Unsung Heroines of Horror: Josie Cotton

Published November 10, 2021 by biggayhorrorfan

Her good natured New Wave tunes have earned her a perky spot in music her-story. But the divine Josie Cotton has also proven herself to be a incisive chronicler of exploitation flicks and low budget horror. No less of an authority than John Waters endorsed her brilliant 2007 collection of often obscure cult movie themes, Invasion of the B Girls.

With that culturally significant project, songs of special interest to mad monster fans include her takes on the theme to Green Slime, Goodbye Godzilla and Who Killed Teddy Bear?, the title track to the celluloid gem of the same name. The inclusion of that particular number also pays heed to Cotton’s huge LGBTQIA following, as the film itself stars lavender icon Sal Mineo, at his sweating, speedo hugging best, and features a uninhibited performance from Elaine Stritch as Mineo’s cut throat lesbian employer.

Along with Adam Ant, one of her musical counterparts, and cult film icon Mary Woronov, Cotton also brought some enthusiastically hedonistic vibes to the odd n’ dreamy ‘80s horror Nomads. As a member of a murderous crew of ghostly vagabonds, she haunted the film’s leads, played by Pierce Brosnan and Lesley-Anne Down, with a visibly malevolent intent – an old school admirer finally getting to enact on her Karloff-Lugosi fantasies.

Nicely, as of today, this cultural renegade is still keeping those independent, punk fueled dreams alive by running her own record label (https://kittenrobot.com/records/) and by bringing as much enthusiasm to her live shows as she did when anthems like Johnny, Are You Queer? were decorating soundtracks and prime MTV airwaves.

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

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Unsung Heroines of Horror: Elaine Stritch

Published October 9, 2020 by biggayhorrorfan

She put the BROAD in Broadway, carving out an extraordinary career for herself on the stage. But those blinded by the sheen of her Tony and Emmy wins (and her association with such theatrical legends as Noel Coward and Stephen Sondheim) may not be aware that the magnificent Elaine Stritch has a couple grizzly genre credits to her name.

Significantly, in a time when the world was still afraid of lesbians, Stritch bravely enacted the role of Sapphic minded club owner Marian Freeman in the 1965 psycho-stalker thriller Who Killed Teddy Bear? Interestingly, the presence of the openly gay Sal Mineo as the disturbed busboy that the story focuses upon adds another lavender component to this gritty look at obsession and murder. Granted, Marian’s advances on Juliet Prowse’s Norah, the film’s heroine, are unwanted, affording her preferences the stereotypical ring of the perverse. But Stritch fills the character with as much dignity as she is able to while simultaneously applying her noted and uniquely salty perspective to the mix.

10 years later, Stritch sarcastically zapped her way through the second theatrical remake of The Spiral Staircase, as well. While a mysterious killer hunts down Jacqueline Bissett’s plucky mute adventuress, Stritch’s world weary nurse tends to the needs of Mildred Dunnock’s uncooperative matriarch character. Gravitating to the movie’s theatrical set-up of a winding mansion on a dark and stormy night, she ultimately provides the necessary diva antics while still remaining true to the take no bullshit essence of her character.

With two appearances in the British genre anthology series Tales of the Unexpected, an arc on the murder-mystery based soap Edge of Night and the effective voicing of the grandmother in the animated favorite ParaNorman among her further credits, the truly singular Elaine Stritch definitely earned her place among the notoriously unsung heroines of horror before her passing at the age of 89 in 2014.

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

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Sal Mineo

Published July 4, 2016 by biggayhorrorfan

Who Killed Teddy 3

Its 2016 and there are still inherent risks to being a member of the LGBT community. Thus, it is even more admirable to look back at the openness of Sal Mineo, an Academy nominated performer and former teen heartthrob, who brought a sense of sensitivity and despair to the psycho killer genre in 1965’s gritty, underappreciated thriller Who Killed Teddy Bear?

According to many reports, Mineo, who was murdered in 1976 during a robbery attempt, never hid his attraction for men and this may have hurt his latter day career choices. Of course, director Nicholas Ray famously capitalized on Mineo’s budding sexuality in Rebel Without A Cause. As Plato, his most famous role, Mineo’s attraction for James Dean’s Jim Stark was touchingly apparent. Proof of this is definitely contained in this loving video homage which highlights Mineo, who scored several hit singles as a teen, and his take on the song Young As We Are.

Of course, others may appreciate Mineo’s more garage-y sound on Little Pigeon, a number that is sure to put certain readers in mind of his theater career, which included a couple of takes on the prison drama Fortune and Men’s Eyes.

Meanwhile, Mineo’s most ardent fans keep the love flowing for him at www.salmineo.com, a beautiful website dedicated to this renaissance man and his career.

who killed teddy bear poster

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

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