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| 25th anniversary issue; source of "Ghost Hunt" Illustration by Lee Brown Coye |
TUESDAY'S OVERLOOKED A/V ON FRIDAY:
Dedicated to the memory of Ed Walker...and Maureen O'Hara.
Ali Karim: Bouchercon
Anne Billson: The Heat and its cat
Anonymous: Maureen O'Hara; Short Term 13; The Dark Corner; The Professionals
Anonymous 4 (my early-music-loving friend) recommends:
Bhob Stewart: Jack Kerouac reads Dr. Sax; One Fast Move or I'm Gone
Bill Crider: Never Too Late [trailer]
Brian Arnold: And Now the Screaming Starts!
B. V. Lawson: Media Murder
Short Horror Films #1:
"The Empty Space In Between" (some nudity)
The Empty Space In Between from Maria Tornberg on Vimeo.
Colin: Shotgun
Comedy Film Nerds: Tyler Smith and David Bax
Cullen Gallagher: Blood and Lace
Cynthia Fuchs: Life Itself
Dan Stumpf: Malpertuis (aka The Legend of Doom House)
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| Dellamore Dellamorte |
David Vineyard: Dellamorte Dellamore (aka Cemetery Man)
Diana B: Early AMC, and TCM now/#LetsMovie
Dorian Bartilucci: North by Northwest
Ed Walker: his last The Big Broadcast
Elizabeth Foxwell: The Chalk Garden
Short Horror Films #2:
"Monster" (the seeds of The Babadook)
Monster - Jennifer Kent from Jennifer Kent on Vimeo.
Evan Lewis: Nosferatu (1922) restored
Gary Deane: Hell Bound
George Kelley: Burn, Witch, Burn!
Gilligan Newton-John: There's Nothing Out There
Short Horror Films #3:
"There Are Monsters"
Iba Dawson: NY ComicCon
Ivan G. Shreve, Jr.: The Great American Dream Machine
J. Kingston Pierce: origins of The Streets of San Francisco
Jack Seabrook: Alfred Hitchcock Presents: "The Orderly World of Mr. Appleby"
Jackie Kashian: Crazy Stupid Love; Breanna Conley on photobooths
Jacqueline T. Lynch: Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein; Maureen O'Hara
James Clark: The Red Circle
James Reasoner: The Cat and the Canary (1939 film)
Janet Varney: All Jane Comedy Festival; Rhea Butcher
Jerry House: Drop Dead! (Arch Oboler's 1962 album): "The Dark"
Vincent Price reads Joseph Payne Brennan's "The Calamander Chest" (Caedmon Records)--a favorite story of Jerry Houses's.
Part 2
To hear an earlier Price/Caedmon Hallowe'en/horror-themed album (sleeve below; illustration by Leo and Diane Dillon), please click on this sentence.
John Grant: Blues in the Night; Woman Unafraid
Jonathan Lewis: Billy the Kid vs. Dracula: The Walking Dead (1936 film); Terror Train
Karen Hannsberry: Guest in the House
Kelly Robinson: Destiny (1921 film); The Phantom of the Opera (1925 film); Melinmontant; Die Pest in Florenz (aka The Plague in Florence); Warning Shadows (1923 film); Der Golem (1920 film); Au Secours!
Short Horror Films #4:
"The Underpass"
Ken Levine: Friday questions
Kristina Dijan: The Uninvited (1944 film); Cloverfield; Tremors; The Devil Rides Out; Rodan; Underrated 1955 films; The Abominable Dr. Phibes; horror films
Laura G.: She Wore a Yellow Ribbon; Appaloosa; Palm Springs Classic Science Fiction Film Festival; Public Hero #1; Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956 film); Flaxy Martin
Lucy Brown: Mrs. Biggs
Marty McKee: Nightmare in Chicago (longer variation on Kraft Suspense Theater: "Once Upon a Savage Night"); The Zebra Force; The Bubble; Invasion of the Blood Farmers (my take on "Once Upon a Savage Night" among other work)
Michael Shonk: US commercial broadcast primetime
More short surrealist than horror film:
"Thanatopsis" by Ed Emshwiller
Mystery Dave: Focus
Patricia Nolan-Hall: 3 Bad Men; Werewolf of London
Patti Abbott: sitcoms; The Dick Van Dyke Show: "It May Look Like a Walnut"
Pop My Culture: Scott Aukerman
Prashant Trikannad: Million Dollar Arm
Rick: The Norliss Tapes; Universal's 1940s Mummy films; Hammer's Dracula films from best to worst
Rod Lott: Trick or Treat (1986 film); Tales of Hallowe'en; Dark Places; The Lodger (2009 film); Hidden (2015 film); Trapped Ashes; Colour-Correct My Cock; The Vatican Tapes; I Spit on Your Grave III: Vengeance is Mine
More short whimsical than horror film, but still kinda:
"When Tickling Goes Wrong"
(as far as I know, there're no further parts)
"Rupert Pupkin": Twice Upon a Time
Ruth: The Italian Straw Hat
Salome: The Leopard Man; Asphalt; I Wake Up Screaming
Sam Juliano: City of the Dead (aka Horror Hotel)
Scott A. Cupp: Count Yorga, Vampire
Sergio Angelini: Sheila Levine is Dead and Living in New York (Yvette Banek on this one.)
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| Murder, My Sweet |
Stacia Jones: Murder, My Sweet
Stephen Bowie: Serge Krizman
Steve Bailey: The Creature with the Atom Brain
Steve Lewis: Mimic; B.A.D. Cats: "Pilot"
Television Obscurities: favorite '80s obscure series
Todd Mason recommends: "Ghost Hunt", a 1949 episode of Suspense...based on H. Russell Wakefield's story in the 25th anniversary issue of Weird Tales, and a radio predecessor of sorts to all the "found footage" films of the last thirty-forty years.
Victoria Loomes: Twin Peaks: "Zen, or the Skill to Catch a Killer"
Vienna: Maureen O'Hara; The Unknown Man
Yvette Banek: favorite Hallowe'en films
OCTOBER'S UNDERAPPRECIATED MUSIC:
Harry Partch: The Outsider
Patti Abbott: Music and Songs
Brian Arnold: The Glass Prism: "The Raven"
Jayme Lynn Blaschke: Friday Night Videos
Paul Brazill: A Song for Saturday
Jim C.: The Philly Joe Jones Sextet: "Blues for Dracula"; Dave Pike
Moondog: "Fog on the Hudson"
Steve Coleman: The Small Faces: Ogden's Nut Gone Flake; Cory Wells
Bill Crider: Song of the Day; Forgotten Hits, Local Charts; The Bobby Fuller Four
Jeff Gemmill: Melody Gardot in concert; Greta Isaac; Neil Young in Concert,1989; Top 5s
Jerry House: John McCutcheon on the hammered dulcimer; Daily Music+; Hymn Time
George Kelley: David Bowie: Five Years (1969-73)
Fanny: "Ain't That Peculiar"
Kate Laity: "I Put a Spell on You"; The Classics IV: "Spooky"
Steve Lewis, Jonathan Lewis, Mike Doran and Michael Shonk: Music I'lm Listening To
Todd Mason: A Quick World Tour; Some Television Theme Music (and songs thus employed)
Lawrence Person: Shoegazer Sunday
Charlie Ricci: Paul Desmond: The Complete RCA Victor Recordings featuring Jim Hall; Cory Wells
Blue Rose: "River of Change"
FFB: THE ANTHOLOGIES OF BETTY M. OWEN
Betty M. Owen was an editor most visibly for Scholastic Book Services in the 1960s and '70s...and her most prolific contributions were of the horror and associated weird fiction anthologies she produced for Scholastic, along with some other compilations (her 1966 Christmas carol anthology, with fellow SBS anthologist Mary MacEwan, featured transcriptions/arrangements by none other than a relatively young Carla Bley) of more than passing interest, including a selection of Jack London's short work and two anthologies of fiction from the Scholastic Magazines young writers' contests. A lover of sf, as well, she produced one anthology of more or less purely science fiction content, albeit that was one I've never actually held or seen, as it appeared after I was out of the Scholastic Book Services' reach, for the most part (I was in highs school by then, and occasionally seeing their magazines in class, but for whatever reason we weren't getting the book offers). Perhaps notably, the most prominent book of hers not published by SBS is the critical survey Smorgasbord of Books: Titles Junior High Readers Relish. (Indices courtesy ISFDB.)
Her first horror antho for SBS was:
- Publication: Stories of the Supernatural
- Editors: Betty M. Owen
- Year: 1967-02-00
- Catalog ID: #T896
- Publisher: Scholastic Book Services
- Price: $0.45
- Pages: 224
- 5 • The Willows • (1907) • novella by Algernon Blackwood
- 85 • The Vertical Ladder • (1946) • shortstory by William Sansom
- 105 • The Dancing Doll • (1954) • shortstory by Gerald Kersh
- 114 • Sir Dominick's Bargain • (1931) • shortstory by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu [as by J. Sheridan Le Fanu]
- 138 • The Cocoon • (1946) • shortstory by John B. L. Goodwin
- 166 • The Madwoman • (1954) • shortstory by Gerald Kersh
- 173 • The Fly • (1957) • novelette by George Langelaan (trans. of La mouche)
A fine start, and indicative of her lack of any sort of "purism" among selections that were sfnal, more criminous, and otherwise not necessarily horror per se, though, for example, the Blackwood qualifies by any measure. As someone already having cut his teeth on the eclecticism of the Robert Arthur "Alfred Hitchcock" anthologies, this was not unwelcome.
- Publication: 11 Great Horror Stories
- Editors: Betty M. Owen
- Year: 1969-12-00
- Catalog ID: #TK1541
- Publisher: Scholastic Book Services
- Price: $0.60
- Pages: 239
- 5 • The Dunwich Horror • [Cthulhu Mythos] • (1929) • novelette by H. P. Lovecraft
- 71 • The Love Letter • (1959) • shortstory by Jack Finney
- 92 • W. S. • (1952) • shortstory by L. P. Hartley
- 108 • The Oblong Box • (1844) • shortstory by Edgar Allan Poe
- 125 • The Ape and the Mystery • (1948) • shortstory by Gerald Kersh
- 138 • The Judge's House • (1891) • shortstory by Bram Stoker
- 166 • Thus I Refute Beelzy • (1940) • shortstory by John Collier
- 174 • Return of the Griffins • (1948) • shortstory by A. E. Sandeling
- 198 • Flies • (1932) • shortstory by Anthony Vercoe
- 210 • The Shed • (1953) • shortstory by E. Everett Evans
- 232 • The Mistake • (1959) • shortstory by Fielden Hughes
This was the first I bought among her books, and it's one of the more dear to me, as it introduced me to Finney with what I still think of as one of his best stories, and generally hewed closely to its stated remit, featuring mostly, at least, true horror as I think of it (supernatural suspense fiction, essentially)...the Poe being one of the relatively few exceptions...also notable that while Owen had mixed mostly classic and relatively "slick" writers in her first book of the outre, she reached just a bit into the more "insider" work of the likes of Evans, Hughes and, still to some extent in 1969, Lovecraft. Though whether she read the Evans in William Sloane's Stories for Tomorrow or Zacherley's Midnight Stew would be a good question to ask if we had the opportunity.
- Publication: Nine Strange Stories
- Editors: Betty M. Owen
- Year: 1974-00-00
- Catalog ID: #TK4467
- Publisher: Scholastic Book Services
- Pages: 155
- 1 • The Rocking-Horse Winner • (1926) • shortstory by D. H. Lawrence
- 23 • Heartburn • (1951) • shortstory by Hortense Calisher
- 38 • The Snail-Watcher • (1964) • shortstory by Patricia Highsmith (variant of The Snail Watcher)
- 49 • Manuscript Found in a Police State • (1972) • novelette by Brian W. Aldiss
- 88 • The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles • (1951) • shortstory by Margaret St. Clair [as by Idris Seabright ]
- 95 • The Mark of the Beast • (1890) • shortstory by Rudyard Kipling
- 114 • The Summer People • (1950) • shortstory by Shirley Jackson
- 134 • The Leopard Man's Story • (1903) • shortstory by Jack London
- 140 • The Garden of Forking Paths • (1948) • shortstory by Jorge LuÃs Borges (trans. of El JardÃn de senderos que se bifurcan 1941)
Well, this is probably the best of her anthologies for Scholastic, and probably why I chose it (in 2009, how time escapes) as the only of her books I've covered so far previously among FFB selections. I believe this book, also the first of hers I read in a borrowed copy, introduced me to Lawrence, Calisher and Borges...don't know if also St. Clair and Highsmith, but quite possibly--I suspect I'd read both of them perhaps a bit earlier in Arthur's "Hitchcock" anthologies.
- Publication: The Ghostmasters: Weird Stories by Famous Writers
- Editors: Betty M. Owen
- Year: 1976-10-00
- Catalog ID: #TK 3527
- Publisher: Scholastic Book Services
- Pages: 171
- 1 • An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge • (1890) • shortstory by Ambrose Bierce
- 16 • The Man and the Snake • (1890) • shortstory by Ambrose Bierce
- 26 • The Boarded Window • (1889) • shortstory by Ambrose Bierce
- 33 • The Middle Toe of the Right Foot • (1890) • shortstory by Ambrose Bierce
- 46 • Höïchi-the-Earless • shortstory by Lafcadio Hearn
- 61 • Black Hair • shortstory by Lafcadio Hearn
- 67 • The Screen-Maiden • shortstory by Lafcadio Hearn
- 73 • Green Tea • [Martin Hesselius] • (1872) • novelette by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu [as by J. Sheridan Le Fanu ]
- 122 • Mr. Justice Harbottle • [Martin Hesselius] • (1872) • novelette by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu [as by J. Sheridan Le Fanu ]
This was the last of Owen's books I purchased as a youth, and by the time I found it, I'd already read the Bierce stories, and a couple of the Hearn and Le Fanu stories, but decided what the hell, let's see what the balance are like. It's an oddly budget-conscious and rather lazy-seeming antho, given it's devoted to three writers whose work was all firmly in the public domain, but perhaps the selections were very dear to Owen. This would also be the last anthology of macabre fiction she placed with SBS.
- Publication: StarStreak: Stories of Space
- Editors: Betty M. Owen
- Year: 1979-00-00
- ISBN: 0-590-31264-2 [978-0-590-31264-6]
- Publisher: Scholastic Book Services
- Pages: 216
- 1 • Who Goes There? • (1938) • novella by John W. Campbell, Jr. [as by Don A. Stuart]
- 93 • Collecting Team • (1956) • shortstory by Robert Silverberg
- 116 • The Haunted Space Suit • (1958) • shortstory by Arthur C. Clarke (variant of Who's There?)
- 124 • Condition of Employment • (1960) • shortstory by Clifford D. Simak
- 141 • After the Sirens • (1960) • shortstory by Hugh Hood
- 158 • The Spaceman Cometh • (1955) • shortstory by Henry Gregor Felsen
- 176 • The Nine Billion Names of God • (1953) • shortstory by Arthur C. Clarke
- 188 • The Rotifers • (1953) • shortstory by Robert Abernathy
- 207 • Does a Bee Care? • (1957) • shortstory by Isaac Asimov
As noted, I've never owned a copy of this one, published by the time I was reading essentially only books published for adults, anyway, but it, too, is a rather neat collection of chestnuts and at least one obscure selection (the Hood, previously only in a William F. Nolan anthology) and one or two arguably so (though the Felsen had been anthologized by Groff Conklin after appearing in F&SF, and Felsen was reasonably well-known for his YA writing...the Abernathy being one of those stories that people who know the author's name at all tend to think of first). Clearly, SBS was hoping to cash in on some Star Wars/Close Encounters gravy...I wonder why Owen stopped at this point (SBS's notoriously low rates of pay?).
Below, some of Owen's other work for SBS:
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| 1980s or later reprint. |
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| selections from the Fitzgerald translation edited by Owen |
