A couple of weeks ago we attended the “It’s Alive” exhibit at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts.
There are 100+ items on display curated from Kirk Hammett of Metallica’s private collection.
Like Kirk, I grew up as an early teen reading everything I could find about horror and sci-fi movies. The definitive information source in the early 60’s were the Famous Monsters of Filmland and Spacemen magazines which I would buy at the local variety store.
Forrest J. Ackerman(Forry) was our monster movie subject matter authority. He was Editor for Famous Monsters/Spacemen. He had an extensive memorabilia archive of 36,000+ items at his three Ackermansions. I learned a great deal from his authoritative articles that highlighted rare movie stills from such classics as King Kong, Bride of Frankenstein, and Dracula. His favorite sci-fi movie that he turned me on to was Metropolis by Fritz Lang (1927).
I collect music posters and they adorn many walls in my house. I gained a deeper appreciation for the rare movie posters in Kirk’s collection as an art form. Many of the posters on display were from Universal Pictures. I never fathomed how many movies Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi had made either individually or in collaboration.
If I had to choose one poster that enchanted me most it was the French movie poster of Frankenstein (1931) with the rare graveyard scene.
I deeply thank Kirk Hammett for sharing his private collection with the public. I also want to thank Peabody Essex Museum for the fantastic exhibition. It brought back many deep-seated memories seeing the Universal Movie posters, lobby cards and giant green Space Invader from Mars alien.
It’s Alive! Classic Horror and Sci-Fi Art from the Kirk Hammett Collection is on view until November 26.
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