Monday, December 10, 2012

The Masks of Famous Monsters - Issue # 42

Welcome to the eighteenth installment in The Masks of Famous Monsters Series. Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine was an absolute treasure trove of early mask history. By combing through the 191 issues published between 1958-1983, it's possible to gain a good understanding of the decades of evolution and history of Don Post Studios and Topstone monster masks. The eventual goal of this series is to catalog and archive each monster mask appearance in the pages Famous Monsters.

 
Issue 42 of Famous Monsters was published in January 1967 and contained two full articles that would surely please any self respecting headhunter...


The first write-up details the "resurrection" of King Kong  by Don Post Studios. The article outlines the general process of securing the license, building a small scale miniture, building the full-scale armature, sculpting, molding, and hairing the beast. The article is full of photos documenting the process and they provide a nice glimpse into the inner workings of Don Post Studios...



John Chambers, Don Post, and Verne Langdon
Up next was a "Men Behind the Monsters" article written by Verne Langdon featuring John Chambers. The article doesn't specifically discuss monster masks, however it's certainly noteworthy as during the time of publication Chambers was an executive at Don Post Studios along with Don Sr and Verne Langdon. The article itself highlights Mr. Chamber's work on the "The Sixth Finger" episode of Outer Limits.



In terms of monster mask ads, the same familiar "calendar" mask ad and Don Post Studios and Topstone ads that appeared in the last several issues would make another appearance, as would these small spots for monster hands and monster feet...

That's all for now, stay tuned as this month promises TWO terrifying Masks of Famous Monsters posts....

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