Monsterpalooza In Burbank

Monsterpalooza In Burbank

Text and photos by Armand Vaquer

Above, King Kong atop the Empire State Building greeted entering attendees (click on this and the other photos to view larger).

I just got back from Monsterpalooza (and my local sushi bar) that's being held this weekend at the Marriott Convention Center in Burbank, California and I was greatly impressed. There were plenty of things to do and see. There were many stars, past and present, of horror and science-fiction movies and television shows.



Monsterpalooza had scheduled events in the Theater and a Museum of horror figures. There were dealers galore such as Anime Jungle (below) and Monsters In Motion thoughout the venue. Throughout the show, there were monster make-up displays (above). I saw several people in the process of being made up as some ghastly being of one kind or another.



Some of the stars included Julie Adams from The Creature From The Black Lagoon, Margot Kidder (Lois Lane) from the Christopher Reeve Superman movies, scream queen Brinke Stevens, Danielle Harris, Michael Berryman and many more.

Above, Julie Adams and Armand pose with a life-size Creature figure.

It was a pleasure to meet the late Forrest J. Ackerman's assistant, Joe Moe along with Phil Kim (below), the new head of Famous Monsters of Filmland.



I was also pleased to meet the Classic Horror Film Board's "Count Gamula" himself in his guise as mild-mannered artist Kerry Gammill.

The Museum had quite a number of displays. They included...

Boris Karloff in Jack Pierce's make-up chair having tea...



...Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula with Kharis, the Mummy...



...the Alien...



...and, of course, no visit to California would be complete without having Governor Schwarzenegger on hand...



... and Dracula putting on the whammy



Before heading out of Monstepalooza, one more shot of Kong:



Monsterpalooza runs through tomorrow, so if you get the chance to go, do yourself a favor and go. If not, start planning to attend next year's show!

UPDATE: Jim Nolt, who founded the Adventures Continue website, sent me this message:

Your mention of Brinke Stevens sent me looking for a photo taken in (judging from my hair style and waistline) about 1992-1993.

Jim

This is the photo of Brinke and Jim that was attached (he looks like a young Jonathan Frid here):

Superman Canyon

Above, the eastern end of Superman Canyon. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Last evening, I decided to have dinner in Gallup. When I got on Interstate 40 to head into Gallup, I saw that there was a huge line of traffic in the eastbound lanes stretching from Coolidge to almost the McGaffey exit.

Anticipating that the traffic won't clear by the time I headed back (and monitoring the situation on my phone), I took an alternate route home.

This route, in the Navajo Nation, took me past Superman Canyon northeast of Gallup.

Why is this called Superman Canyon? Scenes from Superman (1978) were filmed there.

According to Filmedthere.com:

The scenes shown below are from when Lois dies in the earthquake. Superman turns back time to fix everything and bring Lois back. The location is located on Superman Canyon Rd, in Gallup, NM. From I-40, you need to be on Route 66. find State Rd. 43A also known as Superman Canyon Rd. About 4-4.5 miles up the road is the movie scene location.

 

Above, Christopher Reeve and Margo Kidder in Superman Canyon in 1978. Photo by Warner Bros.

My route took me past Superman Canyon at the eastern end from the route stated above.

Along the way, I pulled over and took a couple of pictures of the canyon. 

Above, another view of the eastern end of Superman Canyon. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

To read more, go here.

Superman Canyon Found

Above, the rock formations I was looking for. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

A few weeks ago, I took a drive to the area of McKinley County north of the mesas that are across from Jamestown.

One of the routes was New Mexico Highway 566. A little north of Red Rock Park and Church Rock near Gallup, I saw some interesting rock formations at a bend in the road. I was wondering if they had a name and details on their formation. So I did a search. This area is about 15 miles from my home.

Above, Superman Canyon Road intersects with NM 566 about a half mile north of this spot. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

While doing so, I found that the route on NM 566 goes through an area called "Superman Canyon". Looking through a slideshow of LocationsHub, the rock formations are included. The actual Superman Canyon is west of NM 566.

The area nearby was used in the 1978 Superman movie for the scenes of the death of Lois Lane (Margot Kidder). (See Filmed There's page on this.)

Above, the general area of Superman Canyon. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

The road into Superman Canyon is Superman Canyon Road (Navajo Route 511), which appears to be inside of the Navajo Nation. The canyon itself is ten miles long and Superman Canyon Road does intersect with NM 566.

Well, while this is interesting movie location trivia, I still haven't found what the rock formations are. It is also interesting to find something that one wasn't even looking for.

Margot Kidder

Many news outlets have written that Margot Kidder was the "definitive" Lois Lane. While I thought she did an excellent job, I wouldn't say she was "definitive". She was better as Lois Lane than Christopher Reeve was as Superman. He was good as the Man of Steel, but I just couldn't stand his take as Clark Kent.

If anyone was a "definitive" Lois Lane, my vote goes to Phyllis Coates, who played Lois during the first season of Adventures of Superman in the 1950s. I just feel the chemistry between Coates and George Reeves was perfect. In second place (which is not an insult to her memory) was Noel Neill, who was first to play the role in the Kirk Alyn serials and Kidder (yes, a tie). Teri Hatcher comes in a close third. The rest, nothing memorable about them.

Kidder died yesterday at the age of 69. It was reported by The Guardian that the cause of her death was throat cancer. 69 is much too young (especially so since I am five years younger) of an age to die.

She had her demons, such as being bi-polar, but she persevered through the tough times and continued acting and appearing at fan conventions. I have met Phyllis Coates and was a friend of Noel Neill, but I never had the privilege of meeting Margot Kidder.

Passing at 69 is too young and too soon. Apparently, someone upstairs had other plans for her.

Rest in peace.