Paul Blaisdell, Monster Maker: A Biography of the B Movie Makeup and Special Effects Artist

400 Pages·2009·7.07 MB·English

by  Randy Palmer

Blaisdell as the title monster takes a practice stalk up the pier steps on
location for The She Creature. (Courtesy of Fred Olen Ray.)
Paul Blaisdell, Monster Maker
A Biography of the B Movie Makeup and Special Effects Artist
by RANDY PALMER
with forewords by FRED OLEN RAY and BOB BURNS
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina, and London
To the memory of my father, who took me to see
my first Paul Blaisdell movie, and
to my mother, who always knew that movies
don’t make monsters out of little boys
For Jackie
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUING DATA ARE AVAILABLE
BRITISH LIBRARY CATALOGUING DATA ARE AVAILABLE
e-ISBN: 978-1-4766-0729-0

©1997 Randy Palmer. All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by
any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publisher.

On the cover: Poster art for the 1958 film It! The Terror from Beyond Space
(MGM/UA/Photofest)
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
Contents
Foreword by Fred Olen Ray
Foreword by Bob Burns
Preface
A Note Concerning the Text
1—Turning Hollywood into Horrorwood
2—The Eyes Have It
3—The Mutant of Topanga Canyon
4—Venusian Vegetable
5—Blaisdell in Drag
6—Voodoo and Venom
7—Here Comes Mr. Gordon
8—Cosmic Creeps
9—Bert Gordon Strikes Back
10—Missing Monsters
11—Mars Needs Hemoglobin
12—The Last Her-rah
13—Beyond the B’s
14—Black and White and Bled All Over
15—Travesties and Tributes
16—Sunset
Appendix
Filmography
List of Names and Terms
Foreword
by Fred Olen Ray
If you had never heard of Paul Blaisdell before picking up this book, you will
soon see how damned lucky you are to have stumbled onto him. Like Roger
Corman and Bert I. Gordon, you too will discover the rich imagination and
ingenious talents of one of Hollywood’s most creative fringe dwellers.
That it took the world so long to catch on to one of filmdom’s best-kept secrets
is a true shame. That, as for many others who toiled in the empty grocery stores
that passed as movie studios, his contributions were only realized after such
recognition could have yielded any benefit to the creator is a crime.
I think what attracted the admiring fans to his work over the years was not only
the images he conjured up into physical being, but the method with which he
undertook the task. Obviously, the monsters in Day the World Ended, The She-
Creature, and It Conquered the World were astonishingly original in design, but
it is also the fact that Blaisdell created them in his garage out of literally nothing
more than carpet-laying foam and paint that instills his fans with that certain
sense of awe.
What first attracted me to the creations of Paul Blaisdell, at least in the sense that
I noticed who was actually creating these monsters, were the “how to” articles in
Paul’s magazine, Fantastic Monsters of the Films. In these articles Paul would
provide details to knowledge-hungry kids, explaining how they could recreate
the Beast with a Million Eyes or construct their own alien suit just like the one in
It! the Terror from Beyond Space. Wanting nothing more than to be a monster
maker, I read these articles over and over again, never tiring or ceasing to be
amazed at what this man could do with so little money and such common
household items.
But the monsters themselves were the real treat. Regardless of how quickly or
cheaply they were constructed, Blaisdell’s creations were always “way cool”
looking. One need search no further than Invasion of the Star Creatures or
Killers from Space to see what a low-budget movie without Paul Blaisdell was