Pumpkin Carving and Poe - Muppet Style

Thought the Halloween Countdown was a good time to go 'back in time' and visit the The Muppets on Halloween!   

First up is the Muppet Halloween short... 

"Zero Mostel reads Poe"...in honor of today's Winners of The Halloween Tree, Edgar Allan Poe Book Give-Away!   

Laugh along as the comedian's fears are "counted and compelled", so they can "quickly be dispelled"! 

And next up is the Swedish Chef who's looking to carve himself up some Jack O'Lanterns and turn them into tasty Pumpkin Pies....but the Jacks have a plan to stave off the massacre.  See who claims victory in this Halloween themed retro short...viewer discretion is advised.

"Swedish Chef Carves Pumpkins"!

Edgar Allan Poe Give-Away

 "All that we see or seem, is but a dream within a dream."

~ Edgar Allan Poe

When October rolls around, I find myself wanting to read Bradbury and Poe....they embody for me the spirit of Halloween.  I've done a Bradbury "Halloween Tree" book give away in the past, so I wanted to do a Poe GiveAway this year.  I found this really great book of Edgar Allan Poe stories, so I bought one to keep for myself and two to give away during the Halloween Countdown.  But I also wanted to make the Poe Prize a little more fun and interactive if anyone is game.  Worst case scenario....if no one wants a cool free Poe book....then I will have two mondo-cool presents to give to my spooky friends who will totally dig 'em!

Okay...so the book is titled, "The Illustrated Edgar Allan Poe" (Unabridged).  The back cover reads...
"Edgar Allan Poe, master of the macabre, casts his ice spell of terror in these four Gothic tales, brutally exposing our darkest imaginings."  "Piercing illustrations by Lucio Mondini and Jessica Angiulli complement the stories to perfection, and brilliantly imagined pop-ups and illustrations vividly highlight the climactic moments."  "Brave your bloodiest nightmares through these exquisite tales of dread."

The hardcover book itself contains 4 Poe stories including:
 1.) The Fall of the House of Usher,  
2. The Tell-Tale Heart
3.) The Pit and the Pendulum 
4.) The Cask of Amontillado 
But it's way cooler than just a plain ole' book of his masterful tales...this book also includes 6 inspired pop-up creations within its pages.  So it's literally a Pop-Up version of 4 of Poe's spookiest tales.  And the cover art is really cool too.  This is a spooky 58 page book of Poe's tales brought to life in a 3D format, and there's even a glossary in the back to explain some of Poe's terminology.  It's a fantastic addition to your Halloween library and looks great on your coffee table for Halloween and year round!  *See detailed images of one of the pop-up art pages.

Now for the fun and interactive part....I'm posting some fun  Poe Trivia to see just how well you know Poe.  So take the trivia quiz and interact by posting your score and your favorite Poe tale or poem, in a comment using the Halloween Honor System, and you are then officially registered for the Poe Prize.  I'm sure you can be trusted to be truthful, because the score won't matter or determine which two Poe Fans get the book...that will be done by a random blind draw just in case there was anyone tempted to fib about their Poe Prowess.  Just click on the small purple Edgar Allan Poe Quiz Link below the last image, to go straight to the quiz, then come back here and leave a comment with your score and favorite Poe Story in it.  It's as easy as  that.  The winners will be posted on Wednesday's Halloween Countdown Post. The winners then need to email me at artfulgypsy@cfl.rr.com and leave the mailing address where you'd like your Poe Pop-Up Prize Book mailed.  It's as simple as that.

© Poe Typography - Frank Trebillac

Edgar Allan Poe Quiz

Spooky MAY-hem in Florida!

Time for some SPOOKY MAY-HEM!

Well it's almost the end of May, and you know what that means right?  It means it's time for Spooky Empire's MAY-hem Convention in Orlando, Florida.  How dreadfully delightful that the Ghoulies have come to town.  They kicked off the 3-day event last night with a Day of the Dead Poolside Opener Party, complete with eats,drinks, music and make-up!  A most frighteningly festive way to get the party rolling and start getting in the mood for the upcoming Halloween season.  The Convention rolls back into O-town in October, just in time for the Halloween happenings, adding a Zombie Walk and Hearse & Creepy Car Show! 

 

On Saturday and Sunday, there will be a variety of spooky events happening, including horror movie film festivals, live shows and events, costume contest, horror art, and lots of macabre merchandise to procure for this year's Halloween Yard Haunts.  There will also be autograph signings and photo ops with some of your horror movie favorites, such as "Halloween" Director John Carpenter, Robert Englund aka Freddy Kreuger, Lana Parrilla the Evil 'Snow White' Queen from TV's "Once Upon a Time", Pat Carroll, the voice of Ursula in Disney's "Little Mermaid", and Nick Castle aka Michael Meyers from "Halloween"....just to name a few. You can check out the full list of attendees here!

The event looks to be a virtual Spook Fest full of all things Creepy and Cool.  For any of you Halloween-Heads living in Florida, or just visiting here on vacation.....be sure to check it out this weekend Friday-Sunday, tickets available at the door.  And be sure to catch the video below of Pat Carroll (aka Ursula) doing a reading of the famous intro dialogue from Disney's Haunted Mansion ride...you know, the one you hear when you are in the elevator waiting to go inside and the walls start stretching!!  She has one of the the best 'evil laughs' in the business!  Love her!
(All images © Spooky Empire, Halloween Extreme image © Ricky Brigante)

The Hallowe'en Tree Give Away #1

Okay....so I have some "Give-a-Ways" to do between now and Hallowe'en. I've actually been meaning to get to them, but September at the kids' new school has been chock full of events, preventing me from having time to do many posts. I always love to be around 'Halloween Town' here in the blog-o-sphere during the month of September because for me....this is the month of 'great anticipation'! October is just crazy busy with all kinds of wonderful Fall/Halloween activities. But September is when the Halloween goodies make their way into the stores and we get our first seasonal glimpse of our favorite holiday. Also, I decorate my entire house at the beginning of September, so I really start to get full on into Halloween mode during this month!
And that brings me to my first 'Give Away' for the season. As you have by now figured out, the name of my blog is 'The Hallowe'en Tree"! I chose that name based on my love of Ray Bradbury's book by the same title. I equally love Cartoon Network's "The Halloween Tree" movie that first aired back in 1993. It is available on VHS only, which really sucks acorns, because lets face it....VHS technology bites! And although my old copy still works.... it is now stuck in the VHS player that QUIT working at the end of our seasonal viewing this year! As thus, my beloved Halloween Tree video is currently stuck in there until we break the thing apart to remove it. But never fear...right before that tragedy occurred, I had made my husband record the VHS onto a DVD so we'd have a DVD version. For the life of me I don't know why they have not officially released a DVD version for purchase....as it is hands down the BEST Halloween Cartoon EVER in my 'not so wicked' lil' opinion! Bradbury narrated the movie and won an Emmy Award for it. And Leonard Nimoy is nothing short of spooktacular as the voice of the mysterious 'Moundshroud'!

So anyway....back to The Halloween Tree. I had watched the movie before I read the book and I fell in love for eternity. But then I finally read Ray Bradbury's book that the movie was based on, and I was thoroughly enchanted beyond words. His way of describing Halloween, and the history of the holiday, and the magic that it holds, was nothing short of incredible. I LOVE this book so much, and if there is ANY Halloween lover out there who hasn't read it.....then you are truly missing something special! So I wanted to give away a copy of "The Hallowe'en Tree" book by Ray Bradbury to one of my fellow Halloween Heads here in blog land. I wanted to get it to you early so that you could read it right away...before Halloween's arrival! I felt that if I waited until later in October, you might get to busy to read it. So I'm giving it away now. It's a quick read, we finished it over the course of one day while traveling in the car.

(These folks were "Halloween Trees" for Hallowe'en.....ha!)

So here are the rules: I'd like only those who have never read the book to enter because I want to introduce the 'magic' to someone new. And I want anyone who throws their name into my 'witch's hat' to REALLY want to read it. That's all! Just leave a comment saying that you'd like to be entered and I'll randomly draw a name out of the hat on Wednesday, and it will go out immediately, along with a few other Halloween goodies for good measure! "The Hallowe'en Tree" is not just the name of my blog, favorite Halloween movie, and book....but the 'Reading of The Hallowe'en Tree' has also become a beloved Halloween Tradition in our home, one that I hope my kids will always remember with fondness and pass down to their children!

P.S....I've uploaded Pt. 1 of the movie from You Tube. It's about 15 min. long, if you watch it and would like to finish out the movie, just plug "The Halloween Tree" into YouTube and look for the other parts posted by user "halloweenclassic"! You can watch the entire movie and not miss anything. It's become very hard to even find the VHS versions for a decent price anymore, so this is one way to enjoy it for free! Here is a link to the listings for those other parts.

A Vintage Hallowe'en

A day or two before Halloween, a package arrived on my doorstep! And it was a most thoughtful gift from two of my favorite Halloween Heads from the Cornfields of the Midwest. Mr. & Mrs. Dustwitch have been friends of mine for several years. We met on Myspace, back when we actually still did the Myspace thing...ha! And it was Mr. D himself who introduced many of us to 'vintage' Halloween music. He had a music page then that that had all the old greats from Kay Starr, Glenn Miller, Louis Armstrong, etc. Now I've always loved Glenn Miller, but I didn't know about other old vintage Halloween music from these artists until I heard them on his page. And I cannot thank him enough for sharing that with the rest of us Halloween lovers.
Needless to say, we became fast friends over our mutual love for all things Autumn and Halloween. And I've had the pleasure of staying in touch with he and his beautiful wife for several years. As it turns out, they are both into antiques which is no surprise considering Mr. D's love of Vintage Halloween Memorabilia. His collection is really amazing. And his creative wife makes the most lovely holiday displays with their vintage collections.

So anyway, they attend a lot of antique shows and estate sales where they often luck into some really fab vintage Halloween finds. And they have been so very kind in gifting me with some terrific items over the years. So now, thanks to my friends, I have some Halloween Ephemera in my Halloween Collection too. They usually try to find me things that are Witch or Gypsy related. I try to reciprocate of course, but it's really just impossible to ever match anything in the vintage department, because I am not an avid collector, so I hardly know an original from a reproduction. Not to mention, anything I would ever find, they'd probably already have it anyway. So I hand craft them things periodically, or send a reproduction that I think looks cool or perhaps a retro inspired book with retro graphics on it. But I feel like I can never really match the treasures they find to send to me. I do try, and I know that they know that my resources here are limited. I mean I can hardly find true vintage Halloween items around here period, let alone any that aren't a fortune. And even then, I'm really not studied enough to know if they are even authentic or not.
Anyway, I just wanted to post some pics of the fab things they've sent me over the years. I figure any lover of Vintage Halloween will enjoy the images. And I wanted to publicly thank them from the bottom of my 'not so wicked' lil' heart for thinking of me, and being so generous to share their collection with me. You guys are the best! Big Halloween hugs to you both! :o)

Haunted Easter!

I have a busy weekend coming up, so this may be my last post until next week, depends on how the weekend goes. So I wanted to get in at least one "Easter" post, so here it is. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

When I saw these 'Hallowe'en Eggs' I couldn't help but recollect my favorite Easter cartoon from childhood that I love every bit as much today as I did back then. And that would be the old 1971 stop-motion TV special, "Here Comes Peter Cottontail". What is funny to me about that particular cartoon is the very reason I loved it so much. In case you don't remember it, Peter lost the Easter Bunny competition to old January Q. Irontail. A dastardly evil rabbit with an iron tail, who was voiced by none other than the great Vincent Price. Irontail lived in a creepy cave with his sidekick Montresor the bat, and was comrades with the ghouls that populated Halloweentown. In order for Peter to go back in time and deliver the most eggs so he could win...he had to travel in a time machine with Antoine the caterpillar serving as pilot.

What was so captivating to me, was how they would crash land through the calendar pages every month that had a holiday to celebrate. And of course October was Peter's trip into Halloween town where he painted the eggs similar to those above, in order to get the inhabitants of Halloween town to take them. There he encountered a Witch among other Ghosts and Goblins. And THAT is the part that always stuck in my memory bank. Not the Easter scenes of jellybeans and bonnets...but Old Irontail and the Hauntingly Happy Halloweentown. I've included Part 4 from YouTube as it is the part that has Peter landing in October at Halloween time! I think we will paint our eggs like this tomorrow for Easter and see if we can find any takers!

My Art - Nevermore

Hallowe'en is the perfect time of year to get reacquainted with the dearly departed Mr. Poe, don't you think? This art work began as a photo of some skulls I took at the Disney Store out at the Disney entertainment complex called Disney MarketPlace. They have an awesome Pirates of the Caribbean display there, with tons of "Pirates" themed merchandise for sale. I will post some more pics of the exhibit itself one day in the near future. I then took the images and played around with them, adding in other elements that made me think of Poe.

I think I love Edgar Aleen Poe's work so much because I had an English teacher in high school who made us read a good bit of it for class, and she also read it to us, which I loved. I can still hear the funny way she lowered her voice when she said...."nevermore"! The whole class would laugh quietly. Hopefully you will find an evening in October/November to read a classic Poe story or poem to your kids or significant other. It beats the heck out of stories about Gloria Estefan they have them reading in school today. Pathetic that they are not even introducing our children to the classics because they think they aren't current with the times and trends. Duh...that's why they are called 'Classics'! Don't even get me started on this one....just go and enjoy some Poe for me! :o)

My Art -The Raven

"But the Raven still beguiling all my fancy into smiling,
Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird,

and bust and door;
Then upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking
Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore-
What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt and ominous bird of yore
Meant in croaking "Nevermore."
~ Edgar Allen Poe, The Raven

Artwork © Wendy A. (All Rights Reserved)

Update: We just received our passports this summer and were itching to try them out. So we got up early today and headed up to Montreal, Canada. It's just 3+ hours from where we are staying in Vermont so we decided to make the trek and check it out. Today was a cold, wet Autumn day in Montreal, so there were no street performers out and about and no carriage rides. But we did go see the Notre Dame which was incredible. We basically spent our 5 hours walking around Vieux Montreal and shooting some pics. This older area of the city is quite lovely with it's brick streets and alley ways. The trees were decked out in their Fall colors, and I really loved looking at the beautiful and stylish French people sporting their coats, hats, boots and scarves. I so wish I could speak their lovely language. Montreal was a great city that I most certainly want to go back to and explore further in the not so distant future....perhaps during Winter when it is blanketed in white. :o)

Halloween Music CD Give Away

Well...today is a special day. In honor of just getting my 60th follower, I am going to do a give away too. I haven't done one before, so bear with me. But I have something that I know will be a most spooktacular thing to win in a Hallowe'en Give Away and I've been dying to share, so this is the perfect excuse. I do not understand all the workings of having people go to other websites and post things, so this one will be very easy. You only have to leave a post on this blog entry letting me know you want to be entered...easy enough. And if you are the lucky spook who wins, I will need you to email me a mailing address. I will also ship out of the country, so no problems for my friends in Canada. You also do not need to leave multiple posts because one is plenty. I will put all the names in my Witch's Hat and let my kids draw it out. How is that for a scientific selection method? We will do the drawing and post the winner on Saturday, October 10th. That's 2 weeks.

Now for what you'll win.... You may or may not have noticed in my sidebar, an advertisement for a music CD titled "Swingin' at the Séance" by the marvelous Moon-Rays. First, let me tell you what a fabulous CD this is for any Hallowe'en lover. And if you're a fan of vintage Hallowe'en....even better, because the majority of these swingin' tunes are from the 20's and 30's big band era. Here is a better description for you. "This year the Moon-Rays have given you the ultimate Hallowe'en treat! They have gone back in the studio to really dust off the skeletons in the closet and record twelve tracks of the best Hallowe'en songs of the 1920's-1940's. Songs originally made famous by artists like Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith, Bing Crosby, Louis Jordan, Tommy Dorsey, and Glenn Miller. These songs, many of them never re-recorded before, take you back to a time when Hallowe'en parties were really swingin! To take on the recording, the Moon-Rays used the same instrumentation and arranging that were done on the originals, which meant recording with a full big band on several of the numbers. So if you think that Hallowe'en music started with the Monster Mash in the 60's you're in for a very pleasant shock, because these songs are the real deal, and they are SWINGIN baby!!!!!!"
So why have I chosen this to give away? Because first, I can personally attest to this being my absolute favorite Hallowe'en CD in my collection. And secondly, because yours truly was the artist/photographer who had the pleasure of doing all the art work for the CD. So you can only imagine what an exciting assignment it was to design a Hallowe'en CD....right up my witchy lil' alley! The band picked the theme they wanted to go with, in this case being the Séances so common to the Hallowe'en parties of old...and I worked closely with them to give the CD the visual excitement to match their stellar music. In the end, we couldn't have been more pleased with the final product. I played this at our annual Pumpkin Carving Party last year and it was a total hit. The Moon-Rays music is equally enjoyed by young and old alike. My kids love "The Headless Horseman" and "Skeletons in the Closet." The whole CD is swell, I give you my word!

So think about it, and if you want a Free Hallowe'en CD to liven up this year's bash, then throw your name in the hat! And this is not a requirement at all, but if after you get the CD in the mail and listen to it...if you dig it as much as I do, then please tell your friends about it and send them to the Moon-Rays MySpace page. They also have 3 other CD's of spooktacular Hallowe'en music as well. They are a top notch group of musicians and I like to support my fellow artists! Check out their video of "Swingin' at the Séance" below...oh so spooky!

The First Frankenstein

Here's a trivia question for you....what do Frankenstein and Thomas Edison have in common? I would not have known the answer to that question if I had not stumbled upon this little piece of history while web surfing for something completely unrelated. It appears that before there was 'Frankenstein' the movie, there was....well, 'Frankenstein' the movie! Who knew?

Apparently, way before the classic version of Frankenstein that we all know and love came out, there was an original Frankenstein film made in 1910 by Edison Studios. Yep, THAT Edison...Sir Thomas Edison of light bulb fame. This is one of those old 'Silent' films, before the "Talkies" became all the rage. And it was the first motion picture adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. The film was shot in 3 days at the Edison Studios in the Bronx, New York City. And although Thomas Edison is sometimes credited with producing the movie, he actually was not directly involved with the activities of the motion picture company that bore his name.

As always, there were moral crusaders in that time who were not at all thrilled with the dangerous new medium of motion pictures that they felt encouraged immorality. Some communities even went so far as to ban theatres all together. To appease these objections, Edison responded in kind by improving the moral tone and production quality of his company's films. Eeegads....if those folks thought the first silent 'Frankenstein' was bad, they'd be rolling in their graves at what you can see at the movies today! On an ending note, I have posted the 12 minute film below for your viewing pleasure. (The quality in the beginning is somewhat poor, but it gets better quickly.) However, this super old version of 'Frankenstein' is now in the Public Domain and can be downloaded here: http://www.archive.org/details/Frankenstein

Ghostly Wails and Untold Tails

I went into Barnes & Noble a few days ago to see if by chance they had started putting out any of their Halloween books for children or adults. Unfortunately they had not. But I did discover something that was really fabulous. Of course you all know that I am from Florida, and all life long Florida residents are required to be huge Disney fans by law. So I was in the magazine section looking for Fall Arts, Crafts or Decorating mags when my third eye spied something ghostly hovering over to my right. I whip my head around to see a large painted image of Disney's Haunted Mansion on the cover of a magazine that I had no idea existed until that very moment. So I run over there, snatch it up and proceed to remove it from it's cellophane bag. I think to myself that this hygienic approach to keeping the magazine in pristine condition is just SO WALT DISNEY!

The magazine is called Disney twenty-three, and I had stumbled onto the Fall 2009 edition. And what a lucky witch I was too, because this is a VERY nice, VERY cool magazine in it's own right. But to have the cover and main story to be all about the Haunted Mansion...well it was just simply kismet I tell you. When the cover entices with a title like, "Ghostly Wails and Untold Tales, from inside the Disneyland Haunted Mansion", you KNOW it has to be good. It is chock full of wonderful little inside stories about the mansion, the ghosts and the Imagineers who created the ride. It of course has fabulous photos and artwork too. AND...as if that weren't ghostly enough for mere mortals like myself...the title 'Haunted Mansion', and one of the ghouls inhabiting the cover painting actually Glow in the Dark....now how grand is that? The cover could and should be matted and framed, as it is quite large and a truly fabulous piece of art. Did I mention that this is an over sized magazine and the newsstand price is a rather hefty $15.00? Tis' true, but to a Disney/Haunted Mansion/Ghost lover like me, it's well worth the price of admission as all things associated with Disney always are. You can check out the magazine on the D23 website where they even share a few Haunted Mansion Magic Tricks. I've posted a video below of a tour through the mansion in California if you want a closer look at the ride. As for the magazine, I could not locate it on the B&N website, but it was available in the store. So if you want one, you best capture it quickly before it vanishes like a........GHOST in the night!

Oh, and one final cool piece of info about the attraction itself.....in celebration of the 40th birthday of Disneyland's Haunted Mansion, four guests won a chance to spend one night in the famed attraction on August 9th. How Spooktacular would THAT be!!!

Vicious Vertigo

Today I am posting on something that is by all means....not really 'Hallowe'en' related. The closest link I could come up with is 'Alfred Hitchcock' because he has created some really great spooky thrillers. Not a great segue I realize...but a segue none the less. So one of his all time greats was called "Vertigo"! Maybe some of you have seen it, I actually have not had the pleasure of viewing this yet, although I've heard that it's one of the great cult classics. But I have had the extreme displeasure of having suffered from real life vertigo 3 times. The third time being today. There is nothing quite as horrifying as turning over in your bed while sleeping, only to awaken to the room spinning violently around you which instantly triggers you to begin vomiting. And that is how it happens...at least for me.

The first time it happened, I had never heard of the term 'Vertigo', other than the movie, and did not know that it was this horrible, wretched symptomatic condition that some of us are going to be cursed with in life. In fact, the first time I got it....I literally thought I might be dying of a brain tumor or something. And unfortunately for me, once the sickness part starts, there is no stopping it. So today, this same scenario was repeated much to my despair, and off to the Doctors I was taken. I say 'taken', because you cannot drive yourself when the world around you is spinning and you are having non-stop dry heaves.

In my particular case, my bouts of vertigo have been triggered from fluid in my ears and inner ear infections....today being no different. So now it is antibiotic/steroid time for me. Also, my particular type is called "objective vertigo" due to the perception of objects around me moving. And unfortunately, it also happens when I am laying back, thereby forcing me to sit straight up even though I am exhausted and want nothing more than to lay down and curl up. So I am writing this at the witching hour because frankly, I am not at all looking forward to tempting this evil to reappear by laying down in my bed. I would rent the movie, but I don't know that I could stomach it right now..so I'd better not. On a brighter note, I did discover these dizzying lil' dandies while researching my vertigo on line. It's 'Vertigo the Candy'! However, knowing what I do about that term now....you couldn't pay me $100 to eat something with the name vertigo....ha! But I've read that they are good, so some of you may want to give them a try. Sorry to dedicate a post to this wretchedly evil condition...but at least the colors on the posters are 'Hallowe'eny'!

"Supernatural" Synchronicity

Okay...so much of the time, synchronous events happen in my life which I love. And last night was one of those times. You see, my dear friend Dave (aka Gill-Man) had told me about a TV series on the WB called "Supernatural". He said it would be right up my proverbial witchy little alley because it is about two brothers who travel around fighting demons and monsters etc. It's been on several seasons, so you can buy the DVD's now. I went in search of them, but cannot find them locally to rent, so I will probably have to order them off Amazon. But then we noticed that they run episodes on the WB still. So we decided to record 1 episode on the DVR, just to be certain it was something we truly would like, before buying the DVD's. So last night we sat down to watch the episode we recorded.

Well, this is when the synchronicity started to kick in. As it began, we noticed that it was in black and white and had the styling like an old classic monster movie. Then as we followed along, it turns out that was the exact premise of the show. The two brothers found themselves chasing a 'shape-shifter' who was enamored with the old classic monsters like Dracula, the Wolfman and the Mummy. And this villain would kill each new person by recreating a scene from the old monster flicks. COOL! What a FANGTASTIC episode to randomly pick to watch right?! But it gets even better.

So the Dracula character comes on, and as I was watching him...I say, "hey, that guy looks really familiar to me." Even though he was in full make-up, fangs and Dracula clothes. It was his eyes....he had the most intense, beautiful eyes and I just knew....that I knew those eyes from somewhere. Then all of a sudden it dawns on me....hey, he looks just like a guy who is an actor friend of another friend of mine named Lou. I wasn't positive yet, but the more I watched him, the more I was convinced it was him. He is on Lou's MySpace page, and they are childhood friends from Chicago. So I wait anxiously for the credits at the end....but no cigar....there were no end credits. So my husband thinks to go back to the beginning to check....and sure enough, they were there, and it was indeed Todd Stashwick, Lou's friend from Chicago, who played the villainous Dracula. I thought, wow what a funny coincidence for this to have been the one and only episode I picked to record, and not only is it a great one about classic movie monsters, but my friend's friend is the villain! And of course that made me think about my buddy Lou...who himself is a very talented voice talent, and how I haven't spoken to him in a few weeks, and really need to drop him a line.

And then the icing on my synchronicity cake came this morning as I logged onto Facebook. Almost as if receiving my vibes right on time....Lou left a comment on my page, saying hello because he hadn't talked to me in awhile. So of course I had to tell him about my "Supernatural" experience! Sometimes life is just so magically delicious! Check out a clip of the show below to see Todd as Dracula!

The Tell-Tale Heart

"I made up my mind to take the life of the old man,

and thus rid myself of the eye for ever."

The Tell-Tale Heart
- Edgar Allan Poe

Gather round oh ye children of the darkness...for I have a Tale to share with you. No, not merely a Tale...but a Tell-Tale! Yes...the tale of "The Tell-Tale Heart" to be precise. I can't imagine there are any true Hallowe'en Heads among us, who fail to count Edgar Allan Poe as a favorite author and poet. So you denizens of death will most certainly delight in this most macabre animated short film of Poe's, infamous short story, "The Tell-Tale Heart".

I discovered this frightful little find on You Tube, and the poster had this to say of the 1953 film... "The story, told by a mad man, has a dark visual with a perfect work of narration by James Mason. It is a UPA Production, and was the first cartoon to be X-rated (adults only) in Great Britain under the British Board of Film Censors classification system."

This is an oldie but goody, the narration is tops....and it's a definite must see! Enjoy!

Vintage Halloween Costume Patterns

Here are some Vintage Hallowe'en Costume Patterns. In the days of ole'...it was customary to actually fashion your own costume designs through sewing and ingenuity. I especially like the added touch of an old key ring for the Witches, and I may even make myself one for this years costume. However I'm not quite sure what the connection is between the Pussy Cats and the Japanese lanterns, but I like it. Unfortunately, I do not see the name of the pattern company anywhere, so I have no info on what year or what company these came from. But I kind of think the Witch designs look to be in the 50's maybe....really not sure. But they are swell, and if I had these patterns, and knew how to sew, I'd have a Witch dress in every color!

Bell, Book and Candle

If you haven't seen the old movie "Bell, Book and Candle" then you are really missing out on a fabulous Halloween treat. The movie stars the wonderful James Stewart, the lovely Kim Novak and funnyman Jack Lemmon. Gillian is a witch who casts a powerful spell on Shep her engaged neighbor to make him fall in love with her...but discovers that love sometimes works it's own magic! The movie also stars her beloved kitty Pyewacket. (Which was a very close second choice of name for my own familiar.) My dear friend Professor Spooky sent me this movie and it has quickly become one of my favorite classics. Thank you Spooky! It's Enchanting and Bewitching!

You can pick it up at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Bell-Book-Candle-James-Stewart/dp/0767821556

Betty Boop's Halloween Party

This video is dedicated to two of my Spooky friends (Professor Spooky and Belle Dee) who are really into the old cartoons. I've posted this one on my MS page every Halloween because it's one of my favorites. So most of you will have seen this before, either on my page in the past or on your own. But in case anyone wanders onto this page who hasn't seen it before...it will be a nice surprise! The animation is really great in this one, and it totally gets me psyched to throw a Halloween party. Enjoy!