I have always been a nut about Halloween.  Sci Fi films, old horror movies, carving pumpkins and decorating the house with hanging bats, spiders, rats, candy corn, candles and the works is a freaking blast.

One year after we have been operating the Paramount Theatre in downtown Austin I decided to let whimsy run wild.  I came up with the idea of throwing a big Halloween bash for kids and families.  I named it “The First Annual Paramount Phantom Phreak”.  There wouldn’t be a Second annual Phreak.

Guess who played the “Phantom”?  I went out and found a bad ass rubber phantom mask and a black cloak from neck to the floor.  We promoted it through all the conventional media in Austin at that time along with posters and all the rest.  I was able to get the local ABC affiliate (KVUE now) to come to the theatre to shoot some film.  They set up across the street from the theatre to film me running around the third floor facing Congress Avenue.  It was an Oscar worthy performance by a gifted actor who had too much fun in the Sixties!!

The celebration included a contest for the best Carmen Miranda costume, gifts for the kids in costume and a showing of one of the greatest sci fi films ever made – Forbidden Planet (1954) starring Leslie Nielsen 25 years before Airplane, the gorgeous Anne Francis and Walter Pigeon as “Morpheus”.  Oh, it also starred Robbie the Robot.  The film was a trailblazer in special effects created by Walt Disney Studios.  The story is based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest.

With all in readiness, I got the sillies and decided to down to 6^th Street in costume to have some fun and inspire others to follow me back to the Paramount.  6^th Street at that time was only active with clubs from Congress Avenue to I35.  Actually, there were very, very few clubs and most were probably in a five block stretch.

Austin was still more a town than a city in that era.  Being a frequent patron of the area I came to know most of the owners of the bars and restaurants.  I could walk in any of them and know people I knew right off the bat.  You can’t imagine how generous these nice people can be especially to The Phantom.  I remember being seduced by some magic dust in the air.  Friends and strangers alike ladled some strange elixir down my throat as they held me down against my will forcing my mouth to stay open.  Fiends – the lot of them.  What the hell else would you expect on Halloween in Austin especially dressed up as The Phantom.

By the time Halloween activities were to start at the Paramount, the Phantom was really, really happy.  In fact The Phantom was The Phantom – not some extension of some mere mortal.  The Phantom became bigger than life, waving to the throngs of fans as he weaved his way back to the alley behind the theatre to take the helm of Spook Central.

The Phantom took the stage with a flourish to the thundering shouts of maybe 80 – 100 people in a 1300 seat venue.  “There are no small parts only small players”.  80 or 8000 – it mattered not.  Adoration from the few went a long way especially when one is properly spirited.

The Carmen Miranda contest was first.  We actually had some really great Carmen’s – men and women alike.  The Phantom remembers that a guy won first prize.  His headdress was real fruit.  The Phantom asked for her/his number.  The Phantom is an equal opportunity spook.

There was a bit of a lull as the Carmen’s made their way from the stage back to their seats before we were to begin the costume contest for the kids and gifts as well.

The Phantom – mesmerized by the follow spot blasting from the projection booth – time traveled to the Hungry Eye in San Francisco of the early 1960’s where he morphed in to Lenny Bruce – the infamous comedian who was arrested 285 times for obscenity strewn comedy bits.  That same Lenny Bruce who was a junky and OD’d at 44!

“Ladies and Gentleman and Kids – won’t you please give a big Austin welcome to Mr. Lenny Bruce!”  That actually didn’t happen.  However, The Phantom was off and running with one of the cleaner comedy sketches.  One of the members of the IATSE stage crew noticed that The Phantom had gone a little funny in the head.  He began helicoptering his arms and hands in the backstage wings to get The Phantom’s attention.  The Phantom thought he was a smash hit with the crew and took no further notice.  The volume on the microphone slowly faded to zero and The Phantom’s voice with it.  Heads would roll!

The Paramount manager made his way to the stage, whispering in The Phantom’s ear that he was talking to a theatre full of 5-6 year olds and their parents.  The Phantom’s head suddenly cleared re-inhabiting the body of one John Bernardoni.  Pivoting like a ballet dancer from the Bolshoi, he made the transition to a fun loving phantom whilst the children showed off their costumes to the audience of parents, mostly.

The Phantom bid the audience adieu and swept off the stage like a “Ring Wraith” from J.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit!

I returned as myself to sit in the back of the theatre to become a kid again.  The penultimate event of the evening began with the showing of the aforementioned Forbidden Planet on the gigantic silver screen in the sumptuous surroundings of that beautiful theatre built in 1915 when a theatre was a theatre.

THE END – NOT!

POSTSCRIPT

I remember seeing Forbidden Planet at the magnificent Majestic Theatre in San Antonio where I grew up.  I’d guess I was 6 years old.  They had a real life model of Robbie the Robot in the lobby.  I also saw the original War of the Worlds and The Creature from the Black Lagoon in3-D at the Majestic.  The cheesy sci fi films played the Texas Theatre which was torn down for a new bank.  They left the façade standing though.  Weird combination of architecture!  Nice of them to save the façade like that!!!

I have always absolutely loved Halloween.  My brother in Houston may be an even bigger Halloween nut than I. His office is painted orange and black.  He even has a 1962 C-10 Chevrolet short bed stepside truck named “Goblin” that is perfect Halloween orange perfectly painted by himself in the driveway!

We also made our own decorations.  Construction paper – orange and black were our materials.  You cut out “strips” alternating colors to create paper links so as to create a “chain” to hang around the house.  I think we had templates of witches and black cats and more.  I’d trace the edges of those templates on to a piece of construction paper.  Then, we would tape them to anything not moving over 15 MPH – cabinets, doors, ice box (what you call a refrigerator) and even trees.

My best costume as a kid was a red devil with a very realistic rubber mask – not the best for San Antonio weather that time of the year.  Still, one takes a bullet to be the best ghoul possible!

Can’t tell you how much fun it was to go out to “trick or treat” the neighborhood.  I think we did this near my grandmother’s neighborhood (“Memaw”) but I could be wrong.  Memaw used to make popcorn balls which were about the size of a hard ball.   Somehow, she combined popcorn with caramel (I think) to hold it all together.  We also had candied apples made at home – not in a store in a mall or grocery store.  People would actually make real gingerbread witches and sugar cookies of bats, ghosts and pumpkins courtesy of metal molds.  We didn’t go trick or treat in malls or churches or schools either.

And, Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Disney television show began the same year that Forbidden Planet was released for theatrical distribution – 1954.  They showed what is my all-time favorite Halloween short, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow with voice over by Bing Crosby.  You can’t celebrate Halloween with Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman!!!  Happy Halloween from the Phantom!