Horror Hub: Meeting Butch Patrick

Hey y'all let's see what's up today! Sunday I had a personally rare experience. A local historic theatre hosted Butch Patrick who played Eddie Munster, and they also had the Dragula and a showing of the Munsters movie. My area does not get a lot of horror themed events especially outside of Halloween season, so getting to go to this was really fun and I got to go with my dad as well which made it even more memorable. That being said, let's talk about it!

The Venue

This meet up was hosted in the historic Bonnie Kate Theatre. The theatre itself is 100 years old and has been reopened to the public after a brief closure in 2016. My great great grandfather actually worked in this theatre, and my great grandparents actually cleaned for the original owner my family called Uncle Bob. 

Though the theatre is small, it's got that vintage aesthetic that really sets it apart from a modern theatre. This theatre went back to its roots and offers both screen and live performances just like it did in 1926 which brings a unique experience that isn't available anywhere else in the area.

The Dragula

Getting into the fun stuff, they had the Dragula in front of the theatre and it was free to take pictures of it. Mr. Patrick actually came out and started it up a few times which was really neat! This has always been my favorite car from the Munsters and it was so surreal to see her in person and all the care that's gone into keeping her in good condition. 

My family have always been car people, and this was just like the icing on the cake compared to all the vintage units I've seen in my lifetime!

There was also a gentleman that had built a replica of Eddie's bicycle which was really cool. As the Q&A event was drawing to a close and I stepped out to get one last autograph for my scrapbook, I happened to see the owner of the bicycle riding it down the hallway which cracked me up a little more than it should have.

Meeting Butch Patrick

This was probably the highlight of my life. As I mentioned before, my area doesn't really get a lot of events like this, so having this opportunity was amazing in and of itself. As someone who grew up on the Munsters and the Addams family, this was like a dream come true for me. Mr. Patrick was incredibly sweet and gave us as much of his attention as he could given the absolutely massive line that had formed! I arrived to the event 20 minutes early and the line was already out the door to meet him, there was also a line over a block long once I had finished getting my autographs.

He was so incredibly informative about the history of the show and the other actors. As someone who loves knowing the what, when, why and how of things that was probably my favorite part. He answered each question asked at the Q&A panel with such a well thought out and detailed answer I honestly felt like I was taking a class on Munster history and it was really fun!

Munster, Go Home

This was my favorite part of the event, though meeting Butch Patrick was nothing short of amazing. As many of you know, my goal for this month was to do more phone-free activities and though I naturally got my pictures from the event and posted about it on my social media, they actually asked us to put our phones away for the film so we could watch as if it were 1966.

That was the best part of the experience I think, though I am the type of person that loves to take pictures of everything, especially when I'm at events like that. The movie itself was fantastic, and I shared a lot of laughs with my dad who also grew up watching the Munsters. It was surprisingly well made for the time, and I loved that they chose to do this film in color compared to the black and white film that we typically associate with the Munsters. 

According to Mr. Patrick, this was done because color had officially started hitting screens here in America, and the executives at Universal Studios wanted to give the Munsters a chance to be featured in colored film before they were taken off air. The film was designed to give space for the series to pick up, but also provide a sort of open ended grand finale.

Closing

Overall I had a fantastic time at this event, I hope they do more of them. I felt it really important to go support the Bonnie Kate because this theatre is such a pillar in my community and it stays open and affordable because of community engagement. If you ever get the chance to meet Butch Patrick, I highly suggest taking it, he's really knowledgeable not just about the Munsters but also about other films and some Universal Hollywood behind the scenes stuff, I could honestly listen to him talk about it all day long because it's just so fascinating.

 I'm sorry for skipping horror hub last week, but I wanted to go to this event so that I could make this post because I probably won't have anything else like this for Horror Hub until I go to Smoky Mountain Terror in August. That's all that I have for now, but I will catch you guys with some other posts once I get through all of my backlog. If you want to look into more of Mr. Patrick's work at preserving the Munster legacy you can follow the link here and it will take you to the official Munsters website where you can meet the family, get autographed merchandise, and other such collectibles. If you want to see more from me feel free to click the link below where you can find my other socials. Y'all take care, and thanks for stopping by! 

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