Full Moon Founder Charles Band’s Memoir Releases November 16th
Jans Holstrom
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Do you know Charlie Band? Well, the absolutely insane founder of Full Moon Studios of course! That Charlie Band? If you’ve enjoyed a so-bad-it’s-good horror film in the last 40 years or so, I can almost guarantee it’s a Full Moon feature or Troma. Through 40 years of ups and ups (Charles Band never has a down), Full Moon has produced some of the most enduring schlock classics of our age. In November, Full Moon founder Charles Band will release his memoir Confessions of a Puppet Master: A Hollywood Memoir of Ghouls, Guts, and Gonzo Filmmaking. We have a little peek right here:
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A natural raconteur, Band shares astonishing stories of his misadventures, his personal life, and his encounters with both the great and the notorious:
- His first babysitter was Marilyn Monroe
- At 15, Band opened nightclubs in Rome
- His crew illegally built and then abandoned a giant “old woman who lived in a shoe” set in Los Angeles’s Griffith Park
- A disgruntled creditor (read: loan shark) firebombed his Hollywood Hills home
- He bought Liberace’s house, but only stayed in it one night
- An eye for talent: In addition to Demi Moore (Parasite) and Helen Hunt (Trancers), other Hollywood newbies Band gave early breaks are Kelly Preston and Richard Moll (Metalstorm), Mariska Hargitay (Ghoulies), Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Troll), Viggo Mortensen (Prison) and Bill Maher (Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death)
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- A seventy-something Stan Lee jumped on Band’s young son’s bed to endear himself to the shy boy
- He shares behind-the-scenes secrets from some of his biggest hits, including Head of the Family with its 3-foot long, slimy latex tongue performing unspeakable acts, Re-Animator whose unwatchable dailies were edited into a film even Pauline Kael loved, how Ghoulies was saved by a toilet, and Troll, with its magical child character presciently named … Harry Potter, Jr.
- He had a memorable, if nebulous, business meeting with Michael Jackson at the height of the superstar’s fame
- Gary Busey (The Gingerdead Man) and Klaus Kinski (Crawlspace)—infamous for their “difficult” personalities—wreaked havoc on his sets
- He was arrested at a Florida fan convention and spent a scary weekend in jail
Still going strong and ever adapting with his usual savvy to the world of streaming, Charles Band continues to splatter blood, reanimate corpses, and titillate the teenager in all of us. A candid and engaging glimpse into the Hollywood’s zany underbelly, CONFESSIONS OF A PUPPETMASTER is as entertaining as the movies that made this consummate “schlockmeister” famous.
That’s…a lot. Charles Band is a true wild man and I’m excited to check out his memoirs. He lives a huge life and it looks as though he’s just going to keep going! When it comes to Full Moon, I’ve always been a big fan of Puppet Master. Those movies are great. The memoir will retail for $27.99.
Are you going to read Charles Band’s memoir? Join the conversation in the comments. We’re on Instagram and Twitter @DreadCentral. We’re also on Facebook. I’m Jans. I write news. You can come tell me your favorite Full Moon film on Twitter @Horrorplayed.
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