Being a fan of Edgar Allan Poe, classic horror films, surrealist painting, sixties and seventies pop culture, and surfing (okay the latter not, but I did dabble in it once at Waikiki--with near disastrous consequences), how could I not be intrigued by the life and work of painter Burt Shonberg?
Burt Shonberg was a Southern California artist whose paintings were featured in two of Roger Corman's Poe adaptations: The House of Usher and The Premature Burial. (He is listed on IMDB as "art director" for the Corman produced The Brain Eaters [1958] and the crime drama Code of Silence [1960], though I don't know whether or not his paintings appear in these films.) In Usher, they appear as the work of Roderick Usher (Vincent Price as a blond!), Shonberg's surrealistic stylings and honest to God eerieness representing Roderick's "overwrought" mind. See for yourself: Here are some screen captures that I found posted on flickr. They even seem to anticipate "hi fructose": http://www.flickr.com/photos/10567487@N07/sets/72157601067780828/
As I was watching Usher the other night and listening to Corman's commentary track, I heard him speak of Shonberg's work and how cast and crew members took home paintings as mementos. This got me curious, and a little internet investigating turned up a site dedicated to Shonberg's work and various references to him in sites dedicated to the surf culture of SoCal. Evidently, from 1958-1962 he was also the co-proprietor of a coffee house in Laguna called Cafe Frankenstein, a hangout for beatniks, surfers, poets, folk musicians, and other disreputables (I envision him as a real-life counterpart to the Don Rickles character, Big Drag, in Bikini Beach). His painted murals adorned the walls, and his large stained glass window featuring Frankenstein's monster apparently dominated the place. In fact, it caught the attention of a local church group who campaigned to have the coffeehouse shut down because, to their thinking, stained glass windows were only suitable for religious subjects. (Sounds to me like they were searching for an excuse.) According to legend, the God-squad backed off when Shonberg offered to erect a statue of a crucified Frankenstein monster above the joint's front entrance! In the 60's and 70's Shonberg did the artwork for a few album covers and some books, though I'm not sure he ever made a sound living off his art. He died in 1977 at the age of 44. In an interesting side note, Shonberg's co-proprietor was George Clayton Johnson, a novelist and TV writer best known for writing the occasional Twilight Zone episode and co-authoring the book Logan's Run (which has made him, to this day, a regular guest at various Sci-Fi conferences, etc.).
Here is the site featuring Burt Shonberg's paintings and drawings (which I especially like): http://www.burtshonberg.com/
And here is a blog connected to a pop surf culture magazine called Dumb Angel. Scroll down a ways and you'll see pics of Cafe Frankenstein, a young Shonberg, and a nude model sitting in front of the infamous stained glass window, which got all involved in some considerable hot water (read all about it in the related news clipping just following): http://dumbangelmag.blogspot.com/
Burt Shonberg was a Southern California artist whose paintings were featured in two of Roger Corman's Poe adaptations: The House of Usher and The Premature Burial. (He is listed on IMDB as "art director" for the Corman produced The Brain Eaters [1958] and the crime drama Code of Silence [1960], though I don't know whether or not his paintings appear in these films.) In Usher, they appear as the work of Roderick Usher (Vincent Price as a blond!), Shonberg's surrealistic stylings and honest to God eerieness representing Roderick's "overwrought" mind. See for yourself: Here are some screen captures that I found posted on flickr. They even seem to anticipate "hi fructose": http://www.flickr.com/photos/10567487@N07/sets/72157601067780828/
As I was watching Usher the other night and listening to Corman's commentary track, I heard him speak of Shonberg's work and how cast and crew members took home paintings as mementos. This got me curious, and a little internet investigating turned up a site dedicated to Shonberg's work and various references to him in sites dedicated to the surf culture of SoCal. Evidently, from 1958-1962 he was also the co-proprietor of a coffee house in Laguna called Cafe Frankenstein, a hangout for beatniks, surfers, poets, folk musicians, and other disreputables (I envision him as a real-life counterpart to the Don Rickles character, Big Drag, in Bikini Beach). His painted murals adorned the walls, and his large stained glass window featuring Frankenstein's monster apparently dominated the place. In fact, it caught the attention of a local church group who campaigned to have the coffeehouse shut down because, to their thinking, stained glass windows were only suitable for religious subjects. (Sounds to me like they were searching for an excuse.) According to legend, the God-squad backed off when Shonberg offered to erect a statue of a crucified Frankenstein monster above the joint's front entrance! In the 60's and 70's Shonberg did the artwork for a few album covers and some books, though I'm not sure he ever made a sound living off his art. He died in 1977 at the age of 44. In an interesting side note, Shonberg's co-proprietor was George Clayton Johnson, a novelist and TV writer best known for writing the occasional Twilight Zone episode and co-authoring the book Logan's Run (which has made him, to this day, a regular guest at various Sci-Fi conferences, etc.).
Here is the site featuring Burt Shonberg's paintings and drawings (which I especially like): http://www.burtshonberg.com/
And here is a blog connected to a pop surf culture magazine called Dumb Angel. Scroll down a ways and you'll see pics of Cafe Frankenstein, a young Shonberg, and a nude model sitting in front of the infamous stained glass window, which got all involved in some considerable hot water (read all about it in the related news clipping just following): http://dumbangelmag.blogspot.com/
Ciao,
C.D.
1 comment:
Shonberg was never spelled "Schoenberg". There was another artist by the name of Schoenberg and sometimes people would pronounce Shonberg as "Schoenberg". I am the curator and friend of burtshonberg.com and can attest to this fact. Marshall Berle
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