Vincent Price

On a Saturday it was nothing for a kid to go to the theater, get a ticket, candy, popcorn, and spend all day there. And teenagers had after-school jobs. They had real dollars! So, while not all of Hollywood’s offerings focused on children, as there were plenty of adult-themed movies, which TV also couldn’t provide, a good percentage of films were oriented towards the boomers, especially teen-agers flush with cash. This led to a 50s renaissance in a genre that had been going full blast in the 30s at Universal Studios and then died out before the war; horror. This presented the opportunity of a lifetime to someone who was a true Renaissance man. While teen and kid movies were mostly B product of studios, they needed an actor who would hold the attention of a bunch of popcorn-throwing, making-out-in-the-balcony teens, someone with the acting chops to put across the thrills of horror. And not horror as we know it in 2023 --- this wasn’t dismemberment on the screen. There had to be a tension between the thrill and threat of horror and what could actually be shown in the 50s. Up stepped a tall, aristocratic actor with a perfectly modulated, incisive voice; dashing, but also a bit threatening, often with a moustache and sometimes a beard. Up stepped Vincent Price, to take his place among the immortals of Hollywood.

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