Criswell in Horror Film Stars Forum

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Criswell

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Southern Beau	Criswell	Lead	[-]
Jun 22 09 6:07 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	So what do we really know about him? Is the IMDB complete on his credits? Very entertaining personality. This folder seemed the most fitting, though not really a horror star.
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Bifocals		#1	[-]
Jun 22 09 8:49 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Wish Criswell could have lived long enough to hit the convention circuit. He would have been in his glory for sure. Telling interesting 'behind the scenes' tales & future stories about events that will effect us in the future for that is where we are going to spend the rest of our lives. Even if he did make them up on the spot. Wouldn't have been boring.
Southern Beau		#2	[-]
Jun 24 09 5:30 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Yes. He would have been ideal for such. Not a lot of information out there on him. I did find a youtube clip of him on the Tonight Show. Here's Criswell
ryanbrennan		#3	[-]
Jun 27 09 1:27 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Just the other day, why rummaging through my library, I ran across his book of predictions. I'll have to go back and look at some of his predictions.
Paul Haight		#4	[-]
Jun 28 09 12:55 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	"I predict that flying saucers will officially land on the lawn of the Whitehouse, to open up a new outer space inter-world treaty. Mark this date on your calendars: May the 6th, 1991." "I also predict that the world will come to an end as we know it today, on August the 18th, 1999, but it will be February the 14th, the year 2000, until the smoke clears away." (as heard on his LP recorded for the Horoscope label, circa 1970.) I get the impression he didn't put a whole lot of thought into the album, as many of the predictions are clearly describing a world more than thirty years into the future (floating cities, push-button world, maids controlled by automation, travel by non-gravity, etc.).
Ted Newsom		#5	[-]
Jun 28 09 2:04 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I've got two great Criswell stories... tomorrow, maybe. Future events such as these...
Ted Newsom	Criswell Story the First	#6	[-]
Jun 28 09 11:38 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Apart from Plan 9 and Night of the Ghouls photos in FM, I remembered him from Carson's show, found an hysterical used paperback of his predictions in the "Clear this junk away" bin at an LA metaphysical book store called the Bodhi Tree... and then, there I was, at a big New Age Expo with my then-wife and a friend of hers... crystals, full-bore colonics, UFO books, and assorted mystical silliness... and down there, under a big carnival-style tent with a 4x5 foot b/w photo poster behind him, was the honest to gawd real deal: Criswell Predicts! (I always figured maybe that was his last name.) I joined the line, which was queueing up for Tarot card readings. I know a thing or three about reading, how-to, why, and baloney. He looked respendent: weird yellow-white hair, pink face, just like the pictures. As I got to the one-more-person position, I could hear his dulcit and soothing tones as he spoke to the lady across from him: "Shuffle the cards carefully, and think of your question. Now cut them three times to the left with your left hand. Ah. I see a marriage in your future. Are you planning to get married? No? SOMEone you KNOW is planning to get married...!" When she got her money's worth, I sat down, explaining I neither needed or wanted a reading, I just wanted to ask him about Bela Lugosi and Ed Wood. He beamed. "Oh, Bela was a nice man. I remember at Christmas, they had a tree all decorated with black balls, like Halloween. He liked that very much." I forget what he said about Ed Wood, but it was really, really neat to hear it, and I think he appreciated the distraction from the convention hubbub. I thanked him and said, "Well, let me move out of the way for the paying customers." As I did, he beckoned the next person in line: "Thank you, thank you. Next, please. Ah, sit down, relax. Take the Tarot cards and shuffle them carefully. Now think of your question. All right, cut them three times to the left with your left hand. Ah. I see a marriage in your future. Are you planning to get married? No? SOMEone you KNOW is planning to get married...!" It was funny and memorable.
Southern Beau		#7	[-]
Jun 28 09 2:39 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Fantastic!
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Ted Newsom		#8	[-]
Jun 28 09 10:11 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	The other time was at a screening at LA's Vista Theater, just at the crest of the Ed Wood revival. I don't think Nightmare of Ecstasy had come out yet, but the wacky revival had started. It was a double or triple bill: Plan 9, Bride of the Monster, and, I think, Glen or Glenda (maybe not the latter). But the big draw was the live dog and pony show: special appearances by Paul Marco, Conrad Brooks, ... and Criswell Predicts! (That really must have been his last name.) Paul Marco was crazy; Conrad Brooks was annoying. Then they rolled Criswell out in a wheelchair. It was several years since I'd seen him, and he was no longer ambulatory. Still, he still had that weird, wavy-gravy blond-gold hair, and that pink face. He was clearly infirm, but game. Everyone could sense there was something not-quite-there, most likely a stroke. A guy rolled him up to the microphone and he said, a little quavering but still sounding like his Plan 9 self, "My friends... as I always used to say on my television program..." And then he just stopped. He looked straight ahead for the LONGEST time. It was probably seconds, but seemed like hours. The silence was crashing. Is there a ventriloquist in the house? Should we all join together a capella and finish his sentence for him? Is he going to keel over right now? Is he perhaps dead already? A full house, waiting for words from the hokummeister, but they would not come. Criswell stared straight ahead. And then-- "We are ALL int'rested in the FUture, for that is where YOU AND I shall spend the REST of our LIVES!" He got it! He nailed it! He actually remembered what he had said about 1000 times before! The crowd cheered and applauded in relief. The movie was pretty funny, too.
Southern Beau		#9	[-]
Jun 29 09 12:28 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Now that is wild. Worthy of a book or article on him. Did you get the opportunity for any interaction?
Red Gargon		#10	[-]
Jun 29 09 8:52 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Criswell's LP is just great to put on for fun and relaxation. Here's my minorly spooky Criswell bit - I played it for a couple of friends who'd never heard it, on a morning of just puttering around the house, and Criswell gets to some lunatic prediction about the scourge of the future being "leprosy". There's a little pause in the recording and my friend said "Did he just say LEPROSY?" whereupon the Criswell kicks in with a "Yes, LEPROSY!" ... from beyond the grave!
Ted Newsom		#11	[-]
Jun 29 09 1:39 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Funny interaction with recorded Criswellia... no, I did nothing that second time around. I do recall Cris mentioning Orgy of the Dead on the Tonight Show, though, at least once. He and Carson both pronounced it "OR-ghee--" which Carson milked for all it was worth.
Wich2		#12	[-]
Jun 29 09 3:52 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	(Ted, why are you yelling?)
Ted Newsom		#13	[-]
Jun 29 09 8:37 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Get tired of speaking in this quiet little font sometimes...
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