Artists and monsters make strange bedfellows, and one particular photographer had an early assignment in her famed career that put her in front of a group of them. Here's how it happened:
One day, Jim Warren got a call in his office from a woman who said that he should take a picture for FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND of the "cute" kids in her neighborhood running around in their monster masks bought from the magazine. As fate would have it, one Gloria Steinem, Associate Editor for another of Warren's magazines, HELP! overheard the phone conversation and told Warren she knew of a woman who was between jobs. Always looking for an angle to promote his magazine, Warren hired her for the shot.
Taken in 1962, the photo didn't appear until two years later, in the "Haunt Ads" section of FM #31 (December 1964). It ended up being one of the more memorable monster fan photos in the magazine. Oh, and the photographer? Diane Arbus!
She was actually a great pick for the shot, as he was honing her skills as a street photographer of bizarre images. And what could have been more bizarre than kids from the local chapter of the Famous Monsters Club in Topstone masks sitting on a Queens, NY stoop?
Arbus was paid $50 for the photograph which ended up on Warren's wall. It sold at auction in 2019 for $50,000.
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