Episode 89: Christmas with Vincent

 

Happy holidays listeners! When we were planning this episode of Planet 8, we thought, "What says happy holidays better than Vincent Price?" This episode we celebrate the career and life of a true Renaissance Man, Vincent Price, with our special guest, Lord Blood-Rah.

Price is a legend as a horror film actor, and we will discuss some of his many films, including The Tingler, The Abominable Dr. Phibes, The Fly, House of Wax, and more. Price played a variety of roles, sometimes sympathetic, sometimes malevolent. But regardless of the role, he had a charm that won audiences over.

For many monster kids, our first encounter with Price was on television, perhaps through his role as Egghead on Batman, or even in his many appearances on shows like The Brady Bunch, Love Boat and The Muppet Show. He also displayed his wit and wisdom on game shows like The Hollywood Squares, and frequented talk shows, where his culinary skills might be on display! 

Price even authored cookbooks (with his second wife, Mary), aimed at the average American family. Cooking Price-wise and A Treasury of Great Recipes were very popular cookbooks in their time, and Treasury was republished in 2015 for a special 50th anniversary edition. He loved cooking and making recipes more accessible for people.

He was also an art collector. He had a Masters degree in fine arts and had a lifelong appreciation of art, and a desire to preserve art and bring art to the public - again, making art more accessible to the average person. Today much of his personal collection resides in the Vincent Price Art museum in Los Angeles College in Monterrey Park, California.

Price also had quite a career as a voice actor. His wonderful voice allowed him to play the lead role as The Saint on radio in the late 40s. More modern listeners would recognize Price as the narrator from Michael Jackson's Thriller. 

Price comes across as a fascinating, kind, and charming gentleman that we would love to sit down with, perhaps over a dinner from a recipe in one of his cookbooks, and just have a long conversation. 

For this episode's Sensor Sweep, Lord Blood-Rah shares with us all his latest happenings. First up, he has a podcast, Lord Blood-Rah's Nerve Wrackin' Auditorium, in which he hosts old time radio horror and science fiction shows, like Inner Sanctum, Lights Out and more. You can find it on Spotify, Stitcher, Apple, and more. The website is Anchor.FM/lordbloodrah. In the Bay Area, every third Saturday night of the month, he's hosting Chiller Theater at the Orinda Theater, showing classic horror and Sci fi. His regular TV series, Lord Blood-Rah's Nerve Wrackin' Theater is going into season 12! Go to the website, Lordbloodrah.com to check out new episodes and everything else going on! He also has a Patreon, where you can support what he is doing, Patreon.com/Lordbloodrah. There you can get his exclusive weekly show, Lord Blood-Rah's Cathode Zone, where he presents classic TV shows. Big news: he may have a comic book available soon!

We want to wish you all happy holidays - and best wishes for 2022!

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Episode 88: Captivating Creatures

 

This episode, the Planet 8 crew talks about some of our favorite creature designs. Over the history of cinema, there have been many amazing fantasy, horror and science fiction creatures designed and put on film, and we will each cover one of our favorites. Each of these has significance as paving the way for future films, developing new techniques and pioneering new styles. 

We begin with the original Planet of the Apes, and the daunting task of developing realistic makeup for the talking chimps, gorillas and orangutans. If the makeup wasn't convincing, if it didn't allow the actors to act and emote, there was no way the film could be made. But talented artist John Chambers was able to develop amazing prosthetics that were flexible enough and convincing enough to meet the challenge. Chambers had a fascinating background that enabled him to make advancements in facial prosthetics. His work certainly was a huge influence on future monster makers.

Next we cross the ocean and look at a big star, King Ghidorah! Created by Akira Watanabe for the 1964 movie Ghidorah the Three Headed Monster, it was based on many other multi-headed dragons. The design was always three heads and two tails, but early production photos show different coloring. The suit was operated by an actor in the suit and puppeteers working the heads, wings and tails. This made for a kind of frenetic movement style, which was pretty cool when you saw it as a kid! Ghidorah was active til 1972, then brought back in a new suit in the 90s, but he lost his crazy frenetic motion. In the new Legendary series, there are three motion capture actors playing each head. The actors have to coordinate their movements, but this method allows each head to have its own personality.

Our last headliner is the one and only Eighth Wonder of the World, King Kong! Kong is a fascinating case, having been portrayed now by stop-motion, men in suits, and now CGI. We look at the original film, the Toho Kong, the 1976 Kong including both Rick Baker's Kong and the ludicrous robot Kong, moving into Peter Jackson's Kong, and the latest Legendary films Kong. And who could forget the King Kong at the Universal Studios tour? Yes, we discuss him too!

There are many other classic monster or creature designs, and so we have some honorable mentions we'll reveal towards the end of the episode. Can you guess what they might be?

For our Sensor Sweep, to get into the holiday spirit, Commander Larry shares a boffo new item, the Hallmark 2021 To The Batcave! Batman classic TV series ornament. Really, it's a bit ridiculous to call this an ornament. It's more of a display piece. On the top of the ornament, we see Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson in Wayne Manor, on the bat poles. Press the button and the batphone lights and beeps, the door closes up top, and a door opens in the batcave below, showing Batman and Robin descending on the batpoles. This spectacular item runs about $60 but may be hard to find. Good luck!

We hope you enjoyed this episode. What are some of your favorite creature designs? Let us know!

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We dig monsters!