One of the great magazines to reach its biggest peak during the Monster Craze of the mid 1960s was Warren's FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND. Created by Forrest J. Ackerman, the publication began its run back in 1958 as a one shot issue but it went into a second printing due to popular demand and soon enough it turned into a monthly, bi-monthly and annual periodical.
FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND Number One
Every Halloween season, I dust off my small collection of FM magazines and browse through those ancient pages which even now, still appear informative and entertaining.
"America's First Family of Fright!"
During the Monster Craze of the mid-sixties, television became the resting ground for many supernatural and horror-inspired shows. My favorite one was, without any doubt, THE MUNSTERS, which were an average and typical American family, except for the fact that Father Herman looked like the Frankenstein monster, Mother Lily and Grandpa, were vampires and their son Eddie was a werewolf. The 'different"one in that family happened to be young Marilyn, who was a beautiful blonde girl, with normal looks which the rest of her family accepted lovingly.
Fred Gwynne, who previously had starred in the comedy series "CAR 54, WHERE ARE YOU?", portrayed Herman Munster. Beautiful movie siren Yvonne De Carlo gave life to Lily Munster while Al Lewis, also from "CAR 54", inhabited the role of Grandpa Munster. The rest of the cast was completed with Butch Patrick who played little Eddie Munster and lovely Beverley Owen as Marilyn Munster.
THE MUNSTERS lived in 1313 Mockingbird Lane which was located on the backlot of Universal Studios, the same place where the original Universal monsters were created, back in the 1930s and 40s.
The show was successful enough to span lots of toys and collectible merchandise which, to this day, is still sought after by memorabilia enthusiasts.
After 13 episodes of the first season, Beverley Owen left the series to join her boyfriend and was replaced by Pat Priest, who did a marvelous job as Marilyn until the show ended in 1966.
As of this writing, only Butch Patrick and Pat Priest are still the only living members from the series.
Fred Gwynne passed on in 1993; Yvonne De Carlo died in 2007, Al Lewis left us in 2006 and Beverley Owen joined them February 21, 2019.
However, the show is still well remembered and running in syndication on several TV channels.
THE MUNSTERS were also featured in a Gold Key comic which published 16 issues during the 60s and two reunion movies followed, one right after the show was cancelled in 1966, MUNSTER, GO HOME and a TV special in 1988, THE MUNSTERS' REVENGE.
And with these images of the TV show and the Gold Key comics, we bid farewell to that typical
All-American family, THE MUNSTERS, wishing you a very Frightful and Happy Halloween!
As a bonus, here are the openings of both seasons:
This comic book character appeared in the ROCKY AND BULLWINKLE comic books and also in THE MUNSTERS as a bonus short story during Gold Key's golden era of the 1960s. Liddle Wolfgang was a rambunctious and imaginative kid obsessed with monsters and horror stories. The comic artwork has sometimes been mistakenly credited to Al Kilgore (who was the artist on the BULLWINKLE daily syndicated comic strip), but it was the work of the much underrated Mel Crawford. I loved these little stories and here's a small sample of Liddle Wolfgang's adventures:
