It’s Alive! Part II (Salem, MA)

Date Of Visit: October 8, 2017

Location: Peabody Essex Museum, 161 Essex St, Salem, MA

Hours: Tuesday – Sunday, 10:00 – 5:00.  Closed Monday

Cost:

Adults $20, seniors (65 and over) $18, students (with ID) $12, Youth (16 and under) and Salem, Mass. residents (with ID) admitted free*. (*Does not apply to youth in student/tour groups.) For late nights, $12 after 5 pm.

*events and some exhibits may be have a separate fee*

Parking: there are several parking garages in Salem ($20 to park the entire day this time of the year),  The best one to park at for this exhibit is the Museum Place Mall parking garage on Church St as it is directly across from the Essex St entrance of the mall.  You may also find limited street parking if you’re lucky for .75 an hour, 4 hour max.

Dog Friendly: No

Website: Peabody Essex Museum

Highlights: collection of movie posters and memorabilia from vintage sci-fi and horror films, videos and music of Kirk Hammett and Metallica

Tips:

• The entrance is on Essex St (not Charter St)
• You can view the impressive Yin Yu display at the museum for an extra $6 a person charge.  It is worth the extra fee (and you will see why soon)
• This exhibit is running until Nov. 26, 2017

Welcome to the second installment of the It’s Alive! exhibit…if you dare.

There’s no better way to get yourself in the Halloween spirit than being in Salem, MA and viewing horror/sci-fi movie memorabilia.  It doesn’t hurt when you have the melodic sounds of Metallica playing in the background.

If you missed Part I you can find it here.

Now that we’ve covered most of the notorious movie villians (Dracula, Frankenstein, et al),  let’s get to view some heroes of these film genres.  Just kidding, here’s more villians!  Below are some famous stories with a different twist.

In this unusual take on a Shakespeare story, Hamlet (1921) has a more violent twist.

Belle at la Bete (Beauty And The Beast) (1946).

Cats, especially black cats, play a significant role in horror movies, and not usually in a good way.

From left to right: Tomb Of Ligeia (1965) and Mysteriet Svarta Katten (“The Black Cat) (1941)

These movie posters all have a unhealthy relationship (for instance, Norman certainly loved his mom).

Clockwise from the top left: I Married A Monster From Outer Space (1958), Psycho (1960), The Horror Of Party Beach: The Curse Of The Living Corpse (1964), Island Of Lost Souls (1932), The She-Creature (1956) and The Disembodied (1957)

The following movie posters all seem to deal with the demonic or demented

From left to right: Repulsione (1966), Rosemary’s Baby (1968), The Exorcist (1973), Whatever Happened to Baby Jane (1962)

The following movie posters have to deal with sci-fi and alien monsters

Clockwise from left to right: Barbarella (1968), It Conquered The World (1956), the original art work for The Day Of The Triiffids (1963) The Day Of The Triffids (1962), Doctor X (1932)

These movie posters are for Creatures (people from New England, especially Massachusetts and New Hampshire, may remember from the Creature Double Feature movie shows on channel 56 on television) .

From left to right: King Kong (1933), Mothra (1962), Tarantula! (1955) and (of course) Godzilla, King Of The Monsters! (1956)

These zombie movies came out before the current Walking Dead craze began.

Clockwise from the top left:  The Walking Dead (two movie posters from 1936), White Zombie (1932), Zombies: Dawn Of The Dead (1980), Night Of The Living Dead (1968) and  I Walked With A Zombie (1943)

The remainder of the movie posters fell into a “miscellaneous” category.

Clockwise from the top left: The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari (1920), The Beast With 1,000,000 Eyes (1955), The Crawling Eye (1958), Metropolis (1927), The Old Dark House (1932), The Whispering Shadow (1933), The Invisible Ray (1948), King Kong Vs. Godzilla (1977), Murders In The Rue Morgue (1932), Mystery Of The Wax Museum (1933), Attack Of The 50 Foot Woman (1958), I Was A  Teenage Werewolf (1957), Barnum (Freaks) (1932), The The Return Of Chandu (1934) and Notre Dame de Paris (circa 1924)

Now, lest how you think that is all that is on display at the It’s Alive! exhibit, think again.

There are also a number of statues, figures and oh, well, I don’t want to give it all away straight away.

Similar to the movie posters, the prints and artwork of the movies are displayed in a separate section.  Now, these, to me, are the real art of the exhibit.  While the movie posters are impressive and cool, the prints have so much detail and you can see the craftsmanship involved.  I loved them.

Clockwise from the top left: The Mummy by Basil Gogos, 1969, Lon Chaney as Phantom Of The Opera also by Basil Gogos, 1958, Dracula by Basil Gogos, circa 1970,  Vampyr by Erik Aaes, 1932, Dead Of Night by Frank Frazetta, 1964, The Berserker by Frank Frazetta, 1967 and Dracula Meets The Wolfman by Frank Frazetta, 1966

There are also suits and clothing from these vintage movies as well as life-like, real sized statues of movie stars and characters.

The mannequin above is a statue of Bela Lugosi.  The mannequin is wwearing the jacket and vest Bela wore in The White Zombie (1932).  The figure of Bela Lugosi was made of silicone by Mike Hill in 2010.

What a scary suit!  This prop suit was from the movie Invaders From Mars (1953).  It was made by Norman Koch, Olive Koenitz and Gene Martin of the Western Costum Company.  It is made of plush cotton, zippers, metal, painted papier mache and wool.  It is 7 feet in length.

This “saucer-man” figure from Invasion Of The Saucer-Men (1957) was made by Monster Effects in 2011.  It is made of paint, metal and fiberglass.  Paul Blaisdell created this pop collar on the suit.

Mike Hill created this Boris Karloff figure in 2010 out of silicone.  The suit is the same suit Karloff wore in The Black Cat (1934).

Quite a collection, huh?  Well, believe it or not, there’s more!  Please join for the third and final installment of this series coming soon!

Salem was teeming with dogs during my visit (you’ll soon see why).  I saw Bella (on the left), a 1 and a half year old Akita, dressed as Batman and Seger (on the right), a 2 and a half year old Cattle dog mix, dressed as a prisoner after I left the museum.

Below is a video of the It’s Alive! exhibit courtesy of Derek Millen.  He’s a pretty funny guy!  The video portion of the It’s Alive!  exhibit begins at around the 3:13 mark of the video (I have set up the video to start at the It’s Alive section of the video).