As a kid growing up in New York in the 1960s, Broadway veteran Nicholas Santa Maria remembers sitting on the floor with his siblings in front of a 12-inch black-and-white TV screen watching a wild-eyed Bela Lugosi sink his fangs into his latest victim’s neck.
“I’ve seen every movie a thousand times, and I could watch them again and again and again,” Santa Maria said. “I’d watch them between my fingers!”
Santa Maria was one of the “monster kids” on the block who never missed “Creature Features” or “Chiller Theater” on Saturday nights and clustered together at the candy store every third Thursday of the month to wait for the latest issue of “Famous Monsters of Filmland.”