NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS!

When Jonathan Frid refused to play Barnabas in the sequel to HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS for fear of being typecast, Dan Curtis and his production team had to come up with another plotline without him. The result was NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS and this time the focus was on Quentin Collins (David Selby) and his hapless bride Tracy (Kate Jackson) and the plot centered around possession instead of vampires.

This entry into the DARK SHADOWS franchise was not as successful at the box office as its predecessor and I'll give you three tries to figure out why and the first two don't count -- duh! No Barnabas! Whether he liked it or not, he had been typecast way before these movies were filmed. Plus, it's a huge gamble to spend the money on making a feature film without your top star, but Curtis banked on the show's title and popularity, thinking it was enough.

What follows here are examples from MGM's press kit for the film, issued by their publicity department for the news media. You will notice that it was also referred to CURSE OF DARK SHADOWS, the title that was used before it was released on August 3, 1971. Some interesting stuff here, including a sheet about Lyndhurst the 110-year-old New York mansion that was rented for the Collinwood setting.

These are the captions that coincide with the photos below.

EXTRA! Here's a feature article on NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS from FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND #88 (January 1972). You can see that Forry put the press kit to good use.

LITTLE ANNIE FANNY MEETS CONAN

As well known today as it is, Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder's LITTLE ANNIE FANNY has not been a favorite of some critics over the years. Despite the crisp writing and meticulous art the naysayers maintain that it isn't their best work, citing Hugh Hefner's "helicopter editing" as the main reason. Others believe it was the pinnacle of the Kurtzman/Elder partnership. Whatever the viewpoint, it is really the most extreme (and sexy) moment in the evolution of MAD magazine.

As the founder of the world's greatest humor magazine (now a light gray shadow of its former self), Kurtzman was lured by Hef to publish a humor magazine of his own under the HMH Publications (aka Playboy) imprint. Kurtzman bailed from MAD and took a parcel of its talent with him including Elder, Jack Davis, Al Jaffe, Wally Wood and Russ Heath. The first issue of TRUMP hit the above-the-counter stands with a cover date of January 1957. It tanked after the second issue when Hef pulled it because of financial problems he was having at the time. Another humor 'zine, HUMBUG, followed thereafter but didn't gain any traction (while MAD cruised along nicely, thank you very much).

After corresponding with Hefner over a period of time and getting an endorsement from executive editor Ray Russell, Kurtzman and his pal Will Elder landed the LITTLE ANNIE FANNY stint. It lasted for 107 issues from October 1962 to September 1988.

In an interview with THE COMICS JOURNAL, Russ Heath describes some of the chaos that went into a LITTLE ANNIE FANNY strip on any given segment:

"I met him [Kurtzman] when he was doing the Hey Look strip for Stan Lee up in the Empire State Building and we became friends and went out for lunch. And then he started feeding me little things at lunches and I eventually did a couple things in Mad. I did Help! and Humbug and, of course, Little Annie Fanny for years and years and years. In fact, Hefner moved me out to Chicago because I’d been asking Harvey for a raise for a year, and he says, 'You’re working for Playboy magazine!'

"I say, 'I can’t feed that to my kids.'

"He didn’t pay any attention. I got fed up with him one time. He came down one morning to pick some stuff up at 7:30 from my apartment from where he lives, and he didn’t tell me he was bringing all his daughters with him. So I open the door, haven’t been to bed yet. I’m in my briefs and a T-shirt and they all come running and screaming. A little politeness would have warned me to open the door with some clothes on, right? [Laughter.] And then, this one kid took my spy glasses apart and flushed the lenses down the toilet. That didn’t please me too much.

"But anyway, we cut the pages apart so Willy could work on half of one page while I’m working on the other half and that means cutting all the tissues that were taped on. And, you know, tissues and tape and sticky — it becomes a complete mess. And so I’m sitting there after he left and I thought, 'That’s it, I’ve had it!' I waited for him to get home and I called him and I said, 'Why don’t you come back down here and pick all this stuff up? I’m done, I’m through.' So he panicked and by 5 o’clock Hefner’s on the phone and says, 'I’ll double your salary. I’ll give you my old office to work out of and I’ll physically move you to Chicago.' Well, that was an offer I couldn’t refuse so that’s how I moved to Chicago."

In this particular episode we see Annie meeting up with Arnie Shpritzwasser as Cohan the Barbarian, from "the Hibernian Age, when the sword is mightier than the pen, and the penis is mightier than the swordis"  -- with apologies to Frazetta, of course! "

JUNE IN AUGUST

You may or may not know that Miss June Wilkinson is still with us at the age of 84. She published her autobiography last year and she bares all (pun intended).

Hollywood or Bust!: The life and times of the legendary actress, model, and Playboy phenomenon

June Wilkinson Paperback – February 14, 2023

ABOUT JUNE'S BOOK

Stage and screen actress June Wilkinson, born in England in 1940, pulls back the curtain on her long career and tells it like it was. She began as a teenager performing at the famed London Windmill Theater, her American debut in Playboy Magazine, and her successful American film and stage career. With exceptional candor, June relates the unvarnished story behind her appearances in Playboy Magazine, her successful film and stage stardom in America, the many men in her life, her failed marriage to Houston quarterback Dan Pastorini, to the many films and stage stars she worked with.

Wilkinson appeared in such films La Rabia, The Rage, The Private Lives of Adam and Eve, Career Girl, Weed Keeton's Cops, Weed, Too Late Blues, and many others. Her TV appearances included 77 Sunset Strip Batman, The Doris Day show, Hellzapoppin', and she co-produced and hosted the Starz/Encore series The Directors. As a successful stage actress, June was the female lead in such famous plays Pajama Tops, "Three in a Bedroom, The Ninety-Day Mistress, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? The Marriage-Go-Round, Come Blow Your Horn and Norman, Is That You? In 1999 Playboy published its list of the "100 Sexiest Stars of the Century", and June was #30. To this day, she remains one of the most photographed women in the world.

JUNE'S BIO

June Wilkinson began her career as a stage performer at the age of twelve and became the youngest dancer at the age of fifteen at the Windmill Theater in London. In 1958, June appeared in Playboy magazine. After that, she became the most popular cheesecake model in the country.June made her screen debut on the TV series "77 Sunset Strip" in 1958. In 1960, she appeared as Joan in the movie "Career Girl," as well as starring in a number of other films throughout her career. In 1961 Wilkinson made several stage appearances on the U.S. West coast with performers such as Louis Jourdan in The Marriage-Go-Round, Sylvia Sidney in Come Blow Your Horncand Milton Berle in Norman, Is That You?And appeared in John Cassavetes' 1962 film, Too Late Blues. In 1975 she Starred in The Florida Connection opposite her then husband Dan Pastorini, the former quarterback for the HoustonO Oilers.June is one of the most photographed models of her era and was featured in over fifty magazines and newspapers from 1958 to 1970.

I just have one question: Where's MACUMBA LOVE and her other horror films?

Oh, and of course, here's a few more pinup photos of the lovely Miss Wilkinson to get you through until next time . . .