Saturday, August 4, 2012

'Dark Shadows' Vamp Resurrects His Career With Tales Of Horror

The Herald-Journal, October 20, 1989
Click here to enlarge

You've been Frid-undated! I suppose that much of the point with any DS endeavor is reveling in the creature called Barnabas Collins. But as Frid explains in this article it was a battle for him to fend off Barnabas and once again become Jonathan.

He didn't hate the show but also didn't enjoy the typecast anchor tied around his neck like a choking hairshirt half-removed and suffocating his career. In fact, he says, he didn't have much of a career after the show and for several years ran from it only to eventually soften his stance and embrace the mystique that the show, and  especially his character, generated.

That he ran a successful one man show for years is old hat. That he mixed in horror with the dramatic and comedic roles is well-known too. What is most likely lost from the endeavor are the specific dates, time and places. This expose places him at the University of South Carolina in Spartanburg at 8PM on October 20, 1989. That night he performed such literary renderings as Poe's "The Cask and Amontillado" and Stephen King's "The Man Who Loved Flowers."

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