Menacing? You bet, if you’re an undead revenant feeding on the vital essence of the living.

wooden vampire stake

I’ve never personally staked a vampire—but if I ever have an inclination to, this looks like it might just make it a treat to do the trick and get to the heart of the matter.

19th Century European Vampire Slayer Stake. With the carved
face of a lion and a small inset crucifix.

I received an email from my friends at Material Culture this morning. It caught my attention. I headed to their website as soon as I read “…intrigue & strangeness.”

Growing up in small-town Kansas in the 50s and 60s, the only thing I enjoyed about Halloween was going to neighbors’ and relatives’ houses with my sister to get our shopping bags filled with free candy. (Lord, there was a lot of candy handed out back then.)

As a kid, I wasn’t a fan of scare or horror. My Halloween costumes tended to present me—on the porches of the candy-giving folks—more along the lines of a wee white rabbit, a diminutive doctor, a small sailor, a child chef—or Casper the Friendly Ghost.

Do you see a theme there?

Our mom often made our costumes, and back in the day, white sheets were cheap. And our family’s old white sheets had been fully amortized, giving her the opportunity to use them for our outfits and then buy new bed linens.

As I’ve aged a bit, I’ve learned more about international folklore, the history of fear and superstitions, and the guarded beliefs in the undead. These days, I tend to accept that there’s a lot that I don’t know. I’ll register for the auction—just to hedge my bets.

To get you in the mood for the auction and Halloween, here’s the full Kiss of the Vampire movie from Hammer Films.

Kiss of the Vampire

Timing is everything in the art and artifacts auction space, and Material Culture in Philadelphia has— excuse the pun—nailed it with their Dark Shadows | Objects of Intrigue & Strangeness auction. The live showroom auction features a “rare collection of fresh-to-market vampire-killing artifacts.” The sale takes place on Monday (Halloween), October 31, 2022, at 11 AM, with a public Exhibition on October 28-29-30, 11 AM – 4 PM.

By Stephen Brockelman

As a Sr. Writer at T. Rowe Price, I work with a group of the best copywriters around. We belong to the broader creative team within Enterprise Creative, a part of Corporate Marketing Services. _____________________________________________ A long and winding road: My path to T. Rowe Price was more twisted than Fidelity’s green line. With scholarship in hand, I left Kansas at 18 to study theatre in New York. When my soap opera paychecks stopped coming from CBS and started coming from the show’s sponsor, Proctor & Gamble, I discovered the power of advertising and switched careers. Over the years I’ve owned an ad agency in San Francisco; worked for Norman Lear on All in the Family, Good Times, Sanford and Son, and the rest of his hit shows; and as a member of Directors Guild of America, I directed Desi Arnaz in his last television appearance— we remained friends until his death. In 1988 I began freelancing full time didn’t look back. In January 2012 my rep at Boss Group called and said, “I know you don’t want to commute and writing for the financial industry isn’t high on your wish list, but I have a gig with T. Rowe Price in Owings Mills…” I was a contractor for eight months, drank the corporate Kool-Aid, became a TRP associate that August, and today I find myself smiling more often than not.

3 comments

  1. I used to watch Dark Shadows at my friend’s house! It was such a great show for a kid in elementary school.. I love a scary film. Alien scared me so much that the night I saw it I didn’t risk getting out of bed in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. I was in college! When I was little we made hippy costumes. Being a Hippie was the thing for me. Since I now live in Fells Point I’m working on John and Yoko costumes for a parade down Thames St.

    Reply
  2. Stephen Brockelman – Baltimore, Maryland – As a Sr. Writer at T. Rowe Price, I work with a group of the best copywriters around. We belong to the broader creative team within Enterprise Creative, a part of Corporate Marketing Services. _____________________________________________ A long and winding road: My path to T. Rowe Price was more twisted than Fidelity’s green line. With scholarship in hand, I left Kansas at 18 to study theatre in New York. When my soap opera paychecks stopped coming from CBS and started coming from the show’s sponsor, Proctor & Gamble, I discovered the power of advertising and switched careers. Over the years I’ve owned an ad agency in San Francisco; worked for Norman Lear on All in the Family, Good Times, Sanford and Son, and the rest of his hit shows; and as a member of Directors Guild of America, I directed Desi Arnaz in his last television appearance— we remained friends until his death. In 1988 I began freelancing full time didn’t look back. In January 2012 my rep at Boss Group called and said, “I know you don’t want to commute and writing for the financial industry isn’t high on your wish list, but I have a gig with T. Rowe Price in Owings Mills…” I was a contractor for eight months, drank the corporate Kool-Aid, became a TRP associate that August, and today I find myself smiling more often than not.
    Stephen Brockelman says:

    First, the John & Yoko costume shouldn’t be a problem. See: https://brockelpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/John-Yoko-costume.png

    Back in the olden days, my manger sent me marching off to ABC Studio TV-2 at 24 West 67th Street to meet with the Dark Shadows casting director, Marion Dougherty. It was apparent from the get-go that I wasn’t who she was looking for, but I did get a good look at the sets and stuff. Fun times, those.

    Reply

  3. I don’t like scary films but halloween costumes are really funny. Well shared with a nice video! 😊👌

    Reply

Leave a ReplyCancel reply

Discover more from BrockelPress

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading

Exit mobile version
%%footer%%