It was the summer of 1965 and the monster craze was going full tilt, hitting the market with every conceivable toy, model kit, plastic figure and more, and making quite a splash in pop culture.
Even the board game giant, Milton Bradley, got in the act with the Monster Old Maid card game. First introduced in 1964, the cards were a large 3 1/2" x 5 3/4", printed on heavy cardboard stock and featured images of the Universal monsters, including those from Hammer Films, which were distributed in the U.S. by Universal at the time. Conspicuously absent were cards with Boris Karloff's Frankenstein and Lon Chaney's Hunchback and Phantom.
A set of cards, complete with box are demanding upwards of $200 or more these days. I picked this set up some years ago when they were still reasonably priced.
When summer hit, us Monster Kids would immerse ourselves in comics, Doc Savage novels and weekend monster movies. Gathering around a picnic table under a patio at a friend's house, we'd spend hours playing countless games of Monster Old Maid.
 |
| Card back. |
Those images really tickle my memory. It's just barely possible that somehow my folks bought this for my siblings and me. Or maybe a relative had a set. Love those images and now (as opposed to then) I can place each and every one.
ReplyDelete