Tin Shadows (or "Belaboring a Point")

It's hard to imagine a world without David Bowie, even though we've had to do without his company for almost two weeks now. When news of his death began to circulate, I came to the quick conclusion that any eulogies written for this site would ultimately be self serving. Sure, everything written here is self serving on one level or another ... the end goal for any website is to generate traffic, after all. But Bowie is so far afield from our regular content that it just felt exploitative to dogpile on his death.

My feelings on the subject haven't really changed, but my fascination with trivia refuses to let a few minor details pass. Bowie's influence on art was so far reaching that, yes, he even has a few tangential connections to DARK SHADOWS.

In 1977, Iggy Pop released "The Idiot," the first of his solo albums produced by Bowie. When Iggy went on tour to promote the record in March and April that year, Bowie tagged along as his keyboard player. Also part of the live band were Hunt and Tony Sales on drums and bass, respectively. The Sales brothers were the sons of television icon Soupy Sales and appeared on Iggy's next collaboration with Bowie, "Lust for Life."

(Note: "Sick of You," from Iggy Pop's 1975 demo album "Kill City," was featured in Tim Burton's DARK SHADOWS film. While the Sales brothers appeared on two tracks on the album, they actually don't perform on this song.)

A decade later, Bowie would feel the need to scratch a creative itch with the band Tin Machine. He recruited guitarist Reeves Gabrels and the Sales brothers for the controversial act, which continues to divide Bowie fans to this day (their first album is pretty great, in my opinion.) Gabrels would continue to work with Bowie after the dissolution of Tin Machine, eventually parting ways after the release of "Hours ..." in 1999.

In 2012, prompted by god only knows what, musician Jenna Vix released a song titled "In the House of Dark Shadows," featuring lyrics composed mostly of the great/goofy taglines used for 1970's HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS. "Come see how the vampires do it" is actually a lyric in this song.

Gabrels (who is apparently now a member of The Cure) plays guitar on the track. You can buy the song directly from Amazon HERE, though I can't really recommend it.

This seems like an awfully long way to walk for a minor piece of Bowie trivia, doesn't it?

Let's step backward in time to March 20, 1969. DARK SHADOWS cast members Jonathan Frid and David Henesy were guests that day on the short-lived game show THE GENERATION GAP. Frid and Henesy were among the first celebrities created by the series (as opposed to Joan Bennett, who was already a star) and the two made frequent appearances in teen mags in the late 1960s.

Also on the episode were Soupy Sales and his son ... Tony.

You can watch the entire episode streaming below.

"Things happen" to Nancy Barrett, 1966

In the weeks leading up to the premiere of DARK SHADOWS back in 1966, the show's cast made the usual promotional rounds to introduce the concept of the program to viewers. Louis Edmonds spoke about playing spies and Nazis, Joan Bennett braced reporters with her sardonic wit, while Alexandra Moltke was stuck chatting about her relative inexperience.

Nancy Barrett's promotional feature took a turn for the weird, though. Titled "Things Happen to Her," the interview reads like a David Lynch movie. Puppets make an appearance.

But don't take my word for it ...

Things Happen to Her 
Oct. 8, 1966
The Delaware County Daily Times

After sloshing around on theatre stages in six states, Nancy Barrett is now on dry, solid ground in ABC-TV's romantic-suspense series, “Dark Shadows" at 4 p.m. weekdays WFIL-TV, Channel 6.

She is blue-eyed and fragile, and if she is alluring as Carolyn Stoddard in the network's gothic-styled drama, she was all wet in the recent Broadway musical, "Pickwick."

"It was the ice rink,” said Nancy. “The thing was always melting, and before we came to the ice skating scene, the stage boards covering the rink got soaking wet. We slipped all over the place, and I figure that until we brought the show to New York, I was kicked in the shins 20 times. The dancers had it worst of all. When one fell, the rest went down like dominoes."

Things happen to Nancy Barrett, who is lovely but lacking — no red corpuscles. Maybe tired blood is the reason she couldn't catch the guy who robbed her of three suitcases.

"It was my first day in New York," she recalled, “and when I got back to my car I noticed that two suitcases were missing. I rushed off to get a cop, but I wasn't more than a few feet away when a man rushed to the car, grabbed the last piece of luggage and fled. Naturally, I never caught him."

This is a girl who met her husband under a puppet stage ("I crawled under the curtain and there he was"), choked her way through her first stage role ("I don't smoke, but in almost every scene I had to come on puffing like a chimney"), and who is currently portraying a character that is completely unlike her.

"Carolyn Stoddard is stubborn, impulsive, and a swinger," said Nancy. "My idea of a wild evening is having a quiet dinner and singing to a recording of La Boheme."

"Dark Shadows,” like all daytime serials, makes great demands on actors. The work is exhausting, requiring early cast calls and endless rehearsals until the day's show is finished. Then a run-through of following afternoon telecast with actors taking home the scripts for further study. In all, it is a 14-hour workday.

"Working in a serial, and meeting the same people day after day, is unlike anything in show business," said Nancy. "It is hard to step in and out of character because you begin to see them as friends, not actors. If the role I'm playing requires antagonism or even hate, I find it a very difficult thing to do."

Everyone in "Dark Shadows" reacts the same way, from the star, Joan Bennett, down to 10-year-old David Henesy. Recently, after a scene in which the youngster was tongue-lashed mercilessly, he walked ever to Nancy and said: "You know, you really yelled at me."

David Henesy hustles Sugar Coated Rice Krinkle cereal

I don't even know where to begin ...

Yes, that's David Henesy of DARK SHADOWS in the video above, which was a TV spot for Post's discontinued Sugar Coated Rice Krinkle cereal. It's incorrectly dated on Youtube as a "1950s" commercial (it was probably filmed not long before the premiere of DARK SHADOWS in 1966), but that's the least of its sins. The most noticeable problem is the odious presence of So-Hi, the mascot for Rice Krinkles. I suggest reading Gene Luen Yang's graphic novel AMERICAN BORN CHINESE to wash the taste out of your mouth.

Speaking on mouths: How did the generation before mine make it out of the '60s with any teeth and/or Type I Diabetes? Cereal and candy companies used to operate with the ethics of drug dealers. And not those cool drug dealers from PINEAPPLE EXPRESS, either. I mean those cutthroats from THE WIRE.

Anyway, folks. David Henesy.

(Thanks to Lynn Hontz Scherzinger for the link!)