Hello, all! I'm very sorry for not posting in the past few days, I've been pretty busy with some things, but here we go! I've decided to do my first vinyl record post today! Let me know in the comments if you have any other suggestions for posts you want to see! Caedmon Records. The Holy Grail of all Halloween record collectors. The coup de grace of all ghost story audiophiles. The greatest little record company that ever lived. How I love it. Caedmon Records was formed in 1952 by Barbara Holdridge and Marianne Roney, two young college graduates, who partnered with HarperCollins publishing to create a series of audiobooks on vinyl records. One of their first records was a collection of poems read by the poet Dylan Thomas, which was partnered with the story A Child's Christmas in Wales on the vinyl's B-side. It sold very well and launched Caedmon into the limelight as the first audiobook company ever. Now, the good stuff. Fast forward six years. It's 1958. Caedmon has released dozens of vinyls of classic stories with such famous actors recording them as Beatrice Lillie, Bert Lahr, Stanley Holloway and Judith Anderson. It specializes in sophisticated literature for college and home intellectual use. Then this arrives: Basil Rathbone Reads Edgar Allan Poe, recorded and released in 1958, became one of Caedmon's most popular records up to that time. Not only for intellectuals, but just for adults in general. And some children, even. Each story, especially Rathbone's chilling delivery of The Raven, entertained and chilled audiences (www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jOS2FlLgic). And, this led to, eventually, one of the greatest series of Horror story albums ever created on vinyl record. The Portrait of Dorian Grey, 1959, was the next horror story put to vinyl from Caedmon, and it sold very well in turn. In 1960, Caedmon brought Basil Rathbone back to record Basil Rathbone Reads Edgar Allan Poe, Volume 2, finalizing Caedmon's love for the macabre. Washington Irving's chilling classic, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, was released in 1967 read by Ed Begley. From then on, Caedmon took a temporary leave of absence to prepare their next horror vinyl batch. And then, it hit! Tales of Witches, Ghosts, and Goblins Told By Vincent Price, was released in 1972. And boy, was it released! The vinyl sold relatively well, but over the period of 40 years, it has become one of the most sought after vinyl records of all time by ghost story audio lovers. And for good reason. It's got just enough for everyone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tf9dYinVKT0&list=OLAK5uy_kaNf9Uqzpo6pKF88vYWJq-Lt-c-t9rIgU In my opinion, this is the best story on the album. It's genuinely creepy at times, but it also is a macabrely uplifting tale of revenge and survival, and friendship with the dead. The other interesting thing about this vinyl record was that it used stories not published in a single book (though many were adapted from legends or books). Also interesting was its use of little to no music or sound effects. Instead, it relied almost entirely on the narrator, and luckily this gave him a great chance to shine. And Vincent Price is the best narrator that the vinyl could have. The charming, elegant, mellifluous but sinister voice of Mr. Price proved to be a very popular narrator for the album and the others which followed. He evoked a spirit of mystery in each tales, poem, or instruction he told. In short, Uncle Vinnie played Uncle Vinnie, and it worked beautifully. I mean, what child in the 1970s wouldn't have loved to have their grandfather be Vincent Price and hear him cry out "Come over and sit on my lap, children, and I'll tell you the tale of Mr. Beelzy"? I can surely tell you I would have. Caedmon went on to produce many more Vincent price albums, but only three more were directly tied with the ghost story/Halloween theme, the other being Poe-related: A Graveyard Of Ghost Tales, A Coven Of Witches Tales, and A Hornbook For Witches. Each had its own exciting and clever collection of spooky tales and each has an especially good tale in it. Ghost Tales has The Leg of Gold, a spooky take on the Golden Arm tale which is also seen in two other horror records, Famous Ghost Stories and Great Ghost Tales. This is a different take on the story, in that it takes place so long ago in older times. Have a listen: Another great story comes from A Coven of Witches' Tales. It is the story of Baba Yaga, an old woman who lived in a hut with chicken legs. Here it is: But, in my opinion, the best story of any of the Vincent Price albums is Thus I Refute Beelzy, from A Hornbook For Witches. It's adapted from a story by John Collier first published in 1952, and it's very eerie. A young boy named Simon is made fun of by his cruel father for playing with the mysterious title character, and... Well, I won't ruin the rest of the story. Hear for yourself: William Conrad's 1973 Halloween vinyl Spirits and Spooks For Halloween is one of the best Halloween records of all time. It is spooky, interesting, and each recording is told with expert skill and genuine caring. The best story in my opinion is The Secret Commonwealth, which is about a mysterious cave in North Whales which has some very mysterious creatures dwelling in it: In 1976, Caedmon recorded an abridged version of The War of the Worlds narrated by Leonard Nimoy. It was relatively well received, and has become a cult album with fans of Nimoy from his character on "Star Trek", and in 1977, James Mason recorded and abridged version of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Now, the next record is a bit of an anomaly. It's 1978's The Goblins at the Bath House and Calamander Chest, read by Vincent Price. From what little I know of it, it's very rare, and the Discogs database has no record of it ever being sold on their site. However, through the magic of YouTube, The Vincent Price Appreciation fanbase has posted all of the record online. Each of the two stories is in two parts. Enjoy: In 1980, a very interesting (and now VERY rare) vinyl was created by Caedmon: Gorey By Grimes, a collection of tales and poems by the famed macabre author and illustrator Edward Gorey, as told by Tammy Grimes, with musical accompaniment. The record is almost unheard of nowadays, but here is the only audio clip of the tales I could find: Jack Prelutsky and Arnold Lobel's 1976 book Nightmares: Poems To Trouble Your Sleep is a masterwork of horror mixed with great art and storytelling. So it comes as no great surprise that Caedmon record snapped up it and its sequel, The Headless Horseman Rides Tonight, to be made into a vinyl record in 1983. Too bad it was produced in the end of the great era of LPs, as it is a great recording. Here's a link to the audio from Archive.org: archive.org/details/NightmaresPoemsToTroubleYourSleep The final record I will be talking about is the 1986 super vinyl Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark. I know that Caedmon made many more scary records, but I tried to pick out some of my favorites and, in my opinion, most significant. However, should you be interested in these other records, I will leave a link at the bottom that goes to Caedmon's Discogs page. Alvin Schwartz's "Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark" is unarguably the best collection of ghostly tales for young children, and even teenagers. It's well written, well organized, and the illustrations scare the living hell out of you. This isn't "Magic Treehouse," kids. These were the books you would go check out and feel brave to carry across the whole library at the elementary school when you went to check them out, and everyone was either envious of you or felt a new sense of awe and camaraderie that you, yes YOU too, were a cool kid because you read these books. Caedmon's Scary Stories album is by far the creepiest and genuinely most chilling record they ever produced. Each story and song is lovingly told by George S. Irving, a great master of the theatre, and also, apparently, at scaring the crap outta kids. It is slightly abridged, but the stories it chooses to tell are amazing. "The Big Toe" starts off the record, with the narrator literally shrieking the last line with as much passion as he can muster: "YOU'VE GOT IT!" But, in my opinion, the best story told on the whole record, is "Room For One More". It's one of the scariest stories in the book that always made me feel really uneasy after reading it as a child. A man is staying with some friends at their house and he has to go into work in one of the big, tall new office buildings downtown the next day. He wakes up in the middle of the night, and he sees a horrifying thing occur outside his window. I'll let you listen to the rest of the story, but be warned: keep the lights on unless you're very brave: I strongly suggest you listen to the audio for the whole album. This album proved so popular that they made audio tapes of the other two books when they were released, although these lacked the music and spirit of the original vinyl. You can buy all three on CD on Amazon through here: https://www.amazon.com/Scary-Stories-Audio-CD-Collection/dp/0694526126/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1OCQIJUI4GKK1&keywords=scary+stories+to+tell+in+the+dark+audiobook&qid=1577652294&sprefix=scary+stories+to+tell+in+the+dark+audi%2Caps%2C213&sr=8-2 That's the end of this long, long post. As you can see, Caedmon records has left a great impact on me throughout my life, and I'm sure it has also provided entertainment to many other people, young and old. That's all for this post, so, goodnight, and... sweet dreams? Hmm hmm hmm hmm..... Links to Buy These Records on Discogs:-https://www.discogs.com/Edgar-Allan-Poe-Basil-Rathbone-Reads-Edgar-Allan-Poe/master/739180
-https://www.discogs.com/Edgar-Allan-Poe-Basil-Rathbone-Reads-Edgar-Allan-Poe-Volume-2/master/731013 -https://www.discogs.com/Oscar-Wilde-The-Picture-Of-Dorian-Grey/release/727299 -https://www.discogs.com/Washington-Irving-The-Legend-Of-Sleepy-Hollow/release/3042374 -https://www.discogs.com/Vincent-Price-Tales-Of-Witches-Ghosts-And-Goblins/release/3861426 -https://www.discogs.com/Vincent-Price-A-Graveyard-Of-Ghost-Tales/master/1217653 -https://www.discogs.com/Vincent-Price-A-Coven-Of-Witches-Tales/master/1038278 -https://www.discogs.com/Vincent-Price-Edgar-Allan-Poe-The-Imp-Of-The-Perverse-And-Other-Tales/release/2275538 -https://www.discogs.com/Vincent-Price-A-Hornbook-For-Witches-Stories-And-Poems-For-Halloween/master/1242875 -https://www.discogs.com/Vincent-Price-Edgar-Allan-Poe-Ligeia/release/3811428 -https://www.discogs.com/Vincent-Price-The-Goblins-At-The-Bath-House-And-Calamander-Chest/release/8381215 -https://www.discogs.com/William-Conrad-Spirits-And-Spooks-For-Halloween-Summoned-Up-By-William-Conrad/release/1567110 -https://www.discogs.com/James-Mason-Mary-Shelley-Frankenstein-Abridged/release/2427160 -https://www.discogs.com/HG-Wells-Read-By-Leonard-Nimoy-The-War-Of-The-Worlds-Abridged/release/3289325 -https://www.discogs.com/master/view/1069338 -https://www.discogs.com/Jack-Prelutsky-and-Don-Heckman-Nightmares-Poems-To-Trouble-Yourself-To-Sleep/release/6244607 -https://www.discogs.com/George-S-Irving-Scary-Stories-To-Tell-In-The-Dark/release/3818119 -https://www.discogs.com/Oscar-Brand-Trick-Or-Treat-Halloween-Celebrated-In-Story-And-Song/release/5582196 And Caedmon's generic release page: https://www.discogs.com/label/56491-Caedmon-Records
0 Comments
Ah, come in, dear listener. Welcome to The Ghostly Grotto. I've spent quite some time in fixing up my old radio set. A 1932 Magnavox Olympia that came washing up to the island in the tide one day. I managed to find some electric eels deep in the cave, so now i'm able to listen to all the radio broadcasts sent out by passing ships and other channels. So, if you have the time, we'll sit back and listen to an episode from one of the most horrifying programs ever put on air... The Hermit's Cave! This week's episode of "Old Time Radio Show Of The Week" is a 1936 episode of the classic "Hermit's Cave" radio program titled "The Vampire's Desire". It concerns two weary travelers who happen upon a mysterious house and sneak inside, only to enter into a nightmare that they will never remember. A strong episode, though it gets a bit tedious in spots. I rate it a solid B+. Now, as The Hermit would say, "Turn out your lights. Turn them out... Hee hee hee hee hee..." Here's the link to the audio, courtesy of Archive.org: archive.org/details/1936112211TheVampiresDesire Ah, dear reader. Welcome to The Ghostly Grotto. Today's short story collection is "Horror Tales: Spirits, Spells and the Unknown," edited by Roger Elwood and illustrated by Robert Baumgartner with an introduction by George Zebrowski. This 1974 book was the second of two ghost story collections with the same editor, with the first being "Monster Tales" (which will be covered in a later post). The stories inside were written by various authors such as Howard Goldsmith, Arthur Tofte and Thomas Monteleone. It's unclear to me whether or not these books are related to "Baleful Beasts and Eerie Creatures"(1976) by Andre Norton Rod Ruth or "Tales Of Terror"(1975) by Ida Chittum. However, they are all 4 short scary story books that are designed for younger readers, and they're all published by Rand McNally. This book contains seven spooky tales to give you a chill; "The Shadow," "The Boy Who Could Make Things Move," "A Seance In Summer," "The Voices of El Dorado," "A Spell For Jonathan," "The Red Stone Key," and "Through The Crystal Ball...And Beyond". Of all the tales, the best two are "The Shadow" and "A Seance In Summer". "The Shadow" is a tale of a young boy whose family moves into an old house that once belonged to a witch. The old, gnarled tree outside is said to have her spirit inside, so no one has ever dared to cut it down. One day, the boy cuts the tree with a knife. Strange and terrifying things happen that night... A bit of a safe, cop-out ending, but still well done overall. "A Seance in Summer" is by far and away, in my opinion, the best tales of the whole book. It's about a girl that visits her aunt, who lives in Ocean City, Maryland, for the summer. Her aunt has rigged up a fake seance that she charges tourists admission to see. But when a mysterious and creepy looking man visits the seance one night, things go a bit wrong . HORRIBLY wrong. This is one of my favorite tales in that it doesn't have a fake out ending, but then I'm giving away the surprise, aren't I... "Horror Tales" is sadly out of print, and has been for many years. If you're lucky, you may find a copy on Thriftbooks:
www.thriftbooks.com/w/horror-tales-spirits-spells--the-unknown_roger-elwood_george-zebrowski/459427/#isbn=0528824708 Or, at Abebooks: www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&cm_sp=SearchF-_-home-_-Results&an=&tn=horror+tales+spirits+spells+and+the+unknown&kn=&isbn= It is available on Amazon fairly regularly as well, though be careful; some sellers try to ask for way too much for the hardcover edition. Well, that's all for today, friend. Now, board your boat and go back to the mainland, and thank you for visiting me in the Ghostly Grotto. Oh, and do watch the rocks as you leave. They tend to be very slick after it's been raining so hard. Hee hee hee hee.... Ah, welcome! Welcome, reader! Well, come on in!
I've been planning to do this little blog for many years, but up until now, I had no way to actually go about it. Oh, and by the way, I won't keep up the same "Spooky Story Teller" voice the whole post each time, I just did it for this intro. Anyways, I've been deciding on what to do for this blog page, and so I finally decided to do it on what I love the most- Halloween. Halloween, that one wonderful, magical evening when everything is as it should be. Halloween, the reason why October becomes an enchanted, eerie month. Halloween- the night that used to scare the bejeezus out of me. Halloween. It's my everything. And so that's what I'm going to post about. This blog will feature all of the following: Its main purpose is to show you out there some classic Halloween books, games, toys, vinyl records, stories, old time horror radio shows and movies/ TV specials that I personally love or have discovered. The blog will feature: 1) at least a weekly post, maybe more if I have material and the time to do more (don't riot if I can't keep up with that promise) 2) links to spooky Halloween videos on YouTube, Dailymotion or Archive.org 3) Photos from my collection and/or from online. No copyright infringement is intended or implied as this blog is completely non-profit and I may simply be using them to expand upon an idea by using ones from Google images. 4) audio from scary stories and other spooky occurrences 5) links (SAFE) as to where to buy said scary things that were seen on my blog (i.e. Discogs for records, Thriftbooks or Abebooks for books, etc.) All links will be checked monthly and every link that I post will be from a legitimate website (stated above). If you encounter any difficulties, notify me immediately (using my email in the Contact page) and I will fix or remove the links. Of course, not everything I post will be directly related to Halloween. Much of it will be of just scary/ spooky media. As stated above, this blog is completely non-profit and for entertainment purposes only. No monetary gain is being made off of this page. As for the links to buy the items, they are only there in case you are interested in getting them, which while I highly recommend many of them, in no way am I forcing you or persuading you to get them. So, that's all for now. Please come back tomorrow to see what's new in.. The Ghostly Grotto. Oh, and do watch your head as you leave the cave... |
AuthorA Halloween fanatic, scary story vinyl collector, and ghost story teller extraordinaire. All self-proclaimed titles, however. Archives
December 2019
Categories
|