At Tompkins Square Park:

• Saturday 9/6, 5:00pm - “Pearls Over Shanghai”

At The Theaters At 45 Bleeker Street:

• Saturday 9/6, 9:00pm - “Theodora, She Bitch of Byzantium” by Charles Busch + Blue Hour Variety Acts.
• Sunday 9/7, 8:00pm - “Pearls over Shanghai” and Charles Ludlam’s “Jack and the BeanStalk.”
• Tuesday 9/9, 8:00pm - “Theodora, She Bitch of Byzantium” by Charles Busch + Blue Hour Variety Acts.
• Wednesday 9/10, 8:00pm - “Pearls over Shanghai” and Charles Ludlam’s “Jack and the BeanStalk.”

It’s going to be a crazy week. We hope to see a lot of our NY friends and fans. Stop by and say hi.

[Howl Festival Website]

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Original Theatre du Grand Guignol Program from 1952-53

From the listing:

ANOTHER FABULOUS FIFTIES FRENCH THEATRE PROGRAM- “DU PLOMB CES DEMOISELLES”. OF COURSE WE HAVE THE GREAT VINTAGE PHOTOS OF THE ACTORS/ACTRESSES AND MOST DVINE ADS ( PERRIER, CHAMPAGNE DE CASTELLANE). THERE IS A LITTLE HISTORY OF THE DU GRAND GUIGNOL…. IN FRENCH OF COURSE. YOU WILL ALSO FIND  PASTE OVER NAMES OF SOME ACTORS/ACTRESSES AFFIXED ON  THIS PARTICULAR PROGRAM.

CONDITION IS VERY GOOD: NO RIPS/TEARS, STAINS, WRITING OR CREASED PAGES. (20PP- B/W PHOTOS, AD ILUSTRATIONS/PHOTOS) MEASURES 4 3/4″ X 6″, NICE PAPER STOCK, VIVID RED COVER, BACK SIDE AD.

IF YOU LOVE FRENCH THEATRE… THIS IS THE REAL DEAL CIRCA FIFTIES !

1st Edition of Mel Gordon’s Grand Guignol: Theatre of Fear and Terror - Out of Print

From the listing:

This entertaining and gruesome book covers the plays produced at the Grand Guignol theater, whose 60-year “reign of terror” began in 19th-century Paris. The contents include the scripts for two of these plays, so that you can act out your own blood-spurting, over-the-top productions. There’s also a listing with plot summaries for most of other Guignol productions. Lots of photographs throughout.

Condition: Top right corner of cover and first 20 or so pages are bent. Some wear on edges of cover. Interior pages are slightly yellowing at edges. No marks inside.

Grand-Guignol: The French Theatre of Horror by Hand/Wilson
(Not especially rare, but the starting bid is only 99 cents!)

From the listing:

Grand-Guignol: The French Theatre of Horror by Richard J. Hand & Michael Wilson. I paid stupid money for this book for a class I was in, and I ended up not even using it. That’s community college for you. Either way, it’s a nice softcover, but the real meat of the book lies in the ten authentic grand-guignol plays included in their entirity! I gave some thought to keeping it, but really I can’t be keeping everything these days. So whoever buys this: put on some of these plays so I can go see them, and I won’t feel as bad about getting rid of this book, haha! Condition is 8.5/10, some ultra-light wear on the corners, and a small yellow mark about 6 x 3 Centimeters on the right hand spine of pages.

As always, we don’t know these sellers and can’t personally vouch for them, but they all have 100% feedback ratings on Ebay, so we feel pretty comfortable recommending these auctions. Happy bidding.

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Continuing our series of White Hot ‘N’ Warped cinema, Dead Channels brings us the mind-bogglingly awful B-grade (D-grade?) sexploitation shocker She Freak. This 1967 “update” of Tod Browning’s 1932 classic Freaks was directed by Byron Mabe and written by David F. Friedman (best known as the producer Herschell Gordon Lewis’ seminal gore films 2000 Maniacs and Blood Feast).

Claire Brennen stars as Jade Cochran, a waitress who leaves the greasy-spoon diner business for the glamour and excitement of the carnival (?!), but soon discovers that she despises the freaks and human oddities of the sideshow. As the poster screams, “Behind the tents and tinsel of the monster midway, something barbaric occurs on the Alley of Nightmares” and Jade learns a lesson we know all too well… never cross a circus freak.

The screening starts at 7:30pm on Wednesday, July 9th at the Hypnodrome, 575 10th Street, San Francisco - Map. Tickets are only $5 and can be purchased online at Brown Paper Tickets or at the door on the night of the show.

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My mi casa es su casa invitation to the Cockettes has brought them trooping through the Hypnodrome’s door leaving a trail of glitter and grins in their wake. What a wondrous blessing! That said, I still can’t quite believe the incredible week that was because Sweet Pam, Rumi Missabu and big-hearted Fayette Hauser are en Hypnodrome. This morning Pam emailed me this photograph of her. Thrillpeddler Mel Gordon snapped it years ago in New York when Pam was performing The Palm Casino Review.

And so to events of last week. On Sunday, Hypnodrome played host to Rumi’s revival of his beloved Camaraderie Art Salon. Dubbed “A Cocktail of Glamour & Anarchy“, the bill included Thrillpeddlers’ “Blue Hour” acts “The Lonely Doll” and Simone Corday’s “Night Manager” along with acts from Camaraderie Art’s outrageous coterie of performers. Cockette Pam Tent a.k.a. Sweet Pam read from her memoir “Midnight at the Palace”, Tahara and Jet a.k.a. Jilala made their first visit to the ‘drome and Jim dressed in glam hag drag for the very first time (and was mistaken for Rumi more than once!).

Fayetta and I spent the whole week scheming about her costume design for Thrillpeddlers’ revival of playwright/performer Charles Busch’s Theodora, She-Bitch of Byzantium and we accepted Charles’ invitation to see his new production of Shanghai Moon in Sag Harbor, New York next month.

On Friday, Sweet Pam and I joined Daniel Zilber and his wife Adrien to take advantage of tix Fayette had scored for us to see the extraordinary vocal group The Manhattan Transfer (her brother Tim Hauser just happens to be a founding member of the group). It’s been over a quarter of a century since Daniel and I saw them perform at the Starlight Amphitheatre in our hometown of Kansas City. Those many years ago singer Alan Paul ripped a wife-beater t-shirt off his chest after singing “Gloria” and tossed to me, then a fifteen year old boy who’d sneaked into a vacated front row seat for their encore. Needless to say, Alan was blown away on Friday when I pulled the remains of that T-shirt out of my pocket and asked him to autograph it. See the photo to get an idea of his surprise and horror.

The night was a little bittersweet, since it was the first time I’d ever been absent from a Hypnodrome performance. Had it not held such promise for all, I never would have headed for the concert. By all reports, the gang at the Hypnodrome did me proud.

With this much to tell about a week at home, I wonder what adventures are in store when Jim and I head off to New York on June 1st to take part in honoring the Cockettes and performing a little Grand Guignol in an east coast installment of “A Cocktail of Glamour & Anarchy.” Stay tuned…

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From the review:

Yet as formulaic and tame as Grand Guignol programs seem by today’s standards, a trip to the Hypnodrome to experience Thrillpeddlers’ latest — and perhaps greatest — foray into the genre, FLAMING SIN: London’s Grand Guignol, will fricassee your emotions and play tricks with your mind… Blending compact writing, fast-paced direction, and nuanced performances, Thrillpeddlers’ salacious evening of out-there entertainment does nothing if not dispel the common belief that Grand Guignol theater is an outmoded form, of marginal interest to anyone but horror history enthusiasts and academics. To borrow Dr. Frankenstein’s famous assertion: “It’s alive.”

Read the full review.

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The article features several photos of the theatre, performances, and audience. Three pages in all.

We don’t know the seller, nor can we personally vouch for him/her, but with 100% positive feedback and over 1300 transactions, well… that’s good enough for us to recommend this auction.

If you follow follow eBay, you know how rarely Grand Guignol-related items appear on the site. This looks like a good opportunity to grab something fun for the collection.

Click “view & bid” below for all the details, and happy bidding!

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The San Francisco Bay Guardian’s Giattina offers a great capsule review:

Going to the Hypnodrome, where Grand Guignol theater company Thrillpeddlers dwell, is spooky enough. The cast of characters that greet you as you enter the ramshackle warehouse situated on a deserted SoMa corner under a freeway overpass exude a distinct Addams Family vibe. Even though they couldn’t be more welcoming, you can’t help be a little fretful of these macabre-loving creatures of the night. What might they do to you once you’ve let your guard down? It’s guaranteed that they’ll treat you to an arousing evening of theater, as they have done for many audiences over the past 18 years. The current production brings to life an early work of Noel Coward’s, The Better Half, written for the Grand Guignol of London in 1921 when the master of English wit was only 22, and then swiftly buried by Lord Chamberlain, who did not approve of the “loose” morals depicted in this short, sexy one-act in which Alice Louise as Alice executes the loquacious dialogue at just the right clip. After that little joy ride, André de Lorde and Alfred Binet’s thoroughly eerie Old Women traps you in a deep freeze. The post-show skits and film clips range from the kinky to creepy — especially when the lights go all the way out.

Ann Rostow writes in the San Francisco Bay Times:

Flaming Sin makes for grand theatrical fun for fans of Coward and horror alike; this show is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Chloe Veltman, theatre critic for the SF Weekly, writes:

Thrillpeddlers, the city’s very own permanant company devoted to recreating the works of the now long-defunct Parisian Grand Guignol theatre… should become a regular stop on the San Francisco trail for locals and visitors looking to sample something of the city’s more lurid side.

And:

By the time I staggered out of The Hypnodrome at around 11.30 the other night, I felt emotionally exhausted and spiritually uplifted. It was one of the stranger evenings I’ve spent at the theatre. I don’t think I’ll forget it in a hurry.

“Flaming Sin” is scheduled to run through May 3rd. There’s still time to buy tickets through BrownPaperTickets.com.

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From Dread Central:

Grand Guignol: A Theatrical Tradition, takes a look at the birth of horror theatre in France and the impact it had on both the Broadway musical and, of course, the film itself. As a huge fan of everything Grand Guignol, seeing its history documented from its birth in 1897 to present day was an absolute dream for me! Riddled with still photos and lots of insight, this is one part of this set you just don’t want to miss.

From ING:

Perhaps the most interesting and slightly off-topic featurettes is Grand Guignol: A Theatrical Tradition. Grand Guignol chronicles the history of a horror theater in France and its influence on the Broadway production of Sweeney Todd.

From Obsessed With Film:

Grand Guignol: A Theatrical Tradition - LOVED this nice doc about the history of the Grand Guignol, which very much informs this musical and film adaptation. Once again, many of the old sites that once housed Grand Guignol plays still stand in London to this day, which just amazes me.

From DVD Maniacs:

Grand Guignol: A Theatrical Tradition (19:12) is a fascinating featurette that explores the origins of the Parisian theatrical tradition that started in 1897 in an old deconsecrated chapel and became a phenomena. There are some great pictures of various productions and footage from the theater itself, and some interesting interviews with authors and experts who have written about the history of Grand Guignol. We learn how the theater managed to capture the atmosphere of horror and in turn made a mark for itself. From there the differences between Grand Guignol and English Melodrama are covered before Sweeney Todd’s place in both traditions is covered. Also discussed how sometimes social commentary would creep into the plays and how the French Grand Guignol plays influenced early American horror films.

From DVD Movie Guide:

Grand Guignol: A Theatrical Tradition lasts 19 minutes and 14 seconds. In it we hear from Cardiff School of Creative and Cultural Industries Professors Richard J. Hand and Michael Wilson, The Grand Guignol: Theatre of Fear and Terror author Mel Gordon, “Le Theatre du Grand-Guignol” director Charles Nonon’s great-grandson Eric Horton, “Thrillpeddlers Hypnodrome” producer Russell Blackwood, and “Thrillpeddlers” co-founder/playwright Daniel Zilber. We get an examination of the history of Grand Guignol theater and aspects of the genre. “Tradition” digs into the subject well and proves quite informative.

From Soundtrack.net:

Grand Guignol: A Theatrical Tradition is a 19-minute exploration of the old 19th century Parisian tradition of macabre theater. It’s very in-depth and takes us from the back alleys of Paris where the theater found its roots (reminding me very much of the Théâtre des Vampires in Interview with the Vampire) to the modern day incarnation in San Francisco.

And finally, from DVD File:

Grand Guignol: A Theatrical Tradition (19:14) is my favorite featurette; it focuses on a particular style of theater and film, which began in Paris in 1897 and eventually evolved into today’s horror genre.

Please note, the Grand Guignol bonus feature is only on the special 2-Disc Collector’s Edition.

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Richard and Eddie discuss the history of the Grand Guignol, how Noel Coward came to write a Grand Guignol play, how the play was lost and discovered, and our current (U.S. premiere) production at the Hypnodrome. It’s required listening for Noel Coward fans and Grand Guignol fans alike.

…Or right-click the link below and “save as” to download:
Download Thrillpeddlers on KALW’s “Open Air”

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