Anyone who grew up in the late 50s and 60s remembers the monster craze, generated by the release of the Shock Theater package to television. Magazines such as Famous Monsters of Filmland, World Famous Creatures, Fantastic Monsters of the Films, Screen Thrills Illustrated, and Mad Monsters and Horror Monsters, were the popular genre 'zines of their day. Readers of these mags will no doubt recognize the name Donald F. Glut. His letters to these publications were always informative, complete with photographs of his upcoming amateur film efforts. Heads and shoulders above the other letters and stills (most depicting kids in amateurish homemade, ill-fitting costumes), many readers wondered what these productions by this Chicago native looked like on the silver screen. In the 60's and early 70's, if Glut happened to be at a convention you attended, it was a possibility you would be treated to a Don Glut Film Festival. This author attended one such festival at a convention in 1968 in Los Angeles.

Happily, all of Don's amateur films are available on DVD from Frontline Entertainment, Inc., on a deluxe double DVD collection which includes a full documentary, and over twelve hours of bonus features, accompanied by a soundtrack CD and a McFarland book, all bearing the title I Was a Teenage Moviemaker. All items are available at Amazon.com

Glut relocated to L.A. in 1964, and attended film school at U.S.C. He continued his film productions, which could now be considered semi-pro rather than amateur, for his class assignments. Rounding up a host of serial and western character actors for these productions, Glut managed to add an authenticity which most student films lacked. From his cinematic renderings of classic characters such as Superman, Captain Marvel, the Spirit, and Rocket Man, to his forays into the monster genre with Teenage Frankensteins, Draculas, and Wolf Men, these short subjects were rich with atmosphere and showed a professionalism beyond film school curriculum.

Glut went on to become a respected writer, publishing first in Chicago the fanzine entitled Shazam. Contributers to Shazam included the late Ron Haydock, Jim Harmon, Larry Ivie. Glut wrote and edited the last two issues of Modern Monsters, and contributed stories to Warren Publications, Marvel Comics, and Key Comics, among others. He has also written acclaimed volumes for Scarecrow Press, The Frankenstein Legend, The Dracula Book, and Classic Movie Monsters. He wrote the novelization for The Empire Strikes Back, and has written several books on paleontology, as well as giving lectures on the subject.

Glut, a multi-instrumentalist, began his musical career in several rock bands in the 50s and 60s, namely The Wicks, The Penny Arcade (the latter produced and managed by Monkee Michael Nesmith) and has played on and produced his own musical projects, Dinosaur Tracks Volumes I, II, and III with The Iridium Band (available from Fossil Records).

His first professional feature length film, Dinosaur Valley Girls (Frontline Entertainment 1996), has been aired on the USA Cable Network and Pay-Per-View cable channels. Films that followed were The Erotic Rites of Countess Dracula, The Mummy's Kiss, The Mummy's Kiss (Second Dynasty), Countess Dracula's Orgy of Blood, and Blood Scarab.

GLUT When I was a kid growing up in Chicago, I liked cowboy movies, and the serials that used to be on television and in the local theater Saturday matinees. I was enthralled by the early television space shows like Tom Corbett, Space Patrol, Captian Video, Rod Brown and the Rocket Rangers, Commando Cody. I made my own Flash Gordon ray guns and helmets out of cardboard. In those days, science fiction was a limited thing, and not readily available. I remember my mother taking me to the theater to see Destination Moon. The characters in Destination Moon reminded me of the characters on the Tom Corbett show, especially the Roger Manning character played by Jan Merlin. After that, I saw Day the Earth Stood Still.

I was fascinated by astronomy. I would go to the Field Museum in Chicago and became intrigued by skeletons, both animal and human. At the age of seven, I became interested in dinosaurs through these trips to the Field Museum. On the Tom Corbett show they would visit planets that were inhabited by lost civilizations and dinosaurs.

Creature From the Black Lagoon made me a monster movie fan. At that time I saw an article in Collier's Magazine, which explained how they did the make-up effects for Creature From the Black Lagoon; an expose on make-up man Bud Westmore's work on the film.

JAH You were inspired by Saturday matinees?

GLUT I was inspired in the late 50s by the live spook house type shows that toured the country, like Doctor Sylkini's Chamber of Horrors, which was revived in Glendale, California, seven or eight years ago. These were started in the 30s, and were most popular after World War II. The shows consisted of monsters, a gorilla, glow in the dark bats which were flown over the audience's heads during a blackout, with loads of scary music.

When I was a kid, there was a theater within walking distance from my house called The Music Box, which is where I saw a lot of serials, B westerns, science fiction movies; I saw Superman and the Mole Men, Atom Man vs. Superman. Another of my passions was radio drama. There was a lot of fantasy on the radio at that time. I enjoyed comedies, like The Great Gildersleeve, Jack Benny. I was a fan of adventure shows like Superman, Straight Arrow, Gene Autrey.

JAH When did you make your first film?

GLUT I made my first amateur film after I saw The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953). The reason I started making amateur movies was not because I wanted to be a film maker. We always had a 16mm camera and film projector in the house. My mother used to shoot a lot of home movies of the family. In those days, the only commercially available movies were Castle Films. They hadn't put out science fiction or horror movies at that time. Their catalogue consisted of adventure films, Hopalong Cassidy pictures, comedies like Abbott and Costello, cartoons and newsreels. I wanted to be able to show monster movies with my 16mm projector, and I couldn't get them anywhere. It occurred to me that I could make my own.

We really didn't have scripts. We'd start with the germ of an idea, and we would improvise until the film ran out. The trick was getting the last shot on film before you hit the tail leader. I acted, directed, edited, did the makeup, and later did stunt work in them. I used to put on little shows in my basement, and charge admission, like the Spook House shows.

The first film I made was called Diplodocus At Large. I used an Ollie the Dragon hand puppet for the monster, which attacked a Plasticville town that I built. I didn't make another film until four years later,1957, when I shot another prehistoric picture called Earth Before Man. I used plastic models on wires, and real life lizard pets. That same year I made another film, which was called Frankenstein Meets Dracula, where I played the monster. Victor Fabian (who is deceased) played Dracula. At that time, he was the only person I knew in Chicago who was into horror films. He was in a lot of our productions.

The move from prehistoric films to monster movies came after I attended a triple bill of Universal horror films. They showed The Mummy, House of Frankenstein, and House of Dracula. From that time on, I was a Universal horror fan.

Frankenstein Meets Dracula was followed by Return of the Wolf Man, which featured Frankenstein, Dracula, and the Wolf Man, played by Wayne Moretti. I played the Frankenstein monster in most of my Frankenstein films.

I got into the whole teenage monster bit because I Was a Teenage Werewolf and I Was a Teenage Frankenstein both came out in 1957, and it dawned on us that we could play characters our own age. Before that, we were 11 and 12 year olds attempting to play adults with fake mustaches and sideburns, which didn't quite cut it.

JAH What was your first teenage monster film?