Ah, yes. The Crestwood House monster books from the late 70s and 80s, that every monster kid checked out from their home library over and over (find a monster kid and ask 'em; go ahead, I'll wait ... ... ... see?). And I was one of 'em. Each volume told the story of a Universal Monsters movie, offered some background on the origin of the characters, and some follow up summaries of other movies -- Hammer, usually -- based on the monster in question.
I checked out
Dracula the most, which should be no surprise (followed by
The Wolf Man), and it definitely inspired me to create my own versions of the story, leading, eventually, to my adaptation of
Dracula for the stage (available
here, from Theatrefolk, or
here, on Amazon).
I was never a super fan of
Frankenstein when I was a child -- even though I adored
Bride of Frankenstein when my sainted mother gifted it to me one Christmas when I was 7 or 8 -- but I do remember reading Crestwood's
Frankenstein retrospective at least once or twice. And hey, it became my first published play! (
Available here from Theatrefolk and
here from Amazon.)
And my beloved Wolf Man (although, to be fair, that's Henry Hull in
The Werewolf of London, Universal's first foray in to furry man-beasts) ... I'll have to do a werewolf play someday, I suppose ... oooh! A musical version of
An American Werewolf in London! Yassss! With SCARY CRAZY PUPPETS! Somebody give me some money!
