Discovered! Ultra-Rare Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man Display

A crowd gathers on a chilly March evening in 1943, drawn to a garishly decorated cinema lobby. Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man has come to town and the exhibitor blows the works: Floor to ceiling posters shout Mighty Monsters Clash!... Hair Raising Horror Hits New Heights!... Inhuman Beasts! Performers in costume entertain the throngs lining up for tickets and, look, up there on the box office booth, The Monster and the Wolf Man are at each other’s throats!

Miraculously, almost 70 years on, the mannequin monsters have survived and are shared here with us, thanks to collector Bobby Beeman. These unusual plaster heads, a bit battered but complete, are an unexpected and extraordinary find, and a wonderful example of classic movie ballyhoo.

There appears to have been more than one set of these built. The Frankenstein Monster in the old photos has a classic flattop and forehead bangs while the surviving plaster head is rounded out and made up like Karloff in Bride of Frankenstein, with exposed forehead clamps and a distinctive burn scar on the cheek. The Monster’s head shows signs of long-ago repair and may have been modified along the way. The Wolf Man head has fared better, still sporting its scraggly hair and eerie glowing eyes, the bulbs, sockets and cord embedded in plaster and, amazingly, still operational.

Based on a few tantalizing clues and some digging around, it appears that the heads were constructed by the J.H.Blecher Studio of Detroit. Through the first half of the 20th century, the Greektown company produced full-body mannequins for department and clothing stores, and display heads for hat, wig and cosmetic suppliers. It may have also produced affordable plaster statuary for churches. In 1963, Mario Messana, a long-time apprentice of Harry Blecher, bought out the business. Now called Mario’s Mannequin Studio, the company concentrated solely on repair work for a dwindling market, the classic plaster and fibreglass figures being progressively replaced by mass-produced plastic mannequins.

Until his own retirement, in 1995, Messana stored away a number of classic torsos, assorted limbs and exceptional heads, including delicate, early wax creations by the famous Dutch studio of Pierre Imans. This is where the Frankenstein and Wolf Man heads, no doubt saved for their novelty value, were first discovered back in the Eighties.

It is possible, of course, that the heads were manufactured by another company, landing at Blecher’s or Mario’s unclaimed or brought in for repairs, but there seems to be a direct line of provenance here, based on the recollections of previous owners of the Frankenstein/Wolf Man display. Still, we don’t know who ordered these originally. It could have been Universal’s promotion department, a regional distributor, a theater chain or even individual exhibitors. Until new info or new photos surface, we can’t tell. The theater in the photos is still unidentified.

I want to thank Bobby Beeman for so generously sharing his remarkable discovery with Frankensteinia readers. Bobby has posted more images here, at the Universal Monster Army board, an essential and enthusiastic celebration of movie monster toys and collectibles.

More great photos on Universal Monster Army.
Tragic Beauties, a collection of haunting photographs from Mario’s warehouse,
by Barbara Abel.
An article about mannequins, with references to Blecher and Messana on Detroit’s Metro Times.

Related:
When Frankenstein Met the Wolf Man

Shelley's Ghost

A rediscovered painting of Mary Shelley, never shown before, is just one of the treasures currently on display at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, England. The small oil painting, dated to 1843 and attributed to Richard Rothwell, surfaced in 1955 and has only recently been recognized for what it is. Another, later portrait of Mary by the same artist is quite famous.

Shelley’s Ghost is an extraordinary exhibition devoted to Mary Shelley, her parents William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, and husband Percy Bysshe Shelley. On show are notebooks, letters, art and artifacts, over 100 pieces in all, including the original manuscript of Frankenstein and precious personal objects such as Mary’s delicate dressing case and Percy’s carefully preserved baby rattle.

One particularly poignant object is an elaborate gilt display containing locks of Mary, Percy and their child Florence’s hair, along with one of Percy’s quill pens.

There was a time when a snippet of hair was a prized memento and Mary no doubt cherished these souvenirs of her beloved Percy. One of his tresses is dated 1822, the year he died. Mary was apparently generous with her own clipped curls. Mary Shelley expert and collector Daniel Raymond of Montreal reports that another lock of Mary’s hair, originally sent to an admirer, is kept at the New York Public Library.

Barring a trip to England, Shelley’s Ghost can be experienced through its dedicated and amazingly complete website, a stunning achievement in itself. All the exhibits are pictured and heavily annotated, and you can even read Frankenstein in manuscript form. There are numerous supplements including podcast readings of letters and poetry, contemporary music, and a map of a walking tour of Shelley in Oxford. There's also a fascinating video introduction by the show's curator, Stephen Hebron. The site’s layout is beautifully realized, navigation is easy and perfectly intuitive. One hopes the site, a significant resource, will stay up well after the show closes, come March 27.

Click through to the Shelley’s Ghost website and explore the lives and works of a remarkable literary family.

Shelley’s Ghost website.

Frankenstein manuscript.

Shelley's Ghost: Reshaping the Image of a Literary Family is the exhibition's companion book, by Stephen Hebron and Elizabeth C. Denlinger.

Related:
Portraits of Mary Shelley

Universal Tour Frankenstein

Wearing a ratty suit, built-up boots and Don Post mask, a Universal tour employee channels Glenn Strange and greets visitors as a friendly Frankenstein’s Monster.

The picture appears in a 1968 edition of the Inside Universal Studios souvenir and guide book. The same image was reprinted in the 1970 brochure with an added caption, “You see the most interesting people at Universal Studios!”

Big thanks to Karswell of the ever awesome The Horrors of It All blog for sharing this dandy piece of Frankenstein memorabilia from his personal collection.

Frankenstein Sticker

Here’s a real find. This small, two-color sticker surfaced recently at Hake’s Americana and Collectibles. The auction house description is here. It appears to be an early promotional item for James Whale’s 1931 Frankenstein.

The piece is undated, but the style, the hand-lettered logo, the catch phrase — The Man Who Made a Monster! — and the Laemmle credit are all typical of the original ad campaign.

The highly impressionistic image of The Monster, an amorphous golem-like giant with glowing red eyes, suggests pre-production art, something done prior to the now famous makeup having been finalized. It also evokes the earliest Frankenstein poster from a Universal campaign book that promoted Bela Lugosi as the star of the film. That one featured a giant man striding through a modern city, with beams shooting out of his eyes.

The origins of the sticker are unknown. It might be contemporary with the film or made at a later date. As to purpose, it could have been a theater giveaway. Handouts and premiums used to be quite common. My mom had a cutlery set she had assembled going to the movies. Forks this week, soup spoons next week. As a kid, I saw The Three Stooges Meet Hercules (1962) and got a lenticular ring showing Moe making faces. Saw Premature Burial (1962) and got a strip of black and white Monster Stamps, and I still have the May The Force Be With You lapel button they gave out on the first day Star Wars played, in 1977.

Whatever its origins or purpose, the Frankenstein sticker is a unique and very intriguing item.

Thanks go out to James Philips of Batfatty vs. The Chocodiles for the find, and thanks to Ted Newsom for expertise.

Frankenstein Monster Ring

A Frankenstein Monster appears on one of five Monster Rings that went for 75 cents, postage and handling included, from Famous Monsters of Filmland’s in-house mail order outfit, Captain Company, in the Sixties.

The “secret flicker design” sounds like a simple lenticular effect using a clear, ribbed plastic cover that allowed you to see one of two different images at a time. Move your finger, the image changes. These were also called “flasher rings”. You could see a baseball player swinging a bat, or Moe of The Three Stooges making a funny face.

I wish I’d sent away from these plastic novelty items. I was utterly fascinated by these simple, stark graphics, but the set was too expensive. You could buy two issues of FM for 75 cents, and even have enough left over for some candy.

Related Post: Super Frankenstein Mask

Super Frankenstein Mask

A simple, striking ad for a Don Post Frankenstein mask offered by Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, circa 1964.

For all its success, publisher James Warren couldn’t get advertising agencies interested in his monster movie magazine. Famous Monsters was still too small to compete with the monthly combined sales figures of countless comic book titles, which is where all the young teen-oriented ads for bicycles, cereal, candy and air rifles ended up.

Warren, ever innovative and resolutely independent, came up with an original, in house solution. He set up a mail order service and turned his back pages into a catalog for, well, stuff. You could send away for Aurora monster kits and monster-related paperbacks, 8MM movie clips and spoken word records. You could order rubber bats, inflatable snakes, Venus fly trap plants (“actually eats insects and bits of meat!”), skull-shaped ceramic mugs, and a whistle sold as a “Werewolf Siren”. Binoculars were called “Phantom Opera Glasses”. You could also order a parachute, a miniature radio “powerful enough to pick up local station broadcasts”, a hundred magnets for one dollar, and even a live monkey. Best of all were the rubber monster masks.

A staple of novelty, joke and costume shops, the masks included a Mummy, a Vampira-like Girl Vampire, The Screaming Skull, Shock Monster, a Gorilla and The Horrible Melting Man, but the perennial best-seller by far was the classic Frankenstein Monster mask available as a regular “Full Face” mask for two dollars, or a “Super De-luxe” over-the-head version, for a (then) whopping $3.98.

The Super Frankenstein ad refers to the cover of Famous Monsters #1. That was publisher Warren himself under the mask.

Gigantic Frankenstein

“Make a Friend!” the comic book ads said in ‘64, showing a kid holding Big Frankie’s hand, as if they were out walking together.

A wonderful sculpt, topping out at 19 inches, Gigantic Frankenstein was a squat monster with a big head, and big moveable arms. He was chained to a chunk of concrete, which might explain his morose expression. The box art — highly collectible even without the kit! — features a bright green and yellow painting by legendary illustrator James Bama of The Monster based on Glenn Strange’s appearance, modified with the forehead “clamped horns” of the original 1931 test makeup.

Today, nostalgic collectors will pay a small fortune for an original Gigantic Frankenstein in good condition. Availability is limited because the kit was not successful and soon discontinued after it was first released, late in 1964. The term "gigantic" could be applied to its original price tag of $4.98, at a time when you could still pick up an Aurora model kit (including the classic tomb-striding Frankenstein) for ninety-eight cents.

Unauthorized recasts and reproductions of the box have popped up through the years, but now toy collectors and Frankenstein fans will be delighted to hear that Moebius Models will be offering an official, licensed Gigantic Frankenstein reproduction, on release this summer. Price tag is around a hundred dollars, but then again, Gigantic Frankenstein never came cheap.

Here’s the Moebius Models site.

Here’s a gallery of beautiful, high-resolution photographs of the original Aurora kit.

Thanks to John Cozzoli’s Zombos Closet of Horror for the heads up!

The Selling of Frankenstein

When Universal released Frankenstein in the winter of 1931, exhibitors were offered a cornucopia of promotional materials and stunt ideas that promised to “Roll Up Monster Grosses!”. These were the days of Barnumesque ballyhoo, haphazard and unsophisticated by today’s advertising standards, but unashamedly exuberant and enormously engaging.

Frankenstein’s poster line came in a surprising variety of painterly styles. One version shows The Monster’s face in expressionistic black and red. Another depicts The Monster with curious clamped “horns” on his forehead, inspired by this photograph of an early, unused makeup test. The glorious six-sheet litho pictured at top, shows a very human-looking Monster, with natural skin color and no neck bolts. “Let the monster look from every billboard”, exhibitors were told. “His face is your good fortune!!”.

Theater owners were prompted to create their own displays. Universal provided instructions on how to carve up posters and make shadow boxes with flashing lights animating cut-out lightning bolts and The Monster’s punched-out eyes. A “Marquee Monster Display” would use frosted green bulbs to throw an eerie halo around The Monster’s electric head. For lobby display, Universal suggested borrowing medical equipment like test tubes, retorts, alcohol jars and anatomy plates, but cautioned exhibitors to “Use judgment. Do not display anything repulsive”.

Contests were proposed, such as writing a supernatural story or drawing The Monster’s face, with newspaper or radio “hook-ups” for maximum publicity. A book “tie-up” (When did tie-ups become tie-ins?) was arranged with Grosset and Dunlap, publishers of a new edition of Mary Shelley’s novel illustrated with scenes from the film.

Publicity stunts were encouraged. There are stories of theaters parking an ambulance out front and nurses patrolling the lobby, smelling salts at the ready. On opening day, “plants” would jump out of their seats, scream, and run up the aisle in a panic. A “Robot Ballyhoo” stunt involved sending a man out in the streets in dark clothes, green powder makeup and black rings under the eyes, carrying a sandwich board reading "I am looking for my master... FRANKENSTEIN!" Universal specified that the man “should walk with a mechanical step”.

The posters, displays and “showmanship accessories” were made available to exhibitors through film exchanges and licensed contractors for mere pennies. At auction today, surviving posters go for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Frankenstein is one of the most desirable titles in collector circles.

Value aside, if I had my pick of original 1931 promotional items, I’d go for the delightful die-cut cardboard streamer that promised “to give your front and lobby that “Frankenstein” flash!”. Note the neck bolts have been moved to the temples on The Monster’s head, probably the first instance of the switcharound often favored by cartoonists to this day.

Bag Head Frankenstein, And Other Fun Links

The plastic fangs have been put away and the countdown is on: Only 354 days to Halloween! Until then, let’s lurch back a bit and see if we can extend the chills from the last one.

Countless blogs celebrated the spooky holiday (here’s a list of the most dedicated ones) with numerous mentions of Frankenstein along the way. Here are some of the standouts…

Erick, over at Wonderful Wonderblog, posted excerpts from Movie Monsters, a kid’s activity book by actor, director and makeup man Alan Ormsby, published by Scholastic in 1975. The Brown Bag Frankenstein Head looks fun enough to try, though I can’t help thinking the whole thing might collapse before you’re done.

Erick also posted the entire booklet from View-Master’s 1976 Classic Tales Frankenstein. The uncredited writer did a fair job condensing the whole story into 12 short-short pages, even throwing in some puzzles, too! What I’d like to see now are the actual puppet scenes from the reel itself.

Comic book writer John Rozum turned his blog into Halloween Central all through October. Scroll around, it’s loaded with goodies, including a terrific “How to make a ghost” post. Frankenstein got a whole week’s worth of attention (look for posts dated October 21 to 27) with Frankenstein movie reviews, lots of Frankenstein paperback covers, Frankenstein games and toys including Ben Cooper Wigglers and a beautiful Frankenstein Push Toy (pictured at right) trick or treating with his little skull-shaped pail.

John’s blog is fun any time of year, and you should check out his unique cutout art, too, which also includes Frankenstein images.

Shawn at Branded in the 80s posted some sweet Halloween stuff, notably a look at the Crestwood House Monster Series for young readers. The Crestwood books, with their distinctive orange accented covers, infiltrated school and public libraries in the late 70s, introducing a whole new generation of kids to the classic monsters. Shawn reproduces several pages from the Frankenstein book, surprisingly well-written and complete, given its short length, with shots of the Edison Frankenstein, Boris Karloff in spiffy street gear, The Munsters, and a rare, candid picture of Christopher Lee in his post-brain trauma stitched-up skull makeup.

Hey, Shawn, now can we get a peek inside Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman?

Finally, a few more recent links, not posted at Halloween, but Frankenstein related...

Trailers From Hell has the Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein trailer up with commentary by director John Landis.

On Vitaphone Varieties, a superlative blog devoted to film and music of bygone days, Jeff Cohen looks at the first horror talkie, The Terror (1928), the early SF musical Just Imagine (1930), complete with mp3 excerpts, and the 1931 Frankenstein, reproducing a contemporary ad disguised as newspaper article, “Miracle Performed by Dr. Frankenstein”.

And on the indispensable Video WatchBlog, Tim Lucas, who has developed a brilliant perspective on Peter Cushing’s interpretation of The Baron through the Hammer Frankenstein series, writes a vivid appreciation of a new HD version of Terence Fisher’s Frankenstein Created Woman (1967). This one is a Must Read.

Now, click away!

Frankenstein Memorabilia

Straight From The Son

He was the four-year old son of the Son of Frankenstein (1939). He is the last surviving actor to have played opposite Boris Karloff’s Frankenstein Monster. Donnie Dunagan, now 73 years old, has put his personal collection of memorabilia up for auction. These unique and important items include photos, contracts, letters, pay stubs, scrapbook pages, and a wonderful autographed still of Boris Karloff signed “with love from the giant”.

The auction goes live on October 6.

Info via Tim Lucas' Video WatchBlog. Essential reading!

Abbott And Costello Meet Frankenstein Mask

Also on the Heritage Auction site: Monster masks used as props in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948).

A vulcanized rubber Frankenstein stunt head, a perfect likeness of Glenn Strange, appears surprisingly well preserved for its age and one suspects it might be a more recent “pull” from the original mold. Nevertheless, it is a stunning piece.

Frankenstein Exhibit

Right in time for Halloween, here’s an exhibit of classic stills from the great Universal Frankensteins. Rutgers Student Center in New Brunswick, New Jersey will be displaying Frankenstein Pictures: A Photographic Tribute to Boris Karloff and The Frankenstein Monster from the collection of Ron MacCloskey, October 14 to the 27th.

Check the Creepy Classics website for all the details.

(Thanks to Stuart Gardner for the info!)