Famous Monsters Memory #1

Although it was only March, the May, 1965 issue of Famous Monsters of
Filmland (#33) had already hit the stands. But I was much too sick to walk
down to the drugstore and look for it. I had come down with scarlet fever,
a Medieval-sounding illness rarely even encountered today, and was confined
to bed. I can still remember the fever-induced delirium I wandered in and
out of during that awful two week period, complete with nightmare images
right out of H. P. Lovecraft! But even worse than this was the boredom that
followed after the fever finally passed. Our family G.P. (who had made regular
visits to my bedside during the worst period of my illness) advised another
week of bed rest, even though I was feeling better and could hardly wait to
be up and about. We only had one T. V. downstairs in the living room, and
I was stuck upstairs in the bedroom, with only a few books, some jig-saw
puzzles, and the four walls to keep me occupied. For a ten year old, seven
more days of such utter monotony seemed like a prison sentence! But at the
very moment when I thought I'd go absolutely insane, my dad came home
from work with a brown paper bag in his hand. "I thought you might like
to look at this," he said, removing the copy of Famous Monsters #33 from
the bag. The twisted face of Lon Chaney's Quasimodo seemed like a beam
of sunshine to me! It was the most beautiful thing I'd seen in days, and I
devoured that issue like my sanity itself depended on it! Thanks, dad, somewhere
up there in that other dimension we all eventually go to. I'll always
remember the night you came home with Quasimodo, and made me the
happiest kid in the world.

Issue #33 of Famous Monsters was a very special issue in several ways. The filmbook of Chaney's
Hunchback of Notre Dame enabled me to appreciate a classic silent film that I'd never get a
chance to see on WIIC's Chiller Theater. In those pre-VCR days, we could only watch what
was broadcast, and local stations never ran silent horror/fantasy films. This issue also ran one
of my all-time favorite Famous Monsters articles: "Monsters at Midnite," by Tony R. Wayman,
which described the creepy sensations and thoughts experienced by Mr. Wayman as he spent
a night alone in the Chamber of Horrors at a San Francisco wax museum.

If you have a Famous Monsters Memory you'd like to share,
send it to me at dr1935@nb.net and I'll post it here for you
in Famous Monsters Memories!

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