Time Capsule: 1979

It’s hard to believe but thirty years ago The House with a Clock in its Walls made it to television. Six years after John Bellairs' classic story of Lewis Barnavelt was first published, the VideoGems group chose it for inclusion as part of the program, Once Upon a Midnight Scary. Released in 1979, the special featured Vincent Price lounging a random, gloomy mansion and introducing spooky yet entertaining tales that also included Richard Peck's The Ghost Belonged to Me and Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. While the program more-or-less follows the plot of the book, viewers have commented over the years that Lewis (Michael Brick) doesn’t quite match his literary origins, Jonathan (Severn Darden) seems a bit off his rocker, Tarby (Pat Petersen) is dolt, and Mrs. Zimmermann is conspicuously absent.  But don't take our word for it, read some reviews (and contribute your own).

Still, thirty years later, this – and the adaptation of The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn – are the only adaptations of John’s books. Maybe Lewis will someday get upon the big screen?

"...in small square letters, were these words: 'Lucky You!'"

Our friends over at the Museum of Hoaxes recently shared the story of a woman who found “a small envelope in a rocking chair she bought at auction. In the envelope [were] a key and a note giving her directions to where $250 in U.S. gold coins was supposedly buried in a lead chest.”

Turns out she might be the victim of a now-deceased practical joker.

Reminded us of good ol’ Alpheus Winterborn.

2009 Living History Portrayal Walk

Marshall's Oakridge Cemetery, one of the oldest continuously operated cemeteries in Michigan, is home again this year to the 9th Annual "If These Stones Could Talk..."  This Living History Portrayal walking tour will feature actors portraying significant people from Marshall's past at his or her's gravesite. Portrayals this year include Beatrice H. Babbitt (1870-1959), an eccentric, penny-pinching, heiress and world traveler; Winston Schuler (1908-1993), the second family owner of the 100-year-old Schuler’s Restaurant (dubbed the “Consummate Host”); plus a host of others.

• Saturday, October 10, 7PM

For more information, including associated costs, please contact the Marshall Chamber of Commerce.

Walter said that last year – in honour of Brad’s book – he had a great idea about soliciting two other “fans” to parade around the cemetery in red robes and carry a piece of wire wrapped with fiery Christmas lights and shaped into the number 3. However he later revealed that because the robe covered his eyes he found himself sopping wet and wandering the banks of the western Kalamazoo River by himself. Better luck this time around...we hope he manages to show up for an appearance.

Promoting Lewis Barnavelt?

Okay, we don’t know what this is – we aren’t sure we really want to – but it seems to be promoting the Lewis Barnavelt series, albeit the editions published in Brazil. Enjoy?

The Face...at 40

We would do all Bellairsdom a great disservice if we did not acknowledge that this year is the fortieth anniversary of The Face in the Frost. It is still the first (and the only compleat) book to feature the wizards Prospero and Roger Bacon who live in a strange land known only as the Southern Kingdom. And what a book it is.  Bellairs actually composed a lot of the book in another kingdom – the United Kingdom...England – in his years after teaching at Shimer College. How far along in Prospero's tale Bellairs was before he arrived in England is uncertain but the ambiance there surely inspired him – note the similarities of local flavor found in the Gorgon's head in Bath and Somerset's Five Dials Inn to some of the encounters in Face.

And just in time for the big Four-Oh is the release of a sequel (okay, part of a sequel) called The Dolphin Cross.

That said, in celebration of this fantastic fortieth anniversary we ask you what’s your favorite moment from the book? What passage kept you up at all hours of the night? Are there any memories that still stand out long after the book has returned to the shelf?

Share your remembrances here or at the John Bellairs Experience.