Pancake Makeup
Hi Sandy,
I am quite conversant with theatrical makeup. It's been another of my long-standing "odd" hobbies over the years (along with vacuum cleaners, floor polishers and mimeograph machines!), starting when I was in grade school.
From age 10 until my early adulthood, I avidly read a monthly periodical called "Famous Monsters of Filmland." Talk about something that brings back "smells of yesteryear!" The only place I could find the magazine was in the next town over from us, Gloucester, Virginia. I went out there twice a week with my mom -- she was the choir director for a church there. Each Thursday when we went there, we'd stop at the little shopping center on the way and go to Ben Franklin's (a variety store), the "CS Store" (who had a fabulous display of Johnson Wax floor polishers just inside the front door), and the Rexall Drug Store.
To this day I can remember the faint but distinctive scent of the Rexall store. I can't quite put my finger on what it was, but I sure can remember it. Each week I'd run to the magazine rack hoping my favorite magazine was there. It was a joyful day when the latest issue of "Famous Monsters" hit the stand and I was able to use 35¢ of my allowance to get a copy.
I can also clearly recall the scent of the magazine itself, particularly since I have two shelves full of them -- a nearly complete set! All I have to do is open one of them, stick my nose in and take a big sniff and I am right back on Gywnns Island, Virginia in 1966!
Anyway, in one of the issues in 1967 or 1968 was an article about monster makeup legend Dick Smith. Accompanying the article was an offer to purchase a soft-bound (magazine format) book written by Smith, "Do-It-Yourself Monster Makeup." I couldn't order my copy fast enough! It was in the summertime, and every single day I rode my bicycle the mile or so down the road to Scrooch's Market where the post office was, to see if my Monster Makeup book had arrived. Oh, happy day when it finally did!
The magazine was full of scary monsters you could create, starting fairly simply and building up to some very elaborate creations. In the back of the book was a list of sources for theatrical makeup, and I immediately wrote to all the suppliers asking for catalogs. They soon arrived, and I began assembling my first makeup kit. The wait for those supplies to arrive was even more endless than waiting for the makeup book to arrive!
I immediately began experimenting with the makeup materials, creating crude but pretty inventive versions of Dracula, the Wolfman, Frankenstein, and a few just generally bloody messes! My brother Noel has some 8mm home movie footage of me that starts with me lying face down in the grass. His foot enters the frame and he nudges me over. He zooms the camera down into my face to reveal a huge bloody mess! It was a moment of cinematic triumph, I tell you!
Well, soon of course I was HOOKED on makeup. Night and day, it was all I talked about and all I was interested in. To my mom and dad's horror, of course. You think they raised a stink about my vacuum cleaner obsession -- you shouldda heard them when I announced I was going to become a Hollywood Makeup Man and began assembling my own makeup kit! That's not the sort of thing that little boys are supposed to be interested in; at least, not in the South in the mid 1960s!
Of course, I was already very accustomed to being ridiculed; this was just one more thing to get mocked about. I carried on despite the torment! I never did become a "Hollywood Makeup Man" but I have had a few brushes with fame and have met a few of the REALLY famous "Hollywood Makeup Men." I have made quite a few spectacular Halloween getups over the years and have won a number of prizes in contests -- the best being $500 cash plus a weekend stay at the lovely Orlando Hotel in West Hollywood!
A by-product of that nearly life-long interest is eight large tackle-box-type metal makeup cases full of theatrical makeup along with boxes of liquid latex, plaster molds, fake arms, fake teeth, fake hair --- the rear closet in my office is nearly full with makeup supplies.
And I do have quite a nice collection of vintage makeup, including original tubes of Max Factor Panchromatic Greasepaint!! Some of the items in my collection go back to the 1920s.
So, there you have it. Just one more aspect of my bizarre personality.
I wonder if anyone else among us is, or was, interested in theatrical makeup, especially character and monster makeup.
