Acclaimed as a writer and designer in her own right, Victoria Price, the daughter of horror legend Vincent Price, has been spreading the word of her father’s magnanimous artistic spirit throughout the many Vincentennial celebrations that have been,  lovingly, cropping up the past year, in honor of the late icon’s 100^th birthday. (Price will be appearing in Chicago for one such event on Sunday, October 30^th at 2pm at the Portage Theater – http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=163103617107401.) The openly gay Price took a few minutes to talk about her father’s contribution to the world, beyond the cobwebbed tiers of horror, in this engaging chat with Big Gay Horror Fan.

Big Gay Horror Fan: I saw Lucie Arnaz on the Oprah show, years ago, promoting scrapbook software involving her parents’ legacy. She claimed it never entered her mind that she would become the archivist of her parent’s memories. Did you have a similar reaction as the daughter of Vincent Price?

Victoria Price: Both Lucy and Lucie were good friends of our family growing up. And, yes, like Lucie I became an ‘archivist’, as it were, completely by accident. When he was bedridden, toward the end of his life, all of my friends kept telling me that I should work on a book about art with my father.  I kept on telling them he won’t say yes, but I barely got the words book and art out and he said, “Yes!” I think it was his way to get close to me, again, because my stepmother had kept us apart for so many years.  I had a fulltime job where I got my afternoons free, specifically so I could write. So, I spent 9 months, 3 afternoons a week, lying on his bed with him and talking about art. Now, I think the last person that should write a book about a parent is his child. You just don’t have any fair sense of bias. But, no publishers were interested in a book about art and I wanted the world to know about my father’s contribution to that world. So, that is how Vincent Price: A Daughter’s Biography came about. As for the talks I have been giving at the Vincentennial events, there are any number of people who could celebrate the horror movies and probably 100’s who could do it better than I could. What I focus on is how passionate my father was about living. He was generous beyond belief and truly encouraged people to live their lives to the fullest.  That is an amazing message that I can impart to people and the true essence of who my father was.

BGHF: So, divorcing from the horror a bit, do you have a favorite film role of your father’s from across the many spectrums he performed in?

VP: Well, it’s not a film. It’s a play and it should work wonderfully for the readers of Big Gay Horror Fan! My father was playing Oscar Wilde in a one man show called Diversions and Delights in San Francisco in 1977. I was 15 years old and Anita Bryant was at the height of her anti-gay hate campaign. So, there she was on her bigoted soapbox and here was my father in San Francisco doing this play. My father was the bridge between the gay world and the straight going theater public and he loved it! And as an actor, he went to these heights that I didn’t know he was capable of and perhaps that he didn’t know he was capable of himself. The play took place toward the end of Wilde’s life, after he had been and jail and was penniless. The basis was that Wilde was giving a lecture in Paris under an assumed name, because he was still so controversial that he couldn’t be booked under his own name. The first act was funny and full of the recognized Wilde witticisms. The second act got much more poignant and was full of Wilde’s heartbreak over the loss of Bosie. My father was just magnificent in it and got incredible reviews.

BGHF: I wish I could have seen that. I was actually very surprised to learn of the rumors surrounding your dad’s sexuality, though.

VP: Well, my stepmother Coral Browne was bi-sexual and I think she and my dad delighted in being the anti-thesis of say John Wayne and his wife. They would have probably been tickled by such wonderings, perhaps even encouraged them. Have you read the article I wrote in the Advocate about this?

BGHF: Yes, it’s a great piece of writing and I’ll include the link, here.

http://www.vincentprice.org/bios/article.html

VP: So, I don’t think such speculation would have bothered my father at all. He was simply without judgment and very supportive of gay causes. He would have loved your Big Gay Horror Fan column!

BGHF: Wow! That was the sound of my knees buckling in delight and a ringing endorsement if I’ve ever gotten one! Thanks so much, Victoria. I look forward to meeting you in Chicago.