The Stage: take 2

[dem bones]

Apr 10, 2020 17:08:12 GMT helrunar said:

Marvelous Kev. Please tell me where I can read that comic! Poor Olga! Sounds as if nobody told her a one-off rendition of "Peg of my heart" was going to be a special feature of her final curtain-call.

cheers, Steve

The story is One Last Fling from Vault of Horror#21, 1951, if that's any help. Happy hunting ....

[dem bones]

NECK WOUND KILLS 'DRACULA' PLAY ACTRESS

BRADFORD, Pa, (UPI). An actress who once performed in the play "Count Dracula" died in the bedroom of her apartment from a deep wound in her throat.

A railroad spike was found Wednesday near the scantily clad body of Jean Engel, 25, but police said it was probably not the murder weapon. They said there was no blood on the spike.
The dead woman was discovered after she failed to report Tuesday night for a rehearsal of Edward Albee's "A Delicate Balance", police said.

Miss Engel played in an amateur production of "Count Dracula", staged by the Seneca Highland Players in the summer of 1978, police said. She was employed as a secretary at the Pennzoil Co, in Bradford.

Local district attorney J. Paul Kahle said her bedroom was splattered with blood and the victim was not sexually assaulted.

The apartment doors were locked, and there was no sign of forced entry, he said.

***************
Chicago Sun Times, Friday May 23, 1980

[dem bones]

Terence Merchant - The Show Must Go On: (Dave Hughes [ed.], Skeleton Crew V, 1989). Didn't get much from this one, but on basis that they all count. Kate believes herself to be alone on-stage in the old Varsity Theatre, but what's that persistent scraping sound? Perhaps its mice. One consolation: it can't be a razor-wielding maniac dragging a schoolboy under the spotlight. I mean, that would be just too unlikely.

Henrietta Blake - The Stage: (Count Dracula Fan Club Bi-annual, Fall-Winter, 1979). Lieutenant Lloyd interviews actress Margaret Ferris, female lead in a long-running vampire play, two of whose cast have been stabbed with and exsanguinated by ghoul unknown. Who is behind this atrocity? What can it all mean?

[dem bones]

The Scottish Play

McCauley

Converse E. Nickerson - Bloody Macbeth: (Mystic Magazine, Oct. 1954). A performance of MacBeth at the Cheltingham theatre ("about fifty miles from London.") Rumour has it that, some years ago, MacFeelan, the stage manager, murdered Valbegan, the great dramatic star, in a fit of frenzy. Tonight the ghost of his victim returns with a phantom troupe to take bloody revenge.


Alison Prince - Nathan's True Self: (Jean Richardson [ed.] Cold Feet, 1985).

August Derleth - Lady Macbeth Of Pimley Square: (Weird Tales, July 1944).

Tim Stout - Daddy's Gone A-Fighting: (The Doomsdeath Chronicles, 1980).

Marc Laidlaw - Mars Will Have Blood: (Graham Masterton [ed.] Scare Care, 1989).

Julia Birley - The Understudies: (Richard Davis [ed.] - Spectre 4, 1977).

[dem bones]

S. E. Scott

Mrs. E Bland (E. Nesbit) - The New Samson: (The Strand, Dec. 1909). The late Reginald Maskelyne, genius architect, nursed a secret hatred of the acting profession and those who encourage it on account of a leching thespian ruined his only daughter. The cad in question now manages the Arena theatre in West London, a magnificent venue designed by Maskelyne at the height of his powers.

The architect can't resist leaves a posthumous message explaining how, even in death, he's more than capable of bringing the house down. Non-supernatural nastiness with love story thrown in (the nominal hero and heroine are only hours wed when they learn of Maskelyne's diabolical scheme.

S. E. Scott

[dem bones]

Do you remember the Broadway favorite, Horror House? Here is the weird story back of its first night of presentation - a story that has never been told until now!

Mark Shadow [Robert W. Sneddon] - The Thing in the Theater: (Ghost Stories, Jan. 1931). The players whispered about a jinx on the show - but no-one guessed the horrible truth until the night when a dying actor crossed rapiers with a phantom! The sheeted ghost of a murdered player plagues a hit Broadway thriller, most notably during the scene where the male lead, Carver Jones, lifts the lid of a sarcophagus in the vampire's crypt. What can it all mean? The ghost-hunting narrator and trusty Man Friday investigate. "I mean to spend the night here with Maurice. ... I noticed a comfortable-looking couch in the first act. If we get sleepy, we can make out somehow." Illustration provides shrewd idea of what they are to witness.