Social Media Vincent Price Style: The Sequel February 16 2014, 5 Comments
Almost as soon as I could read, my dad would hand me the instructions to anything mechanical and have me explain how to “make it work”. It was the same on our road trips: Neither of my parents ever bothered to look at a map, knowing that I loved being tasked as the navigator, and that I was good at it. I loved it, too! My parents were both so incredibly gifted at so many things that it felt good to be better than they were at simple little life chores like finding our way from Point A to Point B or knowing which wire went where in the new stereo.
Now that I’m exactly my dad’s age when I was born, I wonder whether they were really so bad at both of those things, or whether it’s just easier to have someone younger figure it out. Because that’s how I feel about social media. I just know that learning this would be a lot easier if I was 12. And the more I think about my dad trying to figure it out, I realize that I probably would have had to do all his social media for him. He would have handwritten his “tweets” on spare envelopes or paper placemats in that beautiful penmanship of his and handed them to me to type. And the thought of my dad trying to wrangle an iPhone is purely hilarious! But if he had, I’m pretty sure that his Instagram photos would have been a lot like mine—taken in museums around the world.
The good news is that I grew up with my dad’s two aphorisms: “A man who limits his interests limits his life.” “If you are always curious, you will never be bored.” And certainly learning social media, the digital world, and how to connect through the digital ether is always interesting.
In a few weeks, I will take off on a wonderful road trip—driving around the country revisiting the restaurants in my parents’ famous cookbook in preparation for our 50th anniversary reissue of A Treasury of Great Recipes. And I will also be appearing and #MonsterMania in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. I have two special treats in store for me in New Jersey: My nephew, Jody Price, will sit in with me one day to sign autographs and meet fans. Jody is a terrific musician who has been putting on some great Vincent Price-themed events in the Jersey area. And super-fan Bryan Hewitt from England will be flying over for a visit! How cool is that! One other treat awaits me: A long-awaited visit to the #BarnesFoundation in Philadelphia. For me, walking through a museum is like spending a few hours with my dad. Art was always our common ground and I still love “chatting” with him about art!
Then it’s up to New York for a special #VincentPrice screening—more to be announced soon!
I will be launching a new website that you can find here on vincentprice.com dedicated to the 50th anniversary of my parents’ cookbook. So keep checking back.
In fact, we have lots more Internet ventures that will be launching in the next six months—and even an opportunity to take a Vincent Price-inspired trip to Europe this summer. All this news is coming soon!!!
But, just so I know you all are out there listening, can you please weigh in whatever way suits you best? Please let me know the best way for us to reach you with our news, events, product launches, appearances, blogs, photos, etc. Is it via this website, Facebook, Twitter, Google +. Would you like a newsletter, a fan meeting place? What do you fans want from us? Please tell us! We’re eager to hear from you, because you are the ones keeping the Vincent Price legacy alive.
Last but not least, to keep my SEO (search engine optimization--I just learned that) gurus happy, here is the paragraph they asked me to write. It's like a bad exercise from English class. Please find a way to include the following three phrases in a paragraph: thriller movies, classic horror movies, horror movie posters--and keep it interesting. All this so that, #Vincent Price fans can find us better through Google.
My dad loved making thriller movies and classic horror movies. He loved being grouped in the same category with such classic horror movie stars as his dear friend #BorisKarloff. He loved that his thriller movies scared audiences. And, of course, as someone who loved art, he always got a kick out of seeing the horror movie posters of his films. Geez. This is tougher than I thought.
Wait!! I've got an idea: I'll make it a contest. By Friday, February 21, please send a paragraph or two about Vincent Price that uses the three phrases--thriller movies, classic horror movies, and horror movie posters--in interesting and fun ways. My brother and I will pick the winner, and the winner will get the signed Vincent Price tshirt of their choice. This will be way more fun for me! I can't wait to see what you write! Game on, horror fans!!!
On the lighter side: I hope you enjoy this little Vincent Price tribute to social media that we created.
And I hope to see you soon somewhere out there on the road.
Cheers!
Victoria
Comments
Tina Blacksmith on March 07 2014 at 10:41PM
So far, I am really enjoying the new site, especially the road trip pictures. I hadn’t even seen the pictures on the Facebook (I don’t use it at all really) so I made sure to save them for my Vincent Price folder. As for content, it would be nice, as Linda Gurney said, to have a message board for the fans…and a newsletter. Maybe even contests once in a while (that would be AWESOME!). We are all here to keep Vincent’s legacy alive, but really…how could we ever forget him?!
:)
-Tina
Allen Stephens on February 21 2014 at 02:50PM
Walking past the various horror movie posters plastered against the crumbling bricks of a run down theater, I see the reason for traveling to this decaying side of town. It’s a double feature of Pit and the Pendulum and Masque of the Red Death starring the only name worth mentioning in classic horror movies, Vincent Price.
A chill of excitement crawls up and down my spine while handing a ticket stub to the attendant, and I make my way in to the dimly lit theater. The ground crunches and cracks beneath every step, the buttered popcorn carnage was no doubt thrown there by terrified film goers of the previous screening.
The lights extinguish and for two heart beats we are left to sit in the cool, damp blackness. Suddenly, a bright light illuminates the auditorium and we see a familiar name fill the silver screen.
Halfway through the film, I notice fellow enthralled fans not even daring to breathe lest they lose a second of his captivating performance. No other actor can command an audience’s attention better, and this is why Mr. Price will always be the master of thriller movies.
Alice Lopes on February 20 2014 at 03:22PM
I first became acquainted with Vincent Price when I was 13 years old. There he was: mixed with dozens of other thriller movies. But that one, Dr. Phibes Rises Again, was shining and asking to be brought to my house. And here I am, five years after that remarkable day, a huge fan of Vincent Price, a girl who finds in classic horror movies her real passion. Despite a Physics student, I’ve realized that I could divide my interests, that “a man who limits his interests limits his life” as Price himself always said.
And every morning, when I look at the horror movie posters in my bedroom, I already know that my day will be awesome. Will be awesome because my motto is fixed there “If you are always curious, you will never be bored”. Thanks Vincent, from the deepest of my heart, to be on my side all these years, sometimes making me frightened, sometimes making me laugh, but always showing that you were more than a huge actor, you were and still are an inspiration and a reference for generations who even were not born at the time you died.
Alice Lopes,18 years old, Brazil.
Grace Paine Terzian on February 20 2014 at 11:36AM
I’m a big fan of your father, Victoria, and chatted with him once in an art store checkout lane in LA in the 1980s (I admired a gentleman’s small painting for which he was buying a frame, and suddenly I realized it was the great Vincent Price! — he was so cordial and pleasant). He was a talented, amazing, and not-spoiled-by-fame man. I enjoyed reading your blog post and applaud your launching into social media. I will follow what you’re doing on Facebook, Twitter, Google +, You Tube, and email. I think the idea is the more venues the better. Sadly I don’t own any of his horror movie posters, but I grew up on Vincent Price classic horror movies and thriller movies. That’s what was fun about seeing this scary actor in real life and discovering what a true gentle soul he was in the flesh (I can hear your father saying that last word…yikes!).
Linda Gurney on February 17 2014 at 01:05PM
Victoria, thanks for pointing me to this blog via Facebook! It was fun to hear about the “Cookbook Tour”! As for how to reach us: For me, e-mail notifications work best. Also, e-newsletters which fans could subscribe to. It would also be fun to have an e-message board where fans could weigh in on various topics.
Here is my contest entry using the three required phrases:
At the Vincenntenial celebration in St. Louis, I posed for a photo in front of a display of Vincent Price’s horror movie posters, making sure “The Tingler” was visible so as to elicit my mock silent scream! It was a treat to meet Price’s daughter Victoria. She unabashedly shared with us that, as a young child, it was often unpleasant for her to witness her father’s roles in thriller movies and especially classic horror movies. Live performances could also prove frightening.
Victoria recounted one particular episode where her father was playing Captain Hook in a live performance of “Peter Pan”. The sight of her father menacingly brandishing a hook where his hand should’ve been was too much for her, and she ran away crying. Later backstage, he slowly assuaged her fears by coaxing her to come nearer until she could see that the hook wasn’t really a part of him, but merely part of his costume.