The 80's and 90's: A tough time for a Monster Kid in Monster Kid Memories Forum

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The 80's and 90's: A tough time for a Monster Kid

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MovieMatt	The 80's and 90's: A tough time for a Monster Kid	Lead	[-]
Jun 10 12 11:52 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I looked at various threads on what it is like to be a Monster Kid in the 1950's, 60's and 70's. You folks are on Easy Street. LOL! As you can see, I am an 80's child. I grew up in the 80's and 90's. It was very hard time to be a Monster Kid. Take it from me. I grew up in time of Political Correctness, following the rules of The Motion Picture Association of America's Rating System (MPAA), and hearing news reports about violence and copycat crimes. (e.g. Power Rangers) I grew up in an American compound where (apart from an Olympic sized pool, a large gym with a weight room and bowling alley and two tennis courts and two playgrounds), there was this tape library, where they have all these tapes with movies, cartoons, sporting events and TV shows taped off of TV (with commercials). They were taped from circa. 1979 to 1992. Wow that is a @#$%&-ing crap-load of nostalgic heaven. Growing up with cartoons that had bumpers like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5aPTDjvqXk&feature=relmfu Or that http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA8Xs-ALcTg&feature=related Such sweet memories. My tape library (defunt in 1994 and is now a dojo), had the 1976 KING KONG, Hammer horror films and Japanese monster on the loose pictures by Toho and Daiei. It also had lesser known films like WARLORDS OF ATLANTIS or LITTLE ORBIT AND THE SCREECHERS FROM SPACE (an animated film from France that aired on HBO). Since I was 9, I wanted to get a monster movie. I followed by MPAA rating system. My dad let me get away with watching monster movies. My father wouldn't let me see TERROR OF MECHAGODZILLA, I showed him that this film was rated G and he let me win. When I went to get DESTROY ALL MONSTERS, he wouldn't let me. I kept showing (and emphasizing) that it was rated G. He still wouldn't let me. (Sad eh?) Why? Because of such PC beliefs that horror/monster movies are bad for kids. They're nightmare fuel. Come on! I just want a thrill. This is bad for (juvenile) thrill-seekers. During my years as a kid, I spoke to adults (such as my neighbors and teachers) that I like monster movies and KING KONG was my favorite. Their reaction would range from amusement (usually in men) to cringing (common in women). When I quote cartoons (e.g. TINY TOONS or PEANUTS) they are happy with it. When I was younger, I took a paper and some crayons, made a big face, cut it out, made some eye-holes and took some tape and stuck the mask on my face! I've been doing that for a while. My brother and mother like it, but my father, never liked and discouraged me to do that sort of thing. He says stuff like: Take that off, it's bad for your eyes. Later, my mother agreed with him and I ended up drawing and making paper cut outs of drawings I made and my own backgrounds,� and I played around with it.� They approved it. So if they were happy with it, I was happy with it. One day I found this fishing game I played with my brother. The eyes of the fish were going off. From there, I discovered that they were little stickers.� So I took them off and put them on my face, and I looked in the mirror and I looked like an alien! I went to my brother, and he freaked out and said, "You look like an alien." Then I went up to my father, and he said, "Wow! What's that?" I said, "I'm an alien!" And here's what he said: That's nice. Now take it off, it's bad for your face. LOL! When I was a teenager, I loved to hang around at the sci-fi and horror section of the video store. Whether it is, Saturday Matinee or Suncoast Motion Picture. I wish I could go and bring home a collection of these videos, but sadly I can't. Why? Two reasons: 1. Not enough money from me. 2. Those things are bad for you. For crying out loud! They are just classics and the posters/covers are exaggerating. Who knows, the monsters don't look like that in the actual film. When I go to bookstores I go and hang out at the film and television section and read books about science-fiction or special effects. They did not mind. MOVIE MAGIC and CINEMA SECRETS were my favorite shows back then, so they didn't mind. So it was very hard to be a Monster Kid back then. Unless you are him. Anyone else who grew up in the 80's and 90's with situations similar to this?
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Victor Frankenstein		#1	[-]
Jun 11 12 10:01 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Born in '80, with generally no problems running around reveling in monster-world myself. I lived the amazing (ironic to most) young life of growing up in an evangelical Christian home, that also supported basically all monster movies, provided they were not exploitation of sex/nudity. WPIX(11) in NYC ran Shocktober every year with a different monster flick every night in primetime... USA had Monstervision... AMC had Monsterfest... We had Palmer/Blockbuster/Hollywood Video rental stores all within 5 miles... I bought almost every Universal Monster movie on VHS from Suncoast... Fangoria magazine and conventions (twice a year I think)... Can't complain! I bet a lot of the 60s/70s guys would have died to be able to have a HOME-LIBRARY of films like we were and are able to have now, back then....
rvoyttbots		#2	[-]
Jun 11 12 12:50 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Well, even tho I had to hope and pray a monster movie would show up on TV back in the 60s/70s, I wouldn`t trade the experience.
jamesenstein31		#3	[-]
Jun 11 12 3:39 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I think growing up as a little kid in the early 90s, I was VERY fortunate. The Universal monsters had a wave of merchandise, so I was able to have many action figures, including reissues of many beloved 60s favorites from our elder monster boomers. It also saw the release of the Universal monster tapes, which I slowly collected to the start of the last decade, before the fall of vhs. There was still remnants of the old school tv, complete with late shows and stuff like Monstervision and MonsterFest. I honestly don't think it was ever easy being a monster kid. We may have liked other things, but i'm sure many of you relate to being that kid who always had all the information about Frankenstein and Dracula, and drew in class and brought in the toys etc. Kids today probably have it tougher. Ever see the Halloween aisles during the season? They suck now. I haven't seen monster toys in ages and online renting has taken alot of the adventure out of discovery. We may have been fortunate than we thought. Of course, it's wrong of older fans to assume that availability was everywhere. Being ten or so, finding monster movies was still difficult, especially on a limited budget and as most stores didn't stock all the stuff. Books were hard to acquire, especially the gangsters at Mcfarland Press, and essentials like UNIVERSAL HORRORS, were not purchased, at least by me, until much later. It was an INTERESTING time for sure.
TheLizard		#4	[-]
Jun 30 12 1:37 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	We were the last kids with no internet. We still had to rely on books and stuff like that. I grew up in a town with 3500 people in Arkansas in the middle of nowhere. I had no place to buy monster or scifi magazines, and there was only one theatre with one screen that was only open when I was very young (vague memories of seeing Willow), and then again in the early 90's (clear memories of seeing Jurassic Park for the second or third time), but by then it was in pretty dismal shape, and after it closed it never opened again. The isolation of middle America can be like growing up in a void if you're into fringe stuff, or at least it was then. And I wasn't near ANYTHING. It could be easier to get into stuff now with the availabilty of the internet, I'm not sure. You had to REALLY TRY HARD to get anything cool back then. Most of my knowlege came from books from the 70's and 80's, like the Crestwood House monster books. We had a library, thank god, and I spent a lot of time there. Television and movie rentals were the main way to see monster movies then, and that meant scanning the TV guide when it came with the Sunday paper, or spending all your allowance on renting videos. Fortunately, we had two locally owned video rental places, both with a good horror section. One had fifty cent rentals for old stuff, and that was totally in my price range. And like everyone said, there was good old Monstervision on TNT. Of course, I got all the kinds of crap that any monster kid gets. I was obsessed with Godzilla at one point. So much so, that years later, I learned that a lot of other kids thought I believed Godzilla was real. I actually got in a vehement argument once with a guy in High School about it. "No, man! I was just way too enthusiastic!" I mean, I LOVED Godzilla, but I knew full well he wasn't real, dig? Good choice with the Cinemassace 300 video, MovieMatt. I think James Rolfe has a very clear way of presenting what he's trying to say, and he's shaping up to be one of the premier spokesmen of our generation of Monster Kids. There's tons of stuff in there I can relate to. I had like half of the toys he shows.
jamesenstein31		#5	[-]
Jun 30 12 2:42 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I remember photocopying the Crestwood house books so I can bring them home for research. I was obsessed with learning about monsters. I even would dig up microfilm copies and read from those as well. It was hard to get information.
Rick		#6	[-]
Jun 30 12 5:02 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Hard to get information in the '80s and '90s? Well, compared to now, maybe so. But you should have tried it in the early '60s. TV Guide and FM and...nope, that's about it.
jamesenstein31		#7	[-]
Jun 30 12 7:11 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Rick wrote: Hard to get information in the '80s and '90s? Well, compared to now, maybe so. But you should have tried it in the early '60s. TV Guide and FM and...nope, that's about it. Yes, I know so few people wrote about the stuff, but you got to remember that kids only have so many resources. The reliable, the "good" stuff was still far away, like Skal, Mank, Weaver etc., most of which were not available at my local library. We were fortunate in some ways, but I grew up isolated in a rural area and I could relate to many of you kids from the 60s, because for the first ten years of my life, I only had a few channels and had to make discoveries, myself. All I can say is thank God for DVD! And these forums. We really have a lot in our company, don't we?
flashback		#8	[-]
Jun 30 12 7:54 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Rick wrote: Hard to get information in the '80s and '90s? Well, compared to now, maybe so. But you should have tried it in the early '60s. TV Guide and FM and...nope, that's about it. and castle of frankenstein magazine.still not much.
Rick		#9	[-]
Jun 30 12 8:21 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	And of course, there were always the Charlton mags, Mad Monsters and Horror Monsters. Back in those days, I'd sit down with a new monster magazine, a ballpoint pen, and a stack of 3x5 index cards. Whenever a new (to me) title showed up, I'd dutifully and proudly enter the info on a new card. There were always several to be gleaned from an FM or, a little later, a CoF. But the Charltons were a pain. Almost never did they offer me anything new. From the very beginning, even at 11 years of age, it was painfully clear to me that those two rags were way down at the bottom of the totem pole. The only title I can think of that was unique to the Charltons, that I never found in FM or Castle of Frankenstein, was DEVIL WOLF OF SHADOW MOUNTAIN. It would be decades before I was convinced that the stupid movie NEVER EVEN EXISTED!! Thanks a lot, Sanzar Quasatoad!!
jamesenstein31		#10	[-]
Jun 30 12 9:32 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Rick wrote: And of course, there were always the Charlton mags, Mad Monsters and Horror Monsters. Back in those days, I'd sit down with a new monster magazine, a ballpoint pen, and a stack of 3x5 index cards. Whenever a new (to me) title showed up, I'd dutifully and proudly enter the info on a new card. There were always several to be gleaned from an FM or, a little later, a CoF. But the Charltons were a pain. Almost never did they offer me anything new. From the very beginning, even at 11 years of age, it was painfully clear to me that those two rags were way down at the bottom of the totem pole. The only title I can think of that was unique to the Charltons, that I never found in FM or Castle of Frankenstein, was DEVIL WOLF OF SHADOW MOUNTAIN. It would be decades before I was convinced that the stupid movie NEVER EVEN EXISTED!! Thanks a lot, Sanzar Quasatoad!! What was DEVIL WOLF OF SHADOW MOUNTAIN about, because that's a great title!
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Rick		#11	[-]
Jun 30 12 11:48 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	It's one of the more interesting stories in the cheap horror film field, James. Way back in the day (sometime early '60s) one of the Charlton mags, either Mad Monsters or Horror Monsters, had a several page spread, with lots of photos of this "new" werewolf film. People like Gary Kent and "Bud" Cardos were involved. There were stills from the movie and, I think, even behind-the-scenes shots. For years I and, I hope, lots of others wondered what ever became of the movie. Nobody ever saw it. Suspicion began to arise that there was no movie and there never was. And, turns out, suspicion was right. The photos were, apparently, from an entirely different movie, a cheapjack western called RUN HOME SLOW. I think some of the details are still in question, but it's a neat story. I still have my 3x5 card for DEVIL WOLF OF SHADOW MOUNTAIN, 'cause even though it doesn't exist...it ought to. Here's a link to an old thread with some of the story. http://monsterkidclassich...3136?page=1#.T-_UxI6-HHg
thebrainfollower		#12	[-]
Jul 1 12 3:19 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I would argue your generation Rick had it a heck of a lot better than mine if you were into classic monsters. You had monster mags all the time, we had a few monster book at our local libraries I'd call that about even. But from 83-92 (when I was 4 and got into that stuff until the last year I didn't have cable) there was exactly ONE screening of a classic 30-'s-40's horror movie on TV, the Claude Rains Phantom. Once and that's it. I did get to see a few of the A and C comedies in 82 with my grandma but that was it. Also for some reason Hammer movies were never shown in my area (North central MA). The only thing I ever caught was the last five minutes of the Curse of Frankenstein (coming home from a late Church er......something can't remember what). We did get a decent amount of Godzilla and some Vincent Price. My local library had Dracula and Frankenstein (got a Betamax in 1987) so I could watch those often. My local video store had......Devil Bat's Daughter and the Brute Man (I COULD have watched those as often as I want, but I also could throw myself outta trees for a hobby too). I also had a relative who had a VHS copy of King Kong they let me come over to watch. Video tapes in the 80's were too expensive to buy for my folks. Wasn't until 91 they got cheaper and we got Bride and Son. Compare that to the amount of 30's-50's stuff on TV in the 60's. I'd argue you definitely got to see a better variety of stuff.
MovieMatt		#13	[-]
Jul 1 12 11:19 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	And of course, there were always the Charlton mags, Mad Monsters and Horror Monsters. Back in those days, I'd sit down with a new monster magazine, a ballpoint pen, and a stack of 3x5 index cards. Whenever a new (to me) title showed up, I'd dutifully and proudly enter the info on a new card. There were always several to be gleaned from an FM or, a little later, a CoF. But the Charltons were a pain. Almost never did they offer me anything new. From the very beginning, even at 11 years of age, it was painfully clear to me that those two rags were way down at the bottom of the totem pole. The only title I can think of that was unique to the Charltons, that I never found in FM or Castle of Frankenstein, was DEVIL WOLF OF SHADOW MOUNTAIN. It would be decades before I was convinced that the stupid movie NEVER EVEN EXISTED!! Thanks a lot, Sanzar Quasatoad!! Rick that was a nice story about that western-werewolf horror film. I ran into a similar problem when I was a teenager. I read about this upcoming film called THE PRIMEVALS. It was a stop-motion film by David Allen with lizard men and a giant orange yeti (don't laugh that was cool to me). It was an on again, off again project. I read that it was going to get made for years. During the years, I found out (online) that David Allen died and it was going to be reworked and released for 2001. I read it was scheduled for an Imax release, I read it was scheduled for a straight to video release. "What's the hold up?" I thought to myself. I read in another source that Kent Burton and Chris Endicott is going to rework it. Thanks to the world wide web, I found out that I was not the only one gripping about this movie. There were others. Last Edited By: MovieMatt Jul 1 12 11:21 AM. Edited 1 times.
Rick		#14	[-]
Jul 1 12 4:39 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	thebrainfollower wrote: I would argue your generation Rick had it a heck of a lot better than mine if you were into classic monsters. You had monster mags all the time, we had a few monster book at our local libraries I'd call that about even. But from 83-92 (when I was 4 and got into that stuff until the last year I didn't have cable) there was exactly ONE screening of a classic 30-'s-40's horror movie on TV, the Claude Rains Phantom. Once and that's it. I did get to see a few of the A and C comedies in 82 with my grandma but that was it. Also for some reason Hammer movies were never shown in my area (North central MA). The only thing I ever caught was the last five minutes of the Curse of Frankenstein (coming home from a late Church er......something can't remember what). We did get a decent amount of Godzilla and some Vincent Price. My local library had Dracula and Frankenstein (got a Betamax in 1987) so I could watch those often. My local video store had......Devil Bat's Daughter and the Brute Man (I COULD have watched those as often as I want, but I also could throw myself outta trees for a hobby too). I also had a relative who had a VHS copy of King Kong they let me come over to watch. Video tapes in the 80's were too expensive to buy for my folks. Wasn't until 91 they got cheaper and we got Bride and Son. Compare that to the amount of 30's-50's stuff on TV in the 60's. I'd argue you definitely got to see a better variety of stuff. As far as watching the classics on TV, yes, I agree with you. We had it pretty good (though some had it a lot better than others-- out our way we NEVER saw any of the Poverty Row stuff. Ever. I had to wait for my move to NYC in '83 to ever get any chance at INVISIBLE GHOST, DEVIL BAT, etc.) But we were really talking about information more than viewing. We did have FM and CoF. But Beck's mag showed up maybe once or twice a year. And, while the Frankenstein MovieGuide did introduce me to lots of stuff I'd never heard of, it also sent me sniffing after a lot of stuff that really didn't belong in any sort of genre list. FM was great for basic info, but, by the mid-sixties at least, all that I learned from Forry's mag was about the new stuff. As for books -- my library had maybe 3 film books, total. None of them, of course, about horror films, and all of them, of course, giving scant notice to anything like horror at all. In the '80s-'90s you had, at the very least, FANGORIA and STARLOG. Lots of info there. You also had access (more or less, depending on location and economic circumstances) to movies on video. In '65, if it wasn't on TV that week or that month or that year, you just had to wait and hope. And, when you get right down to it, a copy of one of Leonard Maltin's Movie Guides would have given me more information (most of it accurate) than all the other sources bundled together. So, about the TV viewing, yeah, you're right. About the access to information...nah. We were wandering in a big dark wilderness back then.
thebrainfollower		#15	[-]
Jul 2 12 1:48 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I think I would have been grounded till last week if I tried to look at a Fangoria in the 80's lol. Yes for information we had some good stuff. My library had Carlos Clarens book, a few of the more generic monsters of the movies books, and the whole Crestwood House series. That made it worse though! I could, at age 10, easily compile from these books a list of 200 movies I wanted to see. And at that point I had seen maybe 20 of em.
Rick		#16	[-]
Jul 3 12 9:08 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Here's the kind of stellar info we got back in the day. Courtesy of Charlton Publications, from Mad Movies #9 (Winter, 1964) and reporter Vin Saxon and Editor Abernathy Farquad, here's the inside scoop on the exciting new upcoming werewolf classic -- DEVIL WOLF OF SHADOW MOUNTAIN. AHH-WHOOOOO!
clore103051		#17	[-]
Jul 3 12 10:30 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Wasn't there one more page to that article, Rick? I recall a couple of shots of the actor being made-up, and the words "make-up magic" printed repeatedly all over the page.
Rick		#18	[-]
Jul 3 12 10:51 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	There are actually 6 more pages! The first is just a big full-page announcement: "SPECIAL! Mad Monsters Takes You Behind The Scenes to Witness The Change from Man...To DEVIL WOLF! Turn Quickly..." Then there are 5 pages of photos of Johnny Cardoz being made up as the, you know, Devil Wolf, while lounging in a lawn chair in somebody's backyard. I didn't copy those pages because the quality of the photos is not good, they're repetitious, and I'm lazy. I think a couple of those photos are posted on the other thread which I linked to about a half dozen posts up the page. Or y'all could pick up your own copy of Mad Monsters #9, available on the rack at your local Rexall! Just 35 cents! Cheap!! Seriously, though, if anyone absolutely must see those pages, I'll scan 'em in and just take a nap later. I don't want to put the damper on anyone's monster movie education.
clore103051		#19	[-]
Jul 3 12 11:38 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	>>I didn't copy those pages because the quality of the photos is not good, they're repetitious, and I'm lazy. Was the quality of the photos in a Charlton mag ever good? Newspapers had better printing. In all of the years that they were out, I can only recall one article that impressed me. That was one on ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN, which must have come from some free-lancer, Don Glut perhaps? I remember they had an upgrade, and supposedly Sanzar Quasitoad was out and a new staff in, but I can't recall the names. It was too late by then anyway, there were numerous other mags out there (besides CoF) such as Modern Monsters and Monster Mania, as well as the British mag Shreik! that had somewhat more of a mature approach than the Charltons and what FM was becoming. Even if they didn't last long, they spoiled me and at age 15, one is quite willing to abandon that which he considers too childish for someone starting to show some hair above his lip.
flashback		#20	[-]
Jul 4 12 12:04 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	we had the famous monsters sister magazine ,monster world in the 60`s.
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The 80's and 90's: A tough time for a Monster Kid

The 80's and 90's: A tough time for a Monster Kid