Thrift Store Find: Art Saves!

Published March 7, 2020 by biggayhorrorfan

Rolling Stone

I first got The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll as a confirmation present from one of my uncles. For awhile I carried it with me everywhere. A day or so after that confirmation, my parents came to pick me up from some event. I had been confirmed with one of my mom’s students and he overheard some of the other kids saying that I was gay in the parking lot afterwards. He told my mother about this…and she was furious…with me.

“Why would they say that, Brian?!?” “What have you done to make them think that?!?” “Do you know how embarrassing this is for me?!? For my own student to come to me about something like this?!?” As she hammered away at me on the car ride home, I murmured soft responses back while burying myself in this book., wanting to disappear. But as I poured over epic black and white photos of Little Richard, David Bowie, a pre-fame Aretha Franklin, a pert Annette Funicello clinging to a properly attired Dick Clark… I suddenly knew that eventually everything would be okay…that the world was full of magnificence and unusual artistry and someday…it all would be mine!

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Syreeta

Published March 1, 2020 by biggayhorrorfan

Syreeta

Known for the celestial soar of her range, the singular Syreeta (Wright) was often regarded in terms of her associations with other musicians. She was briefly married to Stevie Wonder, who produced her second album, and her work with Billy Preston resulted in her best known recording, With You I’m Born Again. But she was much more than a muse to great men, often writing her own material and holding her own in the often unscrupulous dealings of the entertainment industry. Happy

Horror fans, meanwhile, are in eternal thrall of her distinctive vocals from the theme of Happy Birthday to Me. Wright, chillingly, captures the haunting dynamics of this classic slasher with her presentation here, proving that the best singers are often the best actors, as well.

Further adding to her appeal, her (out of print) 1983 album The Spell contained fun elements of pop, new wave and funk.

Dying from complications from cancer at far too young an age, Syreeta is rightfully held in high regard not only by lovers of the Motown Sound, but by appreciative music lovers of all varieties.

Syreeta 2

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Sofia Shinas

Published February 23, 2020 by biggayhorrorfan

Sofia Shinas Crow

Best known for beautifully essaying the doomed love between her Shelly and Brandon Lee’s icon Eric Draven in The Crow, Sofia Shinas also added her unique mystique to such genre projects as The Outer Limits reboot and the sexually charged horror anthology series The Hunger.

Nicely, her talents extended into the world of pop artistry. Her fun debut recording produced its share of perky, love charged anthems including the earworm worthy One Last Kiss.

Fortunately, Shinas is still providing tuneful energy for music lovers and genre enthusiasts worldwide at https://www.facebook.com/Sofia-Shinas-fans-1421026704808949/.

Sofia One Last Kiss

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Virginia Bruce

Published February 17, 2020 by biggayhorrorfan

VB Invisible Woman

If I had been an old Hollywood diva, I would have wanted the career of Virginia Bruce. An important figure in the world of Universal Horror due to her pert and powerful essaying of the leading role in The Invisible Woman, Bruce also worked with such notables as Jimmy Stewart, William Powell, James Cagney and Abbott and Costello.

Significantly, while trying to earnestly woo Stewart in Born to Dance, she also introduced the Cole Porter classic I’ve Got You Under My Skin.

Pretty much fading from the screen by the late ‘40s, this silver streaked celluloid wonder still left behind a legacy of dreamy magnificence, permanently drifting beneath the fantasies of old school movie lovers worldwide.

Virigina Bruce

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Music to Make Horror Movies By – June Havoc

Published February 9, 2020 by biggayhorrorfan

June Havoc

Sporting one of the most unique life resumes for a performer, the unstoppable June Havoc was a vaudevillian, playwright, film actress and the owner-landlord of an entire town during her lifetime. Perhaps best known as the inspiration for the character of Baby June in the classic musical Gypsy, a theatrical offering she always emphasized was a fable not reality, Havoc also gave vampirism a distinguished glow in Larry Cohen’s A Return to Salem’s Lot. June Havoc Salems

Of course, her vampishly dynamic performances in a series of Hollywood musicals left quite an impression on a generation of young men, as well.

Sinful Cindy Lou from Sing Your Worries Away paired her with the rubbery Buddy Ebsen and comic legend Patsy Kelly.

Meanwhile, The Man With the Big Sombrero from Hi Diddle Diddle allowed her to sonically compete with herself.

The maverick Havoc, who died in 2010 at the age of 97, actually has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was nominated for a Tony Award as the director of Marathon ’33, a play that she also wrote.

June Havoc signed

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: The McGuire Sisters

Published February 2, 2020 by biggayhorrorfan

The McGuire Sistes

Their lovely harmonies have found their way into multiple films and televisions shows. Indeed, what would projects like Porky’s II: The Next Day, Mad Men, Come Back to the Five and Dime and (mild terror nudge here) White Noise 2: The Light be without such McGuire Sisters’ songs as Sincerely, Goodnight, Sweetheart, Goodnight and Sugar Time?

1965’s Right Now!, their final album, even featured a bit of a rock and roll edge. The song Truer Than You (from that release) fits more firmly in multi-tracked Patti Page terrority, but is nonetheless relatable to anyone who has experienced the horrors of the heart.

The worthy recipients of multiple Hall of Fame awards, this familial trio is represented today with solo strength by surviving sister Phyllis.

The McGuire Sisters, Phyllis, Dorothy and Christine

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: The Crystals

Published January 26, 2020 by biggayhorrorfan

The Crystals

While seemingly bypassed in affection by The Ronettes, their sisters in NYC harmony, the beautifully dynamic The Crystals are often hailed as the finest girl group of the sixties. Experiencing many of the behind the scenes manipulations of that era in music, Barbara Alston, Mary Thomas, “Dee Dee” Kenniebrew, Myrna Giraud, Patsy Wright (and eventually) “LaLa” Brooks, nevertheless left a lasting impression on the world with hits like He’s A Rebel, Da Doo Ron Ron and Then He Kissed Me.

Their first full length album Twist Uptown even featured this homage to everyone’s favorite mad scientist.

Nicely for fans of powerful female vocalists, The Crystals, led by Kenniebrew, are still performing to this day.

www.thecrystals.net

Crystals Twist Uptown

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Va-Va-Villainess: Virginia Bruce

Published January 24, 2020 by biggayhorrorfan

Virginia Bruce Born to Dance cigarette

As Broadway diva Lucy James in 1936’s Born to Dance, smoldering pixie Virginia Bruce causes much havoc between enthusiastic hoofer Nora Paige (Eleanor Powell) and her shy, devoted sailor beau Ted Barker (Jimmy Stewart).

bruce-stewart-born-to-dance Initially using him as a publicity ploy, James soon grows serious about Barker. This, nicely, gives Bruce a chance to add layers of soft pain to her characterization. This humanity doesn’t stop this character’s out of control anger issues, though. After destroying a hotel suite and getting Paige fired from her understudy job, James is decidedly left on the outskirts of the film’s grand and happy finish. Virgina BTD2

Not surprisingly, the talented Bruce still comes out the winner, though. Born to Dance’s score was composed by none other than Cole Porter and, with sweet elegance, she introduced his classic I’ve Got You Under My Skin, which was nominated for an Academy Award, here.

Horror Hall of Fame:

Bruce filled the title role of 1940’s The Invisible Woman, a more comic take for the classic Universal horror series. This natural celluloid wonder also tangled with eternal mad scientist Lionel Atwill in the Abbott and Costello comedy Pardon My Sarong.

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Tammy Wynette

Published January 19, 2020 by biggayhorrorfan

How often does this happen? One of the best known country songs of all time is featured in one of the more obscure horror projects of the ‘80s. Tammy Wynette’s iconic Stand By Your Man found its way into bizarre New Zealand blood fest Death Warmed Up, via a pretty cover version by the singularly titled Suzanne.

The legendary Wynette, who co-wrote this much recorded number with Billy Sherrill, always bucked the norm, though. Her final studio album featured duets with Sting and Elton John and she embraced the electronic age by performing Justified and Ancient with British music mavericks The KLF. The equally stellar Emmylou Harris also collaborated with her by offering up piercingly beautiful background vocals on the single Beneath A Painted Sky.

The health plagued Wynette, who passed away at 55 in 1998, is lovingly remembered at www.tammywynette.com. Known as the “First Lady of Country Music,” she was the winner of multiple Grammy Awards and has been, rightfully, inducted into The Country Music Hall of Fame.

Death Warmed Up.jpg

Death Warmed Up, meanwhile, just received a nice, multi-feature reissue from Severin Films. To witness how Tammy’s country charms mingle with the film’s punked out New Wave vibes visit http://www.severin-films.com.

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Edie Adams

Published January 12, 2020 by biggayhorrorfan

Edie Adams

I often hit upon a performer I want to write about for this feature and then I have to scramble to find if they have any kind of horror connection. Sometimes I luck out and there is a direct link to the genre. Sometimes I only manage to pluck out a tenuous thread. Occasionally, there is no link at all and I have to move along with a slightly heavy heart. Thankfully, the delightful Edie Adams, my latest obsession, was featured in a 1961 television production of The Spiral Staircase, one of several adaptations of the classic Ethel Lina White story about a handicapped woman being pursued by a fetishistic killer. This particular production was also notable for featuring such performers as Elizabeth Montgomery (Bewitched) and Lillian Gish (Night of the Hunter). (Adams played Blanche, the role that Rhonda Fleming had originated in the original screen version.) Spiral Ethel

For those who know about her career, though, it isn’t surprising that Adams has this eclectic entry on her professional resume. Almost chameleon like in her approach to her art, she was known as a comedienne, singer, impressionist, spokesperson and actress. Here’s Edie, her variety show, in which she showed off all those skills in premium, is still considered one of the greats of that particular world of entertainment. Here, her take on More Than You Know provides a nice look at her unique way of handling a classic composition.

Nicely, www.edieadams.com and https://www.facebook.com/realedieadams/ keep all the many aspects of this valuable performer, who died at the age of 81 in 2008, thoroughly alive and kicking!

Edie Adams 2

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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