The Day I Met Bobby 'Boris' Pickett
And Learned about the movie Monster Mash, AKA, Frankenstein Sings, AKA, I'm Sorry the Bridge is Out, You'll Have to Spend the Night
I love the enduring popularity of the Monster Mash. It’s a fairly silly novelty song, which lyrics that absolutely do not work, and yet, hey, it’s a bop!
I met Monster Mash singer and co-writer Bobby ‘Boris’ Pickett in the 90s at a haunted house in a closed section of the New Hartford, New York mall (I think it used to be a Bradlees).
It was one of those things that advertises XYandZ-list horror movie starts as a meet and greet while you wait in line for people in horrific costumes to jump behind you and scream in a poorly lit plywood labyrinth. I think one of the actors who played a later incarnation of Jason was there, and possibly the guy who played the Tall Man in the Phantasm series.
Anyway, the line into the haunted house went through a queue so you’d pass a table where Bobby was sitting at a table. I distinctly remember a little TV next to him repeating a muted trailer, and a cardboard VHS box. “Hi,” he said. “This is Monster Mash.” He shook each of our hands one by one, nodding towards the TV while describing the details of the movie. “It’s a musical in the vein of Rocky Horror Picture Show about two teengers trapped in a house full of monsters overnight. I star as Dr. Frankenstein. It co-stars Candace Cameron from Full House.”
This was such a surreal experience. There were no copies of the movie anywhere. There was no take away from this experience. All I remember was him selling the movie by just kinda…talking about it? Sometimes I feel like I dream this moment up, but then I remember that the movie is real. It was later marketed as Frankenstein Sings for reasons I can not explain. It’s actually based on a musical called - I kid you not - I’m Sorry the Bridge Is Out, You’ll Have to Spend the Night. More like Monster Mouthful!
Here’s a trailer:
One thing I can say is that it matches the goofiness of the song. But I could never figure out what Bobby was doing there pedaling this movie. I mean I get it in one sense because he’s in the thing and it’s his song. But…sending this novelty song man around to regional haunted houses to sell a straight to video curio? This remains one of the strangest marketing campaigns I can imagine.
Also this whole thing reminds me of my favorite 30 Rock Bit -Werewolf Bar Mitzvah.
Happy Halloween! The Infinite Mixtape begins tomorrow. Hope you listen along.
