Traumatized at Seven by The Blob and Steve McQueen
My eyes, wide open, searched the dark all night!
Advertisements for The Blob were on TV for a couple of weeks or more, and advertised the attack of an amoeba-like creature from space, absorbing the people of a small town in Pennsylvania, growing larger and a darker red with each human sucked into its jelly-like mass — the movie was also in technicolor!
I was an eager little kid wanting to experience it all. Boy did I, after waiting for what seemed forever for The Blob to come to the Colvin Theatre near my house in Kenmore on the north side of Buffalo.
On a sunny Saturday afternoon that summer in 1958, my mom dropped me off at the theatre, where I waited in line to get my ticket and get inside. “I’m ready”, I told myself, prepared to be scared to death.
I wasn’t. Ready, that is. The movie scared the hell out of me. Of course, when I got home, I did what every big brother would do. I pretended the movie was not a big deal when my parents and younger brothers asked me about it. Of course, it was still late afternoon, and the sun was still out, so it wasn’t dark … yet.
“Were you scared?” Naw…
That night, my parents had a party at our house. We were all sent upstairs to our bedroom. My brothers fell asleep. I lay there in the dark, my eyes WIDE OPEN and my brain working overtime.
“What if it was real?” After all, in the movie, the Blob couldn’t be killed. And it could go anywhere and everywhere, underneath doors, through cracks in the wall, it could squeeze anywhere it wanted to in search of humans and animals … and blood!
Shaking, listening for any sound in the dark, my eyes searched the darkness of the room. I whispered each of my brothers’ names. They didn’t answer. Were they sleeping already? Were they dead? Was it in the room?! Under my bed? In the closet?
Slowly, I climbed out of bed and crept toward the door, opening it to let some light in. I looked back and saw nothing in the room. Slowly, I crept toward the stairs. My parents and their friends were downstairs. Breathing a sigh of relief, I saw they were alive.
There I sat, on the top steps of the stairs, watching the party with absolutely no intention whatsoever of returning to bed until my parents came upstairs after the party. It was at least a month or more before I ever convinced myself The Blob was not real.
What was one movie you saw as a little kid that scared the hell out of you?
About The Blob:
- Did you know that The Blob was Steve McQueen’s first starring role? It was filmed in the actual town in Pennsylvania where the movie’s story took place.
- According to Wikipedia, it was: Filmed in and around Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, and principal photography took place at Valley Forge Studios.[3] Several scenes were filmed in the towns of Chester Springs, Downingtown, Phoenixville, and Royersford, including the basement of a local restaurant that is currently named Downingtown Diner.
- The budget for the film was $120,000. It cost $110,000. It grossed well over $4,000,000.
- Steve McQueen turned down a smaller upfront fee plus 10% of the profits for a flat one-time fee of $3000. He claimed later he needed the money for rent and food.
- The film’s title song was written was written by Burt Bacharach and Mack David. Mack was the brother of Burt Bacharach’s eventual long-time partner, Hal David.
- The title song reached #33 on Billboard and was performed by a group calling themselves The Five Blobs.
For the complete history of The Blob, and the off-shoots created after, including a remake in 1988 and other “collections” since published on DVD and Blu-Ray, read about it here.
You can’t help but love this 1950s B-movie. Better yet, get it for your kids. Yeah, the young ones. Why not?
I’ll bet they stay in bed at night and then grow up to become huge Steve McQueen fans. And that’s not so bad compared to what is out there for kids today. Is it?
