Auditioning for the band

 Herman and Grampa auditioning for the Out Of Bodies...

Thanks, Dan!

Welcome!

 A nice little pic to welcome all to the OOB site...

Charlie's Cha Cha Chimp

This is one of those little ditties we grew up with, Lloyd and I - - and if I were to look long enough through an endless collection of unmarked cassette tapes I own (somewhere), I'd probably find a recording of us two SINGING this (eventually)...

Charlie tried to teach
his chimpanzee to cha cha cha
to give his chubby chum a chance to dance....

but the chimp would rather munch (cha cha)
another bunch of lunch (cha cha)
than cha cha cheek to cheek
with Charlie's chaps.... (cha cha cha)

Full disclosure, that last line actually goes "than cha cha cheek to cheek with Charlie's aunts" but Lloyd and I IMPROVED it, following closely with the "CH" theme - at least that's OUR opinion.

Been wondering about this animated oddity for years - google searches would lead only to lyrics and some scarce information about it's PBS Electric Company origins, but never a video - until one day I inquired about it on a FaceBook Pop Culture Memories page and someone mentioned "the animation was by Bruce Cayard who did several cartoons for Electric Company and Sesame Street" and another guy offered a link which led to a video - although it wasn't YouTube, and the page it was buggy to say the least - which would probably contribute to it's evasiveness. So before it leaped back into it's rabbit hole I made a copy - and here it is - for now...

Cha Cha while you can...

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Living Dead at the Monroeville Mall

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!

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."

 

She gets a giggle out of the whole situation. "I feel like I met family - EVERYONE was so nice to me!"

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

and Joey Vento 

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Beloved local ambassador to NOTLD Ella Mae Smith passes away at age 93

Ella Mae Smith, who played one of the flesh-eating ghouls in George Romero's 1968 horror classic Night Of The Living Dead has passed away yesterday at the age of 93.

A lifelong resident of Evans City PA, she and her husband, Philip, lived in a home right in front of the farmhouse where the movie was filmed. They were sitting in their front yard one day when a car pulled up and asked them if they wanted to be in a movie. Ella Mae persuaded Philip and they both appeared as ghouls. Little did they know at the time that they were participating in the creation of one of the greatest and most recognizable horror films of all time.

 

40 years after her lone acting role, Smith was interviewed in the documentary One for the Fire: The Legacy of Night of the Living Dead. She also appeared in the doc Autopsy of the Dead and the featurette Walking Like the Dead.

The official Night of the Living Dead FaceBook page wrote "for at least the past 20 years Ella Mae Smith has been the beloved local ambassador to Night of the Living Dead, always making time to meet with visiting fans and escort them around her property and the adjacent filming location where the farmhouse originally stood."

 

 

"You wouldn't believe how many people stop here at my house and ask me where this movie was made. And I tell them, and I tell them I was in it and everything, and we have lots of fun about it," Smith said in One for the Fire. "I didn't make much money, but I had a million dollars worth of fun out of this movie."

 

 

 

 

Haunted Barn Museum proprietor and fellow Out Of Bodies member, Joey Vento, shares his memories and pictures... 

 

 

 

"...We used to visit Ella Mae Smith each time we were in Evans City. This is the day we took her out for ice cream. She was a dear, sweet lady who would tell us such great stories - not only about her Night of the Living Dead days, but local stuff - about EC in the 50s.

 

 

 

Right before this, she had sent us a letter and photo, inviting us down and we always had a place to take a break while visiting a convention down there or something. She would always make us tea and share MORE stories.

 

One visit, she took down, out of a closet, a box full of the derma-wax that was used on her husband Phil's hand in the movie. Her daughter had saved it, and used it in a school composition she did called "My Mother and Father were in Night of the Living Dead". At a screening I went to of NOTLD Ella was in the audience and yelled "that's MY MAILBOX" during the scene when the posse is forming... right in front of her home in the movie!

 

Oh, the stories... One really great one is when she told us that right before they burned the famous farmhouse (which was right down the road from her house) the dummies used as static ghouls were still in the house, propped up - sitting on the sofa and chairs - and they frightened the heck out of the local kids who were curious enough to peek inside through the windows!!

 

 

Ella kept them coming!! We will never forget her kindness to many fans and travelers, like us. Rest in Peace Ella and Phil!"

 

 

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Special thanks to Joey for contributing memories and pics

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POP goes the weasel!

There's something hilarious about the fact that when we'd send home-made DVDs to each other in the mail that we'd have to put a "NO BUDD" promise on the packaging!!...

Happy 73rd Birthday Svengoolie!!

Happy 73rd birthday to actor and broadcaster Rich Koz! Koz, best known for his portrayal of horror-movie host Svengoolie (originally “Son of Svengoolie”), was born on March 12, 1952 in Park Ridge, Illinois. Check out this piece on Koz and the Son of Svengoolie that aired on PM Magazine Chicago in 1981!

 

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Just some random OOB pics on a rainy day

Hello friends... just a few random Out Of Bodies pics I found on a yucky rainy day...

Out Of Bodies brothers - Dan, Joe and Donald

a couple of Dan doodles... Ringo...

...and Curious George

 

Charlie's always watching...

 

For Joey...

Mark

That time Lloyd met Frank Oz (and Grover)

 

Joey, Donald and a fan

So clucking stupid...

In case you've been spending the last 10 years tossing and turning at night wondering about that damn chicken in the Tic Tac Toe arcade game and how it would manage to beat you... every... single... time...

...wonder no more... we have an update. Go ahead... click it...

CLICK IT!!!

Goofy Goggles

 ............just because.

Nuttin'???

Remember this vintage commercial from the 80s for Polly-O String Cheese? A group of kids walk into a typical pizza shop and one of them asks for a pizza with extra cheese... the owner repeats "extra cheese!" - the kid then says "and hold the tomato sauce!" - owner begins to look confused as he repeats "hold the tomato sauce"... the kid adds "and hold the crust!" Owner looks even more bamboozled "hold the CRUST?" - rolls his eyes and shouts out to a worker behind him "Hey Jimmy, give me a pizza with NUTTHIN'!"

Camera cuts to a close up of Jimmy... "NUTTIN'????"

It's a great commercial - - a classic - - and that catchphrase "Nuttin'?" is right up there with "Where's The Beef?", "I've fallen, and I can't get up!" and "Time To Make The Donuts".

Everyone seems to recognize the pizza store owner, played by character actor John Capodice - and even the kid in the middle (asking to hold everything but the cheese) was identified as Vinnie Caravella, a video game aficionado and video producer at giantbomb.com - but no one (to date) has been able to identify the guy that steals the show with ONE WORD... 

A brush with celebrity...

Many many years ago I was helping someone set-up their little flea-market table display at the Holliswood Jewish Center in Queens - when I suddenly thought I recognized a familiar face in the room who others were beginning to notice as well...

Several people were greeting him with smiles and waves - and just as I was thinking "where have I seen that guy before?" someone must've asked him to say what he was known for and he happily obliged... with that same exact face you see right here in this picture (minus, of course, the paper hat) he said "Nuttin'?" - delivered like a pro. "Oh crap!" I thought "That's the guy from that Polly-O String Cheese commercial!" and it was. Nice guy... really nice guy... and so happy to oblige.

That was roughly about 40 or so years ago... and they're STILL talking about that commercial today... 

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