Crypto Flicks and Curious George
Posted by: Loren Coleman on February 9th, 2006
From fictional Skunk Ape fatal attacks to real deaths of cryptohorror movie stars, it’s a mixed bag of cryptozoo movie news today. Tuesday’s death of the co-author of the Curious George books is just very strange. Plus, is Curious George a cryptid?
Beginning February 28th through March 5th, The Backseat Film Festival cruises into Philadelphia, with a lineup of new movies straight out of the drive-in days. The festival runs at the Triangle Theater (1220 N. Lawrence Street, between 4th and 5th St, Philadelphia, PA 19122).
Our attention was especially attracted to this feature Philly premiere (although, of course, I’m not sure it’s opened anyplace either), noted here from the program notes:
Stomp! Shout! Scream! – Jay Wade Edwards
From Jay Edwards, one of the producers and editors of Aqua Teen Hunger Force , comes a throwback to the good old beach party, rock n’ roll monster movie! In 1966, an all-girl garage rock band is on tour. Their van breaks down in a small southern beach town at the same time as a huge mass of mysterious debris washes ashore. Mangled bodies start showing up on the beach. Could it be the Skunk Ape, the Everglades’ Bigfoot?
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On February 5, 2006, Esther Sandoval, 78, a Puerto Rican actress, died, according to the Internet Movie Database. She was one of the stars of the classic Roger Corman film, Creature from the Haunted Sea (1961), about a bunch of crooks in the Caribbean wanting to pull a scam with a fake monster. Well, guess what, the real thing shows up. (See the movie monster’s photos here.)
On December 7, 2005, another actor in Creature from the Haunted Sea also died, reported Variety. Cult film actor Beach Dickerson, who as well appeared in such diverse films as "Teenage Cave Man," "The Trip," "The Greatest American Hero," and "The Fall Guy," died in Los Angeles at the age of 81. He played Petet Peterson Jr., Capeto’s chief henchman, in Creature from the Haunted Sea.
Perhaps not CryptoZoo News specifically, but certainly bizarre, just as the 2006 Curious George movie is set to open, one of the book’s co-authors has been found dead.
The Associated Press reports, in part, from Boynton Beach, Florida;
The bloodied body of a collaborator on "Curious George" books and films was found covered in garbage bags in the driveway of his home. Alan Shalleck’s body was there for at least a day while neighbors passed by, assuming it was a heap of trash, before a maintenance man discovered it Tuesday [February 7, 2006].
Police were treating the case as a possible homicide, spokeswoman Sgt. Gladys Cannon said, but she wouldn’t disclose details about how he died.
Shalleck, 76, was the writer and director of more than 100 short episodes of "Curious George," which aired on the Disney Channel, and co-wrote a series of books with Margret Rey, who created the mischievous monkey with her husband more than 60 years ago…..Shalleck co-wrote more than 28 "Curious George" books and helped write and direct 104 film shorts.
As of this writing, the murder is still a mystery.
Interestingly, ask yourself, is Curious George an African cryptid ape? It is a small primate, lacking a tail, that walks upright most of the time like an Unknown Pongid (although Curious George does run on its knuckles like an ape, sometimes). It looks, in many ways, like a very tiny chimpanzee.
Created and appearing first in 1941, Curious George is captured by the Man in the Yellow Hat in deepest, darkest Africa and brought back to civilization for many misadventures. It hasn’t matured much in the last 65 years, and remains a very small bipedal ape. But it is not a monkey, of course. Perhaps H. A. Rey and Margret Rey just did not understand the difference between monkeys and apes? 🙂
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UPDATE:
Associated Press is reporting: Two men have been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Alan J. Shalleck, 76, who co-wrote “Curious George” books and helped bring the very curious little monkey to television. Rex Spears Ditto, 29, and Vincent Puglisi, 54, were arrested shortly before midnight on Wednesday and confessed to a home invasion, murder and robbery of Shalleck, Sgt. Gladys Cannon of the Boynton Beach police said on Thursday [February 9, 2006].
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
