See House, Night of Dark Shadows on Movies! in July

Whoops! That's what I get for not checking the rest of the Movies! schedule. As it happens, both House of Dark Shadows and Night of Dark Shadows are airing on Movies! in July.  Here's the revised schedule. The times are EST.

July 3
1:30 p.m., House of Dark Shadows

3:45 p.m. Night of Dark Shadows

July 12

12 p.m., House of Dark Shadows

2:15 p.m. Night of Dark Shadows

July 14

4:40 p.m. 1776

8 p.m., House of Dark Shadows

July 15

8 p.m. Night of Dark Shadows

July 20

8:35 a.m., House of Dark Shadows

10:50 a.m. Night of Dark Shadows

Original, erroneous story follows ...

Night of Dark Shadows, everybody's second favorite Dark Shadows movie, is set to air four times next month on Movies! TV Network. Why July? Who knows! It's usually a month reserved for films as far flung as 1776 to Rocky IV, and Night of Dark Shadows screams a lot of things but "O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave" isn't one of them.

Speaking of 1776, exactly when does NoDS take place? The movie poster claims the flashback scenes happen 200 years ago, meaning 1771. Other summaries state 150 years ago, landing us on 1821. But the screenplay says Angelique died in 1810 ... which is a dud year in American history. The big news of 1810 was that the United States annexed West Florida shortly after it declared independence from Spain. In fact, it would be another decade before Maine, the location of all things Dark Shadows, would even become a state. That's one to grow on.

I've included 1776 in the schedule because I consider it to be an honorary Dark Shadows movie, thanks to the shows many cast members appearing in the film.

If you want to watch Night of Dark Shadows on Movies!, here's when it airs:

For more details, visit https://moviestvnetwork.com/movies/1765, and make sure to follow Will McKinley on Twitter. He's the guy who tipped me to this.

Night of Dark Shadows returns to TCM for Halloween

Night of Dark Shadows, the second of Dan Curtis' two feature films based on the ABC daytime drama Dark Shadows, is part of Turner Classic Movies' Halloween lineup again this year. The 1971 film is set to air 2:45 a.m. Friday, Oct. 4, part of an incredible lineup of witchcraft-themed movies that begins 8 p.m. Oct. 3 with Bell Book and Candle, Horror Hotel and Suspiria, wrapping with Night of Dark Shadows and Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages. All praise Black Phillip!

From there, TCM goes all kaiju with a bunch of Godzilla and Mothra movies. (Godzilla is the network's "Monster of the Month.") You might want to keep the coffee on.

TCM has scheduled a lot of "houses" during October —  House, House on Haunted Hill, House of Wax — but sadly House of Dark Shadows did not make the cut. You can see the full line-up of TCM's Halloween programming over at Daily Dead.

Dark Shadows returns to Sleepy Hollow ...

This year is the 200th anniversary of Washington Irving’s classic American ghost story, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." In October, the Sleepy Hollow Film Festival will be celebrating the story's artistic legacy ... and they'll be doing it in a big, big way.

SHIFF has so many activities planed for the weekend of Oct. 10-13 that I'm not even going to attempt to summarize them all here. (You can sort through the details at the festival's official website, sleepyhollowfilmfest.com.) It's worth noting that Dana Gould is bringing his live Plan 9 from Outer Space show (and Bob Goldthwait!) to the festival, but there will also be a showcase for Dark Shadows that weekend. Both House of Dark Shadows and Night of Dark Shadows were shot in Tarrytown, New York, and the nearby Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, and the Dark Shadows Festival frequently set up shop in Tarrytown over the years.

To celebrate Collinsport's connection to the Washington Irving tale, Jim Pierson, longtime curator of the franchise and producer of the documentary Master of Dark Shadows (and other guests to be announced) dig deep into the private archives of Dan Curtis Productions to present a never-before-seen look behind the House and Night.

Stay tuned for more details about SHFF's A Salute to Dark Shadows event.

Vandalizing the Famous Monsters "Dark Shadows" covers

If you follow the CHS on social media, you might have seen a "remix" yesterday I created of the cover for Famous Monsters of Filmland #82, which showcased House of Dark Shadows. I like the original cover just fine, but always wondered what we might have gotten had Forest J. Ackerman asked Basil Gogos to create the cover rather than the graphic design department. Basil is sadly no longer with us, so I knocked together a colorful homage to his Barnabas Collins cover from issue #59 on Famous Monsters. It wasn't intended as a criticism of the original cover ... it was just something fun to do. (I'm not fit to carry Basil's water, so the complete impossibilty that I might create something as good has his work was actually a liberating. It's OK to fail!)

Today I took a stab at the cover of Famous Monsters #88, and this felt a little more like a crusade. Nothing against James Storm (he's terrific on Dark Shadows) but the cover devoted to Night of Dark Shadows is among the worst in the magazine's proud run. It's just a weirdly tinted photo from a scene that's not even of real significance to the film ... WTF, guys? The Frid cover was an excuse to polish my vandalism skills, but the Night of Dark Shadows issue was an opportunity to right a wrong. I mean, Lara Parker should have been on that cover, right?

Below are my vandalized covers, as well as thumbnails as they were originally published.

Spend some time with Barnabas Collins this Halloween

Dark Shadows is taking over television this Halloween! With the exception of the 1991 revival series (which is currently streaming in its entirety on Hulu) the entire franchise is pretty well represented. Also, there's some misinformation circulating about what's happening with Decades in October. I've got a copy of the week's broadcast schedule and they are NOT showing 260 episodes of Dark Shadows. Instead, they're going to ring in the witching hour each night with a single classic episode of the series, beginning with #210.

1942 film offers rare color perspective of fictional "Collinwood"

The National Trust for Historic Preservation has an interesting feature story on Lyndhurst Mansion, the Tarrytown, N.Y., location that served as the location of the fictional "Collinwood" in both 1970's HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS and its 1971 sequel NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS. It's a well-researched, well-written piece that tells you just about everything you need to know about the historic mansion without ever once mentioning DARK SHADOWS. But that's OK. That's my domain.

The feature has a particularly juicy piece of bait on its hook, though: a rare 1942 color movie showcasing the Lyndhurst gardens. The backstory features a bit of gothic melodrama that proves to be mostly fictional:

"The discovery of this film is significant because it offers, for the first time, a tangible look at the landscape during the period when Lyndhurst was owned by Anna Gould. It had previously been understood that all staff, save for Lyndhurst’s superintendent, Robert B. Allan, were let go when Helen Gould died and that the gardens had consequently languished while Anna occupied the property only part-time. The film proves that this wasn’t the case — that in 1942, the Lyndhurst landscape still very much reflected Helen’s careful stewardship."

You can read the entire piece HERE and it's well worth the time of any DARK SHADOWS fan. There are also a a few little-seen photos of the property dating back to the 19th century. If you've already decided you know all there is to know about Lyndhurst, though, you can skip directly to the movie below. (And don't forget: both HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS and NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS will be airing on TCM next month.)

Come see how the vampires do it on TCM

You might want to stay up past your bedtime on Oct. 27 this year becauseTCM has scheduled Dan Curtis' original DARK SHADOWS movies to air in the wee, wee hours of the morning. HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS kicks things off at 1:30 a.m., followed immediately after by NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS at 3:30 a.m. And, if you're some kind of pervert, switch over to Freeform at 7 a.m. to watch Tim Burton's 2012 DARK SHADOWS.

If you're into that kind of thing, you've got lots of chances to see Burton's cinematic take on the classic television series. Freeform is not only bringing DARK SHADOWS back this year as part of its 13 Nights of Halloween marathon, it's expanding the marathon to a full 31 days. Burton's costume porn is scheduled to air a staggering five times on Freeform during October, once for every horseman of the apocalypse (plus a bonus fifth viewing to put the humanity's last survivors out of their misery.) Here's a full schedule of broadcast dates for October. FYI: I'm still waiting to hear back from Decades, which could possibly air a marathon of the original DARK SHADOWS television series at some point during October. Stay tuned!

UPDATE: There's good news and even better news. Decades will be celebrating Halloween by broadcasting epsisodes DARK SHADOWS throughout the holiday week. Decades will air episodes weeknights at midnight EST beginning Monday, Oct. 29, with episode 210 and ending Friday with episode 214. Sometime next spring, though, Decades has plans to broadcast episodes new to the network. I'm sure we'll be hearing about those plans soon enough.

Click HERE to see if you receive Decades in your hometown.

Oct. 7
11:20 p.m. EST, DARK SHADOWS (Freeform)

Oct. 8
6:30 p.m. EST, DARK SHADOWS (Freeform)

Oct. 18
6:30 p.m. EST, DARK SHADOWS (Freeform)

Oct. 18
3:30 p.m. EST, DARK SHADOWS (Freeform)

Oct. 27
7 a.m. EST, DARK SHADOWS (Freeform)

Oct 27
1:30 a.m. EST, HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS (TCM)
3:30 a.m. EST, NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS (TCM)

Night of Dark Shadows ... in 3D!

The sprawling collection of 3D images from HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS went over well this week. Not as well as the fake View-master "reels" made from images of the original television series, mind you, but the traffic was still good enough to encourage me to follow through with a sequel. Despite being a wonderfully shot film in its own right, NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS isn't as visually lush as its precedecessor, which limited the number of shots that made for compelling 3D conversions. I was able to squeeze out enough images for three "reels," which lean (unsurprisingly) on Lara Parker's ghostly witch "Angelique." David Selby and Grayson Hall might have gottten most of the film's dialogue, but cinematographer Richard Shore (who would shoot only one other film, 1973's BANG THE DRUM SLOWLY) knew who the real star of the show was.

As with the previous View-master reels, I've uploaded the images to the Collinsport Historical Society's Tumblr feed, "Blood Drive." Click on the images below to view the images. Red and blue 3D glasses are required.

Dark Shadows Lives!

Katya and Laramie over at This Place Scares Us podcast tackle a subject near and dear to our black hearts: NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS. The latest episode tackles the red-headed stepchild of the DARK SHADOWS-verse. You can listen to the podcast below. Here's a summary from their website.

"Does NODS make sense? Not really!  Does it relate to the TV series?  Kind of?! We watched House of Dark Shadows and discussed our thoughts on it in episode 7 (go check it out).  So join us we discuss the sequel, that isn't a sequel, to the best bat on a stick movie ever made!"

Dark Shadows Before I Die is a possibly overlooked DARK SHADOWS blog with a slightly depressing title. Every time I visit I'm wracked with fear that the authors aren't going to make it to the 1,225-episode finish line. (We're rooting for you!) Anyhoo, the website has a number of contributors who tackle an episode of DARK SHADOWS a day. The most recent entry is episode 530, first broadcast July 8, 1968. Stick around for the end of their summary for the Round Robin Nightmare Tracker, which is pretty unique. Find the most recent episode HERE.

Dark Shadows Every Day probably need no introduction. If this is your first time hearing about the blog, fear not: the mission statement is right their in the title. Today's featured episode is 1148, which sees creator Danny Horn taking a rather poetic approach to discussing a rather talky episode. I kept expecting his screencap selection to break out into song. You can read it HERE.

Meanwhile, our own The Dark Shadows Daybook will be back soon! Patrick McCray somehow managed to escape from the CHS basement, probably with the help of that Sarah Collins again. She's always getting in the way of my plans. And you can also expect some big news soon about The Collinsport Historical Society Podcast. See how I buried that at the bottom of the post?

The Blu-ray of "Night of Dark Shadows" costs HOW MUCH?!

It was a pretty big deal when HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS and its less-popular sequel NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS received digital restorations back in 2012. We can dump on Tim Burton's misfire all we want, but it momentarily raised enough interest in DARK SHADOWS to make these kinds of home video releases possible. Even better, the new transfers were gorgeous, revealing depths of detail and color barely hinted at by their earlier VHS releases. I've said it before and will say it again: If you've never seen these versions of the movies, you've never really seen them.

There might be fewer opportunities to repeat myself in coming years, though. A friend brought it to my attention last night that the Blu-ray of NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS is currently selling for $179.34 on Amazon. (Used prices are as high as $94.99.) But it wasn't automatically time to panic, because sales programs on Amazon sometimes have bidding wars to prevent shoppers from ordering out-of-stock items. For example, if your online store runs out of NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS on Blu-ray, your price will be raised to a penny more than the most expensive version on Amazon.  When multiple stores run out of the same item it can sometimes prompt prices to jump (temporarily) to ludicrous levels.

Sadly, a quick scan of other online vendors suggests that's not what's happening here, with NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS.

Most of the big box stores still have NIGHT listed somewhere in the range of suggested retail prices. Walmart (boo!) has the blu for $16.45, while Target's price is $13.89. Unfortunately, this edition is out of stock at both companies. (Target goes a step further with the slightly sinister "out of stock in all stores.") And it only gets worse from there. The used Blu-ray edition NIGHT is available on Ebay with a starting price of $96.99, while whatever the hell Rakuten is has another used copy for $269.79.

For now, the DVD version of NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS is still available at prices us mere mortals can afford. Amazon is still offering DVD for $9.99. Amazon Prime and iTunes also have the film for $9.99. So all is not yet lost.

But, if you want to own this on physical media, you might want to hustle.

Via: Amazon

Tour the picture gallery of "Collinwood" from your phone

Earlier this week, the Facebook page of the Lyndurst Mansion, the location that served as Collinwood in both HOUSE and NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS, posted an interesting image: a 360° panoramic image of its picture gallery. This is the room of the estate that was most famously used in HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS, in the scene where Barnabas Collins presents matriarch Elizabeth Stoddard with "lost" family jewels while weaving an ellaborate fiction about his background. You can interact with the image below, either with your smartphone or your mouse. Go! Explore!

Special thanks to Will McKinley for the tip! Follow him on Twitter @willmckinley.

Take a whirl around the Picture Gallery at Lyndhurst. Which is your favorite painting?
Posted by Lyndhurst Mansion on Tuesday, May 1, 2018

Mansions of the Gilded Age Symposium returns to Collinwood

The Mansions of the Gilded Age Symposium is returning this year to the historic Lyndhurst Mansion, the location used as the fictional "Collinwood" in HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS and its sequel, NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS.

Lyndhurst is a Gothic Revival country house that sits in its own 67-acre park beside the Hudson River in Tarrytown, New York. Designed in 1838 by Alexander Jackson Davis, the house's last resident was railroad baron Jay Gould. In 1961, Gould's daughter Anna Gould donated it to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The National Historic Landmark is now open to the public.

On April 29, Mansions of the Gilded Age Symposium will present a day of lectures and activities at Lyndhurst. Five speakers and authors will discuss topics related to Gilded Age homes, society and art at the mansion. You can find a full schedule of lectures and tours for the day at the official Facebook event page HERE. Tickets are available at lyndhurst.org.

(H/T to Will McKinley for the tip. Follow him on Twitter at @willmckinley.)

The weird, wild world of Dark Shadows beauty pageants

Atlas Obscura, an online magazine that describes itself as the "definitive guide to the world's hidden wonders," has a story today on the beauty pageants used by MGM to promote HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS and NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS in the early 1970s. These pageants certainly represent weird moments in a saga already littered with weird moments, and the feature's author, Eric Grundhauser, asked my for my perspective on them.

You can read the story HERE.

There's no escape from Barnabas Collins this Halloween

When it rains, it pours: Decades is broadcasting an extended block of DARK SHADOWS episodes in time for Halloween!

Marathons of the series have become a holiday tradition for Decades, a network that specializes in classic television. As a lead-up to its "official" launch in 2014, Decades broadcast  68 straight hours of DARK SHADOWS during the summer, followed later that fall with a weekend marathon at Halloween called "The Binge." This is the third year running that the channel has celebrated Halloween with a DARK SHADOWS marathon, which showcases episodes pulled from the earliest appearances of vampire Barnabas Collins in 1967. While a schedule of this year's activities is pending, look for this extended block of DARK SHADOWS to air the weekend of Oct. 28.

Click HERE to see if you receive Decades in your hometown.

Coincidentally, Oct. 28 is also the day TCM is airing a double bill of HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS and NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS. HOUSE begins at 4:15 p.m. EST, with NIGHT following at 6 p.m. ... which means a few fans will have to decide whether or not to change the channel for a few hours that day. Has something like this ever happened before? It feels unprecedented.

If that's not enough for you, Freeform is offering to rot your teeth with the cinematic equivalent of candy corn, Tim Burton's DARK SHADOWS. While the movie is keeping a respectful distance from Oct. 28, you can catch it on television at 4:10 p.m. EST Oct. 23 as part of a Burton marathon, and again 8:20 p.m. Oct. 26, 7 a.m. Oct. 27, and 11:30 a.m. Oct. 30.

For those of you who cut the cord, fear not! Amazon Prime is now streaming the first 17 DVD collections of the series ... plus two collections of "Dark Shadows: The Beginning," taken from the first 200 "Pre-Barnabas" episodes of the series. All told, this represents more than 750 episodes of DARK SHADOWS, taking you from the introduction of Jonathan Frid as "Barnabas Collins," right up through the entire 1897 story arc and David Selby as "Quentin Collins." (UPDATE: Amazon has since added Collection 23 to their Prime offerings.)

Meanwhile, over at Hulu, you can watch nine DVD collections of the series. Sadly, they're not entirely consecutive ... the streaming service is offering volumes 1 and 2 of the series, followed by volumes 5-9. It's a little anemic, sure, but Hulu appears to be the only service streaming all 12 episodes of the 1991 DARK SHADOWS "revival" series. So, there's that.

Tim Burton's DARK SHADOWS returns to 13 Nights of Halloween

Once upon a time, 13 Nights of Halloween was once called 13 Days of Halloween. The television movie festival began life on The Family Channel, which became Fox Family, ABC Family and is now called Freeform. If you were trying to duck creditors, it would look a lot like this.

I mention the convoluted history because it's a lot more interesting than the point of this post: 13 Nights of Halloween is bringing 2012's DARK SHADOWS movie back to the schedule this year. Because I'm a masochist, I was vaguely hopeful that The Family Channel Fox Family ABC Family Freeform would be airing DARK SHADOWS on Oct. 28, which is the same day that TCM is airing HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS and NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS back to back. It would have been nice to see the Collins family stake a claim to the airwaves for a day, even if that day would represent a gradual decline in movie quality.  The stars failed to align, though, with Tim Burton's 2012 feature showing up at 4:10 p.m. EST Oct. 23 as part of a Burton marathon, and again 8:20 p.m. Oct. 26, 7 a.m. Oct. 27, and 11:30 a.m. Oct. 30. You can read the full event schedule HERE.

TCM to air both "Dark Shadows" features in October

Happy Halloween! On Oct. 28, Turner Classic Movies will air 1970's HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS and 1971's NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS back to back.

This marks the first time in many years that either film has been shown on TCM at any time other than the wee hours of the morning, so maybe folks will get to see it this time. HOUSE begins at 4:15 p.m. EST, with NIGHT following at 6 p.m. Even better, Oct. 28 is a Saturday, greatly boosting out chances to turn this into a Twitter event that day. Stay tuned for details.

UPDATE: Who won the Miss Ghost America pageant?

"This calls for a beauty pageant!"

The marketing department at MGM must have been an interesting place to work during the early 1970s. The studio was probably grateful to have a brand like DARK SHADOWS in its stable, even if that relationship was fleeting. While the first film in the truncated series is credited with saving MGM from the first of many flirtations with bankruptcy, the marketing for the film underlined a profound lack of understanding of the property. The PG film was sold to audiences like an exploitation picture, its many taglines littered with double entendres that suggested sexual content that wasn't there.

If you have trouble reconciling this cognitive dissonance, it gets stranger: MGM also tacked on a series of beauty pageants to the promotion to help sell the film. I don't know who watched the dark, nihilistic HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS and thought "beauty pageant," but that's inevitably what happened.

And when it did, it happened on a grand scale. Regional competitions were conducted around the country to find "Miss Vampire America," with the winners moving on the finals in Los Angeles. They even managed to rope Jonathan Frid, Nancy Barrett and Regis Philbin (?!) into the fun. You can read more about that competition HERE.

MGM must have liked the pageant idea, because they followed it with "Miss Ghost America" as part of the NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS campaign the following year. Unfortunately for all involved, the DARK SHADOWS television series had already been cancelled by the time the competition was announced. Miss Vampire America had the chance to win a spot on an episode of the gothic soap; Miss Ghost America had to settle for an appearance on THE DATING GAME.

"Wait a minute ... you're not Jim Lange!" 

Here's the advertised elevator pitch for Miss Ghost America: "Contestants may compete in any attire or make up they feel will be consistent with the image of Miss Ghost America. They will be judged on the originality and imagination of their conception of Miss Ghost America and their potential qualities for television performance." 

John Karlen made an appearance at the Aug. 28 regional competition that year, held at the Palisades Amusement Park in New Jersey. The winner was crowned Sept. 25 on FRIGHT NIGHT, a television horror show produced by KHJ-TV in Los Angeles hosted by "Sinister Seymour." Competing in that event were Kate Sarchet, the Los Angeles regional winner, Summer Robin Bartholomew of San Francisco. Nancy Bonsall of Philadelphia, Nytza Diaz of New York, Elaine La May of St. Louis, Layne Merrell of Dallas, Carolyn Norman of Charlotte, N.C., and Dianna Owen of Gary, Indiana.

I can say with absolute certainty that one of those women won the contest. I'm just not sure which one it is.


Newspaper accounts of the Sept. 25 event identified Kate Sarchet as Miss Ghost America. At the time, Sarchet was an 18-year-old student in UCLA's drama department. She later had small roles in Michael Ritchie's SMILE and Carl Reiner's THE MAN WITH TWO BRAINS (where she's credited with playing "Hooker #2") before going on to get her Ph.D. in psychology. She sounds like an interesting lady.

And then there's Summer Robin Bartholomew, who'd go on to win the Miss USA Pageant in 1975. An obsolete Geocities website for the actress has a list of her credits, including one for "Miss Ghost America MGM." Sure, this might refer to the regional title (Bartholomew won the San Francisco event) but that credit muddies the water slightly.

Bartholomew was later a substitute "letter turner" on WHEEL OF FORTUNE in 1979, and auditioned for the spot full-time when it opened in 1982. She lost to Vanna White, but was hired as the hostess for NBC's SALE OF THE CENTURY in 1984.

So, who really won the Miss Ghost America pageant? Sacheen Littlefeather was the Miss Vampire America winner in 1970, but it was regional winner Christine Domaniecki who got the guest spot on DARK SHADOWS. Consequently, it's Domaniecki that history remembers as the pageant's winner (at least, for the few of us who still think about such things.) Finding out who got THE DATING GAME gig might clear things up, but 40-year-old game show records are a little difficult to find. Sarchet was most likely the winner of the national contest, but it's unclear if she's the contestant that appeared on THE DATING GAME.

But there's one interesting account of Miss Ghost America's game show appearance online ... though it doesn't identify the pageant winner by name. THE DATING GAME host Jim Lange died in early 2015, prompting writer/comedian Will Durst to share the following anecdote on Facebook.

"Was on the dating game in 1972. Won a date with Miss Ghost America. She was gorgeous. The other guys both looked like Mark Spitz. I had hair down to my shoulders, glasses and was wearing a white jacket with a psychedelic tie. Her face visually blanched when I came around the wall. The couple before us went on a date to Japan. We got to go to the zoo in San Diego. Jim Lange thought it was funny."

It gets worse!

"Miss Ghost America totally ignored me on the date and hooked up with the golf pro at the hotel we got a free round of golf at. Which left the chaperone and me to drink in the hotel bar. Drank so much. Missed the ride back to LA the following morning. And had to get back on my own. First national TV exposure was pretty miserable."

UPDATE: We have a winner!

Reader Gary P. has unearthed a photo from the Miss Ghost America pageant, along with some information about the event's judges. The information came from a story published in the Oct. 2, 1971 edition of The Daily Report, a newspaper serving Ontario-Upland, California. He writes:

I found that the judges for the contest were Nancy Anderson, West Coast editor of Photoplay Magazine; Dick Strout, syndicated radio-TV commentator; and Gene Banks, producer of THE DATING GAME. The article also confirmed Miss Sarchet as the winner.

Gary included a screenshot of the newspaper photo, which you can see to the right. When the photo was published, DARK SHADOWS had been off the air for exactly six months, which probably explains why nobody from either the series or the movie were present for the pageant. The band has essentially disbanded, so to speak, and the film's cast members that might have been inclined to attend were still living in New York City at this time. (Although I'm 99 percent sure that Lara Parker, who had been promoted as the star of NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS, was already living in Los Angeles at this time. She, along with future Dead Kennedys frontman Brandon Cruz, appeared in the first episode of KUNG FU, which was broadcast the week after this story was published.)

Walpurgisnacht: The Other Halloween

The Collinsport Historical Society loves our witches. Whether they're using a bastardized forms of black magic that have more to do with voodoo than witchcraft (Angelique, I'm looking at you) or casting "binding spells" on the Pussy Grabber in Chief, we like to stay on the good sides of these people, be they real or imaginary.

Currently taking place is this year's Walpurgisnacht, which kicked into gear last night and wraps later this evening. It's probably not a coincidence that Walpurgisnacht (or Walpurgis Night,  Hexennacht or "Witches Night") also marks the halfway mark on the calendar to Halloween. Like Halloween, Walpurgis traces its history to ancient pagan customs, and is a night reserved for witches and their cohorts to stir up trouble before Spring returns and spoils everybody's fun. Witches congregated on  the highest peak in the Harz Mountains, prompting the locals to burn bonfires, douse themselves in holy water and decorate their homes in the Hammer Horror Chic. These traditions have been around for centuries in one form or another, though the first written reference to Walpurgisnacht didn't make its appearance until the 19th century.

Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula" also begins in earnest on May 1. Jonathan Harker's first journal entry is dated May 3, but begins by chronicling his arrival in Vienna two days earlier. Tod Browning's 1931 feature film (possibly a revision from the Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston stage play) toys with the timeline a bit, showing Renfield arriving in Transylvania on Walpurgis Night.

In the spirit of that, below are a few links to some of our MONSTER SERIAL features from recent years, spotlighting movies that feature witches, vampires or other pagan shenanigans. Click on the images to travel directly to those posts.

Come see how the vampires do it in Pennsylvania

UPDATE: Here's a reminder about this weekend's screening of HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS and NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS.

Life doesn't present many opportunities to see HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS on the big screen. It offers even fewer to see its controversial sequel, NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS, on anything larger than the TV set in your living room. Next month, though, a drive-in theater in Pennsylvania is planning to screen both films in celebration of the 50th anniversary of DARK SHADOWS.

From DS superfan Gene Caruso:

"This year marks the 10th Anniversary for Drive-In Super Monster-Rama and the 50th Anniversary for DARK SHADOWS. Monster-Rama is a two-day event which occurs annually every September and this year it will be screening great quality 35mm prints of both Dark DARK SHADOWS movies on Saturday, Sept. 10."

But wait! There's more! The original DARK SHADOWS movies will be followed by the Amicus feature THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD and AIP's THE BAT PEOPLE. Admission is $10 per person. Caruso says a few other DARK SHADOWS surprises are also planned for the event, as well a raffle offering items from both films signed by members of each cast. Creepy Classics will be on hand selling DVDs, magazines and T-shirts.

"This is a great chance to relive those old drive-in days," Caruso said. "The Riverside has the best snack bar around and camping is available on site and hotels are close. Come early and enjoy the pre-show socializing, shopping and eating."

The screening is scheduled to take place rain or shine at the Riverside Drive-In Theatre, located on Route 66 N, Vandergrift, PA, 15690,  about 30 miles east of Pittsburgh. For further information and questions, visit the Drive-In Super Monster-Rama page on Facebook.

Inside Collinwood

This year marked the first time I've attended a Dark Shadows Festival, but I've had little time to discuss it here in the weeks (months?!) since. My schedule has been so cramped lately that there's little time to do anything more than make cameo appearances on social media. I've since banked podcast interviews with Marie Wallace, Will McKinley and Mary O'Leary ... all of which still await editing. Sigh.

Until I get my crap together, here are some photos taken during the festival of the Lyndhurst Estate in Tarrytown, N.Y. The property, which was the shooting location for HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS and NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS, was ready for fans that weekend. There were portraits of Jonathan Frid and Lara Parker on display, and one of the tour guides was decked out in full vampire regalia. I was unable to bring any camera gear with on on the trip, but my cell phone served as a decent enough backup. It makes me feel a little guilty about almost leaving it at an airport restaurant in Newark, N.J.

The format of this website isn't especially friendly for photo galleries, so I've posted the images at the CHS Tumblr feed ... which you can find HERE.