"BORIS KARLOFF: The Man Remembered" 

MeadowView Marriott Conference Resort & Convention Center
Kingsport, Tennessee - October 10-12, 2008

For more information contact: Classic Movie Monster, Inc.
1101 Volunteer Parkway
Suite 5 - #101
Bristol, TN 37620
ph: 423-391-7569
fax: 423-990-6902
alt: 423-366-7693

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OUR GUEST STARS - October 2008

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SARA KARLOFF - Guest of Honor

"He was absolutely the antithesis of the roles that he played. He was funny, articulate, extremely well-educated and well-read, and very modest," say Sara, the only child of Boris Karloff. Sara didn't see the movie Frankenstein until her early teens, when she caught the movie on television one Saturday afternoon.
"I enjoy watching his films. I'm proud of his career" she says.

Sara was the spearhead of the successful effort to get the U.S. Postal Service to honor the "Classic Movie Monsters." Her efforts were supported by the son of Bela Lugosi and the grandchildren of Lon Chaney Jr. Other  than U.S. presidents, Boris Karloff is the only person who has been featured on three U.S. postage stamps.

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DONNIE DUNAGAN - Special Guest 

Donnie Dunagan played "Peter Von Frankenstein," the four-year-old son of Baron Wolf Von Frankenstein (Basil Rathbone) in the 1939 film Son of Frankenstein. It was during the filming of this movie that Sara Karloff was born. Donnie has many fond memories of Boris Karloff the man and monster, and he will be sharing them for the first time in person with Sara at the Classic Movie Monster Con. He is the last surviving actor to have played opposite Boris Karloff as the Monster in the classic Universal Frankenstein series. He later appeared with Karloff and Rathbone again in Tower of London, and he was hired by Walt Disney as the voice of young "Bambi" in Disney's classic animated feature.

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ELENA VERDUGO - Special Guest  

Elena Verdugo is best known to classic horror movie fans as "Ilonka the Gypsy Girl," the Wolf Man's girlfriend in the great Universal monster rally House of Frankenstein, and for her work opposite Lon Chaney Jr. in the "Inner Sanctum" series entry, The Frozen Ghost. Ironically, the actress who didn't attain a Universal contract in 1944 would ultimately spend more years on the studio's lot than any of her contemporaries -- a fitting tribute to her talent, beauty and versatility. Elena's performance in House of Frankenstein is one of the finest in any of the Universal chillers. From her introductory gypsy dance, to her tender, sympathetic scenes with Daniel and the doomed Larry Talbot, to her tragic demise after firing the silver bullet that ends the Wolf Man's suffering, Elena is perfect in the role. She brought warmth, sensuality and vulnerability to the part, and gave great passion to the film.

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BOB & KATHY BURNS - Special Guests  

The King & Queen of Monster Kids were teenage soulmates who have shared their love of all things fun and fantastic for more than than 50 years now. Living near Hollywood CA, they were in the right place at the right time to do many things any monster kid will envy. They visited movie sets and worked on many films on both sides of the camera, from amateur productions and cult classics to dozens of documentaries and Peter Jackson's King Kong. They met genre greats like Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney Jr., Elsa Lanchester, Willis O'Brien, Jack Pierce and William Castle, and befriended others like Paul & Jackie Blaisdell, Glenn Strange, George Pal. Dennis Muren and Rick Baker. They were featured in early issues of Famous Monsters of Filmland and Horror Monsters, and Bob co-produced the great monsterzine Fantastic Monsters of the Films in the 60s. Their home in Burbank is a museum housing a world-class collection of fantasy film props and collectibles, and has been the site for the legendary Halloween spooktaculars they hosted (with lots of help from their film industry friends) to entertain thousands of visitors. They worked in monstrous skits together on Shock Theater in the 50s, and Bob went ape (in custom-made Don Post masks and gorilla suits Kathy made for him) in many movies and TV shows including the 70s kid-show classic The Ghost Busters.
They were inducted into the "Monster Kid Hall of Fame" by the voters in the first annual Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards in 2003. Nobody deserves it more.

MICHAEL THOMAS - Make-up Artist / Actor  

We were tremendously pleased and honored when Michael Thomas agreed to join us at the Classic Movie Monster Con this year. Michael, affectionately known as "Ygor" for his incredible recreation of Bela Lugosi's character in Son of Frankenstein and Ghost of Frankenstein, has been entertaining monster fans at horror conventions for many years, wearing the make-up and costume he created for the role, and doing his dead-on Lugosi impression(s).
Mike is a dedicated "Monster Kid" himself, but he is also a very accomplished professional make-up artist and actor with a long, wide-ranging list of credits for film, television and theatrical work. Among many other things, he did John Carradine's make-up in The Sentinel and Michael Jackson's  in The Wiz, Martha Stewart's on-camera "Bride of Frankenstein" transformation on a Halloween episode of her TV show, and he worked on the Saturday Night Live make-up staff for many years, from the beginning. His talent, artistry and hilarious sense of humor are nothing short of amazing, as you'll see for yourself when you meet him here.
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TIMOTHY HERRON - Actor / Horror Host / Artist  

The following excerpt from the Monsters from the Vault website is a tribute to one of Tim Herron's live performances:
.... One of the greatest monster convention memories I'll ever have (and I've got a lot!), happened in the Old Dark Club House while we were watching clips of horror host Professor Anton Griffin's show: We were interrupted by a surprise guest -- the Frankenstein Monster (Timothy Herron, aka horror host Baron Von Wolfstein, in a fantastic self-makeup job that rivaled Pierce's own creation). After a quick description of how the makeup was done, and a few introductory words, Tim's beautiful, extremely moving performance of the Creature's final speech from the climax of Mary Shelley's novel stunned a captive audience of Monster Kids! On top of everything else the speech was delivered in a voice that was unmistakably Boris Karloff's! Tim delivered the nine-page monologue with perfection and was assisted by Joseph Fotinos as Captain Walton and Richard Olson as the corpse of Victor Frankenstein.
Producer Richard Gordon happened to be present in the Clubhouse during the performance and exclaimed that it was worthy of Broadway! .... one can only hope that the performance will be repeated on a much larger scale .... so that more people can enjoy this truly spectacular performance.
"Monster from the Vault – Road Trips" by Jim Clatterbaugh

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BASIL GOGOS - Maker of Monsterpieces  

When Famous Monsters of Filmland premiered in 1958, it was aimed at young readers who were beginning to discover classic horror films of the 30s and 40s on television. The covers were usually eye-catching close-ups of famous horror movie monsters. Basil's first Famous Monsters cover was for issue #9 in 1960 -- a fantastic portrait of Vincent Price from House of Usher, painted in shades of red, yellow and green against a pure white background.
Over the next twenty years, he created almost fifty more great covers for FM, and others for Warren publications like Spacemen, Wildest Westerns, Screen Thrills Illustrated, Creepy and Eerie.
Basil returned to the horror theme in the 1990s with the resurgence of interest in classic horror films and collectibles. New monster portraits by Basil Gogos have appeared on trading cards, covers of Monsterscene, lithographs,
DVD covers, and CD covers for Rob Zombie, The Misfits and Electric Frankenstein.
In 2006, Vanguard Productions published a beautiful coffee table book on his genre work called "Famous Monster Movie Art of Basil Gogos," edited by Kerry Gammill and J. David Spurlock.
Also in 2006, the voters for the annual Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards  inducted Basil Gogos into the prestigious "Monster Kid Hall of Fame" for his career contributions to the field of classic horror. Nobody does it better!

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FRANK DIETZ - Artist / Author / Actor  

Electrified at age five by a viewing of Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein,
Frank Dietz has followed his monster muse ever since, and has found success in the film industry as a writer, producer, director, actor and Disney animator.
As one of the new wave of classic monster illustrators, he was inspired by the work of monsterzine cover artists like Basil Gogos, fantasy illustrators like Frank Frazetta, and Mad cartoonists like Jack Davis and Mort Drucker. Frank pays tribute to his mentors and his favorite fantasy movie characters with his
brilliant caricatures and portraits in pencil, charcoal, watercolor, pastel and oils, and through the continuing series of "Sketchy Things" books collecting his drawings.
In 2007, Frank was selected by classic horror fans to receive  the first "Artist of the Year" Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award. In 2008, Frank captured the Rondo again in the same category for the second consecutive year.

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GORDON SHRIVER - Author  

Originally from New Jersey, Gordon Shriver attended San Franciso State University, where he received a bachelor's degree in broadcasting, and went on to work in radio news. He now lives in Norcross, Georgia.
Gordon is a lifelong fan and scholar of classic monster movies, and he has written on a wide range of subjects for genre magazines including Cult Movies and Famous Monsters of Filmland. He has been deeply interested in Boris Karloff for more than thirty years, and his biography "Boris Karloff: The Man Remembered," is the result of many interviews and years of extensive research. The book is filled with little known facts about this truly gentle man, and examines Karloff the person as well as the performer -- must reading for anyone who admires Boris Karloff. Sara Karloff has complimented Gordon for his dedication and excellent work on the book, and we have adopted its title as the keynote for this year's Classic Movie Monster Con.
Gordon will be sharing his knowledge and expertise with us during Q & A sessions throughout the weekend.

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JONATHAN MALCOLM LAMPLEY - Author   

Dr. Lampley is a resident of Nashville, and a professor of English at Tennesse State University. He is the author of "The Amazing, Colossal Book of Horror Trivia," published in 1999. The book is filled with questions and answers covering horror movies, television terror, creeps and creatures from the 1920s  to the present day.
We had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Lampley at a horror festival in Nashville, where we discovered that he has completed a book on that magnificent menace of the movies, Vincent Price, and that copies should be available in time for the Classic Movie Monster Con this year!
We are planning a "Horror Trivia Contest" (complete with prizes) on Saturday, so prepare yourself to test your knowledge of the all-important trivia that most monster fans know and love so well.

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RICHARD HARRISON GREEN - Artist  

Richard is a graduate of Ringling School of Art; upon graduation he went into training at Walt Disney Animation Studios in Florida. He began his career in animation working on "Roller Coaster Rabbit," a Roger Rabbit short.  His next assignment was the feature film Rescuers Down Under. Richard was then selected to go to Hollywood for advanced study in the Animator Development Program, a dream come true for the artist. After training he was selected to work on the classic Disney feature Beauty and the Beast, assigned to work on the development of "Lumiere," the talking candelabra.
In 1992, Richard returned to Tennessee to concentrate on fine art painting, including a new series of classic horror subjects exclusively for the Classic Movie Monster Con!

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Boris and Sara on the set of Comedy of Terrors

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Boris and Donnie
on the set of Son of Frankenstein

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     Elena Verdugo as "Ilonka" in House of Frankenstein

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A fantasy poster tribute to Bob & Kathy Burns

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Michael Thomas
as "Ygor"

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Timothy Herron becoming
"The Monster"

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 "Boris Karloff" portrait by the one and only
Basil Gogos

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"Ardath" painting by
two-time  Rondo
Award-winning
"Artist of the Year"
Frank Dietz

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Gordon Shriver's book "Boris Karloff: The Man Remembered"

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 Dr. Jonathan Lampley's "The Amazing, Colossal Book of Horror Trivia"

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  "The Monster" by Richard Harrison Green

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Classic Movie Monster Con, All rights reserved.

Convention graphics by George "E-gor" Chastain

 

 

 

 

 







 

 

 

 

For more information contact: Classic Movie Monster, Inc.
1101 Volunteer Parkway
Suite 5 - #101
Bristol, TN 37620
ph: 423-391-7569
fax: 423-990-6902
alt: 423-366-7693