I remember Mr. Karloff as the voice that narrated while the orchestra played “Peter and the Wolf”, and read “The Ugly Duckling” on an old vinyl platter that my brother and sisters had played until it was crackly – but still magical – by the time I got my hands on it.
My most vivid memory of Karloff was as a eight or nine year old dressed in costume for a huge Halloween party at a local recreation center. There were activities and contests outdoors and indoors, and while waiting in line for some activity I watched the large black and white movie they set up on a screen outside. The movie showing was “The Mummy” and the scene, the still, that has stuck in my mind forever is the deeply lined features of Ardeth Bay in his fez, staring dead on, eyes lit by an unholy light… They don’t come much creepier!
TCM has organized screenings of “Frankenstein” and “The Bride of Frankenstein” in movie theaters across the states. The amazing thing is when you see them in a darkened theater as big as they’re supposed to be they really are haunting… http://www.fathomevents.com/upcoming/alllocations.aspx?eventid=1105
Everyone of taste likes William Henry Pratt. Even in his final days appearing in a terrible film called Curse of the Blood Altar (briefly featuring an in-it-for-the-money Christopher Lee, and Barbara Steele painted *green*), when he could barely walk a few paces and had to be *propped* up in a doorway, he was a welcome presence never letting on that the picture was awful and virtually incomprehensible; a charming man by all accounts, with a charming lisp too!
Maybe it was the fact that he used to narrate children’s stories, but whenever I saw him on screen (mummies and monsters) he always made me feel cozy. In this beholder’s eye he was swell.
It’s the same for me with Vincent Price.
I have an LP with Cyril Ritchard, Celeste Holm, and Boris Karloff reading Mother Goose! Fabulous work from all three of them. “There was a crooked man . . .”
You still have the album, and a turntable?!? That, is so cool!
You bet! I’m listening to Cyril read “There was a little girl” as I type 🙂
Dearest V
A pipe!!
And you know now how much that means to me.
Yours ever
The Perfumed Dandy
Me too 😉 .