ll see her appear at the stroke of midnight. Vampira is the ghoul that men are dying to meet.

She’s magnificent, exotic, a somewhat macabre slice of womanhood. She’s the girl who looks thrilling in a form-fitting shroud, a devil-doll who has werewolves panting at her door.

She’s also a girl with a mission – a midnight mission, if you’ll pardon me saying so. She’d like you to visit her in her attic playroom… a delightfully intimate place where cobwebs take the place of chiffon curtains and bats flutter restlessly in gilded cages. If the cocktail table happens to be a tombstone – so what? Vampira pours a drink that is out of this world. And that’s exactly where a few sips may take you.

The Vampira Show 1954

The Vampira show began on April 30, 1954. The T.V. cameras would broadcast those opening moments live to an unsuspecting audience. Flickering lights dim as a wasplike silhouette appears from a misty corridor. The advancing shadowy figure materializes, as it takes the form of a woman. Nearing the camera, she raises her talons and drags them through her raven black hair. And then she screams… loudly! She quickly composes herself and addresses the camera in an old Hollywood tone, “Good Evening,” she says… “I am… Vampira.”

Los Angeles tuned in weekly to watch Vampira bathe in a cauldron, share ghoulish cocktail recipes (“one jigger formaldehyde, two jiggers vulture blood, garnish with an eyeball”), and caress her pet spider Rollo.

Plan 9 From Outer Space Featuring Vampira “The Ghoul”

Vampira plays Bela Lugosi’s deceased spouse in the Ed Wood 1957 classic, Plan 9 From Outer Space. The film starts with narrator Criswell stating, “You are interested in the unknown, the mysterious, the unexplainable. That is why you are here.” Within the first 10 minutes Vampira kills two gravediggers and goes on a terror spree with her bald sidekick inspector Clay (Tor Johnson). Over the years Plan 9 has been considered to be the epitome of “so-bad-it’s-good” vintage cinema.

PRODUCT LIST

Heads:

• One (1) Portrait with Normal Expression with Rooted Hair
• One (1) Portrait with Screaming Expression with Rooted Hair

Body:

• One (1) Seamless Body with Metal Skeleton and Over 30 Points of Articulation
• Hands:
• One (1) Pair of Open Hands
• One (1) Pair of Horror Hands

Costume:

• One (1) Black Dress
• One (1) Belt
• One (1) Pair of High Heels

Accessories:

• One (1) Ring
• One (1) Cigarette with Holder
• One (1) Candle Stand (Polyresin)
• One (1) Couch (Polyresin)

ED WOOD TRADING CARDS (PART 2)

Not to be confused with The Mighty Carson Art Players, here's the next 12 cards in the Ed Wood, Jr.'s Players Cards set.

ED WOOD TRADING CARDS

Some of the worst "horror" films of all time are attributed to Ed Wood, Jr. While some may disagree, I would surmise it is a very small--but vocal--percentage. With promising titles like BRIDE OF THE GORILLA, NIGHT OF THE GHOULS and, yes, ORGY OF THE DEAD, the viewer will end up finding them all, in a word, amateurish. Still, these very same films can easily be otherwise categorized as "so bad, they're good". And that, folks, sums up the conundrum of Wood's cinematic oeuvre. Love 'em or hate 'em, they have garnered a true cult following over the years, to say nothing about the man himself.

In 1993, Kitchen Sink Press issued a 36-card, shrink-wrapped set called THE ED WOOD, JR. PLAYERS CARDS. Each standard-size "trading" card has an image of one of the actors or actresses who were in his films. The card back contains text information about each person's career and which Wood movie(s) they appeared in. The complete set is considered rare by some dealers.

The artwork is drawn by underground cartoonist Drew Friedman. Like Robert Crumb, Friedman also found mainstream success and is highly regarded for his spot-on caricatures that have just a touch of the odd to them.

In a 2017 interview with THE COMICS JOURNAL, Friedman quipped that his style wouldn't be of interest to "people who find warts, pimples, wrinkles, flop-sweat, jowls, boils, rosacea, nose hairs, ear hairs, drool, baggy eyes, gin blossoms, moles, liver spots, neck waddles, nasal labia folds, crinkles, furrows, creases, puss, pustules, bumps, lumps, yellowing and/or rotting teeth, missing teeth, gums, dentures, saliva, double chins, triple chins, blotches, scars, lumps, zits, five o'clock shadows, folds, bulbous noses, craters, chapped lips, man-boobs, goiters, pock marks, whiteheads, blackheads, rashes, nose leakages, emasculations, calluses, scabs, balding/bald heads, nodules, freckles, protuberances, welts, carbuncles, papules, festers, and Shemp distasteful," adding, "Liver spots are my Ninas [a reference to [an inside nod to Al Hirschfeld]."

Friedman sites, among others, Mort Drucker, Jack Davis and Al Hirschfeld as influences. After reading the above, I'd have to add Basil Wolverton without the geometric facial features!

Here are the first 12 cards of the series:

STANLEY'S HORROR STORIES NO. 6 (PART 2)