It creeps and leaps?
July 15, 2003 1:28 AM   Subscribe

I Can't Believe I Missed BlobFest 2003!
The annual celebration of the cheesy sci-fi movie that made Steve McQueen a movie star and the town of Phoenixville, PA proud was last weekend... But even if you weren't there you can still...
» Meet The Man Who Owns The Blob and giggle when you learn just what it's made of.
» Read the liner notes from the Criterion laserdisc (yes, there was one).
» Listen to that awful theme song (written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David).
» Be shocked that the basement window that our heroes used to escape in the movie is now blocked by a wheelchair ramp!
» Or buy a ticket to the newly-restored historic Colonial Theatre, just so you can run out of it, screaming. They won't mind.
posted by wendell (10 comments total)
 
[this is good]. Thanks, wendell.
posted by plep at 1:39 AM on July 15, 2003


"Cheesy" movie? "Awful" theme song? Hey, here's ten bucks, get yourself some taste! ;)

Otherwise, great post!
posted by soundofsuburbia at 2:42 AM on July 15, 2003


"Cheesy" movie?
What, you don't like cheese? I love cheese! And, among cheesy movies, The Blob is Parmegiano Reggiano.

"Awful" theme song?
C'mon, Bacharach's still embarrassed by it after 45 years... Squawking saxophones, rhumba (or is it samba) beat, and the "creeps"/"leaps" rhyme? Okay, it's no "Theme from Mister Ed", but when it gets stuck in the back of my head, I'm ready to go after it with a power drill...

And I've spent more than half my life in the San Fernando Valley (of TV sitcom fame) and I think I know a little about how suburbia sounds myself... [removes chip from shoulder] Still, I can't stay mad with a guy who has duck links on his blog.
posted by wendell at 3:15 AM on July 15, 2003


That theme song is brilliant. Great post, wendell!

"The blaaaaaaaaaaaa-aaaaaaaa-aaaaaaaa-b"
posted by GriffX at 4:22 AM on July 15, 2003


and the "creeps"/"leaps" rhyme?

You bring that up and not the "splotch/blotch" rhyme? Yeesh.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 7:53 AM on July 15, 2003


I'd just like to chime in on this thread because i actually have a personal attachment to it(!); a close friend who i have acted/produced with for four years is a Pheonixville native, and an active fundraiser for the Colonial Theatre. Every year he organizes a wonderful Rocky Horror Picture Show (the only one i've ever enjoyed, actually) two weeks previous to the yearly Blob-fest.

Rest assured that the Colonial is still in full possession of the atmosphere it leant to that classic flick, and is a superb setting to catch other pieces from the genre and period. If any of you have further interest in getting involved with this theatre (and its continual restoration) and have not found satisfactory information on its homepage, i'm sure i could put you in touch with my friend.

Excellent Post.
posted by krisis at 12:23 PM on July 15, 2003


From a CNN article last month about Monster Bash 2003:

Wes Shank, the owner of the Blob, admits that it isn't quite as menacing as it was in the film, sitting in a 5-gallon bucket under a small spotlight with wisps of fog from a mister flowing underneath. The 45-year-old red mass of silicon also smells like raisins -- hardly terrorizing to anyone without a food allergy.

Thanks for the post, wendell!

::sticks finger in mouth and makes popping noise as heard in theme::
posted by LinusMines at 2:03 PM on July 15, 2003


Via my Colonial-connected friend: View a quartet of Blob-related video clips, which include a chat with Blob-owner Wes Shank as well as a giddy re-enactment of the aforementioned scene where screaming theatre-goers flee The Colonial (hosted from the Reading Eagle newspaper).
posted by krisis at 4:00 PM on July 15, 2003


I've lived a couple of miles from Phoenixville pretty much my entire life and I didn't know this bit of movie history. Very cool.
posted by jkilg at 5:59 PM on July 15, 2003


The theme song, performed by The Five Blobs, is really only performed by one person (Bernie Nee) and overdubbed to make him sound like a group... The song was released in as a single in 1958 and made the top 40 nationwide, top 10 in LA.

fun post, wendell.
posted by eddydamascene at 9:12 PM on July 15, 2003


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