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♪ spooky and dramatic music ♪
This is the story about a few people,
decades ago,
that were given the opportunity
to become zombies
in one of George Romero's
Living Dead films.
Little did we know,
when we stepped on the set that day.
We had no idea
it was gonna change our lives forever.
Meanwhile,
students from the George A. Romero Filmmaking Program
and Tom Savini's Special Effects Makeup Program
[sinister voice] Are up to something.
♪ drum beating ♪
Hey, I'm here.
Where have you been?
I'm sorry.
So, do you have it?
Yeah, of course I have it.
Chasing Zombies Scene 4.1 - Take 1
[clapping noise]
[Director OC] Action!
Zombies moaning and crowd noise
[static]
Hey, Dead Fans I'm Brian Ceponis.
♪ horror music ♪
[screaming] "no, no"
[snarling]
[howling]
We are here live At the scene of the dead.
That's right.
We are at the Monroeville Mall
where 45 years ago
In 1978
Dawn of the Dead was filmed
in this very location.
There are throngs of zombie fans
inside this very establishment right now.
And we are gonna go inside and see what's going on
and it's gonna be amazing.
You wanna join me?
Let's go in.
Ha ha
It's George Romero.
Well, okay it's not THE George Romero, but
that is George Romero's bust
which is awesome.
We're gonna go check out some exhibits
and meet some cool people
and we're gonna have a good time doing it.
We'll see you there.
So, tell us your name.
Uh, my name is Scott Kellaway.
And where are you from, Scott?
Uh, uh, I'm from England.
England?
You came all the way from England
to here.
Why are you here?
Some kind of instict.
What are they doing? Why do they come here?
Some kind of instinct.
There's just something about the place.
Being a fan of Romero
and everything.
As a kid I always thought
I'd love to make the pilgrimage one day to come visit
you know the locations - the mall.
And then one day, thought
screw it, I'm just gonna do it I'm gonna go.
and, uh.
First time I came was about 2018, I think.
And then, since then
I've been about 4 times now.
So what was your first experience
with George Romero films?
Have you met George Romero?
Oh, Oh, I was so excited to meet him.
First experience with George Romero films,
and then I want to hear about your experience.
Night of the Living Dead
was the beginning of it for me.
And I grew up in an area where
we were told that it was filmed at certain locations
in our neighborhood.
It wasn't.
But we believed it was.
So that was my first
recelect of-of realizing what it even was.
I mean, we didn't know the movie.
We just knew it was filmed there.
So we would go to these places
that weren't in the movie,
that we thought were in the movie.
And we were all excited like
this is where the zombies were.
No it wasn't.
But we thought it was, you know.
[laughing]
And we were like
this is it!
And, it wasn't.
Like, hey look there's were the zombies were.
Oh, yeah - Oh yeah.
This is the field they ran through.
No, that was up in Evans City.
Oh, I know and then but then doing research,
that's when I found out, Oh, wait
and then, um, when we did, uh
raising money to fix the Chapel.
That's when I came
into the scene
and really was
about trying to help and, and, you know
get that all together.
Go in - what - we did Evans City at the park.
Right. We did different conventions there.
Raised money.
Got to see all these people.
So a lot of the celebrities
who we even become good friends with.
Yeah.
So we're gonna come back to George Romero.
I wanna hear about your first experience.
Again, I think because we're similar in age,
it was definitely the Night of the Living Dead.
And also because officially my real name is Barbara.
And of course the famous line: We're Coming to get you Barbara.
I got to work alongside both of the Johnnys
last year at this show.
And I actually had them film that famous line, like
saying it to me.
I sat between them and they both said that famous line to me.
I loved it!
They're Coming to get you Barbara.
Normally I don't like being called Barbara,
but that was an exception.
Definitely - Yeah, great - yes.
It was definitely very memorable.
Thanks for sitting down with me.
Sure.
Tell me who you are and a little bit about yourself.
Okay, Let me check my ID.
Um, I'm Mark Tierno.
Um, I was, um, in uh, 3 of George Romero's films:
Knightriders, Creepshow and Day of the Dead.
[zombie Mark roaring]
Um, Knightriders was the first George Romero film I was in,
and I don't know I don't remember
how I got an audition,
but I did.
And, um I got cast
as one of the court members,
but I was working full time,
and I didn't want to give up my job
to do this, uh film
that I didn't know anything about.
And uh,
so I,
turned it down.
But they came back
and offered me
the role of the Troop Magician,
because they knew that I had - do magic also.
So I uh agreed to that.
And I - uh - it was,
I had to be there maybe 3 days a week,
sometimes 4.
And you know, that worked out really well.
The second was uh Creepshow.
And they knew me from Knightriders,
and even though I was a lot of trouble,
they decided that, we'll cast you.
What I got was uh uh was to be the um,
to be a, uh, stand-in,
you know, and and
it was an incredible experience
because I got to work pretty much on the whole film.
And, uh,
I was a stand-in for, uh,
Fritz Weaver,
sometimes Hal Holbrook,
Ted Danson,
uh, also Stehpen King. I was a stand-in for Stephen King.
And then um I was the uh,
voice of Carl Reynolds
in-in the last segment with the roaches
with EG Marshall as Mr. Pratt.
[on phone] The wife and I decided to take the kids to
Disneyworld this year. You like your job Reynolds?
[Brenda] So how did you 2 meet?
How did we meet?
[gunshots]
How did we meet?
Let me tell you how we met.
It's very interesting.
Oh, wait.
In 1977 I was working on my first book.
It was called The Collectors Guide to Monster Magazines,
and I had just self-published it.
Uh I was working at an art studio at the time
and I had gone out to lunch.
When I came back from lunch,
Uh it was like a 2-story or story and a half studio,
so there was a deck above the first floor of it.
Uh on the - on the deck with the guy that I worked for
was Tom Savini and Jeanie Jefferies.
Uh, Tom,
had brought his collection of Famous Monsters to show me
because he had just picked up a copy of my book.
And Jeanie - they were they were together
to come down to meet me.
So that's how we first met.
And you don't remember that.
I don't remember that. I don't remember.
I must have been so into Tom. I was like...
[laughter]
No, so, yeah, exactly that's That's where we first met.
♪ spooky music ♪
Ooo, hey, uh, can you turn off that light?
♪ overly dramatic music ♪
Huh!
[both together] Hey Nate.
Man what are you guys doin here?
Whatcha been doin?
Uh, nothin.
Avery?
Just finished filming. That's it.
So do you still need me in the morning?
Um, yeah-yeah Thanks for helping out.
Sure.
Interesting. Anything else?
[both together] No, uh, no, nope.
Okay, so I'll see you then.
[Avery OC] See you then.
Later.
That was close!
They know we're up to something.
Doesn't matter.
We need to get back to the Savini building,
and discuss some strategy.
Right.
♪ heavy metal music ♪ "They Crawl" plays
[Zombies moaning]
[Crowd yelling]
So, tell us your name.
My name is Avery Smith and I'm from St. Louis, Missouri.
What do you do for a living?
I invest in real estate.
So, why are you here?
I'm here for the Romero films
to pay homage to Dawn of the Dead.
Uh I turn 45 years old this year
and so does the movie.
How often do you come to these conventions?
Once a year.
And what do you, what kind of feelings,
what kind of emotions do you get
coming to these, uh, conventions?
Like a kid in a candy store. It's like Christmas, man,
cause when I was younger I never thought I'd be in this position.
And when did you first become a George Romero fan?
See here. Probably in my early early childhood,
about 8 or 9 years old.
Yeah? What was it started you becoming a George Romero fan?
Well uh my parents owned a video store,
and I was from Illinois,
and we were at the time living in Lousille Kentucky.
It wasn't like I was around too many people.
I was pretty much an introvert,
so my mom was like: Hey
you can watch any movie you want.
Just don't go behind the red curtain.
[Brian laughs]
So that's that's how my movie history started with horror.
Let me guess, you snuck behind the red curtain and watched...
That was later down the road. [both laughing]
You steal George Romero films from the video store?
You know what? When I was going around
looking at you know Toolbox Murderers
and all this crazy stuff,
I saw Dawn of the Dead.
It was a Media VHS case
and it was uh, written in neon green.
I see Scott Reiniger on the cover, and I was like,
let's check this out. And I was hooked ever since.
Did you rewind before you took it back to the store?
Of course or I got into trouble.
Be kind - rewind right?
Back in the 80's that was definitely a huge fine.
back in the day
Did your Mum not let you watch this or?
No, my Mom wouldn't let me watch it.
But neither did mine but,
well, it was my Dad that was the worst one.
He said: "There's something wrong with you. You're sick.
Why are you watching this?
There's blood - It's got - oh.
You need to see a doctor.
There's uh something wrong with you.
My father wasn't like that.
My father was like, Oh, yeah come on down.
Yeah sit here and watch it with me.
It's all bloody - It's good.
It's just all the blood splatter,
the blood splatter, the zombies coming.
It was all over the place. The blood was like it was all over.
It was cool.
Oh, it was great.
Absolutely loved it.
And I hope - I hope more of it continues to come.
I hope they make another one.
Well let's let's hope they do.
I mean hopefully they might cast us.
[both together] You never know.
Let's hope. We might be the 2 lucky ones.
Well, let's wait and see what happens.
Yeah, let's see what happens.
[Amy OC] Chasing Zombies interview with Bob
Take 1, common mark. [slate claps]
[Bob Tinnell OC] Okay So wait how do we?
What do you want us to say first?
[laughter]
How we met.
Um
[Tinnell OC] Well cause he wouldn't remember
cause I was tremendiously insignificant.
Uh [Bob laughs]
It was in Monroeville
at the first Fantasy Film Celebrity Con in 1978.
And, um
it was such a - uh,
like a very empowering event.
It was very - it was amazing.
Really,
and I - I just
ran into - I got into an elevator.
I think it was an elevator.
and you were in the elevator
And I just - I tried to explain
how much I enjoyed the
how much it meant, and you know how great it was
and I think you just said: Get away kid you bother me.
[Bob laughs] It was - It was uh the first
Horror Science Fiction convention that I had put on.
That's - that was our first run in together and uh,
at the same time,
uh, that the convention was going on,
I was publishing a magazine called Questar,
which is a science fiction fantasy horror magazine.
Uh kind of a slick thing,
and again, not much publishing
coming out of Pittsburgh then either, so.
Uh, we uh
happened to have our offices
on Fort Pitt Boulevard
in the same building uh that George Romero's offices were in.
So we were on the first floor with our publishing company
and George's were on the 5th floor.
And uh that was interesting, so.
Again, Bob was uh going to Point Park College at the time
just a couple blocks away.
I just showed up at his office
and said: I wanna go to work for you.
And then you said ha We don't have any money
and I don't know you,
it's like didn't I see you at that
didn't I see you at your conventions, man.
I'd been to 2 conventions at that point and I had
already worked for George and for Mike [Gornick]
and had been an extra on Knightriders for a few days.
So I came down and started working at the magazine.
You don't remember this but one of the funniest things ever
was you know when people think about Night of the Living Dead,
and they think about the farmhouse,
and they think about the basement.
And the first day that I was working at Questar
they sent me to the basement of the building
on this errand to look for something
that I don't even think existed.
And then they just waited.
And then I came upstairs
overwhelmed with Deja Vu,
and I didn't understand it.
♪♪ suspenseful music ♪
The Night of the Living Dead farmhouse basement
is actually in downtown Pittsburgh.
♪ suspenseful music ♪
But no one knew that at that time.
Yeah, you,
you can - you can access all this information and trivia now
so simply.
But no one even had mentioned it so we uh,
we actually were storing all of our back issues of the magazines
uh - in the basement.
Uh it was - it was the only place we had
for extra - for extra space so.
Ah you know - it,
in the beginning,
we didn't realize it was the basement from the movie either.
[together] Really?
We were just walking up and down those crappy wooden steps,
afraid that one of them was just gonna give way at some point.
So it was - it was a fun trivia thing, but
and back then, nobody ever,
no one ever knocked on the door and said:
Hey, can we Can we see that basement?
No - not even thought of.
So, tell us your name.
Uh, my name is Shad Nowicki.
And where are you from, Shad?
From a little town out of Buffalo called Ellicottville New York.
Ellicottville New York, okay.
And what do you do for a living?
I'm a professional artist, actually.
[Brian OC] Professional artist.
[Shad OC] Specializing in painting.
[Brian OC] That's fantastic.
Is-is that what brings you here? Why are you here?
Uh, yeah. That kinda did get me into the door here.
Um, painting, but,
really the major reason I'm here
is because of my love for Romero films.
And-and I was fortunate enough to
talk to enough people that said
you should probably get here
you know, for this.
So that's why I'm here for my love of Romero films,
and finally meeting these people that I've
seen on screen for years and years and years.
And you get to interact with not only the folks
you've seen on screen but
all the other attendees that are here.
Oh, absolutely. Yeah - yeah. The people here and uh,
the community that George has built over the years
is just absolutely phenomenal.
and it's a special thing It's awesome
Speaking of like uh How many of these things
do you go to a year? How many have you been to?
Uh, this is my first Living Dead,
but I travel for a living. Do all the conventions
that I can do during the year.
I usually do depending, lately
I've been doing a little bit more, so about 7 a year.
Um but I'm a painter, so it - it's...
The process is a little longer than some of these guys.
So, yeah.
And you mention about
the, obviously your first reason for being here is George Romero.
Mm, hmm.
So what was your first? Tell me about your first
experience with George Romero,
ah,
with George Romero's films.
Alright, so I was,
this is goin back...
I grew up on on a little horse farm outside of Buffalo.
In the middle of nowhere.
We didn't have zombie stuff.
We didn't have monster stuff.
We didn't have anything, right?
We had tractors. We had all that stuff.
But my Dad bought me this little black & white Quasar television
you put like 80 D batteries in.
And then I used to travel around with this thing.
I used to go camping with this thing.
Everywhere.
And I remember being so young,
and one of my first memories of this title
Night of the Living Dead
scared the shit out of me.
And I was like: "I am not gonna watch this movie ever".
And then, one night,
sleeping in the barn,
cause that's what I did in the summer.
I never spent the night in the house.
I'd always camp out.
I had this black and white TV and what comes on
is Night of the Living Dead
on a little we're talkin 5 inch screen.
and I sat as close to that thing as I could,
hoping the batteries didn't run out.
And I watched that whole movie
from start to finish.
And when I got done watching that movie,
I was... I wasn't really frightened
like scared.
I was just so curious
about this type of movie,
and about... This is black and white.
There's monsters.
There's people eating each other in this thing.
You know - and for me it was just amazing
to see that movie.
And - and it resonates with me.
You know, when people think about nostalgia.
That's what I do. I do nostalgia painting.
When people think about nostalgia, it's all these
wonderful memories that come to you.
And that, to me...
I can still smell the barn.
I still see myself sitting there in the middle of the night,
watching this little black and white television.
And I think...
I'm - I'm really excited that's how I got into it
rather than somebody saying oh watch this years later.
You know? I was very young when I got into George Romero movies.
How - how old were you?
I think I was 9 or 10 when I watched it.
Right? Um you're also talking black and white carry around TV,
So, yeah.
But then I got into the other movies later on and uh,
those were all,
I think Dawn was the first or second movie
I ever rented at a video store.
So, yeah.
That was - that was my life for a long time - yeah.
Watching those movies.
[Director OC] Bring in the slate.
[Director OC] Mark it.
[Amy OC] Chasing Zombies Interview with Jeanie,
[Amy OC] take 1, common mark. [slate claps]
You have a pretty voice.
[Director OC] Okay Everbody settle.
[Director OC] Action. Take it Brenda.
[Brenda] Tell us about the movies you were in.
When I first moved to Chicago,
I met a gal and I did - uh.
I played um the prodigal mom for this girl,
but it never went anywhere.
Anyway, my first movie was uh
basically Dawn of the Dead.
And that was interesting because,
I got into that because,
I was the Iron City Beer girl.
OK let's start with that I was the Iron City Beer girl,
and um then they came out with uh Robin Hood Cream Ale.
So I was giving away beer samples
to tons of people.
and, um,
this group of fellows were sitting there,
and this one guy was watching me and he said:
You seem really professional.
Would you like to audition to be the 96KX Call Girl?
It was WTAE Radio in Pittsburgh.
And, um,
and they were gonna do an FM station.
Anyway I auditioned I got hired.
So at the end of that year,
it was a whole year long I um,
I did a Halloween costume party.
I was to give away $100 to the best costume.
and I gave it to this huge Darth Vader character.
He took off his thing and it was Tom Savini!
What??
Tom's a legend.
Now I didn't know who Tom Savini was
and I didn't know George Romero
or and I didn't know movies or anything - but anyway.
Um Tom - I gave Tom his $100 bill [laughs]
and, um then he said:
Do - can you do makeup by any chance?
And I said: "Oh actually I do makeup".
I do makeup for photos.
And Tom said he couldn't do straight makeup.
He was into special effects.
So I said: "Yeah, I can certainally help you with that".
So I missed 2 weeks of Dawn of the the Dead,
but it was because of Tom Savini
and me giving him the $100 for the Darth Vader.
And um that started my career meeting George Romero.
Yeah, I met Tom Gave him his $100.
And the next day,
we went into George Romero
and he said: "George this is Jeanie".
I'd like to hire her as my #1 makeup assistant.
And George said: "Hi, Jeanie You're welcome.
Ba - ba - ba [hands clap] Done deal.
After Dawn of the Dead then became uh Knightriders.
And Knightriders I was actually hired by George
to be the Director of Makeup,
and the guy that I played my scene with
with Knightriders was Marty F- You know
Yeah - Ferrero. Thank you, um.
[Jeanie OC] He called me after Knightriders was over
and he said
I just read for a script for uh Jurassic Park.
And he was the one that got eaten off the toilet.
[T-Rex snarling-Marty screaming]
What?? Uh!
And then Ha...Ed Harris I did his makeup
every single day in Knightriders.
and I-I believe Ed said that was his 2nd movie ever ever ever
and look at him. Apollo 13, In The Abyss and everything else.
[Brenda OC] It's so interesting how one thing leads to another.
Oh it's timing, yeah you're right.
One thing leads to another as you say.
You have to be at the right place at the right time.
And thanks. There's like 16 17 people here right now
[Jeanie continues] that people can't see.
It's like God Bless you all. [laughter]
[Brenda OC] So if you hadn't had that Halloween party...
I would not have ever met George Romero.
♪ spooky music ♪
[phone ringing]
Hello?
[Avery's voice on phone] Hey, Samantha.
How'd your creature project go?
It actually went really great.
[Samantha's voice on phone] How did yours and Nate's filming go?
Well, we finished it, but on our way out
we literally ran into Sean and Richard.
I think they're on to us.
I think so too.
I saw Amy and Liz talking to them this morning,
but when they saw me, they stopped talking.
[Samantha's voice on phone] Well, I mean, except for Sean.
[Samantha's voice on phone] When he saw me he said Hi and smiled.
Hm You're really into him, huh?
[Samantha on phone] Is it that obvious?
Uh, Samantha - everyone knows.
Wait. I think Nate's calling me.
Nate, you there?
Hello.
Hey, Nate.
Hey, what's up?
So where were you after we ran into Richard and Sean?
I thought we were supposed to meet at Savini?
Oh, I'm sorry. I ran into Mr. Williams.
I had a paper due and he is riding my ass.
He thinks I could be a writer.
[scoffs] Good luck with that.
Um anyways, About our game plan.
Yeah, David and Deion are definitely on our team.
Good.
God, you are really serious about this.
[Nate on phone] Absoutely.
The school's been playing Humans vs. Zombies for 23 years.
Hell, my Dad was on the first winning team.
This year is the first time I have a chance to win.
Didn't this whole thing start out as a hide and seek game?
Yep, but every year the game changes.
Dude I saw the video you sent me of when they played paintball...
[paintball gunshots]
Yeah, I'm glad I wasn't there.
That was brutal!
But now that the game's gone back to the original format,
[on phone] we might actually have a better chance of winning.
Why cause we're smaller and we can hide easier?
Huh, yeah that's funny,
[on phone] but they're doing it at night so no advantage there.
Yeah, they're gonna have a hard time hiding. They're huge.
I wouldn't be so sure.
Sean's captain of the Zombies this year,
[on phone] and he's fast,
and very smart.
Alright, hey, let's get back to the plan.
Wait, what plan?
Well, Nate got some glow in the dark makeup,
and we're gonna mix it in with the Zombie makeup.
Is that fair?
How are you even sure they're gonna use it?
I'm positive.
They're gonna use it for their portfolios.
Aren't they gonna be able to tell
that the makeup glows in the dark?
[Nate on phone] Not as long as it's outside.
After we get into the park
and everyone scatters, it will be light.
When the sun goes down
and Boom! So does their faces.
Nate, how can you do this to Sean
after he agreed to help you tomorrow?
Did you forget about what happened last year?
During the Dawn of the Dead Jeopardy game?
Yeah, our advisor was your uncle.
He was just one of a zillion parking lot zombies.
But they brought in Bob Michelucci.
[on phone] That guy published books about George Romero.
That wasn't cheating?
Look, they just outsmarted us plain and simple.
Now we're turning the tables.
The Zombie team takes great pride in their makeup
and we're gonna use that against them.
How are you gonna get it into their kit?
Already took care of that.
Deion has a class with Amy in the morning.
He's gonna mix it into their kits.
♪ heavy metal music ♪
[Zombies groaning]
[Crowd yelling]
You come all the way over from England.
Yes, that's right, yeah.
You come to a lot of these conventions?
I only come to the Living Dead Weekend here in Pittsburgh,
or Monroeville - Monroeville.
Because, uh, this
particular type of convention
just seems to be so
so family close.
You know, and we meet the same people.
We have a little family of friends that, you know,
that come here every year,
and it's great because they've really embraced me,
you know coming from the UK,
and I'll always keep coming back.
That's fantastic. How about you, Shawn?
You know, I'm coming from Ithica NY.
The love for George is all over the United States,
all over the country,
and like it's an amazing feeling to just
have the George Romero experience in your blood,
you know? It's like,
it captures you.
It does - it does and then, so
obviously George is very influential in a lot of today's
Zombie films and things. What is your...
Do you remember your-your first
experience with George Romero films,
and what hooked you? What grabbed you?
My first experience was Night of the Living Dead,
and my Dad was watching it,
and I happened to be going down, you know,
downstairs. And there's Dad watching it and,
I loved the scene in the cemetary part in the beginning.
The eeriness of the music...
♪eerie music Stop in now I mean it.
They're coming to get you Barbara.
That was the famous line. It was - I was hooked.
I was like this is really good.
My Dad got us at 12 years old.
We were watching horror films,
and I was like, my mother would be like:
No no you can't watch that.
And I'd be sneaking out of my room
just to wanna sit there and watch it with my Dad,
cause it was just...
The fascination of being hooked
into the horror industry. I loved it.
So obviously Dad won that one.
So what about you? What was your first memory,
first experience with George Romero?
Oh my first experience...
I can remember it just like yesterday.
I was a young boy,
and I just came back from one of these little school outings.
You know. I think the year was about 1982,
and my Dad had rented out this
this big VHS. You had to...
This huge VHS cover back in the 80's,
you know, you you had to just about
yank open,
and it was - it was Dawn of the Dead.
Now what happened is that Dad started watchin this movie,
and I had, being that age at the time,
I had to go to bed early.
So mother turned around and said to me..
She says" Don't go downstairs for God's sake"
"Your father's watchin this film,
there's all these people biting each other's necks and arms".
[woman screaming]
So of course being a 7 year old boy at the time,
you get inquisitive.
So I decided to get out of the bed,
and where I was, you had the stairway,
and from the top of that stairway
from the bedroom, you could see clearly
into the front room where the television was.
So I sort of put my head down
and I caught the bit where Renee Banks,
you know, all this hair
came out and the SWAT team
were in there wrestling with Scott Reiniger.
[multiple gunshots]
and I went: "Oh God",
you know, and I pulled the sheets over the top of me head.
But I watched it again a few years later.
And I don't know - it just...
it just caught me.
And I had to watch the whole lot.
I had to start with Night of the Living Dead.
I had to start you know watching Dawn of the Dead
religiously. I can't say how many times
I've seen the film now,
but it's a lot.
And I went on with Day of the Dead,
Land of the Dead, and ever since then,
you know, I've just become
a George A. Romero lover.
He certainly left something very loving and close
behind and,
and we will continue the legacy for him.
[Larry OC] How did you first get acquainted
with George Romero and his films?
Well, Uh I've been a fan
of Night of the Living Dead
ever since I first saw it
which was a drive-in movie
on a double bill with Willard.
And I've been a fan of the movie ever since.
[Larry OC] What furthered your fascination
with these movies?
Did you have contact with any of the actors?
Uh, Yes, actually.
I wrote a fan letter
to Kyra Schon
who played Karen in the movie.
And we were corresponding, this was back in 1979.
I was a teenager
and she was just like in college.
and we were corresponding back and forth,
and we really became friends.
Shortly after,
Questar Magazine came out,
and one of the articles they did in Questar Magazine
was about Night of the Living Dead:
Where Are They Now?
And they interviewed Kyra,
and she actually stated in that interview
is that, um
one of the fringe benefits that I had received from
being in the movie
was that a 15 year old boy
had contacted me from Florida.
And we'd been corresponding ever since.
And that we had become uh more of friends
instead of just, you know a fan.
[Larry] Did your friendship with Kyra
help you secure a role in George Romero's Day of the Dead?
Um, well not directly but
it definitely pointed me in the right direction.
Because when my uh mentor and teacher from
the High School that I was at
uh had a video production course
and uh he called me uh and he said
George Romero was making a sequel to
Night of the Living Dead in Florida.
[Miguel OC on megaphone] "Is anyone there?"
And uh he's going to be looking for extras.
Why don't you call him?
[Larry OC] And were you living in Florida?
That's right, I was livinig in uh Port Charlotte Florida which
is about 25 miles north of where he was going to be filming.
So I contacted Kyra and I said, Kyra is it true?
And she said yes,
the name of his film company is Sanibel Films.
Uh, here's the number. Give him a call
and tell him you want to be involved in Day of the Dead.
[Larry] Did he actually answer the phone?
That's right. George Romero actually answered the phone
and I told him who I was,
why I was calling,
and who had referred me.
And he said my wife Christine Christine Forrest
was helping with the casting.
And he says let me take your information.
I will have Christine get back with you
and we'll go from there.
[Larry] Describe for us
the day you went to the set to shoot your scene?
OK well they bussed us out there-they got us out there,
the sun's just starting to come up
and we're all lined up out there.
I see Christine Forrest running around,
then I see Tom Savini.
And Tom Savini comes in front of the crowd.
And I was 19 at the time
but I looked like I was 12 or 13.
And he looked at me
and he says:
"I'm gonna start with you".
"Come on over".
"I think I'm gonna make you kind of uh a fresh kill".
So I really didn't have that much makeup on.
It was just base makeup,
and the football dark circles under the eyes.
I mean I looked pretty much like I did when I was alive,
except he had me, uh,
you know, he toned down to a greenish color.
So how lucky are we, huh?
We are so lucky, oh my God.
So, Larry,
how did you get roped up in all this Romero stuff?
Well, that's pretty interesting.
It all stems from Dawn of the Dead, actually.
I watched that as an 8 year old, and
8 year old.
Yes-yes.
What the hell's wrong with your mother?
[Larry OC] I was just captivated by somebody taking over a mall.
You know, the main characters in the movie
took over a mall, and,
it wasn't the zombies like that
you know, I wasn't scared.
I wasn't affected by the gore, blood, guts
or anything like that.
It was taking over a mall.
I thought it was the coolest thing ever.
I was actually living in Monroeville at the time,
um, and I used to go to the mall
couple times a week.
And then I'd heard that, um,
they were they were filming some kind of movie there.
I didn't know what it was,
but I knew who George Romero was.
Uh, and uh...
At that time a f-friend of mine and I
went in on a comic book store,
uh, in Bloomfield,
not knowing that
right across the street
[Mike OC] is where Tom Savini lived.
Uh, and uh,
this is one of my - one of my favorite things about life.
How you can make one decision
that you think is completely random.
I was supposed to work at the comic store on Saturdays
because I had a full time job.
I was a psychotherapist
right up the hill at at Western Psych
in Geriatric Psychiatry. So that's what I was doing.
So I I'm at the comic store.
Savini walks in the door,
and of course you know carries on a conversation with him.
I had all these really cool movie posters
that he was interested in as well.
But what if I, you know, decided, uh.
You know I wanted to go skiing or something else that day,
or had another engagement.
If I wasn't in that store that day
when Tom walked in, he would have met my buddy,
and my buddy might have been in Day of the Dead.
But Tom and I, you know, uh
started talking more and more, and one thing lead to another.
After doing Day of the Dead and Invasion USA back to back,
I was fortunate enough to be an extra in bigger budget films
like Twister, Titanic Poseidon and Godzilla,
you know, which was an amazing experience.
But no one ever asks me,
when I come to these conventions,
about those films.
They ask me about Day of the Dead,
and what it was like,
and how I would describe working with George Romero.
[Larry] So Day of the Dead was a major part of your life.
Actually, to be quite honest,
I wouldn't have gotten those jobs in those films
but for my experience with George Romero.
Beccause, here's why.
I mean, they have my resume. They look at this,
and then when they get to the bottom of the page
of that resume, they're like:
Wow, you got to work with George Romero, uh, in one of his films.
I go Yes - Day of the Dead was my first film.
I was the Football Player Zombie. Well, after that
it kinda changed the whole pitch of the interview.
I wouldn't - I would not only not have gotten those jobs
in those other features films.
I - I don't think I even would have gotten an interview.
♪♪ spooky music ♪
So, are we still going through with this?
You guys have been playing too many video games.
How do you feel when you find a cheat that helps you win?
David - Like a winner. Nate - Everybody uses it.
But this isn't a video game.
If we win because we do this
then it's not gonna feel right.
I mean I wanna win fairly.
Okayyyy.
When you tell your Dad about it
are you gonna leave the part out with
the glow in the dark makeup?
Yeah,
I guess I'd probably leave that part out.
Well, what's that say?
Hey, Nate. You behaving yourself?
Only every second of everyday ever Mr. WIlliams.
Huh.
I'm trusting you two to keep an eye on him.
Yes, sir.
One thing about I'd want to tell you about uh,
uh , Creepshow,
Is for me,
it was a great experience
because I got to see,
uh, how
for the first time,
how a major motion picture is made.
Yeah.
And I got to see how, uh,
how George worked as the director.
How people on the set worked.
How Tom Savini worked,
using, uh, doing special effects,
like the, uh, monster in the crate,
uh, em,
Fluffy, uh, which is sitting behind me. Yes.
And uh how he how he worked him,
you know, using hydraulics at different times.
There wasn't always a person in the suit.
You know, and I was there all the time.
Uh, also,
um,
I realized how,
uh, how time is money because
there was a point where that
the, uh, something the, uh, the blood splatter
in the lab,
uh, and I think it was when the, uh,
the janitor was killed.
There was something that the blood splatter,
somebody cleaned it or something.
So it wasn't there
even though it had been in the shot before.
So we had to wait
until they did that and that took like half a day and,
it was, you know, thousands of dollars.
[Mike OC] Can you somehow describe what it is
that draws us so much into that George Romero universe.
Why it touches a chord in so many people.
I can't. I'm not sure exactly,
but I - I know
that one of the things is that is the intel-intelligence
of the films.
Because there's in every film that he does
there's always this subplot
that isn't necessarily true in other horror films.
I don't know that is always the only thing,
but, for example,
um, in Dawn,
there's a line I'm paraphrasing:
"They go back to where they're comfortable".
Which means the Mall.
So it's a It's a so-social take,
yeah,
on - on - on com consumerism. Yeah.
First film of George's I saw was Martin at your convention,
and it changed my entire life. Uh, that film,
uh, there it is the single most,
uh, important event in my life
in terms of movie watching.
It changed everything- my asthetic, my taste.
I would say that I went into that film as a kid,
and came out as a adult.
I was just a completely different person.
It was a more artsy film too.
But it was a deconstructionist look.
It brought Vampires into reality. Right.
George, uh, was a
truly a great American filmmaker.
I actually think Martin is a great American film.
I think if he wasn't working in horror, I think...
I think There's Always Vanilla,
had it been made in Hollywood,
you know, with Mike Nichols Dustin Hoffman and you know.
It-it's an Oscar nominee.
But you make it in Pittsburgh with nobody
and it disappears.
But all of George's films function on 2 levels.
They function as entertainment
and they func-function as something deeper.
And deeper commentary on society.
And it wasn't, and he would tell you this,
it wasn't because he was necessarily consciously
striving for that.
He was just a smart guy
who cared and who observed,
and he wove deep things into his work.
And no matter how much
gratuitous
gore or violence he would put into a film,
it never felt gratuitous or cheap.
Yeah I don't - I don't think George as much as anyone else
felt there would be such a cult following
on any of the films.
You know, I think he was just as surprised as anybody
to see that you know 10, 20 years later.
I mean there's generations now that weren't born
when these movies were made
that, uh are, are big fans.
How did, how did you get caught up in - in this?
I'm not from Pittsburgh so, uh,
[Larry] I would come up as a horror convention vendor,
and that would be my way to get to Pittsburgh.
I could make money and it could pay for the trip.
So I would come here and I would be prepared.
I would want to
research locations from
George Romero's films.
And I had thought over the years,
you know, that I would like
to go on a tour of, say, The Monroeville Mall,
or filming locations of George's films.
And I saw there was a tour on,
you know, on a box set
of Dawn of the Dead.
And all it's versions
are on the set.
And there was a tour on there,
and I'm like...
I wanna do that one day.
And then I decided to research it.
And then I got obsessive with my research.
Mike - That's a shock. Larry - And eventually
[laughing]
I - I had so much information at my fingertips that,
that I knew more than most people out there.
And then in present day I actually do host tours
of the Mall for fans from all over the world, and
actually thats why my voice is a little hoarse at the moment.
I have a bunch of points to make
along the way that,
most of the points are
on the bottom.
Of the majority of the action
and such happen
on the bottom floor.
You remember after they sort of go shopping and such,
and Roger is in his little cart.
Fran puts a box of plates in the cart with him
and that would have been over here.
I'll show you that in a second.
But she parks him right here.
I never thought after nearly 40 years
that Day of the Dead was made,
that people would still be talking about it
and would be writing me and asking me for my autograph
just the same uh as many others who played secondary extras
in these films, uh,
who are being pursued the same thing as me
for autographs and uh convention appearances
in celebration of all things Romero.
Seems like the films shows everybody's sense of struggle.
Every dynamic of it,
you know, personal, your peers,
and then it's also some type of
ambiant force that's giving you
some type of conflict, so.
That's how people deal with in everyday life.
And that's what the movies are about - real life.
As I grew older,
and I talked to people,
and I started watching
these movies more and more
over and over and over.
People like: "Dude, why do you
like these movies so much"?
I'm like, well you gotta like the special effects - I mean.
You see something in the late 90's and the 2000's.
I'm like: "Hey - they got that idea from Romero".
That's true, so Romero's got a lot of influence
in a lot of today's films.
Definitely - definitely definitely.
Could I say - Dawn of the Dead,
it was the fact that you had these people
that were just trying to survive.
Things were going bad, and
you had these 4 people group up,
and just keep hold to what was left.
You take Night of the Living Dead.
it's more documentary like.
Its real and gritty, and
and, you want to absorb that,
and you're into the world
with that first film.
And then you go to
Dawn of the Dead.
And it's an adventure. It's fun - It's rollicking.
It's a rollercoaster.
And you get into that and you enjoy the characters and such.
And then you get to Day of the Dead,
and that's where I think
things really change.
[Larry] It's gritty it's people being mean to each other.
Yeah.
[Larry] I think that's how it would really go down.
Yeah.
That's the most realistic one to me.
Yeah, and and it talked a lot about
the character of different people.
Uh, and what was important in their lives because
when something like that happens.
WHEN SOMETHING LIKE THAT HAPPENS.
Uh, you know,
you don't know how you're gonna react.
And - and some people react
one way like the military people.
And then you got the scientists trying to figure out
maybe how to save humanity
as opposed to...
Uh, hey I don't care what happens to them.
I'm saving myself. That kind of thing.
There's a lot of social commentary as in that.
As there is in all the Romero Zombie films.
Yeah, or or even Knightriders.
What character do you love the most and and feel connected to,
and why?
Well, you know what?
It stems from different movie to movie.
Because, you know,
regardless of the fact that everybody's having
their inner torment and struggles
of what's going on in the outer world,
you know, you had, uh,
Sarah who was
played by Lori Cardille.
You had uh, you know, Ken Foree
who played Peter.
It's like everybody really wants
to try to do the best for the best with the worst scenario.
But, you know, you got to make the best choice you can.
So it's pretty much feel I connected with all of them.
I can't just pick one.
In watching these films,
is there a particular character or one that you like
or kinda glom onto?
Um, definitely I mean,
Ken Foree,
um.
Number one,
when we were a lot younger in the 70's,
there wasn't a lot of black action stars
that white kids in the suburbs saw, right?
Because it was all inner city black explotation movies.
We never got any of that.
So when I saw Dawn,
I was like Holy Mackerel. That guy is amazing.
He had, I mean, from the opening scene
to the end of that movie,
he's on it!
He's the tough guy,
and he's: "Hey how ya doing"?
He he's got every everything going on,
charasmatic,
and to me that was just an amazing amazing role
in that movie.
And there's certain zombies I like and Bub and, you know,
there's always ones you gravitate towards.
But I think if you refined it all down,
you know,
and said I wanna be one of these.
That's the guy I wanna be - yeah.
Have you - have you seen him met the other zombies?
I met him today.
You met him today?
Absolutely wonderful man.
And I've been able to meet all the other, uh people
involved this weekend, and it's it's been great.
Now have you ever had the opportunity to meet
George Romero?
I have not.
Okay,
I have not.
Um, I wish I had.
You know they say: "Don't meet your heros".
And what I do for a living, painting celebrities and stuff.
That's all BS - meet em.
Because they're gonna be gone tomorrow
and you're never gonna have the chance to,
number 1, say "Thank You",
and number 2, just tell them your story, you know?
So I never met him, um.
But yeah I mean I just have a huge admiration for his work.
And more than just the work is
is this community this whole.
He's the godfather of this whole franchise.
This, this whole genre of movies and, uh,
wow that's awesome, you know.
That's a hell of a body of work and a hell of a life.
That and that's you know talkin about him from that level, does
does he influence, you know, your work your art?
My painting? Absolutely. So like just this year
I think I'm on five Romero paintings.
You know, first one I did was
Fly Boy because I went over to the museum and saw,
and I was in it in the elevator.
I'm like, I gotta do a painting of this.
Next one I did, uh, was from Night of the Living Dead.
And then I jumped over to Bub
because I watched that one 30 times, you know, in a row.
And, uh, yesterday, before I came here,
I actually did a big Night of the Living Dead
the Living Dead girl.
And then recently just did a George Romero portrait too,
that a lot of people here seem to like.
♪ acoustic guitar ♪
We have uh we have quite a long history together with.
I worked I ended up working with him.
Bob - Yeah. Jeanie - In his office.
Uh yeah, I mean later, and his would have been
now in the early 90's I guess it was.
Uh, we had another company and, uh, we were producing, uh
magazines and books and trading cards.
And Jeanie started to work with us.
Uh, and uh, a Fantasy Girl set of trading cards too so, uh.
This would have been right after the Zombie Jamboree
I think that we had put on in 1993.
Which was in Monroeville at that time.
[Both] Yeah.
Uh, the Zombie Jamboree had
had, it was the first time all of the, uh,
the Night of the Living Dead cast was brought back together.
And we also had other different guests too, like
we had some Scream Queens, Brinke Stevens,
Linnea Quigley, we had Kane Hodder.
Uh, we had Adam West. We had Jeanie.
Uh, but but we had just produced a a set of trading cards called
Fantasy Girls.
And Jeanie was actually one of the Fantasy Girls.
But she was also like the Fantasy Girl wrangler.
So we go to...
And we did a lot of photography together over the years, uh.
[Jeanie] This one is an amazing photographer.
He's taken some beautiful photos of me.
We've we've had a lot of fun and uh I'd say,
if we go back earlier, around 1980,
79 or 80 I believe,
I was publishing a magazine called Questar.
It was a science fiction fantasy magazine.
That's where we had met uh Forey Ackerman
of Famous Monsters of Filmland.
He was the editor of that magazine, and
I I held a convention in Monroeville in 1978,
and he was one of the guests. And he
met Jeanie at that time.
And I'll let you take over from there.
Well he kind of discovered me. Bob - He did
He's like: "I'm gonna discover you".
[Mike OC] Whats it like when fans come up to you
and and ask for your autograph?
That that's gotta feel really strange in a way.
It does, because...
I think it's unbelievable to me that people know who I am.
Uh, and that they're so appreciative, and and.
I love talking to people. I love finding out about them.
But they, um, I went to a, uh,
show in in Pittsburgh Monroeville area.
Uh, that was, uh,
a convention.
And John Amplas was there, and that was his,
uh, who's, he was in, has been in six of, uh,
of George's, of George Romero's films.
And he said: "Mark you've got to do this".
No, come on. Nobody knows who I am.
And also, Greg Nicotero was there,
who was on Day of the Dead. He was a, uh, he was an intern.
And, but, he had become
an important person in the Hollywood scene
for special effects.
And he also said: "Mark you've got to do this".
And he had a book with,
that had my pictures in it when he was doing my makeup.
And I, yeah okay, sure people might, and then,
I was walking around the the show.
People were coming up to me and asking for my autograph.
And I thought , maybe there is something to this.
[Mike] It's interesting how only up until recently,
this whole thing now has become part of your identity.
It's almost like who you are.
It is. It is part of especially when I do these conventions.
You know, I become that person.
[Mike OC] But then when you go back to your regular life.
[Mike OC] Don't you feel like, not so
kind of, feel more ordinary?
because in the Romero Universe you feel really special.
Yes, and that's absolutely true.
And I'm, you know, I still have to take out the garbage
which I really object to.
[Mike OC] I thought you just eat the garbage.
Well, that's true.
You become personal friends with some of the celebrities
because they're in the area, or you see them so much
at the different Cons, that
you have a connection with them,
and that makes it special too,
and makes you enjoy the show even more.
I think it is a very special place.
And and a lot like she was saying,
a lot of the celebrities are now friends.
It's just such a tight community but everybody's welcome.
It's like something beyond, um what you can get anywhere else.
There's - everybody's here and they're upbeat they're happy
to be meeting, you know, who they've watched.
Yeah, it's it's fun it's like it takes all the pressures
of the world away when you're in here!
You know it's it's one of the most fantastic shows
I've ever attended, so remember The Living Dead Weekend.
And me it's like, you know,
I love the people here.
They're like my family.
So it's like, when I come here
I get to see not just my extended family,
I get to see my my real family
and actually my brother from across the sea.
He's my brother in arms, man. It's like, you know,
like this is the best.
These people make you feel loved and welcomed.
Now when when you come to these these events these conventions,
do you feel uh like a familiar connection, like a family?
Does it feel like a big family for you?
Oh absolutely, yeah, em.
When we first came, em, there was kind of
like a like a strange aura almost like you
stepped into the Mall, it felt like it was supposed to be.
And, uh, yeah since then I've met a lot of great people.
And, you know, they seem to,
we're in the middle of nowhere really,
but we've gravitated to this this hub of activity.
So George Romero and his films, they seem like a really
big part of your life, and, Scott: Oh yeah.
you seem to have a really strong connection, like
when you watch his films,
are there any particular characters that you connect to?
Or ones that you pull for or?
Well, uh, Stephen Flyboy from Dawn of the Dead.
Uh, because I do cosplay stuff as Stephen & Flyboy & Zombie.
Um, yeah.
So cosplay, where, where do you do that?
How does that work?
Oh, it started in 2015.
And I thought,
I wanted to do the Flyboy character before,
and I've never done anything like that really.
And there was a convention in the UK,
and I thought, I'll do it. I'll try it out.
So I went to the convention,
driving there with makeup on,
blood everywhere, and I thought
This is ridiculous. Why am I doing this?
Got there.
Got to the parking lot.
Ah, I feel stupid.
Got out of the car,
and soon as I got out of the car,
there was a lady there, and she went:
"Wow that's amazing. Can I get a photo?"
And then since it's just, yeah, gone on and on and on.
One of the reasons you're sitting here
is because you are an avid Romero historian.
More than anybody I know.
Interestingly enough,
we didn't know each other a year ago.
Uh, this all started with me,
uh, when my wife, Brenda,
She said: "Well you promised you were gonna go
up in the attic and clean out some of the stuff", you know.
Um, I do like to collect things.
So I had boxes of different things
and I opened up the one box, and I found
a scrapbook that I kept from when I was in Day of the Dead.
and then I opened it up. I looked at all the pictures
that I took, because back in the day, Savini
uh, and I ended up becoming pretty good friends.
And he said: "Hey I'm I'm doing this film
uh, come on set, bring your camera,
whatever photos you take give me dupes,
you know, and just hang out,
oh, and I'll make you
into a zombie and you can
be in it". And I thought...
cool. So that's pretty good.
So, uh I got that scrapbook
and thought, oh I'll take pictures of it
and I'll I'll put it on Facebook.
And then you and a couple other people
immediately messaged me,
Larry: I'm always looking for those things.
Mike: and said this is awesome! This is great stuff!
Because everybody threw everything away back then.
One of the pictures I had,
which I just introduced a couple days ago at a convention,
uh, was, uh, a a photo of the kitchen wall,
which had like a storyboard
all the different scenes
all outlined.
Uh and I actually found my scene
which was 97A.
Torrez gets his head ripped off. Larry: Right.
So, you know, I was in that scene.
Uh, but I remember that at the end of the production,
I - I walked in and
everything was off of that wall.
They just tore it all off and threw it in the garbage.
And no ones thinking anything of that.
Myself, though I - I
I decided, well I'm gonna keep
the, uh, contract that I signed
you know, for a dollar. Larry: Sure.
And then, you know, at the end of the day, uh,
my call sheet was up there.
I take my call sheet off the wall,
and no one seemed to care about that.
So I put that in my scrapbook.
And I actually had the original dollar bill
Larry: That's incredible. Mike: that they had paid me.
And I put that in the scrapbook, too.
And then once I got all the photos developed
and I gave Tom his,
I kinda put them in the scrapbook.
But then when I took a picture of that,
which is how I ended up meeting you,
uh that's that's when I found out
how much interest there still was in in in the memorabilia
from that time. Larry: Sure,
props, paperwork, anything.
Mike: Anything, and I kinda thought more about,
you know, what it meant to me,
and and and my role in that.
And up until that time,
uh, it was just like something I did that I thought was fun.
And then I get invited to my first convention,
and basically thanks to you,
because you spotted that, you know, and...
I find a lot of zombies.
People who had no idea about the fans... Mike: Absolutely
in the world of these horror conventions out there.
So I go to my first convention,
and and the reason I'm even sitting here right now
making this movie
is I was absolutely blown away
by all the fans that
that even had any interest in me as a person.
I - I've had a really interesting life,
and I did a bunch of things.
I did a lot of car racing.
I won all these trophies and everything, but...
They wanna know about the George Romero flick.
Right, they wanna know about my 5 seconds on screen
when I helped you know rip Torrez's head off,
you know, in that scene.
And - and it got me thinking
about that whole subject matter.
What is it about
the Romero films that resonate so much,
not only with the fans,
but with you and I and everybody that was in the film?
There's a great interaction now uh, between the fans and the
different people that are in the movie.
And you have to understand that people like . . .
I'm - I'm not a movie star.
I, you know, I I was a publisher...
a book publisher and a magazine publisher.
You know, I just got lucky to be in a film
that George was doing because I knew him.
And, and never thought that 45 years later,
that people would be talking about it,
or people that want my autograph
not for my publishing,
but for the 3 seconds that I'd been on screen,
you know with the head blast. Uh, but - but,
and then a lot of other people just like me,
that were just secondary zombies in the movie,
you know, are now sought out
you know, just to meet.
And I, uh, I very...
I mean we really enjoy that fact that people, you know,
enjoyed what we did, uh, as small as it was.
We wouldn't be here without, #1 George Romero, of course.
But the fans, I mean if, if
the fans weren't a part of
the loving of George Romero,
you know, Thomas and me,
and everbody else,
we wouldn't even be here.
So thank-thank God for the fans.
Are there a lot of conventions in the UK for,like cosplay,
or even Romero conventions in the UK?
There was comicons really,
but then there wasn't horror conventions, per se, until
a little bit later on, so
we then started a George Romero themed
convention called Weekend of the Dead
[Brian OC] Okay.
em, around 2015, and since then
we had George Romero guests over.
And, uh, yeah we had a mini convention in the UK.
Obviously we can't come to the Mall, but we try
and make it as as good as possible.
I still find it strange now thinking, cosplay,
cause I always thought the word cosplay was like a nerdy thing.
NERDS!
But, em, now everyones been so amazing about it.
Well, you go to these conventions and
you're not the only one dressed up.
[Both] No.
In fact I'm probably in the minority not being dressed up.
Yeah.
when I go.
Yeah.
Hey, wait a second.
You bump into people.
Like there was a lady yesterday who was like,
eh, FlyGirl,
who was walking around with all the makeup on
and everything, and it was like, You!
So do you have a big collection of stuff at home?
Yeah, I've got a storage unit full of stuff - and...
A storage unit?
Yeah.
Of Romero stuff?
A lot of Romero. A lot of horror.
A lot of B movies - and...
Wow!
and soundtracks, posters, just everything really.
I just remember the title:
Night of the Living Dead.
That was the scariest title out there.
And I'm like, you know, I saw the Exorcist.
And It's like, you know, I know.
But when that movie came out
I, no, I don't wanna watch this man.
And like I heard this is the scary one.
And when I saw it and, I was just,
I got fish-hooked ever since,
you know. I'm, yeah I'm on the Romero train for life.
It seems like a big kinda family event.
Brian: Everybody... Kim: Yes
knows everybody.
Like a family reunion - right? Right - Oh yes, definitely.
Kim: Definitely. [Brian OC] How does that work?
[Brian OC] Is that something you look forward to?
Right.
Kim: All the time. Barbie: Yeah.
Ha ha, because again,
you see kinda the same people at certain ones in the area,
so you do definitely become friends
and you look forward to seeing them too,
not just the celebrities.
You look forward to seeing them.
I just met Kim last year at the same event,
and, you know, of course, Facebook.
Kim: and we're on Facebook a lot.
And Facebooks helps keep everything in, yeah.
[Brenda OC] Do you have a really outrageous story
from behind the scenes that nobody would believe?
I just heard one yesterday from Tom Savini.
Ha ha - I'm sorry.
He said: "Jeanie".
Tom and I were doing a, um, a Q&A
and he said to me, he said.
Do you remember when we really got in trouble
in Dawn of the Dead?
And I said: "Yeah".
And then he brought it back. I said is mine the same as yours?
One time, now,
you have to remember, we were filming all night long.
All night long,
in the Monroeville Mall.
And then we had to clean up after too.
Not that I had . . .
I left a lot of blood there, but
but, and then we had to shop for the, um.
We had to shop for stuff during the day, you know,
to create the stuff we were doing at night. [laugh]
So one time Tom and I were dead tired.
I don't think we he and I had slept for 3 days.
We were working all day buying stuff,
creating stuff, talking about stuff.
And then night, all night long,
we're filming. And I'm doing stuff.
He's doing his stuff.
And, uh, we finally said, let's, there's a room,
let's just lay down for a couple hours.
I was like, okay.
So we went back and just laid down.
I mean this is purely, like,
like you and me just laying down.
This was just... we just needed to rest.
So we rested for a couple hours.
Now get this. We come out of the room,
and Tom is saying,
they were having this huge board meeting.
I guess Richard Rubinstein and Tom and,
they were having this huge,
important, quiet, behind the scenes,
nobody else was invited meeting.
and Tom and I come out and we're like. [snorting]
[laughing] So and we got in trouble for that.
So that was a biggie. [laughing]
I'll never tell.
Tom Savini denies this, but
I, the first day I worked on Day of the Dead,
um, was the first day of shooting.
And, um,
They put on my makeup.
Took 2 1/2 to 3 hours to do the makeup
and to do the appliance,
because they used a latex mask,
and do my hands.
And, um
we shot
uh for...overtime. We went overtime.
Musta shot, it musta, it was a really long day.
And, um,
I came back
with the makeup on, and came back
to the special effects room.
and they were gone.
Tom and all the interns,
Greg Nicotero, Howard Berger,
Mike Trcic,
were all gone.
And I had all this makeup on,
not knowing how, I couldn't,
it wasn't just
makeup, stage makeup.
I couldn't get it off.
[Mike OC] They were appliances.
They were appliances. I could take off part of it,
but I couldn't, and it was,
uh, so it was a nightmare.
So I had to drive home
with makeup on. And at that time
there, it was on...
I had to take the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
And there were toll booth operators.
[Avery laughing]
So I'm coming through,
and it was also,
uh, it wasn't Halloween.
And, [chuckles]
so I, I'm surprised that the uh, toll booth operator,
did not call the Pennsylvania State Police.
The fun thing for us was that after, after, uh,
the night was over and we're leaving,
there was a pancake kitchen across the street from the Mall.
[Jeanie laughing]
And we all decided that we were hungry,
so we were gonna go for breakfast.
And, uh,
we all walk into this pancake kitchen,
all still made up and bloody.
And these people,
they, I, don't, they had no clue.
[Jeanie giggling] You know it wasn't Halloween.
This was December, I think.
Yeah it was cold outside.
And they didn't know there was anything going on at the Mall
being, being shot, you know, so.
Bob: I mean. Jeanie: You can only imagine it.
Actually, you, I wish we'd had photos of their faces.
[both laughing]
Bob: But they did let us in. Seriously, you can imagine.
[laughing]
When I met Tom coming into the store,
I, I got his phone number
cause he said if you ever, I forget what it was, but
if you ever find this magazine or something.
Cause a lot of people will come into the store
and have a magazine collection.
And we would buy it, and then resell it.
So he was, I forget what he was looking for,
but I had his phone number.
So then my girlfriend and I,
we were watching, um, Knightriders on Cinemax.
She sees Savini on screen,
and, and she almost passes out.
[Mike mimicking her voice] "That's the most handsome guy
I have ever seen in my life". I can't...you know,
you know, I'm dating her. And she's like
head over heels with this guy.
So what do? I say, I go well, you know, I know him.
And she goes... [mimic voice] No, you don't know him.
Yeah, I know him.
And she's: "No!"
Well, I'll call him right now. I'll show you.
She's - so then she got quiet.
I pick up the phone. Dial the number.
Tom answers, and I go...
Hey Tom, it's Mike the guy at the comic store.
"Oh, yeah yeah", he says.
I got someone here that really wants to talk to you.
So I give the phone to Holly, and she's like, uhhhh.
But then she ends up talking to him.
So he invites us over.
He goes: "Hey what are you guys doing right now"?
"Come on over".
So we go over to his house.
So it went from
a customer in a comic store, Larry: Sure
to, uh,
oh hey come on over to the house.
I'll show you what I'm working on.
I'm working on some really cool effects and stuff like that, so.
I go down in his basement
and I see all of this stuff.
And he's asking me questions: "What do you think of this?"
And, say, cause as a fan, you know,
and then one thing led to another
and we, we have this real common interest in,
um, early science fiction films.
And we have these massive VHS collections - both of us.
So I used to go over to his house, and we used to watch,
you know, these - these VHS tapes
and trade back and forth and stuff like that.
And then, of course, the opportunity came up...
"Hey, I'm, we're shooting this thing
in this mine in Beaver Falls.
You wanna come out and,
you know, hang out on the set,
take pictures ,and I'll make you into a zombie, so.
You know, my decision to
go to the store that day
puts me in a chair with you,
making a documentary film.
One of my earlier jobs,
uh, before we were publishing,
when I first got out of high school,
I was a messenger for an advertising agency.
And, uh, I had to constantly be delivering packages
or picking them up from different places.
And there was one particular place I hated to go to because
it was - it had like
30 steps I had to keep walking up to get to their offices.
There was no elevator.
And, uh, later on I realized that it was called
Hardman Eastman Studios.
And, uh, the place I worked for
was doing a lot of commercial work.
Uh, for and, uh, and video work.
And it ended up it was
Marilyn Eastman and Karl Hardman and I hadn't even realized that.
That was only 2 years after Night of the Living Dead
was made, so.
I think one of the things,
and George and I used to talk about this, um.
Uh, we talked about this extensively at one point.
[clearing throat] People,
one, this notion that like, when they made
Night of the Living Dead,
that they were a bunch of amateurs.
That's...not true.
Bob M: Right. Bob T: They had already...
There were a lot of people. They were working a lot.
Pittsburgh was a phenomenally creative town. You had
Ad agencies like Ketchum MacLeod.
There was this network of creativity. There was
WQED, you had Westinghouse doing documentaries.
There were not 1 but 2 motion picture labs in Pittsburgh.
And all the corporations PPG and Heinz...
[Tinnel OC] So you had people. You had illustrators,.
You had filmmakers. You had editors. You had,
you know, it was a very very creative town.
Right.
I mean it was, um. [clearing throat]
They were hardly, like
you know, in Mom's basement
somewhere in Canton Ohio trying to figure it out.
I mean, they were, they were making a living doing this.
It was people doing commercial work saying,
boy I'd really love to make a movie.
What happens when a
Calgon research team
and their submarine are
reduced to micro size
and sent on a dangerous mission
deep inside a washing machine.
[alarm blaring]
Engines are at full captain! We're stuck!
We've got to find out what's on those fibers!
It was just such a - an infancy in the whole
movie business.
I don't think anyone at the time
realized the hunger that people had to know more about George,
or know more about Joe Dante or John Landis, or any of this,
John Carpenter and all this crazy wonderful
horror filmmaking that was coming out of the late 70's.
And we were right there with George. So we were
one of the first magazines
to do a - a feature article on George.
Uh, and uh, we did one on
Mike Gornick.
And, uh, and then we also did one on
Dawn of the Dead - probably one of the first articles
on Dawn of the Dead.
And also leads into
that I had also designed and published the
Dawn of the Dead Poster Book, uh.
I also worked for an ad agency a lot,
and, uh, we did a lot of fake labels around
product that was in JC Penneys in Dawn of the Dead.
♪ creepy music ♪
Because they weren't allowed to show the actual names
of the makeup and everything. So we had to
make up all these labels, and - and
cover all the labels.
You know how like the Brill Building in New York
is like the - the place where all this great music like came.
You know what I'm talking about?
Like that's where a lot of the songwriters,
Carole King, Neil Sedaka,
where they all hung out?
It's like 247 Fort Pitt Boulevard
is like the Horror Brill Building, because...
Exactly. You also had the animators.
Because you had the animators there.
Rick Catizone was there.
I mean, I would just go upstairs
and hang out while he was doing
you know, pencil tests for Creepshow.
I remember the first time I saw footage of like the Creep.
It was just nice that
we were all in the same building so we all became friends.
So how many days were you the "Beef Treats" zombie
on the set of Day of the Dead?
Um, I think I was at least 4.
There's, because I'm in different scenes...
You're there with Debra Gordon.
Mark [OC] Yeah, there's part of
it is with Debra, because we were
we were, uh, corralled. We were in the corral and, uh,
as a matter of fact, uh, Steel,
played by Gary Klar,
knocks off my had and says: "Nice hat, asshole."
And knocks my hat off.
Klar: "Nice hat, asshole."
And, uh, we're-we're collected.
Then we're in the lab.
Dr. Logan's lab, who was played by Richard Liberty,
[Mark OC] who was a fantastic actor, and...
Um, uh, so uh, um,
so Debra Gordon's character and I are chained to the wall.
[Zombies growling, Men shouting]
And then she disappears.
I don't know where she went.
I think she went out for pizza.
What?
♪ finger picking guitar music ♪
Larry: Near the end of Day of the Dead,
your Football Zombie character
attacks Miguel on the platform.
That first scene was shot in Florida,
and the other in Pennsylvania.
Your character's wardrobe was specifically chosen to
add continunity between these 2 locations.
Yes, actually I didn't know at the time that I was
a continunity zombie.
But unfortunately, because I was
so short, uh,
the jersey would not fit correctly.
So the costume designer didn't know you know what to do.
Well you know what? Take the jersey and flip it around.
What?
And we flipped it around so it would fit better.
So "MAILBOX" which is supposed to be on the rear,
said it on the front.
. . . sorry, honey we're gonna work it out.
Oh my God. I didn't know about that.
Where the continunity error came in was when
the scene they had filmed before mine in the Wampum mines,
the extra was wearing the jersey correctly.
And, uh, not only was
that extra much taller than me,
uh, she also was a woman.
We did that scene twice with me coming through the gate
where I'm coming up on to that platform there.
The first time we did that scene, I had my wristwatch on,
and I hear George yell: "Cut".
That was great, but Mailbox 22, I need for you to come over here.
And I was scared to death I was only 19 years old.
I figured, oh well, he didn't like what I did.
He didn't like the way I looked.
He's sending me home. That's it.
He says: "No, we're gonna do it again but
you gotta take that wristwatch off".
So thankfully, the tube sock was the style then,
so I stuffed the wristwatch in my sock
and pulled it up cause the the pants that came with the jersey
didn't have any pockets.
So then George actually gave me some direction.
He says: "Look what you did was great".
"What you did in the first take I want you to do again".
"Do it exactly the way you did it".
So I went back. We got everything set up.
I came through the gate.
Came all th way across
till we got up to the platform where Miguel was laying.
And you could see my hand touch his face.
[screaming]
It was all sweaty, and then the hand, and then
George said: "That was great!"
So that take is exactly the the take that you see
in the movie, cause we only did it 2 times.
There's a scene where I'm trying to get to to Dr. Logan.
And I'm grabbing at him and, I'm, but I can't reach him.
They have to be rewarded.
Reward is the key.
I'm convinced of that now.
And he-he says: "I'm gonna teach you a lesson".
And then he turns out the lights, and I'm..
I'm scared,
which a zombie would not.
A normal zombie would not be scared.
And and I-I whimper.
[Mark wimpers]
I improvised that, cause I asked George if that would be okay.
And he... And one of the things about George
is he was a, he's, uh, was a, was a actor's director.
And he let the actor's creativity flow.
And he was tremendous.
♪ spooky music ♪
Look, we've been planning this out for weeks.
We don't need the glow in the dark makeup to win.
Where is it now?
Well I gave it to, uh...
Me, job done.
What do you mean?
I mixed it into Amy's kit.
Nate!
Okay, I got it.
Uh, did you guys smell that stuff?
It looked like it was freakin radioactive.
Where'd you even get it from?
Well I got it from that Magic Shop just past the drug store.
Where?
By the cemetery...
You mean the one that's owned by that creepy old guy?
Yeah.
Well, hold on a second, let me get this straight.
You're talking about that shop with the rat skeletons
and the eyeballs in jars and stuff.
Yeah, that's the one.
That place closed down like a year ago.
No, you guys don't know what you're talking about.
I was there. I got the stuff from that guy.
And yes, he's a really creepy guy.
That's some Twilight Zone crap right there,
cause I'm telling you
that the DEA, FDA, EPA, or somebody
came in there, raided the place,
and shut his ass down.
But that's where I was.
That's why I was late for the studio the other day.
I was there!
Dude, David's right.
That place hasn't existed for a while now.
What did you do?
♪ scary metal music ♪
Don't just sit there!
Go get that stuff!
NOW!
♪ scary music ♪
In Creepshow, um,
at the end of the, uh, segment
"To Tide You Over".
Um, Ted Danson and, uh, Galen Ross,
who are the two play the two, uh, characters who are
killed by Leslie Nielsen's character.
Uh, come back from the dead.
[garbled] Want you to
come to the beach!
As-as zombies, I guess. Return as zombies.
And, uh, the I, uh...
I believe they had to leave.
I don't know who, which of the two
had to leave early,
but, um, they could only do so-so much shooting.
So they, uh, George recruited myself
and uh-uh Leslie Sullivan, who was a PA, I believe, on the set.
So he grabbed a PA off of the set.
Sure.
Alright.
And we became those characters and...
They were wearing, uh,
shrouds with, uh, covered with uh, with, um, seaweed.
But, um, and when Ted Danson and Galen were...
Uh, Galen Ross were, you could see their faces.
But they needed body shots,
and so they used myself and Leslie
to come back as the, as the...
So, and some of the shots is actually me and Leslie Sullivan.
♪ creepy music ♪
[Brenda] I see absolutely no resemblance to your face
when I compare it to your zombie makeup.
So how long did that take? What was it like?
That's a great question because nobody's ever asked that before.
Because I remember he put on a cast on my face.
I couldn't see. I had a straw
to breathe out of. My nose was plugged up.
I'm thinking, I don't know this guy.
So I'm in this silent...
This is Tom Savini, I mean I met him, I gave him $100
and he-he had me do this and
George wanted to put me in the movie.
But I-I remember being under this, but it took...
It took Tom about... Well, we had to do a cast and
I wanna say it took us about 3 days to do what
Tom did to my face.
And then he put a squib, I had to have a squib underneath.
But, yeah, you you don't do stuff like that anymore.
But I remember when I first came out before I had the
whole face thing on, um...
Tom...George Romero said: "Tom, no she's still pretty".
"I want her to look ugly".
So we had to walk, we had to...
And he had to put a little more blood here.
So, and um-um but I remember that George said
"No she looks she still looks too pretty", like aww.
But you had to wear that, and that squib that was put
on my face. They don't do that stuff nowadays anymore.
Can you imagine if it would have instead-instead of exploding,
it would of imploded? I would have looked like
that one picture of me
after I did my scene.
It would have really...
But it didn't. The guy was a genius.
And then, you know, and then I had one on my back
after they shot me in the chest. And the back blew apart.
♪ suspenseful music ♪
[gunshot]
Now that...I could feel them though.
They're a they're like a profil - prophylactic
filled with blood... that 3M simulated blood.
I could feel when they touched the battery wires together.
And I went - I could tell and since I felt it..
when I was supposed to react.
Thanks for liking my scene by the way, all of you!
This is so nice, I mean geez-o-pete!
Cause I, you know, I by then I was friends with Tom and Jeanie
and had met George and, and everything we, uh,
uh, you know we got to be made up and I-I got to be,
you know, a special zombie is what they called them then.
So I was one of the ones, you know, that was
able to get made up with the squib and everthing and get, uh.
Yeah none of us knew what we were gonna be doing.
You know, we were there prettly much all night
in the makeup room, uh, you know, just waiting around.
But uh, you know then they would call us out, you know, and, uh.
My wife was with us, uh and uh, she was made up.
She-she never really did make the movie even though
she was in some scenes, but they-they actually got cut.
And I didn't know that at the time it was gonna be a close up.
Uh, the way it ended up, because it was, uh...
It was a funny story, you know,
when we went to do it, they explained to me
how the squib worked and that, you know, Tom was sitting
across from me holding this this fishing line
with a button that was in my forehead
that had been made up, you know.
And what was gonna happen when I hear the gunshot,
you know, that I knew to drop.
And that was great, you know. George was standing there,
and he was so casual about it,
you know, and now they're ready to go
and now I'm thinking, well how do I fall?
Forward or backwards, or...
You know, and then I heard the noise that fast
and I just went down.
You know, and I didn't realize it was only gonna be a tight
head shot either. And there was no...
You know, Ken Foree was not on the set at the time.
There was nobody shooting a gun, you know.
It was just-just that scene that was shot.
So it was-it was an interesting uh, way to see
how-how movie making took place.
And no one, especially me,
would have figured that beyond that night,
or getting to see myself on screen when the movie came out.
That anybody was ever gonna care about it after that.
What do you think of George Romero's influence
on the world of film and horror, because
so many things out there have been inspired by him.
He pretty much created the modern zombie.
Yeah he did, uh, and they didn't even call it a zombie
in the beginning. They they called it a a ghoul.
Right.
Uh, and I'm-I'm watching, I'm watching Walking Dead, which
I was a huge fan of.
Actually when they came out with the remake of Dawn of the Dead,
that really scared me because
in a Zombie Apocopalyse,
really all you need to do is cross the street.
The zombies are slow, you know.
But in Dawn of the Dead [2004] and World War Z,
that really freaked me out because they're fast!
And-and I'm not young enough where
I can get away from them anymore, so I'm dead
in a Zombie Apocopalyse.
But I see Greg Nicotero
is the guy that is responsible for The Walking Dead,
and Greg was basically...
Larry: He started with you on Day of the Dead.
Mike: Yeah, and so he's an apprentice to Tom basically
on Day of the Dead.
And I-and I have some interesting
behind the scenes photos that
show a scene that was actually cut from the film.
That's very interesting.
Yeah, so we - Greg. uh is ripping Taso's head off.
Mike: Uh, you know the Torrez scene
rips his head off.
Mike: And that all went really well.
Uh, but then he's standing there with the head,
and in this one photo you can see
George has the camera on a dolly.
And and Greg is looking that way
and he's holding the head.
And the head is looking this way.
And, uh, so the dolly uh, follows the head
as it screams silently.
Meanwhile there's an operator
that has cables going down
Greg's back and down his sleeve
and into the fake head.
So its screaming silently and the dolly's following it.
Mike: That took hours Larry: Wow!
to film and then [spits]. Cut from the film.
So, you know, Greg starts with Tom.
Well Tom, actually, started with Alan Ormsby.
Right? Isn't that? Do I have that right?
Larry: Deathdream. Mike: Uh, yeah Deathdream.
That was a creepy film.
So that - that connection comes up, and I'm sure
Tom could tell an interesting story as to
what decision he made,
that he didn't realize was gonna turn into something,
where he's working with Alan Ormsby.
And that leads to all these other things.
Sure.
[Brenda OC] Besides your work on Dawn of the Dead,
did you ever collaborate in other Romero films?
We were on the sets of other movies. I know with Knightriders
I wasn't in Knightriders,
but I did some of the props for Knightriders.
You know there was the magazine they were reading.
Now, see, I didn't know about this.
The article about them, you know, I had
done that prop, you know.
With Dawn of the Dead you know. We were both in Dawn of the Dead
Jeanie did my makeup, in Dawn of the Dead.
Scope Zombie.
Yeah, actually I played two zombies, so.
You did.
And you did the other makeup, too,
where I had my sort of like an eye gouged out.
And was, uh, that scene... I was a different zombie,
and we were going down on one of the bikers
outside as they were,
you know we knocked off the bike, so...
[zombies moaning]
[machine gun fire]
That was one scene, and the other one was the
now affectionally called the Scope Zombie,
where we were, I have a head blast.
So, uh, yeah, and then and I worked with
some different things behind the scenes of that movie too.
So we've known each other over 45 years.
Yeah.
And we're still friends.
[laughter] I was gonna say. And we still stay friends.
Yeah.
There aren't other movies out there besides George's
who celebrate essentially what are extras in a film.
But the zombies in George's film are the extras
and people want to meet all of them!
They, yep all of them. And-and I do too!
Things that are connected to that initial decision,
and then simple decision...
Yep.
That's my favorite thing about life.
I always look at choice, your decision to choose
as almost an absolute.
The decisions that we made
that were just random decisions,
puts us in the chair across from each other,
sharing in this amazing group of people that
that we care about, and care about us.
And the crazy thing is with me.
I know you are a zombie in Day of the Dead.
I was not in George's films,
so I understand when somebody wants your autograph.
Sometimes they want my autograph, and I'm like...
I'm not worthy. They have items signed by George Romero.
Yeah they come signing posters.
And they ask me to sign.
Yeah, what the heck.
No, I don't belong on there and they insist,
and then I finally oblige
because I don't want to disappoint them.
But I'm like... I don't belong on there.
But sort of I get it also
because I give them a sort of, uh, enjoyment,
uh, coming back to the Mall and explaining everything about
Dawn of the Dead that... Everything that happened
in the Mall and they-they have that in their minds and
it really helps them imagine being back there at the time,
even though the Mall has changed so much over the years.
Well and also you know everybody Larry: Yes.
You knew... I met George 38 years ago,
but that was the last time I saw George.
Uh, we didn't really have and inter-interaction.
But you saw George...
I met him many times at conventions.
Mike: Yeah, many times.
And as one of the best interactions was,
besides the first time...
Larry: The first time it just showed me what a
normal ordinary guy he was.
Larry: I waited 3 hours to meet him.
I get up there, sit next to him and I said:
How does it feel to be so beloved?
And he says: "I can't fuckin believe it!"
So when you got to-to meet George seems like you had...
You made a connection with him.
I walked up to him. His face lit up.
He grabbed my hand.
Looked me in the eye the whole time.
And then got a photo together.
He gave me a hug, and it just felt so special.
I'm so happy that,
whatever decisions I made,
not knowing where-where it was gonna lead, uh,
helped introduce me to this amazing world
of Romero fans and films.
♪ spooky music ♪
♪ creepy metal music ♪
You Okay bud?
Look what you did!
What do you mean? What did you do?
Put glow in the dark makeup in your kit!
He what?
I'm sorry. This is all my idea.
We think there was something wrong with the makeup.
Ya think?
♪creepy metal music intensifies♪
[playing "They Crawl"] by 13 Occult
Get out of my way!
Sean! Sean!
SEAN!
No! [Samantha screaming]
What the hell, Sean?
[Nate screaming]
[Avery screams OC]
No!
[Jeanie OC] Hey! Stop!
Pick on somebody your own size!
[zombie Sean growling]
[Jesse OC] Larry?
[static]
[Jesse OC] Larry?
Mike: You don't look that great.
You feel okay?
Uh, no uh, my-my heads really starting to hurt.
I don't... I gotta get out of here.
Jesse: Larry?
Hey Larry, you okay?
[metal chair clanks]
♪ spooky pipe organ music ♪
[Zombie Larry growls]
♪ "They Crawl" ♪ by 13 Occult continues
[Jeanie OC] Hey!
Pick on someone your own size!
Yeah, well that leaves me out!
[crew laughing]
[Sean growling OC]
[Mike OC laughing] Cut!