Here it is, the very first issue of FAMOUS MONSTERS of FILMLAND magazine I ever got in all it's glory! It's impossible for me to express in words the impact this B&W magazine had on my young impressionable brain. It was an amazing magazine devoted to Monster & SciFi movies! The only other magazine that came close to being this cool was MAD...but MAD didn't have awesome photos of monsters.
You have to remember that this was a time BEFORE VCR's, DVD's, The INTERNET and Streaming content - I know, it's hard to believe but true. So we had very few options when it came to reading about your favorite Horror Film. This magazine was THE Horror Bible for me, and I worshipped it. I learned everything about my favorite Horror Stars and the films they starred in by the man who created the word SciFi, the Ackermonster himself, Forrest J Ackerman. This guy was one my heroes, he knew everything there was to know about Lon Chaney Sr., King Kong and other obscure films I'd never heard of but would track down years later and obsess over like a mental patient. Little did I know then, 17 years later I would finally meet him and go to the Ackermansion and wander amongst the thousands of Horror and SciFi artifacts that he collected of the decades. But that's a story for another time.
Anyway, here is Famous Monsters of Filmland Magazine, issue #130, from December 1976 for your enjoyment. I doubt you'll have the same feeling I had when I read it for the first 100 times, and that's too bad...you're missing out.
One of my favorite TV shows as a kid!
I wanted to see this movie SOOOO bad when I was a kid, but they never showed it on TV. It wasn't until around 1994 that I finally got a chance to snatch up a video tape of it and soak it in...but I felt as though I had already seen it after reading about it so many times.
SQUIRM! I actually ended up buying a copy of the paperback before seeing this film and plowed through it like a maniac. I LOVED the cheesiness of this film like you wouldn't believe - man-eating worms! The sheer volume of man eating worms was incredible!!!
(you can tell how much I liked it it based on the amount of exclamation marks I used)
I thought the Androids face was one of the coolest looking things ever, and I would try to draw it over and over again.
Now the mystery photo contest in every issue was something I looked forward to as well, and very rarely got right...But it did expose me to some really offbeat, bizarre films that I would search out to watch years later.
Let's just say that I totally 'bought this bullshit' hook line and sinker when I read it as a kid. I wanted to write a letter to this guy Ron Leeds, who lived in this place called Santa Ana, California and tell him how of an idiot he was! Famous Monster of Filmland was a terrific magazine! it was the BEST magazine! how dare you say it should be used to line the bottom of a bird cage!
Man, that 'letter' got me all worked up...I think I even tried to discuss it with some of my friends at the time but they didn't give a shit...they didn't even read the magazine. I was the weirdo.
But this is what I grew to love about this magazine years later...the little 'wink' to the reader.
It was articles like this that would help me start compiling lists of famous dead Horror actors. It was another hobby of mine.
I'd drool over these pages wishing I could buy everyone of them...it would take me decades to track down most of them in decent condition.
I'd stare at Barbra Steele's image for hours. Don't ask why, I just did it.
It wouldn't be until years later that I realized why.
Ah yes, the Captain Company offerings in the back of the magazine...so much delightful monster merchandise I thought my head would explode! I wanted it all. But alas it was not to be...I would have to try a different approach. Now aside from meeting Uncle Forry, I would have to say that having monster toys that I designed and manufactured appear in Famous Monsters of Filmland WITH Gene Simmons on the cover would have to be one of the biggest thrills of my life. Sure, it took me 23 years but my company and I made it into the June/July issue #226!
I felt like a rockstar.
I think I'm gonna go read some magazines, and inhale that old familiar smell of ancient newsprint and stale ink and dream of monsters tonight.
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