On this day in… 1975 | Vincent Price hosted Alice Cooper's Welcome to My Nightmare TV special

DID YOU KNOW?

The Alice Cooper TV-special The Nightmare, based on his first solo album Welcome To My Nightmare had its US debut on 25 April 1975.

In Emmy-award winning special, Alice Cooper plays his album's narrator, Steven, who is trapped in a nightmare from which he cannot escape. Vincent Price, who originally lent his iconic voice to the introduction to The Black Widow, appears as the Spirit of the Nightmare, who guides Steven through his experience. All 12 tracks from the album were performed, with the addition of Ballad of Dwight Fry from the Love It to Death album.

In 1983, the TV special was released on VHS and Betamax home video in the US, but was later discontinued. Now this is one that so deserves to be given a HD restoration. Don't you think?

5 BITS OF TRIVIA
• Alice Cooper originally conceived a Welcome to My Nightmare film that was radically different from what the album, concert and this tie-in TV special ultimately became. He met with director  Daniel Mann to discuss the project on the set of Journey Into Fear (1975), where he was introduced to Vincent Price, who ended up not only supplying the narration to The Black Widow, but also a starring role in the concept as a whole.

• Alice Cooper later recalled, Vincent 'was in his element because he had me on a leash... I said, "Don't be afraid to yank the leash. Make this like one of your movies where I'm just like this little pet of yours that you're showing around!”

• When Vincent showed up at the studio to record his vocals for The Black Widow, he shocked onlookers by arriving in a Hawaiian shirt and striped pants. Alice ommented that Price looked like Ronald McDonald, and there was talk of renaming his character, Jolly MacAmbre, Tour Guide at the Pasadena Palace of Insects.

• The special was shot in Toronto, where Cooper's favorite beer was unavailable, so he had 40 cases of Budweiser shipped in to get him through the filming.

• Vincent reprised his role live on stage for a December 1975 concert at Lake Tahoe. 


Vincent Price Movie of the Week | The Mad Magician (1954)

Shock-horror. The Great Gallico (Vincent Price) has almost made it as a top illusionist in the gaslit music hall. Then his ex-boss, Ormond, turns up - and impounds all Gallico's best tricks, saying he holds the copyright for the basic ideas. This makes the magician mad... very mad...

For his title role as the a vengeful illusionist in this 1954 Grand Guignol chiller, Vincent Price swotted up on a dozen real magician's tricks, and became quite accomplished at such things as making a stream of water run out of a sword, producing a girl from a flower pot and making a man vanish through a wall.

Originally filmed in 3-D, which accounts for all those bits and pieces thrown at the camera, it's not a magic patch on Price's big 3-D hit of the previous year, House of Wax, but in its own cheerfully lurid way it does the trick. Patrick O'Neal, later briefly to rival Price in the chillmaker field, makes his film debut as the goodie…  Watch it now…


The Mad Magician (1954) by MargaliMorwentari

Vincent Price London Legacy Tour | Winner of Best Fan Event at Rondo XIV

Well the votes have been counted and I'm pleased to announce that the VINCENT PRICE LONDON LEGACY TOUR has won BEST FAN EVENT at this year's Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards.

And equally exciting is the announcement that Victoria Price has been named MONSTER KID OF THE YEAR, while yours truly here has been declared INTERNATIONAL FAN OF THE YEAR (now that really was a surprise).

Thanks for every so much for your votes and for your continued support in keeping Vincent Price's legacy alive!

Read all about it here: http://rondoaward.com/rondoaward.com/blog/?p=224

On this day in… 1971 | Vincent Price's Cooking Price-Wise makes its UK TV debut

Yes, it was on this day back in 1971 that the ghoulish gourmand Vincent Price hosted his first in a six-part British TV series, Cooking Price-Wise, for Thames Television, which went out at 11.15pm on ITV and featuring dishes from New York, Savoy and Holland.

Read food blogger Jenny Hammerton's post about this landmark series on the Vincent Price Legacy UK website

Make Your Own Vincent Van Ghoul

1985's The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo was the seventh spin-off of Hanna-Barbera's Saturday morning cartoon classic Scooby-Doo and famously featured Vincent Price as warlock Vincent Van Ghoul who helped Scooby and the gang recapture 13 spooky demons they accidentally released. The character was resurrected (but changed to be a horror film actor) for 2010's Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, with Maurice McMarche voicing.

As a treat, I've found this paper doll cut-out. Now you can have your very own Vincent Van Ghoul.