ANNIVERSARY
October 1st Daryl and I celebrated our 11-year Anniversary with dinner at a little place here in Glendale called the Tam O’Shanter. Daryl’s family hails from Scotland and the restaurant was frequented by Walt Disney, so it was inevitable that we’d end up there at least once.
HALLOWEEN
Halloween has never been a big holiday in the Cameron/Utt household, but when in Rome…
KNOTT’S SCARY FARMSOur friend Cid Stoll was in town to see the Halloween Haunt at Knott‘s Berry Farms, so she and I drove down to Buena Park on a Thursday night to check it out. Neither one of us is a big fan of people jumping out at us from all sides, but we gamely ventured into a haunted pirate maze. Amid all the zombies, monsters and sea-hags, the scariest encounter was with a ghoul who had the frightening… overpowering… aura… of… aftershave. While I appreciated the specter’s thoughtfulness, his attention to hygiene made it difficult to sneak up on his prey.
Knott’s also re-themed their slow-moving mine train and log flume attractions for the event. Just imagine riding Splash Mountain with reduced lighting and people bursting out of the scenes when you least expected it. Cid and I both jumped a few times during these two rides.
Then we caught the live show The Happiest Hanging on Earth which, while lampooning all things Disney, explored the eternal question: “Which celebrity or world figure is most deserving of being hanged in front of a live audience?” A troop of 16 actors and stunt performers brought to life--and then death--everyone from Darth Vader to Paris Hilton in a 30-minute show that felt more like an hour. The script was repetitive, the fake blood effect was exhausted in the first five minutes, and the Disney parodies just bogged the whole thing down. It was a real mess. The crowd was so indifferent, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the performers who still had two more shows to do that night.
HAUNTED MANSION HOLIDAYCid, Daryl and I also made it down to Disneyland to see some of the new stuff, including the Haunted Mansion Holiday. Each year, for the thirteen weeks between the Halloween and Christmas seasons, the Haunted Mansion gets a yuletide overlay themed to Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas. I was never a fan of the movie but this attraction is done so well it’s hard not to be impressed. Other people certainly think so since there was a sixty-minute wait at 10:00pm. Luckily, a woman we had befriended during the fireworks was leaving for the night and gave us her family’s FastPass. As our friend Paula would say, “It was a Nightmare Before Christmas miracle.”
YARD HAUNTS
Perhaps there is someone in your neighborhood that annually decorates their house for Halloween the way Jennings Osborne does his for Christmas. Maybe that person goes a step further and offers an interactive experience to the general public. If so, he or she has created a “Yard Haunt,” and may want to be added to--or check out the competition at-- http://www.hauntworld.com/states/ Our friends Byron and Shephard did the research and took us to three of the best in the Burbank area on October 30.
BONEY ISLAND
Boney Island was created by Don Polizzi, one of the producers of The Simpsons.
On HGTV’s Extreme Halloween this year he said he always wanted to design rides when he was a kid, so one year he turned his yard into a walkthrough attraction. Boney Island, as the name might tell you, is an amusement park that caters to skeletons.
Walking through the yard, you will see the band called the “SkeleTones”, a sideshow area featuring “The Once-Human Cannonball,” concessionaires selling “Rotten Candy” and a midway featuring a “Batting Cage.” Most of the scenes featured animation, music and family-friendly dialogue, like the dangling spiders who were cracking wise on the famous line from The Fly. One example: “Help Meeee…Help Meeee…Help Meeee, Rhonda. Help, Help Me Rhonda.” Their dedicated website is http://www.boneyisland.com/ but there’s nothing on it now that the season is over.FRIGHT GALLERY
Right behind the Disney Studios is a house that’s been hosting live Halloween-themed shows for 25 years. This year’s program “Twisted” was performed six times a night for 4 nights. The neighbors must be pretty tolerant since each performance filled the street with onlookers and the adjacent blocks with parked cars.
“Twisted” was The Wizard of Oz meets Beach Blanket Bingo performed by an all-zombie cast. The set took up the entire front yard and was done in black, white and gray until Dorothy landed in Sunny California. Then it magically turned to color, just in time for our heroine to kill the Wicked Witch of the West Coast, and met The O.Z. This 20-minute show zipped along with lots of one-liners and a musical finale from Hairspray. It was a crowd-pleaser and I hope somebody from Knott’s Scary Farms was there taking notes for 2006. http://www.thefrightgallery.com/
HALLOWED HAUNTING GROUNDS
After “Twisted” we headed for the granddaddy of LA Yard Haunts: The Hallowed Haunting Grounds. Started 33 years ago, this eerie graveyard experience is most often compared to The Haunted Mansion, the attraction that inspired the owners. You won‘t hear the bouncy “Grim Grinning Ghosts” song because this is a haunted graveyard best observed with solemnity.
Nothing jumps out at you, but you might get tangled in cobwebs as you search the cemetery for shrouded figures and apparitions. There’s no stretching room, but there’s a mausoleum whose side seems to breathe in and out, a lantern that floats though the darkness, and a sculpted bust that ages in front of you. There’s no ballroom scene either, but peaking in the front windows of the house reveals a see-through ghost playing the organ and a disembodied head chanting like Madame Leota.
Click on this link http://www.hauntinggrounds.org/hhgpics.htm and scroll down through the pictures. The individual shots might be a little clunky but these things are hard to capture on film. And when you consider that it’s a free, temporary attraction set up in someone’s front yard, living room, front bedroom and side yard, the Hallowed Haunting Grounds becomes even more impressive.
It was estimated that 4,000 people visited each night. [Can you imagine inviting 4,000 people to your neighborhood?] We stood in line for an hour to see this one but it was worth it, especially since 2005 was the final year for the display. I wonder who will try to top it next year?
HALLOWEEN AT THE DISNEY STUDIO
Like much of California, the Studio Cast Members celebrate Halloween in a big way. On the 31st, there was a costume contest, giveaways, and photo ops with Zorro Mickey, Chicken Little and Abby Mallard. There was a Chicken Little decorating contest with fifty entries that included likenesses of Elton John, Stitch, KFC and “Chicken Little Richard.”
The costume contest had four categories and took about an hour to finish. The judges on stage included Dick Cook, the head of the Studio; Jay Rasulo, President of Parks & Resorts; and Bob Eiger, celebrating his 31st day as CEO. The award for Funniest Costume went to a the guy dressed as “Little Orphan Annie: The Later Years.” Best Disney went to Mrs. Incredible. Normally, a store-bought costume gets an immediate thumbs-down from me, but this Elastigirl looked truly INCREDIBLE.
Best Group was the BVHE Team--including yours truly--as “Mousketeers Who Didn’t Make the Cut.” Scariest went to a guy dressed in a white hooded robe and white face paint. I didn’t think he had a chance until he announced ominously that he was “The Ghost of Hand-Drawn Animation at Disney” and the crowd went wild. I guess it pays to know your audience.
BURBANK TOWER EVENTS
The Burbank Tower, where Daryl and I work, hosted a Pumpkin-Carving Contest and a Haunted House experience this year. There were only 10 pumpkins entered, but I was happy to accept First Prize for my effort. Two first place wins in one day, when will that happen again?
I wasn‘t sure what to expect with the haunted house on the 28th floor, but everyone was talking about it, so I headed upstairs. The elevator doors opened onto a lobby that had been decorated to resemble the one in the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. When we entered the haunted hotel, I was amazed at how much work the team had put into this experience. Black plastic sheeting lined the entire maze, masking the walls, the doors, the cubicles and most importantly, the light.Our group of five made our way through 10 different stations including the front desk, the pool, the restaurant, the ballroom, and the bar. Along the way people would scare us by yelling, jumping out or just “coming alive” when we were least expecting it. There were folks down on the floor who would brush their hands against our legs or pretend to grab us by our ankles. Because it was a hotel, there were references to Psycho and The Shining, like a wall that had the word REDRUM all over it. There was so much detail, I can‘t imagine how much time it took to set this thing up.
WEHO HALLOWEEN CARNAVAL
After work, we--and 30,000 other people--headed to West Hollywood [WEHO] for the annual Halloween Carnaval [Their spelling.]. It felt like Mardi Gras, with less alcohol, no formal parades and much wider streets. We walked the entire route and doubled back to the car, which MapQuest later told us was four miles.One of the first costumes we saw was a woman covered in blood with a bullhorn. I thought she was a "zombie gym coach" until I realized she was trying to raise my consciousness about prison conditions at Guantanamo Bay. Later we encountered a rapidly-moving group of young adults advocating “White Power” and several people carrying large signs proclaiming Jesus’ disapproval of the event. These protests seemed ineffective given the fun mood of the crowd, but here I am mentioning them to you now, so maybe it was worth their effort.
One drag queen decided to turn the tables on one of the sign-toting protestors. She simply followed him around for at least a half hour as if the two of them were both in a costume. She stuck to him like glue, telling passer-bys things like “See what I put up with to make this relationship work?” And wouldn’t you know it, people started asking them to pose for pictures, too.
But the fun of the night was seeing and photographing all the creative costumes. We’d tap someone on the shoulder and say, “Olive Oyl, can I take your picture?” She’d pose for us and then move on.
We walked through the crowd for about three hours, passing many incarnations of Jack Sparrow, Willy Wonka, Napolean Dynamite, and Clark Kent. On the ladies’ side, the popular costumes seemed to be fairy, wench, Rainbow Brite, and Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas. One woman who dressed like the cartoon character Strawberry Shortcake actually smelled like her namesake. Also clever was the guy dressed as NBC’s “This program is brought to you in living color” peacock who could fan his tail feathers on command.
As we made our way back to the car, we passed the hooded figure from Scream, a Playboy Bunny, some Soccer Hooligans, Spongebob Squarepants, Aunt Jemima and even comedian Bobby Lee who was sitting in the middle of the street. Apparently he was taping an on-the-street segment for Mad TV and just needed a rest. We got back to our car by 11:30, but people were just arriving to the party which we heard lasted until 4:00am.
BRUCE WEBER AT THE ARCLIGHT
The weekend of October 8, we saw three documentaries by Bruce Weber. http://www.bruceweber.com/ Although I think he’s a much better photographer than filmmaker, I did enjoy Chop Suey. We got there early so Daryl could meet Bruce and ask him to sign his copy of Bear Pond. Former model Bruce Hulse and actor Robert Gant were there and later that same night we saw Elijah Wood and Andy Serkis [Frodo and Gollum from Lord of the Rings] leaving A History of Violence which, ironically, starred Viggo Mortensen.
We were back at the theater on October 25 to see five short films entered in the Hollywood Film Festival. One of them Once Not Far From Home was produced by Todd Thompson, whom we knew from Walt Disney World. Todd and his film’s star, Erik Per Sullivan [Dewey on Malcom in the Middle] were there. Also on the screen and in the audience that afternoon was Charles Robinson [Mac Robinson from Night Court.]
http://www.arclightcinemas.com/coming_soon.jsp
Thanks to our friend Alyce Diamandis for telling us about the Film Festival screening. We met up with her and two of her friends from high school for a great dinner at the Palms Thai, home of the world famous Thai Elvis. He’s good and the food is great. You can read more about both in this LA Weekly review. http://www.laweekly.com/ink/05/41/counter-gold.php
BOOKSOUP
On Tuesday, October 25, we went to pick up a copy of the new autobiography Tab Hunter Confidential: The Making of A Movie Star. While waiting for the BookSoup event to start, we befriended Kathy, who had lived in WEHO for 20 years or so. It was because of her that we ended up going to the Halloween Carnaval. She knew where to park, where to eat, and how to manage the crowds.
Turns out she also knew Tab Hunter. When we got up to the table for him to sign our book, he saw Kathy and lit up like a Christmas tree. He turned to the audience and started to brag about her horse-riding skills and she started to blush. It was a sweet moment. Afterwards, the three of us chatted some more and made plans to meet at the Carnaval, which we did. http://www.booksoup.com/
DISNEY’S SODA FOUNTAIN AND STUDIO STOREAnother place we went to for the first time this month was the Disney Soda Fountain and Studio Store next to the El Capitan Theater. There were 15 kinds of ice cream to choose from but only two lunch items: Hotdog & chips or grilled cheese & chips. No hamburgers, fries or salad. It was almost a month ago so I might be exaggerating on the menu. But I do remember that Mike O’Malley from Yes, Dear sat down next to us fifteen minutes after Cid Stoll said we’d never see any celebrities in the heart of the Hollywood tourist corridor. http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/el_capitan/soda_fountain/main.html
VISITORS
In addition to Cid and Alyce, we had a visit from our friend Francesca Galarraga. The three of us had dinner at Barzak, which has been used a few times this season on Desperate Housewives [including the scene where Bree slapped her mother-in-law.]
STAR SIGHTINGS [In addition to the folks mentioned above]
While we were at the taping of the Freddie Christmas episode, Sarah Michelle Gellar watched everything from the sidelines. At the Tab Hunter signing, we saw Kyle Gass [Jack Black’s singing partner from Tenacious D] standing outside of BookSoup. And two weeks ago at our favorite lunch spot, Studio Caffe’ Maggazino, we had the privilege of sitting next to Harrison Ford.
I doubt we’ll be able to top lunch with Han Solo next month, but who knows?
Until then.
James
