Museum of Terrors-Spook Show

The Spook show circuit of the 1950s is a relic of the past that I can say I never saw myself. It definitely precedes me. There have been attempts to relive or revive it from time to time. In fact there was a period in the 1980s when my Dad was collaborating with a guy to try and bring back the experience at the Rialto Theater in South Pasadena. They may have thought it would go well with the weekly showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

This is the first Spook Show that my parents traveled with. Basically there would be a late evening magic show with horror elements to it and then they would play a midnight horror movie. Sometimes a legitimate film would precede the Spook show. I have a scrap book with ads from dozens of local papers from all over the Western U.S., promoting Kirk Kirkham's Museum of Terror. It played in Idaho, Montana, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and California for sure.

My older brother Chris was just a year old when he was dragged all of these places by my parents. I remember my mother telling me about a time they were stuck in a hotel in either Boise or Bozeman and he was really sick. My Dad went out to find a doctor in the middle of the night and he actually came to the hotel to help them. He had a dangerously high temperature and the doctor gave him something to help. My parents did not have insurance (in those days most people did not) and they did not have much cash. The doctor took a token fee and came back the next morning to check on my brother. A different world these days.

I know that they went out with the Spook shows a few years later. That program was called "Shrieks in the Night". I have some posters and other promo material in the shed and when I dig it out I will put together a post on that show as well. Here is a scan of a small envelope that looks like it was given out when people bought their tickets to the spook show as a separate admission to the event.