Pat Dollard | Young Americans

The last few days here in NE Ohio the weather has been not so hot and humid … Cooler, sunny days dotted with those puffy white whipped cream clouds we used to lie in the cool grass and call-out shapes from. There is the smell of green grass and earthiness in the breeze. The random cicada buzzing in the trees as the bright red Cardinal sits on the maple tree limb near my kitchen window every afternoon and chirps incessantly at my Katie’s cat who has taken over the window sill to watch him.

The nights have been even cooler … tree frogs and crickets chattering all night … the glow of the full moon beaming in through my open window and spilling onto my pillow. That sweet earthy smell even stronger …

This past week I have had those deja vu feelings of childhood summers so long ago … back when the talk and fear was the Ice Age that was to come about because of spray-on deodorant. Global Warming be damned …

The very first time I watched this movie I was staying with my cousins in Pittsburgh … It was a very late Saturday night with Channel 11 - WPXI’s “Chiller Theater” w/ Chiller Billy Cardille, and some voiceless girl called Terminal Stare (because that’s ALL she did, was stare into the camera). With a double feature I never got to bed until about 4 a.m. … and STILL had to drag myself out for Latin Mass in the early morning!

Bill Cardille was actually in the movie Night Of The Living Dead …

Behind the scenes:

Anyhow, Night Of The Living Dead scared the ‘living hell’ out of me … black and white and poor filming and all.

Somebody put it up in full on youtube. Enjoy.AND NOW THE MOVIE, FOLKS!!!

(Wiki)

Night of the Living Dead (1968), directed by George Romero, is an independent black-and-white horror film. Early titles were: Monster Flick (draft script) and Night of Anubis and Night of the Flesh Eaters (production). Ben (Duane Jones) and Barbra (Judith O’Dea) are the protagonists of a story about the mysterious reanimation of the recently dead, and their efforts, along with five other people, to survive the night while trapped in a rural Pennsylvania farmhouse.

George Romero produced the film on a $114,000 budget, and after a decade of cinematic re-releases, it grossed some $12 million domestically and $30 million internationally. On its release in 1968, Night of the Living Dead was strongly criticized for its explicit content. In 1999, the Library of Congress registered it to the National Film Registry as a film deemed “historically, culturally or aesthetically important”.

Cast of “Chiller Theater” … Terminal Stare is on the left … and there are the two “token” dwarfs/midgets of just about every weekend late night horror show had … at least in the Pittsburgh and Cleveland areas.