Letter postmarked January 4, 1968 (Part 2):
This part of the January 4 letter covers Saturday, December 30, 1967.
Saturday we all went to Universal Studios. The three of us had just as good a time as the first time we went. That night - thank goodness! - we ate out at an Italian restaurant called Little Joe's. The food was delicious and we all stuffed ourselves. We tried to drive around some after eating, but traffic was terrible this Rose Bowl weekend.
[Little Joe's was a historic Italian restaurant in Chinatown. It closed in 1998.]
[The Rose Bowl that year was between the #1 USC Trojans and the #4 Indiana Hoosiers. USC won 14-3 (OJ Simpson scored two touchdowns) and became national champions.]
[Although this was our second trip to Universal City Studios this month, there are still several good pictures from this trip. First up is a picture of Mom with someone made up to look like Herman Munster. At the bottom of this picture you can see the top of my head and some of my fingers. If you look closely you may be able to see Herman Munster's hand on the back of Mom's neck.]
[Next is Dad and Cliff in the same monkey cage you saw me in during our previous trip here.]
[Next is me and Ginger (Cliff's stepdaughter) pulling on a pair of giant scissors used as a prop in one of my favorite movies, "The Incredible Shrinking Man" from 1957.]
[Next, as promised in the December 4 post, is a picture of me in the elevator from "Thoroughly Modern Millie."]
[Next are pictures of me and Dad after being thrown in a combination of the pillory and stocks. I wonder how many people realized there were two left feet depicted in these stocks?]
[That concludes Part 2 of the January 4 letter. Part 3 will cover New Year's Eve. It was . . . interesting.]
Letter postmarked December 5, 1967 (Part 2):
This is Part 2 of the letter where Mom describes our visit to Universal City Studios. Part 1 ended just as we were entering the set of "The Munsters" television show. My comment regarding that was, "Little did I know that just beyond those doors would occur perhaps the most memorable moment from my early childhood." Let's see just what happened . . .
I must start a new paragraph to tell you all about the Munsters' house. As we walked in the house, there stood a man dressed up in scary costume, weird make-up and all. Gene thought it was just a prop and he walked over to it exclaiming, "Look how real this thing looks." Then "this thing" growled at him and he jumped about three feet straight up! He also had to exit for the nearest restroom. We had to get a picture of David Wayne with the monster and just as Dave was ready to snap the picture . . .
[Get ready.]
. . . the monster picked David Wayne up.
The fighting, clawing, kicking and screaming was hilarious to everyone but little David Wayne. Before Dave could take the picture, the poor monster put our son down. Finally, David Wayne agreed to being picked up and we got the cutest picture that we've ever taken, but I wish we could have gotten his first reaction on film. The expression on his face shows that David Wayne was not entirely convinced that he was in safe hands.
[Mom's description of my reaction is not exaggerated at all. I remember being absolutely terrified when I got picked up. My recollection before reading this letter was that we had just walked through the entrance before I was picked up, but apparently I was posing for a picture and either didn't see "the thing" at all or thought it was a statue like Gene did. I surely hadn't seen it move when Gene was looking at it. In any case, I had no idea who or what picked me up and I started kicking and screaming like Mom says in the letter. I don't know if the monster made any sounds or if I even saw him while I was struggling to get away, but he got me good, that's for sure.]
[Here's the picture of me taken after I calmed down a little and let the monster pick me up again.]
[Although I do have a bit of a grin, I'm not exactly remaining still. And wouldn't you know it, if only I had read the program for the tour I could have been on the lookout for this monster and avoided all that drama.]
[Yes, that is the stairs in the Munsters' house behind the monster holding me. It may not be the exact same staircase seen in the intro to the show because the tops of the posts (newels) at the bottom look a little different, and I don't see any obvious indication that these stairs are hinged. But the pattern on the step risers matches what I see on the YouTubes pretty well. I expect the hinged stairs were on a soundstage rather than built into a house on the backlot at the studio. Then again, since the series was no longer in production it's possible none of this was actually used in the show.]
After the tour we were exhausted and broke, but it was a very good day. Gene and Suzie came over and we cooked out. Suzie has a little puppy that David Wayne is crazy about, so when it got to be 9:30 I put the puppy in bed with David Wayne. After they got to sleep, we slipped in and took a picture. It is really cute - David Wayne asleep with the pup on his tummy looking very contented and tired.
[Here's that picture of me sleeping with the puppy. According to Mom's caption, the puppy's name was Ginger. All together now: Awwwwww . . .]
Sunday we just stayed at home and rested. I was too tired to even get out to the store so we ate biscuits and eggs for lunch and then pancakes for supper. Today I've got to get out to the stamp store and pick up David's Christmas present.
[Three breakfasts in one day. Neat.]
I ran out of ink so I guess it is time to close this letter. Take care and write soon.
[Mom really did run out of ink while writing the previous paragraph. In that last sentence, "pick up" is all ink, "David's" transitions from ink to pencil, and "Christmas present" is all pencil. I guess if we were too poor to afford an extra pen I really shouldn't complain about some of my clothes not fitting, should I?]
Love,
Linda
Letter postmarked December 5, 1967 (Part 1):
The CCZCC now stands at 7. It is with cautious optimism that I remind you the previous record was 11.
Dear Mother and Mike,
Well, how are things in sunny Denton? Have you been too busy to notice? L. A. is still the same - crowded, smoggy and lonely.
We surely had a good weekend. Friday, I went shopping with Barbara Hansen while Suzie kept David Wayne. I finally got Wayne something and had the store mail it, and I did the same thing on a birthday present for Mrs. Jennings. I bought a wrap-around, after-shower outfit for Dave also. That night (since I had spent the grocery money) we ate out. We went to Olvera Street with Suzie and Gene and ate Mexican food. After eating, we went to Chinatown. We finally found a bank for David Wayne and we also bought matching red kimonos for each of us. Both Davids looked real good in theirs, but can you imagine a pregnant woman in a kimono?
[I don't know for certain since there are no identifying markings or labels to identify it, but this bank (with the obligatory quarter for scale) is most likely the one I got at Chinatown. It is glazed ceramic, and other than the missing stopper in the bottom it is in very good shape except for a few minor chips (like the one you can see in the picture on the bottom of the bag he's holding.)]
Saturday was a big day - we went on the tour of Universal City Studios. It was just great and I wish I had taken you when you visited us. You'll get to see plenty of it though, as we took three rolls of Polaroid film and two color rolls of film in the little Brownie camera.
[Yes, there are a lot of pictures from Universal City Studios in the photo album. Not as many as you would think given how many rolls of film they took, but certainly more than most places except maybe Knott's Berry Farm.]
First, we started off on a tram around the lot. We went through a sound stage and they picked five people from our tour and they made a scene - one of the persons picked was Gene Dirr! This made the whole trip worthwhile as he really "hammed" it up.
Next we got back on the tram (after walking through Lana Turner's dressing room) and drove around and saw several of the houses used in movies, props (such as break-away furniture and bottles), other dressing rooms used by stars, and really I can't remember what all, but it was every bit interesting.
Then we had a rest stop - but no one rested as there was too much to see and do. We took a picture of David Wayne holding Woody Woodpecker's hand. David Wayne and Suzie had a rock (or boulder) fight with great big foam rubber props. Gene got the action on his movie camera and I took a still picture of David Wayne lifting a big rock over his head.
[Here's the picture of me and Woody.]
[And here is the picture of me holding the big foam rock over my head.]
I also got pictures of David Wayne in Laredo jail, a monkey cage, . . .
[The picture of me in the Laredo jail is blurry, but the one of me in the monkey cage came out pretty good. Yes, that sign on the bottom says "Do Not Feed Monkeys."]
. . . and in an elevator from "Thoroughly Modern Millie" which was the show we saw last week. In the show, Julie Andrews and Mary Tyler Moore did a dance in the elevator so Gene took moving pictures of Suzie and David Wayne dancing. What were the other people doing? Watching us, naturally. We had three cameras - Gene's movie, me on the Polaroid, Dave with the Brownie - snapping our two hams, David Wayne and Suzie. They both performed so well, I expected people to clap or throw pennies at them.
[There isn't a picture of me in the elevator from "Thoroughly Modern Millie" from this trip to Universal City Studios, but I can tell you there is one from another trip because I'm wearing a different jacket. I know you're just dying to see another picture of me, but you'll have to wait until we go back. Sorry that's the rules.]
Suzie and David Wayne got in this old car that bounced around and in the background was moving scenery. It looked very real and, of course, Gene captured the whole thing with his camera but all I got was a big blur. There was a stagecoach with moving scenery, but the few people that weren't watching "our show" were riding on it.
[Although I couldn't ride in it, Mom did get a picture of me in front of the stagecoach she was talking about. It was an armored stagecoach used in the film "The War Wagon" starring John Wayne and Kirk Douglas, which had just been released in May of that year.]
After the rest (Ha, I was so tired I was glad to sit) we got back on the tram and we rode around the outside locations - western towns, Mexican villages, lakes, foreign scenes, the "Psycho" house (remember that scary movie?), and a waterfall where they just pushed a button to make it a tall one or a little one - amazing! We recognized several sets that we had seen in movies.
[Alas, the picture of the house from "Psycho" isn't very good. Too far away and not from a good angle.]
I guess the last part of the tour was the best and it was getting too dark for us to take many pictures. We saw a make-up demonstration, a stunt man show - where they fought, fell off buildings, hit each other with bottles, etc. You can just imagine how little sadistic David Wayne enjoyed all that violence! We saw how they make fake snow and rain for the movies. We went in the "McHales's Navy" set and best of all, the "Munsters" set.
[Here's me and Mom on the outdoor set of McHale's Navy, which ran from 1962 to 1966. Mom doesn't look very pregnant there, even zoomed in, although you can tell she's wearing a loose-fitting top. On the left side of the picture you may be able to see fake rain coming off the roof.]
[And here is the entrance to the set of "The Munsters," which ran from 1964 to 1966. (It's not the full house that is shown in the opening credits, but they probably used this for the front porch scenes, like in the opening credits where Herman Munster busts through the front door before the other cast members walk through.)]
[Little did I know that just beyond those doors would occur perhaps the most memorable moment from my early childhood. But that will have to wait for Part 2 of this letter.]
