In The Dead Of Night

The Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph, August 23, 1969

I've read about this movie in several newspaper blurbs but unfortunately it seems to be both out of print and locked away somewhere in a vault. Which is a shame because even if the pilot sucked both Edmonds and Thayer surely didn't. Some lucky people in Colorado Springs saw it back in 1969 on channel 13 at 10:35 p.m. What little good that does us is trivial I suppose.

House Of Dark Shadows & The Fearless Vampire Killers advert

I'm not sure exactly where this advert is from -- I had it marked 1987 though I'm certain that is incorrect -- but I believe it to be a Milwaukee or Madison, Wisconsin paper dated from 1970 or 1971. More specifically the Milwaukee Journal of the The Capital Times out of Madison. Either way it's a double-billing of HODS Polanski's brilliant The Fearless Vampire Killers, a horror comedy. No matter what you think of Polanski the movie is quite entertaining and excellently cast, directed and performed. having now come across several different versions of this double-billing I think this one is the best but only because Barnabas is inside Carolyn's mouth.

House of Dark Shadows & Night Of Dark Shadows advert

The San Antonio Express, October 13, 1971

"This sweet thing can do a lot to a man. Like suck every drop of blood from his body."

And thus commenced the beginning of the end of the original DS franchise as the television series was cancelled earlier that year. This is a double billing along with House of Dark Shadows which were featured at the Capitan, San Pedro and Town Twin in San Antonio during October 1971. I hope you're up for some Night of Dark Shadows adverts because the alphabetical order Gods say that they're next in line to be posted.

Hope's Christmas Show Tops Nielsen

The Fort Scott Tribune, February 7, 1967

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A one minute commercial ad for Dark Shadows in February of 1967 was $3,600. Which was quite a bargain considering that the Bob Hope Special commanded $85,000 and Bonanza received $55,000 for the same segment of time. I'm guessing that drastically changed shortly thereafter with the arrival of Barnabas Collins in March of the same year.

'Dark Shadows' Vamp Resurrects His Career With Tales Of Horror

The Herald-Journal, October 20, 1989

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You've been Frid-undated! I suppose that much of the point with any DS endeavor is reveling in the creature called Barnabas Collins. But as Frid explains in this article it was a battle for him to fend off Barnabas and once again become Jonathan.

He didn't hate the show but also didn't enjoy the typecast anchor tied around his neck like a choking hairshirt half-removed and suffocating his career. In fact, he says, he didn't have much of a career after the show and for several years ran from it only to eventually soften his stance and embrace the mystique that the show, and  especially his character, generated.

That he ran a successful one man show for years is old hat. That he mixed in horror with the dramatic and comedic roles is well-known too. What is most likely lost from the endeavor are the specific dates, time and places. This expose places him at the University of South Carolina in Spartanburg at 8PM on October 20, 1989. That night he performed such literary renderings as Poe's "The Cask and Amontillado" and Stephen King's "The Man Who Loved Flowers."

'Dark Shadows' Revival

The Free Lance-Star, October 27, 1986

I suppose that a revival isn't complete unless there's a fan festival and in the 1980s that's exactly what happened. 1,000 Shadow fans congregated in Newark, New Jersey during the 4th annual Dark Shadows Festival in 1986. The festival began in 1983 and is generally held in New York or Los Angeles.