Vincent Price: One of America's Best Scary-Men

He had a long film career (having appeared in more than 90 movies) that earned him 2 stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: one for motion pictures, and another for TV.  Actor Vincent Price was born to a wealthy St. Louis, Missouri family (his father was the president of a candy company) and he traveled through Europe prior to studying at Yale and the University of London before ultimately becoming an actor. He made his first screen debut in 1938.  Although his film career spanned many genres including drama, mystery, thriller, and comedy, and he also had many TV appearances and several stage performances as well, by the 1960's, he was working almost exclusively in the horror film genre, and to a somewhat lesser extent, teen films.  The fact that he worked in the horror genre really did not bother him at all.  But the reason he was so popular in horror movies could be because of his very distinctive voice.

Vincent Price's work in horror films is very well-documented.  Mr. Price's final movie was Edward Scissorhands (1990) with Johnny Depp, which although not technically a horror movie, was nevertheless a dark Tim Burton movie that fits the Halloween genre.  As noted, his distinctive voice really made him a favorite in the horror genre.

Most Gen Xers likely remember Vincent Price for two items he worked on:

Vincent Price and him as  Prof. Whitehead on The Brady Bunch

1.  His appearance in two episodes of "The Brady Bunch" back in 1972 when the entire Brady family went to Hawaii.  He played deranged archaeologist Professor Hubert Whitehead (the episodes were "Pass the Tabu" and "The Tiki Caves").

The "Tiki" Sound Effect from The Brady Bunch can be heard below, or at http://www.bradybunchshrine.com/bradybunch/Sounds1/bbtiki2.wav:

2.  Perhaps one of his shortest works also became one of his most famous, as the man who voiced the eerie monologue in the late Michael Jackson's 1983 hit song "Thriller."  Mr. Price admitted to talk-show host Johnny Carson that when he agreed to do the voice work for "Thriller", he was given a choice between taking a percentage of the album proceeds or being paid a flat $20,000. He chose the $20,000; his career was already well-established at that point, so money wasn't really a huge issue. When Mr. Carson suggested that Vincent Price could have done a lot better if he'd chosen album proceeds, he laughed amiably and said "How well I know!" Considering that more than 110 million copies of the album had been sold to date, Mr. Carson was correct.

The words to that famous monologue are as follows:

Darkness falls across the land
The midnight hour is close at hand
Creatures crawl in search of blood
To terrorize y'all's neighborhood
And whosoever shall be found
Without the soul for getting down
Must stand and face the hounds of hell
And rot inside a corpse's shell

The foulest stench is in the air
The funk of forty thousand years
And grizzly ghouls from every tomb
Are closing in to seal your doom
And though you fight to stay alive
Your body starts to shiver
For no mere mortal can resist
The evil of the thriller!

(cue maniacal laughter)

That music video, released in 1982, is a classic, not only because the single was certified platinum on the Billboard charts, but also because the video was an unprecedented 14-minutes in length and showed Michael Jackson in a Halloween-themed performance directed by John Landis that was really more like a mini-movie.  Vincent Price’s monologue is a key part of that video/movie.  Check it out below, or at https://youtu.be/sOnqjkJTMaA:



Vincent Price's Death at Age 82 in 1993

Vincent Price passed away on October 25, 1993 at the age of 82 (see http://nyti.ms/2dvW3UN for the obituary).  His obituaries stated that as a result of being a lifelong smoker, Mr. Price was suffering from emphysema, although his official cause of death was lung cancer, so evidently, he was dealing with both ailments by the end of his life.

About Vincent Price's Personal Life

Mr. Price was married three times.  His first marriage, with former actress Edith Barrett, produced his only son, named Vincent Barrett Price. He later married Mary Grant Price, and they had a daughter named Victoria Price, on April 27, 1962.  She was reportedly named Victoria after Price's first major success in the play Victoria Regina.  Mr. Price's last marriage was to the Australian-born actress Coral Browne, whom he married in 1974.  Ms. Browne appeared with Vincent Price (as one of his victims) in the film Theatre of Blood (1973).

Over his lifetime, Mr. Price denounced racial and religious prejudice as a form of poison and he claimed that Americans must actively fight against it because racial and religious prejudice within the U.S. fueled support for the nation's enemies.  Perhaps not surprisingly, he was also a longtime supporter of gay rights and was one of the most vocal celebrity opponents of Anita Bryant's vicious anti-gay activities back in the 1970's, a position that was only solidified after his own daughter came out as a lesbian.

Vincent Price's Sex Life?

Vincent Price himself was long rumored to be gay in Hollywood circles, or at the very least, bisexual (meaning he had sex with both women and men), with something of a preference for having sex with other men.  Perhaps the best example came from author, former Hollywood escort and hookup connection Scotty Bowers, who in his tell-all book published in 2012 entitled "Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars" (co-written with Lionel Friedberg, see http://nyti.ms/2dyh8u5 for the review), asserted:

"I tricked with Vinny [Vincent Price] for years. Sex with him was pleasant, unhurried, gentle. There was what I can only refer to as a kind of refinement about it. It was erotic, tantalizing, fulfilling. High class stuff all the way."

Bowers added that Vincent Price and his wife Coral Browne didn't have a sex life for years, noting that he was sleeping with Price.  In reference to Price and Browne's marriage, the book says "She worked primarily in England and although she was a dyke—I know because I would fix her up with many tricks with young women in future years—the couple were devoted to one another.  They had virtually no sex life together but they cared deeply for each other."

All of this is kind of left to the imagination since the people (except Scotty Bowers) are now deceased, but the man who was once one of America’s favorite scary men (Vincent Price) apparently had a colorful life, both on on-screen and off!

American Royalty and Mindsets of Future Generations

Hawaii's Royal Iolani Palace

The United States of America, being a constitutional republic rather than a constitutional monarchy, lacks a royal family by design.  The founding fathers rebelled against royal entitlement!  Yet, as a culture, Americans seem enamored with the idea of royalty and many Americans follow the events of British royal family more closely than many legitimate members of the British Commonwealth actually do.  For the record: the State of Hawaii actually does boast a genuine royal residence known as Iolani Palace where the former Queen Liliuokalani of that island monarchy-turned-U.S.-state once lived, and today it's a museum you can tour and visit.  Nevertheless, because of our preoccupation with royalty, the popular press also has something of a habit of claiming various individuals and families to be "America's Royalty".  Yet, many believe the traditional press is dominated by oldsters, and today's youth may not see them as particularly up-to-date on today's reality.  In fact, today's youth may not even see the printing press as necessary, and bloggers are now a collective force to be reckoned for chronicling their memories.

For a number of years, the Kennedy Family of Massachusetts was dubbed by the media with the title of America's Royal Family, and indeed, seemed to bask in it.  But that particular family, whose wealth was allegedy derived (at least in part) from bootlegging liquor during Prohibition, and also from some stock market maneuvers that were technically not illegal at the time they occurred, but were subsequently outlawed (the term insider trading comes to mind today) by Congress perhaps as a result of excessive stock market abuses prior to The Great Depression.  Regardless, the so-called Kennedy Curse seems to have extinguished a fair number of this family, and normal deaths due to aging combined with low fertility rates means their family legacy with a media-proclaimed title as America's Royal Family seems to be be over.

Ironically, an entire new generation of Americans have absolutely no recollection of the Kennedy Family other than through their study of U.S. Presidents and Congressmen in American history.  Some of us think this is a welcome change.

For example, Beloit College in Wisconsin has been publishing what it calls it's "Mindset" just before the newest crop of freshmen report for class each August.  Mindset is a list of some of the cultural touchstones that help shape the lives of students entering college this fall which basically summarizes what freshmen do and don't know about life, notably pop culture, science, technology and politics.  The newest "Mindset" list for the class of 2016 was published just a few days ago (see http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/2016/ for the current mindset list) and consists of approximately 75 factoids about today's college freshman (there are also archives going back to the class of 2002).

Notable was #4 on the list, which states "Michael Jackson's family, not the Kennedys, constitutes 'American Royalty.'"  However, the Jackson family's rein in that position could be short-lived, as the original Jackson Five has lost youngest member (Michael), and again, low birthrates among the Jackson children mean there may not be many more young Jacksons to safeguard their "monarchy".  But more to the point is that many younger people have no recollections of many so-called "key events" that defined earlier generations of Americans' via pop culture, which suggests the relevance of retaining some of those elements (one that comes to mind is the so-called "Summer of Love" that defined the Baby Boom in 1969) is anything but certain.

Their blog lists the following teaser into the most recent list:

• The class of 2016 was born in 1994.
• What world famous figures have always been dead?
• What famed class members might be in first-year orientation?
• When they miss the news on The Daily Show, where do they watch it instead?
• What celebrated actor is unknown to them in the roles that made him famous?
• What do they mean by the "twilight zone"?
• For their grandparents the leading paradox was, "we had to destroy the village in order to save it." What's the leading paradox for this new generation?

I can share a few interesting excerpts from the Mindset list for class of 2016:

• They have never seen an airplane "ticket".
• Women have always piloted planes and space shuttles.
• Bill Clinton is a senior statesman of whose presidency they have little knowledge
• History has always had its own channel.
• Exposed bra straps have always been a fashion statement, not a wardrobe malfunction to be corrected quietly by well-meaning friends.
• Before they purchase an assigned textbook, they will investigate whether it is available for rent or purchase as an e-book.
• They have lived in an era of instant stardom and self-proclaimed celebrities, famous for being famous.
• White House security has never felt it necessary to wear rubber gloves when gay groups have visited.
• Genomes of living things have always been sequenced.
• Point-and-shoot cameras are sooo last millennium.
• A significant percentage of them will enter college displaying some hearing loss.
• They can't picture people actually carrying luggage through an airport rather than rolling it.
• Their folks have never gazed with pride on a new set of bound encyclopedias on the bookshelf.

As for the direction of the foreseeable future, I think while the current unemployment rate could indeed motivate this group to elect a person that today's Millennials see as likely to restore growth to the U.S. job market, any presumption that this group will necessarily adhere to a particular political philosophy or ideology seems a tad like wishful thinking among those trying to preserve the status quo.  For example, few in this generation seem to have interest in preserving any form of social conservatism, indeed, many say they find that concept repugnant and anti-American, hence candidates that espouse that may not appeal to today's youth and might push them in the opposite direction.

As to whether that could mean more moderate political discourse into the future, that remains to be seen.

Presently, the U.S. political landscape is marred by dysfunction caused by unwillingness to moderate their partisan positions, and both major political parties seem to be working overtime to eliminate any form of compromise despite what the parties may say.

Gen X Redux: Class of 2016 Agrees That "Reality Bites"

No, I'm not referring to the 1994 movie starring Ethan Hawke, Rinona Ryder, Janeane Garofalo known as "Reality Bites" that was considered a hallmark of the Gen X ethos at the time.  However, the Beloit Mindset provides some interesting insight into what has shaped the perspective of today's college freshmen.

For reference, check out their Guide to the 2016 Mindset List at  http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/assets/GuideTo2016MindsetList.pdf for a very interesting narrative of the current Mindset of today's college freshmen, and be sure to check out the Mindset List webcast at http://tinyurl.com/mindset-webcast-2016.  What I find most interesting is the fact that in the webcast video, the speakers at Beloit posit that today's freshman may share a similar mindset to Generation X, describing the Gen Xer outlook as "The Baby Boom Got The Party, and Gen X Got Stuck With The Hangover", and today's freshmen may have a very similar perspective based on the world they've matured into.  But unlike the Baby Buster/Gen Xers, this is part of a massive cohort known as the Millennials, but unlike massive Baby Boom, that group may not be as cohesive given their lack of shared cultural experiences and vastly diverse upbringings, educations, etc.

Whether this group proves as adept as Gen Xers have been at navigating between two larger generations (Gen Xers are like chameleons, and may mirror the older Baby Boomers or younger Millennials depending on the situation), or how much they'll differ from their older Millennial counterparts is also unclear.  For example, Gen X doesn't often get credit for it, but it was Generation X who built most of technologies to help "bridge" legacy-system technologies (such as mainframe computer systems) with web-based Internet technology, which provides a virtually seamless connection to users between older and newer technologies.  There will always be a need for people to bridge technologies (and perspectives!), and perhaps the class of 2016 will be the people to help do that.  And, of course, everyone will be watching just how the class of 2016 behaves at the ballot boxes this year and into the next decade.  Stay tuned!