Gayle House Records "The Haunting" (Gayle House, GH-101, 1971)
You know, the last year of my life has been absolutely amazing in terms of fulfilling my childhood comic-book dreams. Nearly everything I’d ever lusted for in those (already) out of date pages has fallen into my lap. Abstract art paintings done by a chimpanzee? Check! That Super-Cool “Giant ‘Life Size’ Moon Monster Poster” I’d dreamt of for so long? Check! With all of this good fortune sailing my way, what could be left?
Well truth be told, there was only one more “top of the list” type thing I could think of. One more thing that (casually but persistently) still preyed on my comic-book-ad-loving imagination. That’s right — the record described in the ubiquitous early 1970’s ad with the cloaked ghoul commanding the reader to “Invite Your Friends Over For A Haunting”. Sooooo rad looking; it just HAD to be great. I mean — how could it not deliver the goods? Just look at that fantastic copy:
“Just imagine how scared your friends will be when you flip out the light and they start hearing creepy sounds like the howl of a wolf, a creaking door, chains rattling, and then a man’s voice telling them that the house is haunted and they are to die — one by one. They’ll be scared stiff when they hear footsteps coming across the floor, the sound of people fighting, glass breaking, hideous laughter, terrible shrieks and screams, eerie moaning and then more footsteps, more screams… Each person in the room will think that he is going to be the next victim.”
Man. How fucking awesome was this record going to be? Why, completely and utterly off the scale of awesomity, naturally. So yeah; I’d poked around for this one pretty frequently over the years, but the few people I could find who’d actually heard it assured me that it was both “pretty bad”, and that it was “basically the same as the Johnson Smith Novelty Company ‘Horror Record’“. Naturally the first statement made me want it all the more, but the second statement actually gave me pause. In fact the more I thought about it, the more it made sense to me that a single company might well have churned out just one 7″ 33 RPM record’s worth of spookiness in the early ’70’s, and then licensed it off to a few mail order companies simultaneously. Yeah, that’s probably what happened. Oh well, it was still a cool ad.
Well as it turns out that’s not what happened at all. In fact as you’ll soon be able to discover, not only are the sounds on the Gayle House single unique, the record has a freakishly lame and astoundingly perfect charm all its own. It even manages to scrupulously follow the rules of the mighty Rip-Off Halloween Record genre (those being: a totally half-assed “story telling” side, and a banded “sound effects” side using most of the same audio library just without the narration), while still happily amplifying both their cheapest AND most exploitive qualities! Yeah! I honestly don’t want to spoil it for you too much (Threadbare plot! Terrible narrator! One sound effect repeated ad nauseam! Children in peril!), but believe me, as far as I’m concerned it was more than worth the 30+ year wait. And hey, it even works just like the ad said it would!
Oh, and one more side note, here’s a link to the current owner of the PO Box featured in the ads. My guess is that they probably don’t have a lot of leftover “Haunting” records laying around but hey — you never know.
Awesome to hear it is a unique recording unto itself. I’m glad your copy is in better shape than mine. i wasn’t looking forward to trying to record around the many scratches on this one. Another horribly, terrific record from the comic books. Thanks Jason.
Dave
Okay .. this is weird. Tried to d/l this but I can’t… How come none of your links work for me? I click on any link from your blog, and it just pulls your blog back up again… like hitting the ‘refresh’ button or something.
Yeah, me too. The link to the .zip just re-directs to http://scarstuff.blogspot.com/
Hey are you guys coming from the main site URL at http://scarstuff.blogspot.com/ or from another location (like an RSS feed or something)?
I have a script in the zip folder to prevent hotlinking that limits referring URLs which would account for the behavior you’re talking about, but whenever I try to download the file from the main page it still works just fine for me.
It’s good to have you back again, Jason! You know you see these random ads on the net and always think of these things as being lost treasures, but once again Scar Stuff comes thru!
I agree. Almost anyone can just post up a link to some files (which is fine) but the research you do and the personal element and enthusiasm your posts have always take them to the next level. Makes me feel like i’m getting something more somehow. Given your skills and knowledge I think you should write a book on your experiences with these records, you already would have a great start.
Happy Halloween and thanks again for providing a window back into a time that almost seems like it could never have happened.
C.D.
“Hey are you guys coming from the main site URL at http://scarstuff.blogspot.com/ or from another location (like an RSS feed or something)?”
No, I’m just directly pulling up your blog with the URL. I use Firefox browser, but I also tried clicking on the links from microsoft internet explorer, too.. just to see if it was an issue with firefox — no dice, had the same problem.
That’s the extent of my software expertise, too.. so if it’s some strange issue with my isp or something, I am gonna be lost.
harveymidnight & victorycabal –> Huh, crazy. Well the quickest fix for you (while I try & figure out what I can alter on my end) is just to go to Dave’s blog where it looks like he’s already hosting an alternative link for the same files (thanks Dave).
C.D. –> Hah! you’re going to make my head explode with an inflated sense of self-worth here! I’d actually love to track down the people who made so many of these records & turn out a book on the subject but I kinda think the audience would be, you know, pretty limited there.
“Almost anyone can just post up a link to some files (which is fine) but the research you do and the personal element and enthusiasm your posts have always take them to the next level. Makes me feel like i’m getting something more somehow.”
What he said!
Hi,first off you have the coolest blog,now I have a question,have you ever heard of a halloween ditty called Monsters on the Praire,I heard on the radio about 15 years or so ago but don`t quite know much about it,except it has a John Wayne and Gabby Hayes type voices as the heroes.If you have any info on it I would be forever in your debt.
I agree about Jason’s expertise about the back stories on these things. Hey Jason I’d go for a book like that. Judging from the number of downloads my halloween files get every month I think there is more of an audience out there than we think.
I had no trouble downloading the file. There was about a 2 minute delay after I clicked on the d/l link, but it finally opened into a zip folder that I just had to extract into my own PC files.
Dave
Wow, this thing goes from cheesy to creepy in no time. That “please, please, no more!” whipping part probably gave many kids nightmares. I’m glad you’ve had such a great year, Jason, and thanks for sharing some of it with your readers. That monkey painting would sure make my year, too!
Is anybody besides me cracking up at some of the lines of dialogue on this record? “THE STAKE!! THE STAKE!! GIVE ME THE STAKE!!” (snicker) Also, the “Creeper” track sounds more a weird guy hanging out downtown in a raincoat instead of a scary ghoul. That ridiculous moan of his always made me laugh as a kid. (I owned this record years ago, but don’t know whatever happened to it.)
Thanks for posting this one, Jason. Brings back some fun memories. 🙂
Another “Stephen”
Welcome back!!!
Thank you for returning to make another Halloween far better.
This particular item is quite funny to listen to (I like the slurping as the “blood Banshee” eats the children) but I really enjoy your background info.
Wow, this is definitely a classic! You’ve made my entire Halloween. Thanks for sharing, and thanks for coming back and making my audio collection even cooler!
It may not be the same as the Johnson Smith record, but it DOES sound like it could’ve come from the same people. Doesn’t the guy’s voice, and his strange delivery, sound familiar? The Johnson Smith record is the only other place I’ve ever heard of a blood banshee. Whatever that is. Hmmm.
Peter
Jason tell us your story of the 7 feet johnson smith Ghost…the u-control ghost…I would like to know if you have any pictures of the free 6 foot moon monster from the monster fan club. Thank you for everything you do.
I keep getting re-directed to the home page when I click the link also.
🙁
I grabbed Daves share, is his the same file as yours??
Eddie –> Sure, I’ve got some snaps of the Moon Monster that you can check out here. The “Extra Bonus” of “3 Monster Masks” wasn’t included, but happily the “Membership Card” was. For more info on the whole Moon Monster scam, check out these posts: one, two, three
As far as the “U-Control Ghost” goes, the Johnson Smith version (there were a few companies offering variations on the theme) was basically a white plastic garbage-bag type body with a white cardboard shoulder area (I think, I’m hazy on this part), a balloon with a cartoon “ghost face” printed on it for a head, and a clear fishing line which the instructions explained I could attach to the cardboard & then drape over a tree limb (etc). Then I was to pull the line from a distance so as to “remotely control” the ghost & make it raise & lower, frightening one & all. Naturally I had pictured the remote control to be something more like the one we had for our teevee set, and was a little let down (though I’d love to have one of these fellows now).
Dr. Terror –> I guess I ought to figure out what I screwed up on that little script, huh? But yeah, I think Dave just took the file I made & then uploaded it to a different location, so you shouldn’t be missing anything by snagging it from him.
Peter –> Yeah, I thought the inclusion of the “Blood Banshee” on both records was a little odd as well (probably more so than the torture scenes they also share).
Perhaps the Johnson Smith record (1973) was made as something of a market saturating “response” to the Haunting record (1971), and they tossed the Blood Banshee into the narrative as a result of being so directly inspired? Then again maybe there were just a whole lot of Blood Banshees roaming around in the early ’70’s.
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AAAAAHH, NO WAY!!!
I saw the image in this post and literally felt a jolt in my body. Finally, you have done it! Just last month I was trying to research this gem (again), and naturally I got nowhere. Leave it to you to deliver!
Sheesh. Thanks so much. Another of life’s mysteries solved.
I’m in the same situation. It really does feel strange to have so many of these childhood puzzles come to light. For me the world of S.S. Adams also falls in this category. What happens when all the childhood questions get answered? I guess now we’re free to work on the adult questions.
Well, now I’m off to listen…
Richard –> Looks like “Monsters on the Prairie” was a 1977 song by Bobby Pickett, and is included on a cd you can (or could, as of 2004) order here.
Kirk –> Yeah, S.S. Adams most definitely falls into the same category, and reading the book you wrote on him was one of the greatest “man behind the curtain” moments I’ve experienced in years. In fact everybody: go buy that book. It’s LOADED with amazing product pictures, historical info and “yanked form the vault” type original art & ephemera on the premier novelty & magic item company in America. I find it hard to imagine that anyone who might be reading this wouldn’t have felt some of the S.S. Adams Company’s impact in their life via Johnson Smith, Honor House or their neighborhood novelty store (speaking of which, the first such place that I ever encountered was called “John’s Novelty Shop” in my home town during the mid 70’s. Less than 100 square feet in size but a complete universe in my head).
Toy R Us used to have an 8 foot section of Adams products on the wall where you first walk in the store. Haven’t been there in about 4 or 5 years so I’m not sure if they still have it or not. I also grew up on their toys.
Dave
Jason and Everyone who has trouble with the link: I’ve got the problem fixed at my end. I’m running Norton Personal Firewall, which includes privacy controls, which makes surfing anonymous-ish.
It appears that when I click the link to the zip file, the server it resides on doesn’t see me as coming from here, and rejects it. Undoubtedly due your script you have to prevent hot-linking.
So no worries. Now I’ll just turn off Privacy Control when you post something great – like this.
Thanks for all the great stuff you post here. I love these old records, I remember listening to some of them as a kid, and it’s great hearing them again.
Good job!
Wow, this is one of the records I’ve been trying to find for a long, long time.
Thanks for posting it.
We ordered the remote control ghost too. It was just like you described, but the face printed on the white balloon was Casper the Ghost. Easily the most un-scary thing we could imagine.
Jason can I buy a copy of the moon monster from you. I mean something that you can do for me at staples…I would like to have this in my collection Thank You so much.
Jason can I buy a copy of the moon monster from you. I mean something that you can do for me at staples…I would like to have this in my collection Thank You so much.
I am sorry I posted this twice by mistake. Does anybody have a u_control ghost to sell????
10/15/2007 7:32 PM
Thanks too for your excellent book plug Jason! Your comments pages are so active that it’s actually really great real estate for advertising.
yeah Dave, Toys R Us used to be one of Adams big customers, but that ended in the 90s (I think).
Funny, as soon as I downloaded and commented on this record today, I got busy at work and didn’t get a chance to listen. Now I could snag it again from home, but I’m going to wait.
I like the idea that this is still in my future. It remains an official mystery until tomorrow.
Hmmmm. I wonder if I’ll die right after I hear it?
Kirk that is a great book you wrote for Dave….Great movie on flip…Would you know who has a ghost out there. And how much will it be worth if there is only one.
Jason Thank You for your blog. I only found it this week and can’t stay off it…It is great!!!!
again please let me know if you can sell me a copy of the moon monster…I realy would like that Thank You….www.faroutscience@aol.com…in case you need to contact me…
Heya Eddie,
Yeah, I’m actually looking at scanning every damn panel of the ol’ Moon Monster & posting it as a PDF (or something akin to one) so that anyone could d/l & create a copy if they wanted, but dunno when I’ll have the time to do it right. Rest assured you’ll see it here if I pull it off though! If it works w/o too much distortion/ grey gradation shift there’s a lot of old giant-sized Spook Show (& related) art in b/w that I have which I would love to be able to pass around the same way.
I absolutely loved hearing this one Jason – I don’t know how I remember seeing that comic book ad as a kid, considering I was born in ’71, but it so familiar! I’ve got a question for you and for anyone else reading your comments… are there any other mail away/comic book ad records that have yet to be unearthed? I don’t know, it may be just me, but these cheesy records really set the tone for reminiscing about Halloween’s past even though I never heard them as a kid.
Jason, I love the idea of you posting some rare spooky printed items as a next step.
Eddie, nice to finally connect with you. I’ve heard all about your obsession. Glad you like the book and the film. You have a U-Control Ghost right? Why are you wanting another? Or are you just trying to figure out the value of yours?
I don’t have one, and can only speculate as to what it’s worth.
The Frankenstein posters go between about 150 and 250. I could see the ghost being in that ballpark or a bit more. But like I said.. pure speculation. If there were truly only one left in existence it might be a lot higher but collecting has taught me that there’s always more out there just waiting to be discovered.
Raggaexx, I’ll have to check but I think I have examples of this ad running well into the seventies. And if it didn’t then maybe you saw it in a pile of comics at the barber shop or dentist. My barber’s comics were 10 to 15 years old and that’s how I was first exposed to comics that were before my time.
Now that this one’s up I can’t think of any other mail order LP ads that have gone unfulfilled.
Other mail order only albums that Jason has featured are…
Richard Taylor: Nightmare
Richard Taylor: Terror
Famous Monsters Speak
and of course the Johnson Smith horror record
Jason You are doing great…Thank you for trying so hard to help out all those collectors out there….
Kirk Dave speaks very well about you. I was very very impressed with your book…Kirk I am new to this blog stuff. I know you and jason are the best out there.
When you have a chance tell me what you think?
http://www.houseoftheunusual.com
http://www.houseoftheunusual.blogspot.com
kirk I know that I am the only one with a u-control ghost and a polaris nuclear sub out there….but shhh!!! don’t tell anybody only kidding… i hope to meet with you some day… If you like ask Dave for my number to touch base some day…
Jason looking foward for that moon monster…again Thank You for your time…
Jason alot of my co-workers are going crazy with your site…
again Great Job
kirk yours too
I like to spread the word as much as I can…
I can’t wait for that moon Monster photos……
Many are asking this question…Is the gayle house record the last to be unearthed? The answer is yes….I have been tracking comic book ads scince 1968 and the most popular were the Gayle house-the haunting along with the Johnson smith company horror records. You can find both on this site that Jason has created.
Johnson Smith was the first to create The U-control Ghost which they sold back in 1968 in combo with their horror record.
Then in 1970 the Melton company started selling the Ghost followed by Honor House…Bobson Productions etc…
This item sold all the way untill 1983 the last company to sell it ironically was Johnson Smith.
TO KIRK OR JASON This is eddie I will be posting under the name John Seawinters
NOT JESUS OR EDDIE
I just want to say thank you so much for taking the time and effort to make all of this stuff easily accessible. I’m a huge Halloween fan and this entire blog is like a candy land for me. Please keep it up.
Eddie, I will send you an email when I get some free time and give you feedback on your sites.
Thank you kirk when you have the time…..
Thank you Jason
I am still having problems
hey! iwanna chimp painting? where’d you order it? how much wuzzit? neat blog, thanks.
kevinass
Thanks for SO MUCH good stuff! My 9 year boy thanks you too as he’s becoming a horror fan as well through me playing him these spooky sounds!
Happy Halloween!
Thanks for helping me find this and 4 other records I have sadly had stolen from me,my collection still remains empty of those records but now I can at least listen to them (replaced by mp3s).I also thank you for sharing 3 other spooky records I had not heard of,I’ve been collecting since ’76 and not heard of those 3,it was a thrill.
although CDs are way easier to find,I did noticed there was 2 recording I have that there isn’t any links to here or anywhere,yet, I felt like sharing in thanks.
SonofScarySoundEffects.zip
pic
http://a230.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/
images01/69/
l_b8d064c1d220b1292479f77394c944dd.jpg
link to file
http://www.filesend.net/
download.php?f=
b178795cae6f4e363485acfe4a625132
SoundsHorrorSciFiweird.zip
pic
http://a726.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/
images01/41/
l_df8bc36f3dd355b229d9f85b9098a8f5.jpg
link to file
http://www.filesend.net/
download.php?
f=dcec727ae7db792934a2ab11d1f46994
these aren’t retro lost recordings,they are pretty modern(’90’s) but I didn’t see anyone posting them.
AHHHH! NO, NO PLEASE! AHHHHHHH!
Jason, dude, I can’t get enough of this blog man. For me, every day is Halloween so I could listen to this shit year round (and I do). But I was wondering if maybe you had something I was looking for, It’s an old LP called ‘These Ghoulish Things’. I used to have it awhile back and now I cannot seem to find it anywhere. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Fangs.
Alright, so I found These Ghoulish Things over at Mostly Ghostly, but are there other albums like it that I might be able to get my claws on that you would have?
Thanks again Jason. Is there any chance of you posting the Original Disney’s Haunted Mansion Record from the 60s. It’s my absolute favorite Halloween record. If you haven’t heard it yet, don’t let the fact that it’s Disney make you think it must be stupid. It’s really good. The spooky narrator actually walks these two unsuspecting kids thought the whole mansion. Plus there’s weird music and great sound effects.