GHOSTMASTERS

“So Scary, We Dare You To Sit Thru It All” “Coming To Scare The Yell Out Of You!” “Double Horrors, Stage and Screen” “If You Come Alone, You’ll Be Afraid To Go Home!!” “Thrills! Ghosts! Shivers!”



No book has relit my imagination as much Mark Walker’s Ghostmasters. This is the kind of historical documentation that makes you really wonder if you weren’t born too late. Journey back to first half of the last century and marvel at the audacious showmanship involved in putting on the Midnight Spook Show. Magicians and illusionists conjure up ghostly scares and ghastly delights. Spirits fly overhead and monsters stomp thru the audience. The lights go out and the theater is filled with screams and afterward, when you discover your heart is still in your chest, laughter.

Magic lantern shows of the late 1700s known as phantasmagoria performances, where oil lanterns would project images of skulls and ghostly shapes on glass plates onto walls, smoke or gauzy material, were forerunners of spook shows, as was the séance rage of the 19the century. Ghost shows came along in the 1930s and were a mixture of magic and demonstrations of telepathy and clairvoyance. Added to this was the blackout, where all the lights in the theater were put out for total darkness. The advent of phosphorescent paint made possible all manner of luminous specters and objects to appear from the darkness and float about, with the attendees completely unaware of the assistants, fishing poles, lines and other previously planted props. What made these shows so successful, not only in terms of popularity but financially as well, was the midnight showing. Most theaters were dark at the time and bringing in a packed crowd at night was a boon for theater owners and the ghost show operators.



As the shows continued to evolve, screenings of old B horror films were added to the ghost shows. After World War II, there came a resurgence of ghost shows, but audiences had become more sophisticated and wanted more intense thrills. So operators added more horror elements, including live “monsters” and gruesome mutilation illusions. It was a huge hit and shows would often sell out. These shows were paired up with classic universal horror films like Dracula and Frankenstein. In fact, Bela Lugosi even got in on the act, and appeared at many of these shows.



Alas the ghost show of those glory days has almost completely disappeared from the landscape. However here and there fans and talented performers are staging a revival of sorts. The standard horror film marathons at local theaters do quite well still, and they look to the past to revive long traditions of the creepy and the shocking theatrics and give newer audiences the thrills and spectacle only your grandparents can remember. In fact Professor Morte’s Silver Screen Spook Show thrills crowds today in Atlanta at the Plaza Theater, lucky creeps! So keep an eye out for a spook show near you, or heck--put one on yourself!



Ghostmasters, (currently out of print, but copies are floating around) is a fun and exciting read. Walker offers short but packed bios on the major players of the circuit and offers glimpses into the secretive world of magicians and how they made their performances so frighteningly stupendous! The book is littered with a ton of images of the performers and the sensational over-the-top adverts from throughout the history of spook shows. If you’re fan of all things horror, you need to have this book. If you’re anything like me you’ll spend hours poring over the stories and images and wishing you had been there. Now, where's my cape again?