No, that's not the title of an upcoming unreleased George Romero zombie flick - - but an actual EVENT that took place this past weekend in the Monroeville Mall in Pennsylvania (who anyone worth their salt knows, was the filming location of George Romero's Dawn Of The Dead in 1978 - as well as the location of the Living Dead Museum)...
Living Dead Merch, celebrity appearances, movie location tours, cosplay and vendors, a VIP party, collectibles and art, exhibits and panels, movie screenings and...
The Housedress Ghoul!
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| Sharon Carroll, "The Housedress Ghoul" greets Living Dead Weekend attendees. |
Recently featured in the Pittsburgh City Paper, Rachael Narins (daughter of The Housedress Ghoul) remembers back in the hazy 80s, when she was a mere 10 years old...
"My mother roused me and my brother from our beds and tucked us under a blanket on the couch to watch Night of the Living Dead." She recalls this was her first introduction to NOTLD, expecting the black and white movie to be CAMPY... but it was anything but... it was outright terrifying. The scariest part? For young Rachael it was the moment mommy hit the pause button and pointed to one of the ghouls and exclaimed...
"That's MOMMY!"
"She grinned. I screamed. ...I can laugh about it NOW..."
"My mother was a teenage zombie... or more accurately, she played a flesh-eating, undead ghoul (they never referred to them as zombies in the movie) in Pittsburgh's most famous movie. It wasn't until 2024 though that anyone outside of our family knew the name of the specter of a woman referred to by fans as "The Housedress Ghoul".
Over the decades, as with any popular film or TV show, dedicated fans have searched for and consumed any and all information they could find about NOTLD. For the casual viewer to the superfan, there's lots out there about this movie that was shot in less than 30 days. Documentaries have been made, and there are conferences put on around the country to bring together people who appreciate the work of director George Romero and his franchise of movies.
"John Vullo of New York, who works with the original film production company, Image Ten, has spent years tracking down every person related to the film, even down to extras like my mom. The challenge is interesting, Start with an incomplete list of background actors, and scan scenes of them roaming in a graveyard, but without many ways to put names to faces the quest becomes more difficult when trying to track down women since many of them have different names now."
"It was the film's credits that led my mom, now Sharon Brunch Rapone (Sharon Carroll at the time the movie was filmed) to the convention. Her former full name was all they had to go on.
Sharon is a retired senior who lives a quiet life. She swims every day and enjoys reading and painting. She no longer lives in Pittsburgh but misses it. It's a city she is grateful to have grown up in."
Vullo tracked her and other extras through serious sleuthing. Like many women her age, she doesn't have an online presence, so finding her was a challenge. Vullo searched through records, found obituaries, connected her maiden name to her current married name, requested documents, and kept searching.
Less than three weeks before the big convention in Pittsburgh, to her surprise, Sharon got a call from Image Ten asking if she wanted to appear as a guest. She didn't even know anyone was looking for her, but it made her smile. A polite stranger asked if she had at one time been Sharon Carroll and if she had been in the movie. She spent some time trying to decide if it was a scam. She replied saying that attending a nostalgic convention wasn't really for her, but after some thought, she asked for a few accommodations that were graciously met - and off she went on a new adventure.
One of the film's producers, Russ Streiner, (who also played Johnny, Barbera's brother who famously says "They're coming to get you, Barbara!!") tells Pittsburgh City Paper that he vaguely recalls Sharon was a friend of his ex-wife, but little more. Indeed, in 1967, while studying and working at Pitt, Sharon became friends with Jackie Steiner, wife of Russ, who lived in the same apartment building. One day Jackie asked if Sharon was busy and if she wanted to be in a movie. To Sharon, it seemed like a fun time. She was told to bring her own wardrobe, and for the first day of shooting, picked out what became known as the "housedress" and spent two days filming.
"That was it" says Rachael, "She had no aspirations of being an actress, and she wasn't there for the money - since she got $25 total, about $225 by today's standards. She was there because, why not? She was young and thought it sounded like an amusing way to pass the time. During that weekend, one of the actors, Karl Hardman, (who played Harry Cooper - the father of the family that hides in the basement) took out his camera to document the goings-on. Fortunately for the world, but not so great for Sharon, those now famous copyrighted images that included her have been used on dozens of products without her knowledge - everything from t-shirts to a VHS release of the movie, to the Konami game Zombies Ate My Neighbors, and a Living Dead themed board game."
"Arriving at the conference my mom was utterly charmed that people lined up to get a signed photo and take pictures with her. She was bemused that people had flown from as far as Texas and Tennessee just to give her a hug. (I can attest, it's a fantastic hug.) She posed and smiled, and was so grateful when someone conjured a slice of Mineo's pizza. "Best pizza I've had in a decade," she said. The bonus was that she not only spent the day meeting a whole litany of fans, but she made more in the first hour than she made for two days of work on the movie. Worth it."
Now, she is part of the fold, and looking forward to getting more involved in future events.
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Acknowledgments to
The Pittsburgh City Paper
The Pittsburgh City Paper
and Joey Vento
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