CASTLE OF FRANKENSTEIN NO. 10 (PART 1)

CASTLE OF FRANKENSTEIN
Vol. 3 No. 2 (Whole #10)
1966
Gothic Castle Publishing Company
Our Founder: Charles Foster Kane
Executive Editor and Publisher: Calvin T. Beck
Associate Publisher: Helen Beck
Editor and Designer: Bhob Stewart
European Editor: Mike Parry
Consulting Editor: William K. Everson
Cover: Photo Van Williams as The Green Hornet
Pages: 68
Cover Price: 35 cents

Considering the content of this issue, I can think of a more dramatic cover that could have been used other than another TV show cover, but hey, it's what's on the inside that counts, right?

The highlight of the issue is Barry Brown's lead article on Bela Lugosi's infamous drug addiction. At the time (remember -- no internet!) little was known about this tragic episode in the life of our favorite vampire. In 1935, while filming MARK OF THE VAMPIRE, he was legally prescribed morphine to help with leg pain. When his physician cut him off from the drug, Lugosi was already addicted and went searching for less-legal means of obtaining it. In 1938, on a trip to England, he heard of a new drug that was purported to be less "harmful" than morphine. It was called methadone and he smuggled a pound of it back to the States. Between the methadone and Demeral, Lugosi's addiction lasted into the 1950's, until he was finally hospitalized, a physically broken man. A sad story, indeed.

Included in this issue is a surprise interview with Lon Chaney, Jr. and a lengthy interview with Christopher Lee. Fan favorite Bob Burns is shown in his Kogar the Ape costume for a feature on the strangely-titled RAT PFINK A BOO-BOO, an even stranger super-hero movie by Ray Dennis Steckler. There is also the first installment of the department, "We Have Always Lived in the Gothic Castle" (a take on the title of a Shirley Jackson novel), featuring a bio of one of my favorite fantasy editors and writers, Lin Carter. It is accompanied by a nice portrait by illustrator Jack Gaughan. A good, solid issue!