Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) - Newspaper Ad [Oakland Tribune - July 27, 1948]

As baffling in retrospect as it might seem, star Lou Costello was adamant in NOT wanting to do this film. It took a hefty increase in salary and the hiring of a trusted director to get him on board. Good thing, as Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein went on to become on of their most popular, and famous, films.

Come on, they even brought Bela Lugosi back to play Dracula! Although the studio evidently had to be talked into that bit of casting.

Dracula (1979) - Newspaper Ad [San Francisco Examiner - July 8, 1979]

Thanks in very large part to the massive success of the Edward Gorey designed revival of the Dean/Balderston penned play, both on Broadway and as a national tour, Universal dusted off the gothic horror property that launched its famous monster line-up and released this "all-new" cinematic version of the classic story in 1979.

There were also three or four Dracula movies that came out during the summer of 1979, depending on whether or not you count (heh, "count") Werner Herzog's Noserfatu the Vampyre. Love at First Bite, a rom-com take on Dracula that starred George Hamilton as the Count, preceded this film's release by 3 or so months. The 7 Brothers Meet Dracula, a delayed by five or so years retitled release of Hammer Film's Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires, would open the Wednesday before this film's release.

Because the movie looked "old" to me, in that it was set in the 19th century and 12 year-old me preferred movies and stories set in time periods with electricity, indoor plumbing, and motor cars, I was disinterested in seeing this on the big screen. Too bad for younger me.

I did catch up on during a Halloween night sleepover with a whole bunch of friends. An independent pay TV outlet had an awesome marathon lined up. What I remember being shown that night was the animated film Wizards (1977), followed by The Amityville Horror (1979), Halloween (1978), The Fog (1980) and Dracula (1979). There may come a time when I might be able to fact check this, by checking the Oakland Tribune's TV listings, but who knows if, or when, that will ever occur.
 

Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) - Newspaper Ad [Oakland Tribune - July 29, 1948]

Having played out their roster of monsters with a cycle of ever increasing silly, albeit entertaining and seldom boring, films in the first, war torn half of the 1940s. Universal Pictures decided to combine them with their equally played out comedic duo of Abbott & Costello.

The result was box office gold, although it seems that it took some convincing on Lou Costello's part to actually make the film. KBHK (Channel 44, Cable Channel 12) had a dedicated Saturday midday time slot for Abbott & Costello films and would cycle through them over and over. 

While I would pass on the stuff like Pardon My Sarong and Buck Privates, I tried not to miss whenever an entry in their own semi-series of monster comedies, or monster comedy adjacent fare such as Hold That Ghost, was broadcast. Fun times, good memories.

Midnite Spook Show(s) - Newspaper Ad [Oakland Tribune - June 23, 1956]

It might not be a Friday the 13th, but that fact will not stop the venues in the Fox West Coast Theaters chain from holding yet another Midnite Spook Show.

If I had to choose between being able to see the classic chestnuts of Frankenstein (1931) and Dracula (1931) or the more contemporary House of Wax (1953) and The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953) on the big screen, I just might have leaned toward the latter. Because I do love me some giant monster action.

Dracula (1931) - Newspaper Ad [San Francisco Examiner - April 3, 1931]

Point Numero Uno: I must (or need, or have) to admit that I am something of an obsessive reorganizer. Time and time again I have redesigned how everything from my books, read and unread, to my soundtrack collection, to my movie collection, to my memorabilia collection are displayed on the shelves and walls around the house, or stored in the boxes in either my home office or the garage. This might be my externalizing some inner psychological issue or trauma in order to create a 'perfect representation' of my interests and hobbies that is both soothing (to me) and impressive (to others).

The categories on this blog, and its (sadly deleted) previous incarnation, have been created, deleted, recreated, deleted again, and then recreated yet again, in an attempt to create some form of soothing, sense-making linear pattern for all this nonsense and chaos. So it goes.

Point Numero Two-o: At some point in 1979 I began to clip and save ads for assorted horror, science-fiction, and fantasy movies from either the Oakland Tribune or the local TV Guide. I know this because I remember taping ads for both The Amityville Horror (1979) and The Fog (1980) to my bedroom wall.

None of those clippings have survived, though. But when I created a Pinterest account some ten or so years ago, I found a great many scans of newspaper ads and listings for movies and started pinning those to boards I created... then deleted, then recreated, then deleted again, and then recreated yet again. Do you sense a pattern here? I do.

Point Numero Three-o: When I resurrected and relaunched this blog I thought it would be nice to have a section dedicated to newspaper ads. I subscribed to newspapers.com and started clipping ads from either the San Francisco Examiner or the Oakland Tribune and here we are.

But, because my mind insists on overthinking the categorization and presentation of everything, my figuring out what would be blogged, when it would be blogged, and why it would be blogged became something of an issue and a challenge.

But I think I have figured a system out.

1931 seems to have been the year that the modern horror film as we have come to know it came into being. While there had been cinematic horror, science-fiction, and fantasy offerings prior to the release of Dracula, most eschewed a commitment to a supernatural threat. There would alway be a rational explanation for the supposed supernatural horrors the characters seemed to suffer.

Not so with Dracula, though. The Count was an actual, supernatural, and evil threat. He was not some mortal playacting at being a vampire, he was a vampire. Cool.

So 1931 is the starting point for my searching out all the horror, science fiction, and fantasy movie ads I can find. Well, it is the starting point in terms of the year. Figuring out a workable hunt and gather approach to finding and clipping all these movie, television, and book ads and listings took some time. Because there are some 34,310 days between January 1, 1931, give or take, and January 1, 2025, give or take. That is a whole lot days to thumb through old newspaper archives, searching out innumerable ads for horror, science-fiction, and fantasy movies, television shows and specials, and even books and, maybe, a few magazines.

Which how and why I came to focus my searches on a single calendar day. Today's search entailed going through the archives of the San Francisco Examiner for the day of April 3rd. I start at 1931, then go to 1932, 1933, 1934, and so on and so forth. 

This approach streamlines and focuses my hunting and gathering of ads into a manageable pattern that might allow me to sort through some 94 or so years of both the San Francisco Examiner and the Oakland Tribune in just two or three years. Maybe.

Now comes the challenge of coming up with something interesting to say about most of the ads that I am posting...

Friday the 13th Midnite Jinx Show(s) - Newspaper Ad [Oakland Tribune - February 13, 1953]

Fox West Coast Theaters held a bunch of Friday the 13th-themed Midnite Jinx Shows throughout the East Bay on Friday, February 13, 1953. What did they show?

Richmond's Fox theater, along with its Grand theater, showed a double-bill of The Cat Creeps (1946) and She-Wolf of London (1946).

Berkeley's California theater offered a questionable double-bill of Kansas Pacific (1953) and Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla (1952).

East Oakland's Eastmont had The Black Cat (1941) and something called Phantom of Paris, which might be a retitled Mystery of Marie Roget (1942).

North Oakland's Senator theater had the best of the bunch, though. A triple-bill of Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), and The Monster Walks (1932).

Although both the Grand Lake and the Paramount are named in the ad, there were no listings for either theater. So it goes.

But there was a separate ad for the Friday the 13th Midnite "Jinx" Show at the Paramount Theatre:

It appears the Paramount had a double-bill that included a major studio preview. Might this have been a sneak preview of The War of the Worlds (1953)? No idea.

The live show was hosted by one Russ Byrd. Not recognizing that name, I did a quick search of the Oakland Tribune's archives and learned Byrd was a well-regarded entertainer and show host. He passed away in 1995.

Another search revealed that "Tiny" James was an absolute legend of a pipe organ performer. He died in 1989.