BE IT KNOWN HERE AND NOW THE FOLLOWING ARE ENSHRINED AND AWARDED A "TOR STATUE" FOR THEIR DISTINGUISHED CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE AWEFULFEST GALAXY OF FILM & CULTURAL ENTERTAINMENT.
ED WOOD
Honorary First Inductee Dec 1, 2015
October 10, 1924 – December 10, 1978. The poster child for unintentionally funny movies, Ed leaves behind a legacy of films of the horror-sci-fi and social commentary genre, including Glen or Glenda, Jail Bait, Plan 9 From Outer Space, The Violent Years and Bride of the Monster. Known to have a fetish for angora sweaters (indeed there is stong evidence that the protagonist in Glen or Glenda was autobiographical)Wood was infamous for being a cheapskate director. His wife was left with an unpaid bill following his death for a science lab he rented for scenes in a film and he was good at dodging the fees cities and towns charged for filming. Indeed, one actor commented that Ed could complete a scene and have everyone on the set out of there even as the police were approaching!
HAROLD P. WARREN
Inducted Jan. 1, 2016
Oct. 23, 1923 – Dec. 26, 1985. Writer, director, actor, fertilizer salesman. Harold proved that all it took to make a horror movie was someone betting him he couldn’t. After a walk-on role in the TV series Route 66, Warren, an insurance and fertilizer salesman from El Paso, met screenwriter Stirling Silliphant. Warren claimed it wouldn’t be difficult to make a horror film and bet Silliphant that he could make an entire film on his own. With no training whatsoever, Harold set out to make a movie with the help of some local theater actors, $19,000 dollars, and a 16mm Bell & Howell camera. The resulting film, “Manos: The Hands of Fate” previewed at one theater in El Paso in 1966. Words used to describe the movie were, “abysmal”, “tedious”, and “inexplicable”. We rate the film simply,aweful(sic).
ROGER CORMAN
Inducted January 9,2016
A former engineering student, Roger Corman entered the picture business as a messenger and ended up a producer/director after a stint as a story analyst and a brief detour to Oxford University. After returning to Hollywood, he saw an opportunity to make money and gain experience by making low-budget films to feed the drive-in and neighborhood theater circuits, which had been abandoned in large part by the major studios. Working from budgets of as little as 50,000 dollars, he quickly learned the art of creating bargain-basement entertainment and making money at it, producing and directing pictures for American International Pictures and Allied Artists. Five Guns West, Apache Woman, The Day the World Ended, It Conquered the World, Not of This Earth, The Undead, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Doll, Machine Gun Kelly, The Wasp Woman, and Sorority Girl were only a few of the titles, and they were indicative of their subjects.
William Castle
Inducted Feb. 19, 2016
April 24, 1914 – May 31, 1977)The man with a gimmick, Castle produce and direct a series of inexpensive horror films in the late 50’s and early 60’s, notable for their use of promotional gimmicks to enhance interest and therefore revenue. For his movie, “Macabre”, every customer received a $1000 life insurance policy in case they should die of fright; for the movie “The Tingler”, electronic buzzers were attached to select seats in the theater to simulate the affect of the “Tingler”; and for “13 Ghosts”, filmed in “Illusion-O”, every patron received a ghost viewer that enabled them to see the ghost on screen. Castle’s gimmicks accompanied 10 horror films over the course of his career and cemented his legacy as horror movie’s “man with a gimmick”.
SAM ARKOFF & JAMES H. NICHOLSON
INDUCTED 2/25/2016
The co-founders of American-International Pictures and the godfathers of the beach party and teenage werewolf movies. When Arkoff and partner James H. Nicholson founded AIP in 1954, the major Hollywood studios were little interested in movies aimed at teenagers, or in the summer releasing season. Under Arkoff and Nicholson,AIP had surprising success with low-budget youth pictures, and took advantage of less competition in the summer to open double-features with titles like "Muscle Beach Party" and "Invasion of the Saucer Men."
DWIGHT FRYE
INDUCTED MARCH 13, 2016 Dwight Frye (Feb. 22, 1899 – Nov. 7, 1943) – Everyone’s favorite hunchbacked clubfoot, Frye cast the mold for the Demented Assistant to the Mad Scientist. He robbed graves for Dr. Frankenstein, ran errands for Count Dracula, and stole every scene he was ever in. Though featured in just 5 horror films over the course of his career, the shear force of these performances has given Frye legendary status in the annuals of screen horror.
JAMES WHALE (Inducted April 2, 2016)
One of the most stylized and talented filmmakers of the 1930s, director James Whale was also one of the most successful; a fact that stood in direct contrast to his long-underappreciated stature in the history of cinema. Arriving in Hollywood at the dawn of the sound era, he made a name for himself around town with the war dramas "Journey's End" (1930) and "Waterloo Bridge" (1931). It was, however, the Universal horror classic "Frankenstein" (1931) that established Whale as an A-list director, influential enough to choose his own projects and cast them as he saw fit. Despite his best efforts to diversify, hugely popular films like "The Invisible Man" (1933) and "Bride of Frankenstein" (1935) pigeon-holed him as a horror director, even as critics who were dismissive of the genre failed to recognize his formidable visual and aesthetic brilliance.
KENNETH TOBEY
INDUCTED MAY 3, 2016
Kenneth Tobey (March 23, 1917 – Dec. 22, 2002) – Like many other actors of his era such as, John Agar, Richard Carlson, and Kevin McCarthy, Tobey played a variety of TV and movie roles. But within the community of horror and sci-fi fans of the 50s, he was the no-nonsense, go-to guy when confronting giant creatures from the sea or evil aliens from outer space. Tobey brought gravitas to movies like The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, It Came from Beneath the Sea, and of course, The Thing from Another World.
HANS SALTER
INDUCTED AUGUST 13, 2020
If you grew up watching Universal Studio monster movies like Frankenstein, Dracula, and The Wolfman on late night TV then you’re probably a fan of Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, and Lon Chaney Jr. What you may not know is that you’re most likely a fan of Hans J. Salter as well.
Hans J. Salter, born January 14, 1896 in Lviv, Ukraine, studied composition at the Vienna Academy of Music and went on to become music director of the Berlin State Opera. He immigrated to the United States in 1937 and came under contract to Universal Studios where he composed some of the most iconic horror movie scores ever produced.
Like a crack of lightening or the howl of a wolf at night, Salter’s compositions became part of the atmosphere of movies like The Wolfman, House of Frankenstein, The Ghost of Frankenstein, Son of Dracula, and The Invisible Man’s Revenge. It’s impossible to imagine any of these films without Salter’s soaring arrangements carrying the action forward.
Much of his music at Universal was uncredited and used as stock music but, credited or not, it only takes a few orchestral measures to conjure images of a foggy night at the Talbot estate or a brooding monster strapped to a table inside a Bavarian castle.
Salter was nominated for an Academy Award for several films including Christmas Holiday (1944) and This Love Of Ours (1945). He’s also credited with composing the march-like music that accompanied the Universal Studio airplane/globe logo at the beginning of their films.
He composed music for, The Invisible Man Returns (1940), Creature From The Black Lagoon (1954), and The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) but the majority of his scores were for non-horror/sci-fi movies.
Salter died in Studio City, CA on July 23, 1994, at the age of 98.