Annual conference draws fans of genre
MARSHALL TWP, Allegheny County — Guests at the Doubletree by Hilton Pittsburgh-Cranberry last weekend were joined by classic monsters and a few people dressed in horror attire who were part of the Monster Bash, a classic monster movie conference.
This year's 19th annual bash was in Marshall Township for the fourth time, according to program director Ron Adams. It also had been in Butler for eight years in the past, he said.
It all started in 1997, when Adams saw a marquee promoting a spring fashion show. He instantly wished there could be a marquee promoting a classic monster movie festival.
At the same time, the U.S. Post Office was releasing a special run of stamps featuring classic monsters, he said.
After contacting the post office, Adams was able to host the east coast release of the new stamps.
“The east coast unveiling was held at the first Monster Bash,” he said.
Adams, originally from Grove City, said this year's event was expected to attract more than 2,000 attendees, with some people traveling from as far away as Mexico, Scotland and Australia to see classic films, buy paraphernalia and meet some of the industry's seasoned veterans.
The guests of honor included Audrey Dalton, an actress in the original “Titanic” film from 1953 and films like “The Monster That Challenged the World” and “The Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea”; Kris Yeaworth, the assistant director of “The Blob,” bringing props and first-hand stories, and Jeremy Ambler, an actor who was in the contemporary television show, “The Walking Dead.”
Aside from being able to meet people who have worked on creating cult classics, attendees browsed through items that more than 200 vendors had such as hard-to-find classic movies, posters and artwork specific to the horror and science-fiction genre, according to Adams.
One vendor was Colin Richards of Mars, an artist who married his passions for art and horror films. Richards sells art in a number of different media, including graphite, watercolors and digital art.“Since I was a kid, I liked monster movies and sci-fi,” he said. “This is what I'm passionate about: monsters.”While he is an artist full-time and does commissioned portraits, Richards said his horror art makes up about half of his business, including artwork depicting a wide variety of horror favorites, like Edgar Allan Poe, “The Twilight Zone” and a number of monster portraits.Richards' favorite activity is to draw haunted houses. Not surprisingly, his most popular piece of work is “The Hanging House,” depicting a vacant house on Route 19 that was recently demolished. A tree next to the house casts a shadow of a woman hanging from the tree branch.He recently sold 50 to 70 copies of that print, including to a man from Los Angeles.Another vendor was Kristy Locklin, a Cranberry native, who has a love for all things zombie, she said. Her business, called Undeadhead Designs, sells clothespins painted as classic horror and sci-fi characters and some modern pop-culture ones.Her business was about 20 years in the making, when she was inspired by a strange Christmas tree ornament at her friend's house, she said.“It started with a Dracula clothespin that my friend had on her Christmas tree,” she said.Since then, her hobby has expanded to include 167 designs, with bestsellers Jack from “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and Pee-wee Herman, she said.For her recent birthday, Locklin received 1,000 clothespins as a gift so she now jokes that her overhead costs have gone down.The best part about attending conventions is the people she meets, she said.“Everyone thinks monster or horror people are really mean, but everyone is so nice,” Locklin said.Richards also echoed the sentiment that these fans are part of what makes the job so rewarding.“The people I meet are always very fun and very nice,” he said.It's what he loves about the job in addition to its creativity.And creativity is what made two men at the convention a hit: Trevor White and Jonathan Nungesser, ghostbusters with the Northeast Ohio Ghostbusters Corporation.In full homemade ghostbusting gear, White said the organization is a nonprofit that seeks to make northeast Ohio “the best possible place it can be.” White and Nungesser typically fundraise at different events in Ohio, helping do events like A Year of Wishes, providing a wish to children with life-threatening illnesses, similar to the Make A Wish Foundation.“It was a promise to 8-year-old me,” White said on why he became a de-facto ghostbuster. “I built a proton pack, and when I grew up, I wanted to be a ghostbuster, but life got in the way. I met (the Northeast Ohio Ghosbusters) at a convention, and they never told me to leave.”White is living out a childhood dream, he said.That's what brings people back year after year to Monster Bash, Adams said. Many of the attendees grew up watching classic films or television shows, in the days before DVDs and streaming.“It's a lot of older people reliving their memories. It's nostalgia,” he said.Adams already is working to plan next year's 20th anniversary show. He hopes its guests of honor list is the biggest one yet, he said.However, he's still surprised the event took off as well as it did.“I never thought it would go beyond its first year,” he said.
