Dark Shadows news digest

I'm putting the finishing touches on the first COLLINSPORT HISTORICAL SOCIETY podcast, which you will be able to hear first thing tomorrow morning. In the meantime, here are a few DARK SHADOWS news items, both new and not-so-new.

*  Issue #319 of FANGORIA will include interviews with actors JIM STORM and DONNA WANDREY of DARK SHADOWS.  David Elijah-Nahmod is responsible for the Wandrey interview, while Rod Labbe speaks to Storm.

* JOE MABEL recalls a time when JONATHAN FRID made a surprise appearance in his classroom. "Suddenly, Jonathan Frid burst through the office door, bit the nearest girl (one Sandra Waldman) on the neck, and practically sprinted out into the hallway." This anecdote was published not long after Frid's death in April. MORE.

* Speaking of JONATHAN FRID, the man was an intensely private person. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that few of his fans had an inkling as to who the actor really was. Famous for playing a vampire, Frid hated horror. Touted as being a "Shakespearean actor," much of Frid's early stage career was spent performing in contemporary plays. He could sometimes appear contrary, damning DARK SHADOWS in one breath while treating fans of the  show with the utmost courtesy. After his death, Margaret Houghton, a librarian in his home town of Hamilton, Ontario, received an interesting telephone call concerning the actor's will. Frid left his collection of books to her, a woman he hadn't seen in a decade.

"Houghton, who lives in a one-bedroom apartment downtown already laden with books, had to say no to the 30-volume Encyclopedia Britannica. But Frid was clearly a man who used those big books. In one volume, for instance, there were yellow Post-it notes on Prosody, Quebec and Richard I. Houghton packed everything else into the car, for careful consideration at home. The Dark Shadows Companion, a 25th-anniversary collection. The Brando biography. Bette Davis too. A 2,363-page Illustrated Shakespeare, more Post-its throughout. And Final Exit – The Practicalities of Self Deliverance and Assisted Suicide for the Dying."

I'd rather not think too much about that LAST book mentioned above. Read the full story at CBC News.

* Lastly, here's a video review of 2012's DARK SHADOWS from someone who really, really loves Tim Burton but knows nothing about the original TV series. I should note, though, that he refers to Eva Green as Alice Eve throughout the commentary ...