I was askedt by the art department at Columbia Pictures to explain what the “Tingler’ looked like. I knew instantly what the bastardly thing should resemble. Hell, I just had lobster for dinner the night before.
“Sort of like a lobster, but flat, and instead of claws it has long slimy feelers,” I said directly.
After the artist finished sketching, I laughed and thought to myself that nobody will be eating lobster for the next five years.
“Vinnie, you’ve got to play the doctor in it. You’ll be perfect,” I found myself almost begging Vincent Price.
“Will it work?” he asked.
“I know it will!”
But that wasn’t enough. I was now becoming known as “The Master of Gimmicks.” Exhibitors were inquiring what my gimmick for The Tingler would be. After insurance policies and “EMERGO,” they wanted something bigger–more exciting.
One night the lamp beside my bed went out as I was reading. I always read before I went to sleep. Getting a bulb from the kitchen, I started to replace it. ”Crap!” I yelled. I got a helluva shock. Something was wrong with the wire.
My wife was fast asleep. I shook her excitedly. ”Wake up, wake up!” I have my next gimmick.
I told her that night that I was going buzz the asses of everyone in America by installing little motors under the seats of every theatre in the country. When the ‘Tingler’ appeared on the screen, the projectionist would push a button…The audiences would get a shock on their butts and think the ‘Tingler’ was loose in the theatre.
I remember my beautiful wife looking at me with her baby blue eyes. She said something like this, “You’re stark raving mad!”
I know she was right and getting Columbia to go along with this idea was a herculean task.
But by now we all now my wife was right. I am stark raving mad. And I pushed and pushed until I had PERCEPTO–my favorite gimmick of all.
And for one weekend only, you lucky New Yorkers get to experience its splendor at the Film Forum.
You’ll hear me laughing! That is if your screams don’t muffle my fun.
And remember “SCREAM, SCREAM FOR YOUR LIFE!”
WC
