Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - Kirk Hammett Encore

Episode Date: October 25, 2021

Gilbert and Frank celebrate Halloween week with this classic episode from 2018, featuring Metallica guitarist, Rock & Roll Hall of Famer and monster kid Kirk Hammett, who discusses his lifelong love affair with horror films, his priceless collection of movie memorabilia, his sympathy for "misunderstood" monsters and the shared connection between horror fans and metal heads. Also, Boris Karloff goes digital, Kirk meets Robert Crumb, Forrest Ackerman drives a hard bargain and Gilbert pens a fan letter to the Wolf Man. PLUS: "White Zombie"! "It Conquered the World"! Maria Ouspenskaya returns! The twisted genius of Basil Gogos! And Horrible Herman, the Asiatic Insect! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Frank here to let you know that we're running another Encore episode this week, but we are not on break or vacation. We're busy knocking out recordings this month. The reason for this Encore is we did have an all-new Halloween episode ready to go for you guys. Unfortunately, we had some technical challenges, and that one's going to be just a bit late. But we didn't want to miss out on the holiday by not putting out a Halloween-themed show, so we're flashing back to 2018 and one of our favorite episodes with Metallica guitarist and lifelong Monster Kid, and this man is truly dedicated, Kirk Hammett.

This is probably the only interview with Kirk to date in which Metallica and his music was barely mentioned. I think we brought it up once, but he didn't seem to mind since we were talking about his favorite topic in the world, which is Universal Monsters. And if you Google Kirk Hammett, the Kirk Hammett collection, you can see examples of some of his very impressive collection of memorabilia. He's got masks and costumes actually worn by Bela and Boris, including Bela's white zombie outfit, which I've talked about. Also props.

He's got some original Basil Gogo's paintings. He published a book of these, a book of photos of the collection called It's Alive, which is well worth finding. The man is truly obsessed like we are. So happy Halloween to our fellow freaks. Do keep an eye

out for the 2021 Halloween show, which should be up shortly. And until then, enjoy our classic 2018 interview with Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and Monster Kid Deluxe, Kirk Hammett. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 Hi, this is Wooley Tyler This is Lester You're listening to Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast It is Nice Thank you Gilded Godfrey's Amazing Colossal Podcast There it is

Nice Thank you Thank you guys Hi, this is Gilbert Gottfried, and this is Gilbert Gottfried's amazing, colossal podcast. Colossal Podcast. I'm here with my co-host, Frank Santopadre. We're once again recording at Nutmeg with our engineer, Frank Fertorosa. Our guest this week is a musician, songwriter, a 2009 inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the lead guitarist of one of the most popular and influential bands in rock history, Metallica. He's also co-writer of several of the band's signature hits, including Fade to black, master of puppets, and enter Sandman, and he's been named one of Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Rock Guitarists of All Time.

As a boy, he developed a keen interest in horror and science fiction movies, including the original Frankenstein, which led to a lifelong quest to acquire artifacts and memorabilia celebrating the movies he loved. In his 2012 part cover book, Too Much Horror Business, features more than 300 images of the vast collection of horror movie memorabilia he's amassed over the course of three decades, including toys, masks, models, artwork, even original costumes worn by Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff, and his terrific follow-up book, It's Alive, features dozens of horror and sci-fi movie posters from his personal collection, including rare posters from Frankenstein, Nosferatu, and The Mummy, please welcome to the show one of the most accomplished musicians of the rock era,

a fellow monster kid, and most importantly, a man who shares our love of the Black Hat, Kirk Hammett. Howdy. Kirk, welcome. Wow, that's quite an intro, Gilbert. You're kind of making me blush there for a second. The lengthy intros have become part of the show, Kirk. Yeah. I like it.

They double as an obituary. Well, that's great. Now I kind of get an example of how it might end up. See, here's something I have a hard time putting together because i remember people telling me you should get kirk hammett on this show yeah lots of people from metallica and i said uh from metallica why and i thought and they said he's the biggest old monster movie freak there is. His collection is insane. And so how, you know, the world of hard rock and nerdy guys buying gay.

Yeah, he straddles both of those worlds. It's weird because in your rock world, you get laid. And I don't think you do that in getting one of the electrodes that Glenn Strange wore. Well, Glenn Strange turns women on. Yeah. You know, I started getting into the horror thing from a very, very young age. I mean, I felt the draw, the attraction when I was five years old. And it was when I had seen my very first horror movie, which is Day of the Triffids.

And it never, never waned from that moment on, from seeing that movie to right this second, it's never waned. I've always been attracted to this genre because it just feels so fun, so great, and so comfortable, and so relatable. And this is my very first love, the horror genre. And music came a lot later.

So to tell you the truth, this was my world that I lived in as a child. It was just a complete world that I created for myself. Reading all these comic books, reading all the monster magazines, seeing the movies, watching the Saturday night horror shows that are on TV. Were you a Creature Features guy too, Kirk? Bob Wilkins was my hero. Oh, Bob Wilkins, right, the local horror host. Yep, San Francisco.

On the east side, we had Zach Early. Well, you know Zach Early. Yeah, absolutely. We lost him recently. Yeah. In fact, Zach Early pretty much had the best description for the type of music I played, and he called it that plugged-in music.

That plugged-in music. I love it. To this day, that description is just close to my heart. Because it's, you know, it's very accurate, actually. It's apt. I remember I grew up reading Famous Monsters of Filmland. Yes. And I had two things that I bought from the magazine.

One, the Frankenstein poster. Is that the poster that you still have in the house? Yeah. He's got it in the living room. And in the magazine, they make it like they're sending Frankenstein to your home. And then you go, it's a poster. But it's in a frame in the living room now. I kept it for years.

The other thing I have, also a complete ripoff, was Herman the Asiatic Insect. Now, this in the picture, you see a little kid open a box and an enormous monster with fangs and claws and tentacles leap out and people are screaming in terror. So I sent away for that. stick in it, like an ice cream stick that has some fuzz glued on it and a rubber band for antennas. And that's Herman, the Asiatic. Does that ring a bell with you, Kirk?

Absolutely. Absolutely. I remember seeing the ad in Captain Company. I remember seeing the ad in Captain Company. And yeah, that ad, it was like you were sending away for like some genie in a bottle. But it was, you know, horrible Herman in a box. And I remember years later finally seeing one of those things and opening it up and thinking, oh, my God, horrible Herman. You're so not horrible. Did you do the sea monkey thing too?

Oh yeah. I had numerous sea monkey adventures. They always died on me. The brine shrimp. You're supposed to let them grow from Monday to Friday, but by Wednesday, mine would all be floating at the top of the water.

I don't know what went wrong. And they didn't have crowns or robes or anything. Like in the picture. Yeah, they didn't have a big throne, they sat in. Exactly. And faces. I was expecting these things, you know, to be swimming around with like totally human features and whatnot, you know, being able to like look at me and interact. other magazine and it said 12 foot tall monster from space 25 cents and i thought wow this is too good to be true and so i sent my 25 cents in i remember like three months later this package

came and it was a tube i was like what is this and i remember opening it up and thinking, poster? I didn't order a poster. And then unrolling it, and it's the picture of the 12-foot space monster. They never told you that it was a poster. I thought it was some three-dimensional sort of figure.

But you know, when you're seven and a half years old, eight years old, you're expecting the world. 45 cents isn't bad for a poster, though. Yeah. One thing we've discussed on this show, but I don't think could be discussed enough. They would advertise you could buy monkeys. Oh, yeah.

We talked about that with Joe Dante. Yes. And a totally crooked operation. And when you got the package, I heard the monkeys, there was no laws on the books, maybe,

but the monkeys would be sent to these kids who were either and the monkey would either be dying or dead when it got to the kids who were either, and the monkey would either be dying or dead when it got to the kid's house. Wow. So they actually did send a real life monkey. That's what we hear.

Yes. That's what we hear. We had the director Joe Dante here and he disputed it, but. I've seen ads for it. It's horrible. Wow. it i've seen ads for it it's horrible wow yeah i remember looking at a lot of that captain company stuff and and thinking wow all this stuff is really cool but you know i grew up a poor kid so you know i would always stare at the dom post magazines right you know oh yeah masks i mean

dom post masks and and think wow these are the greatest masks in the world, but how am I going to afford $32.99? You know, when it was a real struggle for me to just like come up with 50 cents to buy famous monsters, you know, every month or so. Didn't your parents give you money for milk and lunch, and you would blow it at the comic book shop And on Famous Monsters and Monster Times and all that stuff? I would abstain from eating lunch

Oh, jeez That's how dedicated he was Wow Yeah, yeah But yeah, I grew up with a steady diet of Famous Monsters And Creepy Magazine, Eerie Magazine Eerie, sure Yes

Eerie and Sure. Yes. Eerie and creepy. All that stuff. Yeah. And then later, later on heavy metal magazine. And I heard with the monster masks in the back of the magazine, they would actually apply makeup to the masks to make them look better. Yeah.

You know, I always kind of suspected that they were too good looking to be true. And, uh, you know, uh, I, if you see the mass nowadays,

you know, the one, the actual ones, you know, I could see how, how they would have like, uh, augmented the,

the mass themselves. But one thing that they did do that none of the kids ever even knew about is when they wore the mask in the pictures, they put blackout around their eyes. And so when a kid would get these masks and put them on, without the blackout, it was so obvious that they were wearing a mask because you could see the flesh around the eyes coming through, and it wasn't quite the same effect as it was when you're looking at the picture in the magazine.

You call yourself an outcast kid, Kirk, and you related to the monsters you felt. And Gilbert, you've mentioned this on previous shows, that you felt sympathy. Oh, yeah. For the monsters. And it was an emotion that you developed early by watching monster movies. Because it was always like, well, Frankenstein's the most obvious. He's a little kid. He doesn't know about the world. And he just wants to be loved and have friends.

and he just wants to be loved and have friends. The Wolfman's like adolescence, where your whole body is changing, and you're growing hair, and you're sounding different, and you don't know why this is happening. This is a theory he spent years developing, Kirk. And then Dracula is what every guy wants to be. Yeah, he's the cool guy. Yeah.

You know, I think you hit it on the spot on all of those. You know, I always liked the mummy, too, because, you know, the mummy struggled with trying to communicate. And he always was so slow and lumbering. And, you know, it's amazing that he actually caught anyone because he moved so slow. Yes, we've talked about that on the show. But you didn't have a stage of life for the mummy. I guess it was old age.

Yeah, I guess. The mummy would be the... Arthritic. Yeah. I find it interesting that you guys both had that moment, that turning point moment, where you felt such sympathy and compassion for the monster. You were what, Kirk, five when you watched Frankenstein?

Five or six years old. Six years old with your dad. Yeah, and there was something that I could relate to just right off the bat. This guy who just wants to be loved, and he wants to understand why he's there, and he's looking for the right father figure but he keeps on getting rejected you know from from the father figure and you know humanity as a whole and you know in a micro sort of way I kind of maybe I felt that as six as a six-year-old but I definitely felt that later on growing up. I felt socially kind of like awkward,

and being a shy kid, it was just easy for me to relate to these characters because they were stumbling through life with all these obstacles in front of them. And that's how my own life felt. Do you relate to that, Gil, being an introverted kid and a withdrawn kid? Absolutely. Yeah, you always identify with the monster in those movies.

And the earliest monster movie I remember seeing is The Indestructible Man. Ron Chaney, yeah. Yes. And Robert Shane, who was the inspector on Superman. Joe Flynn from McHale's Navy. And Max Showalter. Yeah. Joe Flynn from McHale's Navy and Max Showalter. And I didn't realize at the time that Cheney Jr. was scary for the wrong reasons at that point in his life. He's the world's biggest Lon Cheney Jr. fan, Kirk.

I have a lot of respect for Lon Chaney Jr. too but you know he eventually did become that character in Mice and Men yeah oh yeah he's quite good in that yeah it's crazy but yeah I particularly

liked Lon Chaney Jr. and the Wolfman for me I mean that's just like his classic performance and I really like him as Count Alucard too oh yes great great I love that movie so much we

I have a son and my wife wanted to give him a middle name with an A in it from one of her relatives. And I was pressuring her to name him Alucard. I love that. She didn't go along with it, but I would have loved to have had a son named Count Alucard. I would have loved that, too. You got Max into horror movies pretty early.

Yes, yes. He, I mean, when he was really little, I would say, okay, who played Frankenstein? And he'd go, Boris Karloff. And then the Wolfman, Lon Chaney Jr. And then Bela Lugosi. You made sure he said Bela. Yes, yes. Right.

You have two sons, Kirk. How old are your sons now? Yes, I do. How old are they now? Nine and 11. And they're constantly asking me when they can watch certain horror movies and you know I'm like thinking well how old was I when I

watched this kind of movie and I always think way too early and so you know they asked me when can I see Hellraiser dad and I'm thinking hmm Hellraiser that's intense.

I don't know if they need to be seeing a movie about sexual, satanic demons from hell. Maybe a little young. So I think,

14 maybe. And they're like, how about 12? You could watch them, let them watch the, let them watch the Universal Classics though. Oh yeah,

they've seen Dracula, Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein. But their favorite, and I'm not surprised, is Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein. There you go. I love so much. We've spoken a million times about that on this show. That's a great movie. Oh, I love it. Speaking of Glenn Strange.

Yeah. And, you know, I really like Bela Lugosi's performance in that movie as well. I mean, he, you can tell that he was so happy to be back playing Count Dracula that, you know, every time he's on screen, he just like, he just like soaks it for so much, you know, atmosphere and vibe. At least that's what I think. And the funny, oh, go ahead. vibe at least that's what i think and the funny oh go ahead yeah and you know like you said glenn strange he made such a great monster i mean his facial structure just really just added so much to it every like nook and cranny in his face just really augmented the character a lot and the funny thing to me is like you know they, they weren't using Lugosi back

around that time in regular horror films. Was that 46? Yeah. 46, 47. Yeah. And they used Carradine, who was terrific. He's a great actor. But boy, when you see Lugosi in Abedin Castello meet Frankenstein, you go, this is what was missing from the other movies. Absolutely. I agree. John Carradine, I think, is a great, amazing actor,

but I don't know why that decision was made. And, you know, they should, I don't know why that decision was made. And, you know, they should, the thing about Bela Lugosi is that he was just so, so much himself. Every time he walked out on screen, you were just like, there he is, he's on screen. And he just dominated the whole room, you know?

And I think that that kind of like held him back in the end, you know? And I think that that kind of like held him back in the end, you know? Especially with the Dracula role. But I agree, you know, he should have been in all those movies. House of Dracula, House of Frankenstein. Yeah, he is what's missing. He is what's missing from them, for sure.

Speaking of Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein, tell Gilbert, and it's in the book, it's in too much horror Business, what you have. You have the masks that butted Lew war. Yeah, you know the scene where they're about to go to a Halloween costume ball? Yeah, sure. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and they put on two masks, paper mache masks.

One of them is of a werewolf. Another one is of like you know some like ghoulish kind of like vampire looking character those were found about five or ten years ago and i saw them in an auction and oh my god i couldn't believe that those things were still around and i managed to acquire them and so those made it into the book. Fantastic. The Wolfman head that's in the book is also from Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein. And it took a

long time to verify that, but once we were able to authenticate it, that it was indeed from that movie, I was very, very happy because to have one prop from any of those universal movies is incredible.

To have two is like, you know, great. To have actually three pieces, you know, I am in heaven. They're great things to own. I read an interview with you in Collectors Weekly

and this is interesting, Kirk. You said one of the ways that you acquired this stuff was to get in touch with people who worked on those Universal films. But are these heirs? I mean, these people aren't alive. How do you go digging for stuff like that? Well, some of them were heirs.

Some of them were relatives of the people who actually worked on this stuff and had this stuff. I see. A lot of it I got pre-internet, which is just like a lot of networking, just a lot of investigating, a lot of grilling people. And I remember another moment where my son made me really proud when he was like two or something. He was sitting in a coffee shop with my wife and he was staring at some guy sitting by himself in the corner. And he, he leans into my wife and he goes, mommy, that man looks like Lon Chaney Jr.

And I said, that's my, I don't need DNA testing. Perfect. I love that. And now I had almost a full collection. Frank and I were talking about the Aurora Monster models. Yeah, and I wanted to ask you, too, was that the first thing? Was that the first item as a kid that you decided to start collecting? Was that the gateway drug, so to speak?

It was the beginning. It all started from me walking into the kitchen, and there was my brother and my cousin, and they had bought a Frankenstein model, and they were painting it, and they were painting it all wrong. I said to them, what are you doing? Frankenstein isn't purple and orange and yellow and green. And for years and years and years,

I couldn't understand what that was all about until I just realized that they're on acid when they're a painting. This is like 1968 or 1969. But when I saw the model, I was like, wow, they're doing a horrible job. And I ran to my mom and got some, what was it? What were they, like $1.25 or something?

Something like that. Yeah. Not much more. Bought the money from my mom, went to the store, picked up an Aurora Frankenstein model and built it. And that was the beginning of the end, really. And I bought that particular model and every one of those models

at least six or seven times as a child because I was constantly building them, painting them, and either blowing them up with firecrackers, setting them on fire, or just doing something just absolutely destructive. I was, and you know,

you know, I would just, it was just what I did with my, you blew them up. That's why. Yeah. I, that's why I,

I don't have anything left from my childhood. That's too bad. Good thing you've had the scratch to replace them. Yeah, exactly. While I nudge Gilbert awake, listen to these words from our sponsor. Are you speaking? FanDuel Casino's exclusive live dealer studio has your chance at the number one feeling, winning.

Which beats even the 27th best feeling, saying I do. Who wants this last parachute? I do. Enjoy the number one feeling, winning, in an exciting Live Dealer Studio, exclusively on FanDuel Casino, where winning is undefeated. 19 plus and physically located in Ontario. Gambling problem? Call 1-866-531-2600 Also, aside from the famous Wolfman, Frankenstein, all those, I remember my mother, she went to the store, and she bought me, they had two together. And I guess it was cheaper. They were like attached together and one of them was the witch

that was just great yeah and Bride of Frankenstein yep yeah that Bride of Frankenstein model was outrageously cool because the best thing for me about that Brian Frankenstein model was there was a tray on the table with a human heart in it. Oh, yes. She's on the slab.

Right, right, right, right. And. How cool. There was that other, whoa, there was Forgotten Prisoner. Right. That was just, yeah. There was Forgotten Prisoner. Right. Yeah. And then there was the other one, whatever they called it. It was a box with different things to whatever the word is when you add to something.

They would have like little model rats or skulls. Oh, accessories. Accessories. Right. And you could blow. Yeah, the customizing kit. Yes, yes. And you could paint them up and put them on your models that were already there.

Yeah. And you had the glow in the dark ones, Kirk? What do they call those? The frightening lightning? Yeah, they first came out as the frightening lightning edition, and then after that, they were just straight-on aurora glow-in-the-dark models. And I love those, too, because, you know, for me,

it opened up a whole new way of destroying them which was in the dark. So Gil, you didn't blow yours up. You would sit there and get the glue and assemble and then painstakingly paint them. You did all that? Yeah, I would glue them, paint them.

I'm impressed. I even would put paint in the eyes. I would get a pin, and I'd put a little paint on it. Fantastic. Yeah. I read those things were so popular. I guess, what, 61, 62? I hope this is true, that they were manufacturing them 24 hours a day to keep up with demand.

I wouldn't be surprised. I mean, they had an amazing run. They were around for like a good, what, 12, 15 years or something and without very much alteration from the original design. And so I would say they you know, they're pretty successful and they're still pretty popular to this day. And then I heard that someone bought the molds of the Aurora models and tried to put it out themselves with the idiotic ad campaign

Rated X for excitement. Wow, I don't even remember that. So parents were going, I can't give my kid a porn model. You know. It hurt sales. I had the King Kong. Oh, I did too. You had to paint the little Fay Wray

that was in his hand and I had the mummy. They weren't glow in the dark at first. That was a future edition. That was later. Later. That was later. God, what wonderful times. I always hated, though, like in the model,

they told you to paint Frankenstein green, and when they make him look green in posters, because I think it's the makeup was green, but that was so it would look gray on screen. Exactly. Let's talk. Go ahead. There is a whole debate on that.

Should Frankenstein be green? Should Frankenstein be ghostly pale? Should Frankenstein be bluish, reddish? Everyone has their preference you know personally i i can understand why people would want their frankenstein to be green because that's just kind of like the the popular sort of uh way to present him but you know i think it's more effective if he has more of a palish kind of ghostly palish green, bluish kind of pallor rather than straight green. Yeah.

That's how I am. It was always interesting when the Munsters went from black and white to color. Yes. To see what color they were going to be. Yeah. And then Herman was that sort of sickly green. Yeah. Not gray.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. I got to ask you about some of the other toys because before you came on with us, Gilbert and I were talking about like the, the, the Wiggle-Ick bobble heads. And we were looking at the pictures in the book. And I mean,

it's so much fun. And this is your first book, too much horror business, but to go through those pictures, it's not only just fun to see the stuff, but it, it, it brings back memories.

I haven't had things I haven't thought about in 30 years. Gilbert and I were looking at the page where you have all the Wolfman stuff arranged together, and he's remembering stuff he had. Oh, I have a signed postcard of the Wolfman where it says Lon Chaney on it because in Famous Monsters, they once said, you know, Chaney Jr.'s not feeling well. Here's an address.

And I sent him a get well card and got back a, you know, a little postcard of the Wolfman with his signature on it. That's the most amazing thing. Wow. He actually replied back. Was it a stamp?

Or was it his actual signature? No, it was an actual signature. That's very cool. Wow. You know, I'd like to see that sometime. Oh, anytime. We'll make that happen. If you're going to be in New York anytime soon,

we'll make that happen. And I're going to be in New York anytime soon, we'll make that happen. And I have a friend. Sooner or later. I have a friend who, when he was a kid, he met Boris Karloff. And he asked him for an autograph. And Karloff said he would send him one. And then Karloff died. And the day after he died

the autograph showed up at the kid's house which is the ideal way to get a Boris Karloff. Yeah, wow. I love that. That's an amazing story. Wow, that's crazy. I know this guy who grew up in Beverly Hills and his father was a famous entertainer. And he was telling me for his 12th year birthday, his parents got him early from

school and said to him, happy birthday uh your president is in the kitchen and he walked into the kitchen and there sitting at the table was boris karloff wow and this kid he was a big monster fan and so he just went he just lost his mind that is great wow yeah that is great how cool is that you you've gotten to know know Sarah a little bit. We had Sarah on the show, and I know she's worked with you in your festival. Yeah, Sarah, she's such a lovely, lovely, lovely lady. We love her. She's so sweet and just so nice to be with. The great thing is that she's very patient when you ask her a million questions about her father.

Yes. She's really open and willing, and I love that about her. She is. I love when we had her on the show, and I love that she described Halloween and Christmas as her dad's busy season because of the Grinch. Yeah. I just want to say, too, before we move on from this,

and that book, and we'll plug it again at the end, Kirk, and our fans, you know, the people that listen to the show are obsessed about the same stuff we're obsessed with. Oh, well, we had on, because I was demanding to have her on the show. Oh, he'll love this. Janet Ann Gallo. Oh, wow. Yes. She knows who she is.

You don't even have to tell them. Wow. That's fantastic. Yeah, we dug her to tell him. Wow. That's fantastic. Yeah, we dug her up. We found her. The little girl. Well, you know, I'm going to have to find that episode. Yeah, the little girl from Ghost of Frankenstein.

We'll put you in touch. She's quite chatty. We had Ron Chaney here. We had Lon Chaney's grandson. Lon Chaney Jr.'s grandson. And we had Vincent Price's daughter, Victoria. And Bela Jr. And we had Bela Jr., who obviously you also know.

Wow. Tell Gilbert, and before we jump ahead, I just want to say this book with these wonderful toys, The Fright Factory Thing Maker, I mean, the stuff that was bringing back the memories for me. So we want our listeners to find your book, Too Much Horror Business, The Great Garlu, which Gilbert and I remember. Oh, yes. The Marks toy

and the squirt guns. But one thing I do want to mention is you had those outer space man color form figures, which I've been looking for my whole life. Color form aliens. The color form aliens. You know, I told my wife, she said,

this can't even be real. You must have dreamt them. And we went on eBay and there they were. Almost impossible to find in the original packaging. You found them. Yeah, I got those pre-internet. Before the internet, you were able to just kind of network and track stuff down. able to like just kind of like network and track stuff down and then i would say and i call this the golden age of the of of of the internet well between 1998 and like 2001 it seems like everyone just wanted to just empty out their attics on ebay because there was so, so much great stuff that just became available in that three-year

period on eBay. Stuff that no one even knew what was worth. You could get deals really. And I got a few of those color form figures from eBay, but the ones that are in the package, I got those pre-internet and those are pretty hard to find. I had all of those as a kid and yeah, they got destroyed as well. They all got burnt up. He burned them up. I would kill to get my hands on them. You know what I'm talking about, Gilbert?

The color forms, they were meant from each different planet. Yes, yes. The Venus had plastic wings in his back. I do remember that one. A squid man, octopus kind of deal from Neptune and just wonderful. The Mars guy was a little green man.

Boy, those really bring back special memories. I remember with the Aurora, in the instructions it said, for best results, use Aurora glue. And I remember as a kid, I said, oh, even then, I knew that was bullshit. And an advertisement. You know, like their glue is different than the others. Well, also, you were an insider because your dad sold models in his hardware store.

Oh, oh, well, this is it. He sold one model. Back then, snorting glue became all the rage with the kids. So a law was passed. Yeah, I remember. Yeah, you couldn't buy

glue unless you were buying a model. And so my father, he worked in a hardware store. He owned a hardware store. He owned a hardware store. He had a little crappy airplane model. And every day, kids would come in. He'd sell them the airplane model and glue.

And then he'd count to five, go outside, and in the trash would be the airplane model. And he'd take it in, and he sold that one model like about 100 times. Wow, amazing. Yeah. Yeah, I remember that time, and I remember my mom saying, you know, there's all these kids out there that are sniffing this glue. You're not doing any of that, Kirk.

I'm like thinking, why would I want to smell this stuff? It already smells so bad already. Yeah. Why would I want more of it? And you grew up in a drug culture. You grew up in the San Francisco area, and everybody was doing something.

And let me tell you, the one thing that people forget about the whole hippie thing, they remember the long hair. They remember the tie-dye stuff. They remember the free love. They remember the women not wearing bras. But what they don't recall about the whole hippie thing is none of them wore shoes.

None of them. As a child, I would see hippies everywhere. They were all barefoot and it drove me crazy because even as a kid, I had a thing about clean feet. All these hippies had the dirtiest feet all the time. And like, I wasn't having any of it. Yeah. It's an interesting part of your bio and your history

that you escaped to the comic book store to get away from your parents' hippie friends. Yeah, they were everywhere. Really? I could remember my brother bringing me to a Grateful Dead free concert in Golden Gate Park and I remember looking around

seeing a lot of people with their faces painted with flowers and animals and just thinking I want to be at that comic book store reading masterminds right now we got a question later about the comic book store reading master magazines right now. We got a question later about the comic book store that a

listener sent in. And now they make the models somewhere along the way they changed it where they make the models now where it's for specific movies like the Wolfman model is different than the

Frankenstein meets the Wolfman model. I didn't even know they were still making them. Yeah, I've seen it in these hobby shops where you look. Well, there's a lot of people. Yeah, a lot of independent people who make just about every sort of universal character that's out there. Yeah, it's like you look at the Frankenstein and you go, okay, that's a Karloff, that's a Cheney, that's the Lugosi one. They mold the face. Yeah, yeah.

It's great. I mean, you know, nowadays people are so wrapped up in the individual characters and all the details that, you know, it just makes for a better product. And I love it. There's a, I still buy monster models to this day, resin kits. I don't have the time to put them together. I hire someone else, but you know, once I get that finished kit, it goes up on my shelf and I'm loving it. That's so cool. Don't you you and don't you wish they still publish the monster times and and and farry ackerman's magazine all that stuff you know wouldn't be a better world oh you know absolutely i i loved the monster times and i loved that it was in a newspaper oh yeah now you must have visited Ackerman.

Yeah, did you go to the Ackerman Mansion? Yeah, I went to the Ackerman Mansion a few times. I had a little bit of a relationship with Fori. He knew me as the musician guy who's always asking him about his painting and his artwork. Because I love the the the magazine covers and i have the original paintings to a number of a number of them and oh the go-go stuff yeah the go-go's paintings and that all started by just going over to the acker mansion and just kind of like you know hearing that that foray needed money and just kind of

innocently saying you know hey foray do you want to sell that that uh that painting up right there you know famous monsters number 21 and him saying let me think about that. $100,000, Kirk. I'm like, what? He goes, ha, ha, ha. I'll take it for two grand. Or you can have it for two grand. I'm like, I'll take it for two grand.

Wow. Which is back in the 80s, kind of like, you know, relatively, you know, large amount of money for like 1988 1989 for for a piece of original art that was when the original art market for that kind of stuff wasn't even like even developed yet yeah how much is it worth now i mean i i have no idea because you know uh those gogos paintings when they come into my collection, I hang on to them and I don't let them go. And I just think that they're just like the ultimate

and they're an important part of the collection because Basil Go-Go's as a standalone artist, I thought it was brilliant. And we just lost him a few months ago. Yeah, unfortunately unfortunately then wasn't that other artist I think Frank Frazetta yeah

he's gone too yeah he's Frank Frazetta he's like Norman Rockwell to me the anti Norman Rockwell which I just love about him but But yeah, the Gogos paintings and the famous monsters paintings that I have are real important to me because it puts that aspect of it, Basil Gogos' personal vision, it shines a light on that, which is, you know, Basil Goga's, his personal vision, it shines a light on that,

which I, you know, is I think important. The overall, you know, uh, uh, uh,

horror fandom, you know, horror genre. He, his artwork was what attracted me to famous monsters as a kid. You know, those outrageous covers jumped out at you And they're just so striking. And to see those paintings

in person, they're just that much more striking. I've never seen one in person. Have you, Gil? Those Go-Go's paintings? The covers? The old covers? Yeah. My, you have to come see the collection

in the next museum opening. There will be a new opening that's coming soon. I can't really talk about it. Okay. It'll be actually close to you guys. Oh, really? East Coast. Yeah.

Good. We'll make a pilgrimage, Kirk. And you just have to see these paintings. Because if you're into famous monsters of film, man, they'll just knock you out. these paintings because if you're into famous monsters of film man they'll just knock you out and you know basil gokus's process was amazing because a lot of times he was just working from black and white stills and you look at these paintings and they're just like in full livid color yeah can't wait to see him striking color did he work in acrylics or are they oils? I believe that, you know, I believe they worked at both. You know, a lot of his later paintings have a lot of texture to it.

I see. I want to say acrylic, but, you know, a lot of his earlier stuff doesn't have as much texture. So maybe it was watercolor. I'd love to see those live. Oh, absolutely. Since you brought up Lugosi, Gilbert and i were just talking about white zombie first of all you'll also have to tell us how you acquired those unless it's a secret how those two the two costumes came into your possession and just to reiterate for our listeners you have bella's costume from white

zombie and where he was the evil voodoo master and you which gilbert and i a movie gilbert and i were just talking about that is a very disturbing film uh but you also have uh carloff's costume from the black cat i was able to to acquire the belt of both pieces in auction uh but what really really just kind of surprised me was just one day I was just, I was just paging through this one auction catalog and just right in the, in the corner with like very little fanfare, it just mentioned, you know, the Boris Karloff's outfit for the black cat. And I, when I read that, I was like, what is it?

This can't be. When I read that, I was like, what? This can't be. I mean, that movie was made over 80 years ago. And I looked at the outfit and I got a magnifying glass out and looked at the buttons. And then I got a still from the black hat with the costume in question. I got a microscope out, our magnifying glass i mean and i looked at the buttons and the buttons matched up wow and so i thought to myself

wow this is the real deal and i can't believe it and i made it my my goal to acquire it and i did and how wild yeah the black cat is probably in my top three universal horror movies it's so i love frankenstein i love jack yeah the black cat the black cats and on another planet it's surreal it really is we recommend it all the time to our listeners and we will again it's like usually the universal monsters were in an old castle or something and in the black cat it's all like Art Deco yeah

it's very strange and not only that there's an overabundance of psychological stuff yes There's an overabundance of psychological stuff. Yes. Pedophilia is touched upon. Satanism.

Necrophilia. A lot of weird things. It's pre-code. It must be a pre-code movie for them to have gotten all that stuff in there. Yes, it is. Yeah. code movie for them to have gotten all that stuff in there. Yes, it is.

Yeah. And what's funny is usually my big complaint with movies is I'm constantly seeing a scene and something where I go, oh, that makes no sense. Or they wouldn't, people wouldn't react that way. The Black Cat makes zero sense. You don't mind it. From beginning to end. Right. sense you don't mind it beginning to end right and i don't care i i love the fact that it's insane it's wonderful and it's so atmospheric for as insane as it is it also has a weird sense of realism to it you know it's it's crazy and and black comedy. Yeah. And for me, Karloff is just so great. The way he looks, the way he speaks, all his mannerisms.

I mean, you know that his character was based after Aleister Crowley. And the necklace that he wears around his neck is kind of a variation of Aleister Crowley's signature. Interesting trivia. Yeah. Yeah. And I love that aspect about it because no one was making films with that sort of content back then. No, films about Satanism. Yeah. Yeah.

And, you know, in my mind sometimes, you know, I wonder what it would be like to remake that movie, but not change the script at all. Just modernize it. Just, you know, and basically have the same storyline. It would be incredible. By Karloff's bed, there's a digital clock.

I never noticed that. Yes, there is. That's so interesting. Yeah. You know, and White Zombie, by the way, and Gilbert and I were talking about it,

not as kinky a movie as The Black Cat, but really unsettling and weird in its own way. And every time I see those zombie workers in the sugar cat, but really unsettling and weird in its own way. And every time I see those zombie workers in the sugar mill, it's so disturbing. Oh, yeah. It's so terrifying.

It's like the granddaddy of the zombie films. Yes, and he's great. And I didn't know this until I started doing the research on you, Kirk. I didn't know that Jack Pierce did Lugosi's makeup. Yeah, he did. For that movie. Yeah, and some of the sets are Dracula sets as well. And, you know, the great thing about White Zombie

is the silence. Yes, yes. There are moments when it's just so quiet, but it's just so heavy in atmosphere and vibe, and I just love that. It's the kind of character you want Lugosi to play. Yes. Just a guy with no soul, no moral center whatsoever.

He's a human monster. Yeah, just dark and just foreboding and just not afraid of any sort of consequence at all. Yeah. And the name itself, Murder Legendar. That's great. And the black cat has its tongue in its cheek a little bit. It's got a little bit of a sense of humor, but white zombie is as serious as a heart attack. He's just a little bit of a sense of humor but white zombie is as serious as a heart attack that he's just a creep but i heard legosi was not happy with white zombie or maybe he interesting that's what i heard that's what i heard too i heard he wasn't

i guess what had happened was it was made by these two brothers the halpern brothers and i think at one point he wasn't uh satisfied with maybe the dialogue or something that's what i had heard but i mean you know in that movie every bit of dialogue that he speaks it's just so effective so i don't know what he's talking about i mean you know every time he speaks you're like hanging on every word i wonder why he wasn't happy with it. Yeah. He comes off rather well in it. Absolutely.

I think. Absolutely. One part where a bag is falling from the overhead compartment on the train, and the girl screams. And they say something like, oh, I thought I'd be crushed. Oh, no, no, she goes, oh, I was frightened. And Lugosi goes, better to be frightened than crushed. I always love when he throws the scissors off camera. Yes.

And you hear the cat. Yes, they stab a cat. Yes, that's right. It stabs a cat. It's such a sick movie. Yeah. And also Lugosi, where where he really and people forget this because they always say oh well he could only play dracula as when he was igor it was totally different than anything

he had ever done and he's good again yeah yeah you know, you know, I have to say, you know, when he played Igor, for me, it kind of, you know, it was as emphatic as, you know, playing the Frankenstein monster. I mean, he... Yeah, he owned it. I mean, I really, you know, I really felt sympathy for Igor. And what really killed me was the scene where he's playing the flute, and, you know, all of a sudden the monster comes

I mean how how touching is that? Yes. Oh yeah. It's a touching moment. Yeah. He finds those moments in that one. And Lugosi finds the comedy in Igor. There's like some parts that

are just really funny, the way he delivers the lines. Well, I just love it when they said, oh, they tried to hang Igor, but they failed. Oh, yes. They hang me. The big broken neck.

They hang me because I rob graves. They say. Yes, exactly. You hit it. Two other movies that I found in the research that you like that are near and dear to our hearts are The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant and The Thing with Two Heads. I love them.

Which we're very fond of. Oh, how great is Bruce Dern? We had him on the show. We had him here. We asked him about it. He has a great sense of humor about it. How great is Rosie Greer? How great is Ray Maland? Yeah.

That was a genre that came and went. Two heads on a body was a genre. It was so obvious too that Ray Maland is just resting his chin on Rosie Greer's shoulder. And that's the two-headed monster. It seemed like a good idea at the time. The white bigot was dying, and the black soul brother needed time to prove his innocence.

More power to you, brother. I want to transplant my head on a healthy body. I think I like to donate my body to science after all. So they transplanted the white head onto the black body. Who would have suspected that neither would care for the idea too much? What are you guys doing to me? Shut up. Where's the rest of you? We are joined together temporarily. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall

when they were filming that. Absolutely. Absolutely. And they're both good. Casey Kasem's in, I think Casey Kasem's in The Thing with Two Heads. Yep. Yeah, that's right. He shows up in that.

And then the Rosie Greer Ray Milan monster escapes the police on a motorcycle. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Yes. Kirk, real quick, I got a couple of questions from fans. We do this thing called Grill the Guest. And these are quick questions. Bjorn Nesheim, real quick, I got a couple of questions from fans. We do this thing called Grill the Guest. And these are quick questions. Bjorn Nesheim, he says,

Kirk used to hang out at the first all-comic book store in the United States, which was the San Francisco Comic Book Company. Does he have a story about the late owner, Gary Arlington? Yeah, one time i uh something happened i had like a um i i don't know i i i guess i didn't eat breakfast one day and i was looking at some comic books and just like literally just like passed out and knocked over a whole stack of comic books and because you were because you weren't eating your lunch you were spending your lunch money yeah exactly exactly you know on eerie it was it was connected yeah and uh the next thing

i knew i woke up and i was at saint luke's hospital in san francisco in like in in the emergency ward on a bed and there was gary right next to me and looked at him i said i said what happened he said you passed out you knocked over a big old stack of old comic books that we had just bought and and we we thought you were like dying on us so i rushed you i got you in my volkswagen and i drove you over to the hospital. And here we are now. And I looked at him and I thought, wow, you're just kind of like, I thought to myself, wow, you're just like my dad, but even cooler. That's a nice story.

That's a nice story about him. We lost Gary too recently. And the best part about it is that, you know, as I was there, he had some comic books for me to look at. He's like, here, here, these just know, as I was there, he had some comic books for me to look at. He's like, here, here. These just came in. I was like, really? You actually gave me some comic books to read?

It was amazing. Gil, where did you buy your comic books? Locally? Oh, yeah. In Brooklyn? Yeah, well, the comic books you could buy anywhere. There was no comic book store in those days. Yeah, there were like magazine stands, drug stores. You know, the old comic rack in the drug store. Candy stores. Yeah, they were like Yeah, there were like magazine stands, drugstores.

You know, the old comic rack in the drugstore. Candy stores. Yeah, the circular rack. All that stuff. Yeah. And when I was at Gary's store often,

I could remember seeing a whole range of characters going through there. But, you know, the one I remember the most was Robert Crumb. Oh, you met Robert Crumb. That's right. Well, you know, I kind of like, I just kind of like stayed out of his way because, you know, the one I remember the most was Robert Crumb. Oh, you met Robert Crumb. That's right.

Well, you know, I kind of like, I just kind of like stayed out of his way because, you know, for me, I wore glasses as a kid. But his glasses just took the cake. And his glasses were so thick. And like, you know, that's what made me really remember him was his glasses and the way he spoke. And I knew that he was an underground artist and so I just I stayed out of his way because he was a little intimidating for me as you know a little kid a legend but you know yeah but he he came into the store quite a lot him and Gary were very close and I remember a newsstands would have comic books and monster magazines.

And also, you know what I love about the old posters? Yeah, let's talk about the poster book. Is that, well, like, there's, it conquered the earth, which is a crappy movie with the phoniest looking monster ever. Is that with Beulah? Oh, it conquered the world. Yeah, yes. Conquered the world.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, of course, they always had these lines in it. First, there's a sexy girl lying there in a nightgown that she probably never wore in the movie and that shows a lot of skin. in the movie, and that shows a lot of skin. And the blurb is, it made men prisoners and women slaves. So everything was sex.

You know, they'd show a monster, and nothing could control its desires. Yeah, yeah, amazing. And nothing could control its desires. Yeah, yeah, amazing. All those posters, you know, it seems like in the 50s, the women were either in, like, bathing suits or slips. Yes, there's a lot of that. Yeah, yeah, especially in the Cold War stuff.

But those, I have to tell you, the Universal, did you mark, Gilbertilbert mark the book those universal posters the french and the argentinian are they the frankenstein posters those are fascinating are they the only ones of their kind left amazing yeah those are the only known examples that have survived the double double, are they called? Yeah. You know, World War II did a real number on movie posters, both here in the United States and obviously in Europe. But in the United States, when the war effort was going, they had these things called paper drives, which was basically, you know, people driving through town and recycling paper. drives, which was basically, you know, people driving through town and recycling paper. And those recycling trucks would stop at the movie poster exchanges, which were where a lot of these posters would live. They were like, there were like poster libraries and the poster exchanges would just come out with huge stacks and just throw them onto the paper trucks and drive off with them.

And so that's why there isn't a large amount of movie posters that have survived. And so a lot of these posters, they're the only ones that have been discovered and found. And so the French double panels are pretty

unique in that they're pre World War and and they they have managed to survive all this time and you know to you know people didn't really ever think about hanging on to this stuff in the first place so i mean just just the fact that it just didn't get thrown into the into the trash is just a remarkable thing. Yeah, I'm going to show Gilbert. And this is the reason I don't like Hitler. That's one reason. Yeah, me too.

He really put a damper on German cinema. I mean, they were doing really good with Nosferatu and Metropolis and, you know, Cabinet, Dr. Caligari. Oh, yeah, they all had to get out of the country yeah you know it's funny in the cabinet of Dr. Caligari they offered

both of them a chance to live comfortably in Germany if they make propaganda films for the Nazis and so Wernher Krauss, he decided to stay in Germany and make propaganda.

Konrad Veidt escaped to America where he was most famous playing the German officer in Casablanca. He was very anti-Nazi. Yes. So was Karl Freund. Karl Freund was also kicked out of Germany

and he worked on The Mummy and and Dracula. And Edgar Ulmer too. Edgar Ulmer. Edgar, yeah. Who did The Black Cat.

Karl Freund later in his career wound up being the director of photography on I Love Lucy. Isn't that interesting? From The Mummy to I Love Lucy. Isn't that interesting? From the mummy to I Love Lucy. Because they had to work.

And Jack Pierce was the makeup artist in Mr. Ed. That's right. Really? Yeah, toward the end, yeah. These are the ones we were talking about, the Argentinian poster. These are great. And the French poster, James Whale's name is misspelled on the French poster, which I guess adds to the value of it.

Well, it was a later addition. If you look at that poster, the original director, Robert Flory, who actually wanted Bela Lugosi to play the monster, he gets a credit on that poster. But what had happened is Carl Laemmle, for some reason or another, I can't remember, wanted James Whale on the project. And so Robert Flory got replaced by James Whale. And James Whale was the one who saw Boris Karloff eating in the Universal cafeteria

and said, you're the guy to play the monster. And history was made. Yes, absolutely. Yeah, the French double panel posters, I like a lot because graphically, they kind of have a different perspective than a lot of the American posters. You know, it just kind of like, they just look kind of like, you know, I don't know, more colloquial.

Was one of the Frankenstein posters found in an abandoned movie house in Canada? Do I have that right? In a projection room? Yeah, it was a walled-off projection booth. projection room yeah it was a walled off project projection booth and uh it was uh uh it was i guess a projection booth that that that kind of the that people knew were there but i guess they they just there was no reason for them to like tear down the wall or look inside this this empty room until just recently someone tore down the wall stepped inside and on right there on the wall was a frankenstein three sheet amazing and um amazing how incredible is that i mean i wish i wish something like that would happen to me

i was telling gilbert it telling Gilbert, it's fascinating. And equally fascinating is the story of where the mummy poster turned up when the guy was remodeling his house. Yeah, you know, it's amazing because I have movie posters that have been found in New Zealand, in Iran, in Sweden, just all over the place. And these are American posters. They're the American issue. I have a whole slew of half sheets that were found underneath the floor in New Zealand.

It's fascinating. Yeah, the Mummy 3 sheet that I have was founded Sweden of all places. And that's just strange to me because Sweden had their own movie poster production house. They printed and designed their own movie posters. And I've seen the movie, the original movie, Swedish movie poster to the mummy so for Sweden to have an American poster and a three sheet it's just kind of like it almost seems like a mistake you know like they got sent this poster by accident and they kind of like threw it in a corner and just forgot about it until it was found you know decades later and you know, decades later, and, you know, and I managed to acquire it.

But it's crazy because this stuff, it's just, you never know where it's going to come from. Well, one of the sad things I was saying to Gilbert, too, is a lot of times in those days, the artists didn't sign their work, and they were anonymous. You didn't know, in some cases, in some cases you do, but in some cases, in many cases, nobody knew who was painting these things just just studio artists you know grunts people who were grinding out a check yeah yeah and to me it's just a it's it's a real shame you know because these people they had had no idea just how how how much their artwork meant to people you know i had i have a feeling that you know there were just it was just another gig for them you know just like you know break it out

make get it done and move on to the next thing i gotta ask you a music question kirk you said anybody who plays or listens to heavy metal music understands horror films because it's the same shades of dark and light yeah it's the same elements it's the same group of emotions

same sort of emotional dynamics you know it's the building of tension and releasing it it's the building of tension and releasing it it's the energy that you feel that's

maybe at the same sort of a pulse as a racing heart you know. When you went into audition for Metallica the bass player was reading a Lovecraft story and you had an instant connection you said these guys, I'm simpatico with these guys. Yeah. I remember when I flew out to audition for Metallica,

I remember arriving, shaking hands with the guys, going into the room and playing music for two or three hours and then coming out going, wow, that was kind of a mind blowing. And then just taking a moment and sitting down and looking around and then seeing Cliff Burton with his head in a Call of Cthulhu Dungeons and Dragons rule book. I instantly said, hey, I have that book. I know that game, Call of Cthulhu. And he looked at me and said, hey, I have that book. I know that game called Cthulhu. And he looked at me and said, yeah, HP Lovecraft, man. And I said, yeah, I know HP

Lovecraft. I love him. He goes, I do too. And then he said, I love zombies. And I said, I do too. Whole Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead dead dawn of the dead day of the dead sort of like a tribute and i i knew i had found a kindred soul you knew you belonged with that group yeah that's a that's a that's a great story i got just one more question about metallica this

is from my sister my sister-in- boyfriend. Beg me to ask this. Can you recall, he loves Injustice for All. This is from Brendan Brown. Can you recall any of the thought process, and this is a tough, probably something that needs a long answer, but maybe you can give me a short one. Any of the thought process that led to the sound, the special sounds on Injustice for All?

Because the record redefined metal recording in his opinion uh special in quotation marks you know it's really funny because uh when we were recording that album uh uh james or the guitar player went for a very unique sort of, of, of guitar sound. And, you know, Lars wanted, uh, uh, his drums to sound like very dry and upfront as well.

And, you know, those two unique sounds put together created a, a sort of tonal palette where that, uh, it, when you added more bass frequencies, it just kind of muddied up the, uh, it, when you added more bass frequencies, it just kind of muddied up the,

the, the, the mix. And so as a result of that, you can't really hear our bass player very much. Uh, you know, uh, uh, uh, uh, you know, as that album, you know, turned out the way it turned out, you know, we, we, we thought we'd made a really kind of like, you know, way it turned out you know we we thought we made a really kind of like you know unique and different album that sounded nothing like the previous you know our previous three albums and you know unbeknownst to us um you know i guess that that uh people have used the sound of that album as a template for their own albums and i didn't even realize this until someone brought it up to my attention only about 10 or 15 years ago you know we just thought that we just looked at it as kind of like a sonic sonic experiment to try for one album you know but it wasn't anything that we were going to hang our hats on for the next you know uh two or three

decades it was more a kind of like a place where where our heads are at sonically and as a result of it a lot of people really like the way that album sounds you know i in retrospect i i admire you know i admire our um audacity at trying something so different, but you know, our next album kind of, uh, uh, uh, filled in for what, uh, uh, uh, we were missing from injustice for all. I see. And so I'll just put it, I'll just put it that way. But, um, yeah, but you know, a lot of, like I said, a lot of people really, really are attracted to the sound of people really, really, uh, are attracted

to the sound of that album and it there's, there's nothing really, uh, uh, it's not a warm sounding album. It's really upfront and in your face and it's hard to get away from when you listen to it loud. Well, he's going to, he's going to love that answer. He's going to love that answer. and you listen to it loud. Well, he's going to love that answer.

He's going to love that answer. And I have to say, Enter Sandman is a piece of work that sounds very much like it was written by people who embrace horror, who understand it. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Or let's just say the darker side of life. Yes, yes. That's more inclusive.

Very, very much so. Gil, you want to ask him about Dwight Frye? Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Who died young on a bus. One of the all-time greats. Yeah. Yeah, I think and I think. On a bus? He died on a bus. He had a heart attack.

I think they had it listed in the paper as toolmaker Dwight Frye. They didn't even have him like as an actor. And it was so funny. He started out big like Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, Dracula. Yep. Frankenstein, Dracula.

Yep. And then he started just popping up like in the horror sequels, like he'd be like one of the villagers. Yeah. Yeah, so like an extra or something. Yeah, yeah. It's a strange short career he had. Yeah, and I heard he was supposed to be

a very skilled song and dance man. I didn't know that. Yeah. How interesting. Yeah, I heard that he came out of theater and Broadway. I got to look that up. He did that whole circuit and then became an actor. But you're right.

I mean, when I think about Dwight Frye, I can't really think about, But, you know, you're right. I mean, when I think about Dwight Frye, I can't really think about, I can't really think of any movies past like 1936, 1937 that he was in. Maybe, wasn't he in like some monogram stuff? Maybe like the Vampire Bat or something? He may have, yeah.

I can't picture Renfield breaking into song. But I have to say, you know, he would, for me, he was a large part of that movie Dracula. I mean, his portrayal of Renfield was brilliant. And you know the scene I'm talking about when he is discovered on the ship and he's glaring at the people. Brilliant.

Absolutely brilliant. All right, Kirk, in the time we have left, we're going to give you one wild card. These are three movies we've talked about on this show, and we'd love you to comment about them, and you could pick one or comment on all three. The Tingler, Freaks, or Island of Lost Souls. How about all three? Okay.

Okay, so I remember when I first saw The Tingler on television and I was just so disappointed that I wasn't seeing it in a movie theater with that tingling sensation because I had read all about it. Oh, right, with the wired seats. And famous monsters.

Yeah, yeah. And when I actually had seen it, I was just thinking, wow, I wish I would have been in the theater and actually have experienced it the way that the makers wanted the viewer to experience it. But you know what's interesting about the Tingler is they mention LSD in it. But you know, what's interesting about the, the Tingler is they mentioned LSD in it by surgical. That's correct. Oh yeah.

Yes. And by the way, by the way, Bob Burns was one of those guys wiring those seats. Oh wow. Which he told us. Oh really? They were,

they were airplane motors. The things that made the, that made the chairs vibrate. Wow. Amazing. And, amazing and and so yeah you know they're talking about lsd so i'm just wondering could it be like you know some weird like you know mk ultra uh you know uh uh propaganda sort of like weird kind of like drug cia fbi thing that was connected to this movie probably Probably not. And of course the greatest scene

they're in a movie theater and the picture goes out and Vincent Price frantically informs the audience scream scream for your lives the teenagers

in the theater scream for your lives. The ginger is loose in the theater. Scream for your lives. And then it immediately goes to, we now resume our film. Did you ever hear a better Vincent Price than that, Kirk? That's really good. That's really great. Real quick, give us something on Island of Lost Souls,

which Gilbert loves. really great. Real quick, give us something on Island of Lost Souls which Gilbert loves. Well, yeah, I love when Bela Lugosi's screaming about the House of Pain and are we not men? Yes.

And you know, it's creepy. And whenever he screams, are we not men these days? I want to scream back, no, we are Devo. D-E-V-O. That's right, they co-opted that. Yes. The House of

Pain. They made us in the House of Pain. Not men. Not beasts. Things. Things. That's perfect.'s really really great

you have it down I really believe again you know Lugosi steals that film he does and what is the law not to spill blood that is the law, not to spill blood. That is the law.

And I heard that, I think Charles Lawton based his performance of the mad doctor on his dentist. I've heard that too. Yeah. Oh, really? That's weird. Wow. I'm glad that dentist is probably not around anymore. And freaks.

Yeah. Give us one comment or one insight on freaks. Well, you know, one of the last scenes when all the freaks are out and it's raining and it's rainier is doing his hobble. You you know that's the guy without the arms and legs he's hobbling from side to side with a razor in his mouth oh my god that was just like the ultimate for me that movie's ahead of its time don't you think oh yeah the audiences weren't ready for that oh for that kind of subject matter not and not. And I remember, that was one of the movies I picked when I was on with Robert Osborne.

That's right. And it's one of those movies where even if there's not a scary thing happening, you're still a little scared. It has you on edge the whole time. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. And i was just in constant marvel anytime any of the the freak characters came on screen i mean it's just like you know i was just like just blown away by the the fact that you know those those are

those are real people and they're not really even acting. No. And, oh, the ending. Number one, they make the woman into a half chicken. Yeah. And I heard that was a chicken suit that Lon Chaney Sr. built. Wow. He was planning a movie. Good trivia. And what they cut out of the movie was that the strongman at the end is singing soprano.

So it means that the freaks castrated him. Wow. Wow. I wonder if that footage still exists. It might. wow I wonder if that that footage still exists it might that to me wow I was glad they didn't keep that in

because I want the freaks to be a little sympathetic a little bit and if they cut a guy's dick off I can't really root for them that's crossing a line for you yeah

so we'll tell our listeners to check out the black cat white zombie freaks and island of lost souls if they haven't by now for you? Yeah. So we'll tell our listeners to check out The Black Cat, White Zombie, Freaks, and Island of Lost Souls if they haven't by now. 200 episodes.

And The Wolfman. And of course The Wolfman. 200 episodes in. By the way, he does a great Maria Ouspenskaya. And, you can't forget

the thing with two heads. And the thing with two heads. Oh, that's right. The incredible two-headed. Maria Ouspenskaya. I was the only kid who could imitate. Oh, that's right. The incredible two-headed dress. Maria Spinskaya. I was the only kid who could imitate. Listen to this, Kirk. Yeah, yes.

She was amazing, by the way. Yes. The way you walk is thorny through no fault of your own. But as the rain enters the soil the river enters the stream so tears go on to a predestined end find peace for a moment my son look wow i wish our listeners could see the look on Kirk's face. I'm just thinking, you know, if I would have known you, Gilbert, as a kid, you know, I think we would have probably been inseparable. Did you really want to know another kid who was doing Marie Ospenskaya impressions?

Well, I would just, let me just go on to say that you know, as a kid, and I'm sure all his horror fans could relate, I spent so much time imitating Frankenstein, the mummy, Dracula, the wolf man, you know. Who didn't get the

ace bandages and start wrapping their hands in their hands? And start dragging your foot behind you. Yeah, yeah. And so, I mean, I just, yeah. Well, I wish you guys had known each other as kids. But that's one of the great things about this show, Kirk, is that we get to meet the other Monster Kids. We get to identify them.

Yeah. And bring them in. So, anything to plug? What's coming up? You guys are on tour? Well, I just want to say that, you know, I left out something about, you know, the black cat costume is that once I finally did acquire it,

the first thing I did was put it on. And it actually fit me. Wow. I was around the house. That's cool. for like an hour, just pretending I was Boris Karloff in the black cat. So that's fantastic. How did it fit? It actually fit me, which was crazy because you know, I, I, I'm, I'm five, seven. I know Karloff was like maybe five, 10, five 11,". But I always knew that he was a slim guy too.

And so I was able to put it on and walk around without busting any seams or anything like that. So I was happy. So if we make a pilgrimage out to the house, you're going to let Gilbert try on the Karloff costume? The black hat? I'll break out the tape measure and measure his waist really quick to make sure that it's compatible.

And then we'll go for there. Let me plug the books. Too Much Horror Business, which is fantastic. You will lose days looking at it. It's on Amazon. Also, it's in bookstores. Please patronize bookstores.

Also, It's Alive, which we have here. Classic horror and sci-fi movie posters from the Kirk Hammett Collection, which Gilbert is absolutely fascinated by. Oh, yes. And I'm going to let him take it home and play with it. I beg your pardon? I usually go home and play with it. What's going on with touring the exhibit and your

yearly festival and anything else you want to put out there? The collection just finished a really great run at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem and that's wrapped up now and we're

getting ready to do another show on the East Coast. When we finalize everything, then I can actually tell you where it's going to be. Yeah. But it is going to be on the East Coast. And then it's going to go to a few other museums. And so we have a pretty busy schedule as far as the museum exhibits and the collection are concerned. It's going to run until like 2020.

And this is like three or four different places. So hopefully it'll come to a place close to you guys because it will be on the East Coast. We got to get there. We got to go see those Go-Go's paintings in person. And one day I'll have to show you my Lon Chaney Jr. autograph. Oh, totally would love to see that. And, you know, just get together and do some imitations and impressions. In all your travels, Kirk, and you've been pursuing this a long time, did you ever meet anybody who did Maria Ouspenskaya?

It is a first. Absolutely. I have a friend on the East Coast who does a pretty good Igor. I asked him to do Elena Vertigo, but he wouldn't do it. Oh, that's funny. You don't even do that one. No. Igor, I asked him to do Elena Vertigo, but he wouldn't do it. That's funny. You don't even do that one. No.

So, hey, Elena Vertigo, guys, come on. Who is she? Oh, she was in The Wolfman. Yes, exactly. She just died. She died last year. Yes, she did. Wasn't she in House of Frankenstein?

Exactly, yes. Very good. She was in House of Frankenstein. And J. Carol Nash is in love with her. Yes. Elena Verdugo was also Marcus Welby's nurse on Marcus Welby MD. Yes. And didn't she also sell coffee? I don't know about that.

She was in those coffee commercials. That might have been Mrs. Olsen. Mrs. Olsen. But her family, at one point, her family owned like half of the land that Universal Studios is on. Wow. Way, way back in the day,

her family was, I guess they had a huge ranch in that area. Well, Kirk, when you're this way, either with the band or by yourself, you know, we'll do another one of these. We can talk about Val Luton. We'd love to.

We didn't get into The Black Sleep, and we could do a six-hour show with you because you're one of those guys. Yes. I love The Black Sleep, by the way. And again, John Carradine, I thought, was just such a great, great actor. He could play anything, and he was so convincing. And Tor is in that one, right? Tor Johnson. Tor Johnson, Chaney Jr. I've never seen it. Shame on

me. I gotta catch up to The Black Sleep. And when you watch Carradine, each time I watch him, I go, see, that was funny, because both Carradine and Chaney Jr. were both in that. And Lon Chaney Jr. seemed like a miserable drunk,

a depressed, angry drunk, whereas Carradine seems like the happiest drunk on the planet. Like he seems blasted in most of the films. He's got a body of work, that guy. Oh, my God, yeah. Well, you know, when you saw him later on, you know, he did a lot of cameos in like the 70s and whatnot.

Oh yeah. He always seemed like he was so happy to be in those cameo positions. I think he's in, is it The Howling? Or maybe... Yes, yes. I think it is. Yes, he's in The Howling. He's great in The Howling because he maybe... Yes, it's The Howling. I think it's... Yes, he's in The Howling.

He's great in The Howling because he looks like he's playing himself. And he's the only one, and I couldn't believe they didn't have the rest of them there, like Janie and Karloff. He's the only one of the horror stars who pops up in The Munsters.

Yes, he's Mr. Gateman. Yeah. The head of the funeral director. That's right. He was Herman Munster's boss. Yes. That's right. That's right.

And for a second, he's in Brighter Frankenstein. Yes, he is. He's one of the hunters that discovers the monster with the hermit. Lincoln, you miss him. Yes, it's the monster. Yeah, he's wonderful. We could do seven hours talking to you about this stuff, Kirk. It's fun.

I hope you had fun. Well, let's consider this, you know, episode one. Absolutely. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Gilbert's going to plug the book one last time. Okay. It's alive.

time. Okay. It's a live classic horror sci-fi movie posters from the Kurt Hammett collection. It is absorbing and just great to see those posters. And now I guess I do the wrap up.

You do the wrap up. Well, this is Gilbert Gottfried. This has been Gilbert Gottfried's amazing colossal podcast with my co-host, Frank Santopadre. And we've been talking to a guy who is a member of Metallica, but much more important, he's an old monster movie freak. Kirk Hammond.

Kirk, you know a book called Heavy Metal Movies? Heavy Metal Movies. It's a book you'll like. It's written by one of our staffers, Mike McPadden. We're going to send you a copy. You'll love it. Oh, thank you so much. It sounds like I will.

It's something right up your alley. And this was fun. Our listeners have been saying, get Kirk Hammett, and we got you, and we're happy we did. Okay. I'm really, really glad that I had this chance to sit and talk to you two fine gentlemen about

what means the most in life. I hope that we can take it up again and maybe we'll solve the Earth's problems with our conversation, our next conversation. Well, let us know when you're this way and we'll call it part one.

Definitely. Thanks, Kirk. Thank you. All right, thank you, guys. Thank you so much. We'll see you. See you. Get my son to include everyone I'll tuck you in, warm within Keep you free from sin

Till the Sandman he comes Sleep with one eye open Gripping your pillow tight Exit light End of night Excellent light And all night Take my hand Rock to never, never land Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast

is produced by Dara Gottfried and Frank Santapadre with audio production by Frank Verderosa Web and social media is handled by Mike McPadden, Greg Pair, and John Bradley Seals Thank you. Farrell for their assistance.