A Halloween Story...

Courtesy of our friend Ryan Stone...

Enjoy!

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Many years ago I had the pleasure and privilege of working at Castle Dracula on the Wildwood boardwalk. It was a second job for me, but it afforded me the scheduling flexibility to work my regular job as well.

After the season was over, Marine West, the owners of the Castle, would graciously open the Castle one final day, on Halloween, and allow alumni and cast members to spend the afternoon and evening scaring anyone brave enough to think about coming by. One of the former cast members was Ed, who had taken on managerial duties on the pier, and was also heavily involved in Wildwood politics at that time.

Having developed a reputation for extremely well done makeup effects, including latex prostheses, Ed sought me out and asked if I could do his makeup for the Halloween gig. I agreed, and Ed decided he wanted to be a werewolf.

I procured the necessary materials, and set to work early in the afternoon meticulously gluing hair to Ed's face using spirit gum. Layer by layer, I built up the hair on his face and blended it in with his real hair until the line where his real hair and the applied hair met was invisible. After doing the eyes and nose and getting eveything perfect, I told Ed to put on his jacket and see how it looked, while I went in the back and scrubbed up.

After about ten minutes, I came back out to find Ed nowhere to be found. His car was missing, and I surmised he had left, so I packed up and headed out to the gig. During the course of the evening, I had no further contact with Ed, and assumed he was ok with his makeup..

The Castle gig went well, and it wasn't until about nine that evening that one of the cast members came up to me and said: "Did Ed find you?"

" I haven't seen him," I replied. "Why?"

She started giggling. "Because he has a council meeting in the morning, and he CAN"T GET HIS MAKEUP OFF!" She dissolved into laughter, as it occurred to me that Ed had left so fast, I had no time to tell him that hair removal requires spirit gum solvent; and the mental image of Ed trying to pull the hair off his face...has haunted me for years.

I never saw Ed again, but I often wonder how that Council meeting went...