ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET... YOU!

Here's something I just found out about... it's called Yoostar. It allows you to act out scenes with your favorite stars from your favorite films and post them on social networks like Facebook and MySpace.

This Wikipedia entry explains more, including all the technical details. You can also check out the official Yoostar site when you click here.

Not surprisingly, the service offers some Abbott & Costello clips that you can insert yourself inclucing scenes from two of their top horror-comedies, "Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein" and "Abbott & Costello Meet the Mummy." Coming this summer: the obligatory "Who's on 1st" routine.

You can see a variety of clips of regular folks just like yourself sharing a scene with Bud or Lou by clicking here.

Here's a good example of a finished Yoostar clip (NOTE: this fellow is rather tall and doesn't fit in the frame, but most folks are in frame):



...and sometimes even celebrities give it a whirl. Here's Snoop Dogg essaying the role of McDougal:



So... think you have what it takes to play a scene with the #1 horror-comedy stars of all time? In the immortal words of Tom Atkins from "Night of the Creeps": THRILL ME! If you decide to do a Yoostar scene from "Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein" or "Abbott & Costello Meet the Mummy," send me the embed code and I'll post it here at Scared Silly! Just send those codes to scaredsillybypaulcastiglia@gmail.com

RIP ALLEN SWIFT

Allen Swift has left us. He was known for doing many cartoon voices over the years including the majority of characters in Scared Silly-favorite "Mad Monster Party" (see below) and much work for Total Television Productions including voicing Simon Bar Sinister and Riff Raff in "Underdog;" and Odie, Itchy Brother and Tooter Turtle in "King Leonardo." And that's just scratching the surface.

He was also known for hosting the Popeye cartoon show as "Captain Allen Swift" - Cartoon Brew sets the dates as September 10, 1956 to September 23, 1960 - on WPIX in New York.

You can read Cartoon Brew's lovely write-up on Swift by clicking here, and you can click here to read Mark Evanier's equally nice write-up. Dave Mackey's always insightful blog offers its own Swift remembrance which you can read here. Kids show historian Kevin Butler concentrates on Swift's involvement hosting kid shows and doing voices for puppets on kid shows, and you can read his thorough remembrance by clicking here. Last but not least Rankin-Bass historian Rick Goldschmidt offers his own nice piece including a run-down of the projects Swift was involved in for that company - click here to see it.

For further reading, you may want to check out some of these animation books about the studios Swift worked with:













Here at Scared Silly, we're most interested in the fact that Swift performed several voices for the classic Rankin-Bass movie, "Mad Monster Party." Those included Felix Flanken, Yetch, Dracula, the Invisible Man, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, and assorted additional voices.

You can read my review of "Mad Monster Party" when you click here.

You can watch the closing credits to The King & Odie (a favorite cartoon show of mine) here:

BUSTER KEATON, THE THREE STOOGES & DANNY KAYE MEET FRANKENSTEIN...

Sort of...

Thanks to Pierre Fournier of the great "Frankensteinia" blog you can read all about it (including an account of a charity baseball game featuring The Three Stooges, Buster Keaton and Boris Karloff in full Frankenstein Monster make-up) by clicking here...

...and thanks to John McElwee of the equally great "Greenbriar Picture Shows" blog you can read specifically about the Frankenstein Monster "dream sequence" that was supposed to be in Danny Kaye's "Secret Life of Walter Mitty" by clicking here.

The most amazing thing about the Kaye scene that never made it is that it is Karloff playing the Monster and meeting a major screen comedian in 1947 - just one year before Abbott & Costello met Glenn Strange as the Monster!

As an added bonus, the Spectacular Attractions: Film in all its Forms blog offers a nice shot of what is reportedly Karloff in full makeup during filming of "Son of Frankenstein" hanging out with some family - click here to check it out. I don't think there are any professional comedians in the clan but there's probably a joker among the group somewhere - there always is!

Back to Karloff and Kaye, enjoy this scene that actually did make it into "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" - after all, good 'ol Uncle Boris is fun to watch even without neck bolts!:

JITTERBUGGIN' GHOST BUSTERS

What better day to dance than Wednesday? And what better way to exorcize ghosts than a little jitterbugging?

Here's a fun clip from "Ghost Catchers," a totally wacky, offbeat Olsen & Johnson film (is there any other kind?) that we'll be reviewing in full here at some point. But this dance was too good to delay, so give it a whirl... literally!

PAUL CASTIGLIA MEETS A HECTIC SCHEDULE...

Hey gang - you know the drill - another crazy week delaying me from putting the finishing touches on some reviews I've drafted. But Moe, Larry, Shemp, Don Knotts, Cary Grant and Peter Lorre... they'll all be turning up here soon, so never fear. Or ever fear... after all, this is a blog about horror-comedies.

Thankfully there's always something fun out there for me to call to your attention in the interim, and this time it's another trailer commentary from our 'ol pal Joe Dante, the great director of classics like "Piranha," "The Howling," "Gremlins" (and "Gremlins 2: the Next Batch") and the sublime "Matinee."

This time, Joe takes a look at one of our faves here at Scared Silly, Duke Mitchell & Sammy Petrillo's alpha/omega opus, "Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla." Check it out, courtesey of Trailers From Hell:

RIP HENRY SCARPELLI - 1930-2010

I was saddened to hear that my friend and colleague Henry Scarpelli passed away over the weekend. The news is being reported this morning in the Staten Island Advance. Click here to read it.

Henry was a journeyman cartoonist who worked for several major publishers, most notably Archie. I met Henry when I worked on staff at Archie and enjoyed the honor of having Henry illustrate three of my Archie Comics scripts. A detailed remembrance from Archie Comic Publications, Inc. can be read by clicking here.

In addition to teenage humor comics, Henry was known for drawing comics based on real-life personalities and TV shows. These comics included "Get Smart," "Hogan's Heroes" and "McHale's Navy" for Dell, "Jerry Lewis" for DC and "Abbott & Costello" for Charlton, among many others.

Scarpelli did many covers and interiors for the "Abbott & Costello" comic book and of course I've included the one that seemed most appropriate to this blog. Special thanks to classic comedy historian Brent Seguine for loaning the scan. You can see the complete Charlton Abbott & Costello comicography at the Three Stooges message board by clicking here and scrolling down...

...and you can watch the opening and closing credits to the 1960's Abbott & Costello animated TV series that Scarpelli did such a good job replicating here:

TOP 10 REASONS TO VOTE "SCARED SILLY!"

Okay, this is it: if you’re a fan of this blog or merely visiting for the first time and like what you see, it’s time to stand up and have your vote counted – literally – by voting for Scared Silly for “Best Blog” in the 2010 Rondo Awards! And I mean NOW, because today, Saturday, April 3rd is the last day you can do so. It's as easy as a pie to the face - just click on the aqua-green banner above for details.

What’s that you say? Still not convinced? What? Give you one good reason why you should vote for Scared Silly? The heck with that... I’ll give you TEN!

(in no particular order)

ABBOTT & COSTELLO!



LAUREL & HARDY!



THE THREE STOOGES!



THE EAST SIDE KIDS!


BOB HOPE!



DON KNOTTS!



KAY KYSER & ISH KABIBBLE!



HUGH HERBERT & ALLEN JENKINS!



MARTIN & LEWIS!



…and THE FAKE MARTIN & LEWIS!


SO… what are you waiting for?! Go VOTE!!!