Episode 7: Diane Arbus and the Monster Club
In this episode, I tell the story of how I got to research a very rare photograph by Diane Arbus that she took while on assignment for a magazine called Famous Monsters of Filmland. The photograph features 5 youngsters on the stoop of their rowhouse in Queens, sporting monster masks. It was was sold at Sotheby’s on 3 October 2019.
It sold for $50,000 against a pre-sale estimate of $15,000-25,000!
Jim Warren and editor Forrest Ackerman started publication of Famous Monsters of Filmland in 1958 and it was still in production until 1983. Here are some of my favorite covers: