Although most of my blogs tend to be about antique iron beds and different things that relate to iron beds. This blog has to do more with our children and the memories we’re helping them build around the holidays….. specifically Halloween. So if you tuned in to read something about my beds, check the next blog. It will be chocked full of old bed antidotes.
I happen to live in the Halloween Capital of the World…..Los Angeles. Can you imagine how many costume designers, set decorators, make-up artists and actors live in this town. And they all love Halloween and see it as a holiday when they can all ply their trade and try and outdo friends and business associates.
In my neighborhood there happen to be a number of people who are in the entertainment community, many of which I’ve had the good fortune of selling my beds to.
There is a block, down the street, that is roped off every year and gets tons of press and coverage from the local news media. Mid way down the block there is a huge estate of a very famous “rock and roll” celebrity. Every year he hires a dozen or more actors and make-up artists to recreate the scariest monsters, ghouls and goblins, ever seen on the screen. He also has his house covered in cobwebs with the large front yard covered with tomb stones and fog machines. Every hour he puts on a show with a Frankenstein character, who is being operated on by a mad scientist. All the “trick or treater’s” are told to come close and gather around to watch the operation. The mad scientist makes it seem as though putting on the finishing touches to the “stitches” that are holding the monsters head in place. He then takes a bloody heart and performs a transplant and sews the chest back up. This whole time you’re thinking the monster is a mannequin. Then the scientist hooks a car battery with cables to the two protruding electrodes in the monsters neck. Sparks fly all over the place…..but nothing happens. Dejected, the scientist turns to leave as the monster comes to life and set upright on the table. Everybody screams as the monster swings his enormous legs and boots over the side of the gurney and stands up. As he starts to walk toward the children they all turn to run, only to find out all the hired ghouls and vampires have come up behind them as the kids were intently watching the show. They chase the kids all over the yard and usually out the front gate. It’s a show that bus loads of children are brought in to enjoy every year.
Last year he did an Exorcist theme with a Linda Blair look alike tied to an old antique iron bed which had been rigged with hydraulics to appear as thought it was possessed and rocked back and forth and jumped up and down. Every few minutes the Linda Blair character would projectile vomit green pea soup, like in the movie. He had clear wire that was attached to the bed and at the high of the possession levitated the iron beds into the air by some ten feet or more. Because he had studio techs rig the bed, it worked flawlessly.
My two girls wouldn’t think of missing his show each year. One is 21 and the other is 16. They’ve been seeing them for the past 10 years. The cute little blond in the photo is now my grown up 16 year old.
Come to think of it……these memories I’m helping my kids build, are also ones I’ll have.
