This town is dead

By Leslee Komaiko

Oct. 30, 2003 12 AM PT

Special to The Times

“Halloween has emerged as one of the richest sites in the calendar for creative activity, both on the professional and the folk-art levels.”

-- Robert Thompson

Professor of media and culture at Syracuse University

For kids, Halloween is all about candy, costumes and, well, candy. For adults -- particularly those still of an age or inclination to party -- debauchery tends to be the overriding theme. Put on an Arnold mask or a skimpy French maid number and celebrate late into the night, fueled by a curious mixture of Three Musketeers, candy corn and alcohol.

Yet emerging from the shadows is yet another vision of Halloween as an occasion that even the most refined aesthete could love.

Johann Sebastian Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor and Camille Saint-Saens’ “Dance Macabre” were the prime attractions at the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Guild of Organists’ “Halloween Monster Concert” earlier this week.

“Little Chamber of Botanical Horrors” was the tack taken by the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens to explore some of the world’s most malevolent plants, including the famously stinky Voodoo lily. Meanwhile, UCLA’s Hammer Museum sponsored a “Ghost & Horror” night as part of its readings series.

“Halloween really is a holiday that allows a bunch of empty canvases that you can pour your creativity on,” says Syracuse University’s Thompson.

The bulk of Halloween happenings, both highbrow and low (the show will go on along Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood as always), will take place this weekend.

A natural fit for theater

The theater, with its dimmed lights and costumes, is a natural stage for exploring Halloween’s more creative side. As Paul Plunkett of the Sacred Fools theater group puts it, “There are a lot of corollaries between theater and Halloween. We dress up. We like to stay up late. And people will be throwing on all the crazy makeup and stuff.

“We’re hoping that some people in the audience will come in costume too,” he adds. “Halloween’s normally a holiday for kids, but we’re trying to reclaim it for ourselves.”

The Hollywood-based group is doing two shows Friday night: Clive Barker’s “Frankenstein in Love” and “Frankenstein, Vicki,” a comedic horror spoof written by the Fools’ own Tom Kiesche.

For the past three years, Marla Martin also has had designs on reclaiming the holiday and refashioning it with the art she knows best. The belly dancer, whose stage name is Leela, has organized an elaborate, multifaceted theatrical dance production around Halloween called “Arabia Exotica.” This year’s will be held Sunday evening.

“I chose Halloween because, first of all, belly-dance lends itself to elaborate costuming,” says Martin. “And we pull in other dance forms like samba with the headdresses and Polynesian with the fabulous costumes. Also, it’s the season that’s associated with darkness and death, and that’s very inspirational for many artists. It inspired me to come up with something to illuminate the dark.”

The title of this year’s show is “Chiaroscuro,” a painting term Martin defines as “that beautiful play between light and dark.”

Other theatrical offerings include Steven Dietz’s version of the Bram Stoker classic “Dracula,” (the Seattle-based Dietz is one of the country’s most widely produced playwrights) at Insurgo Theater Movement; Ray Bradbury’s supernatural horror “Something Wicked This Way Comes,” at Edgemar Center for the Arts; and “A Hansel and Gretel Halloween,” complete with a cruel parent who forbids the children from trick-or-treating.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of Lili Barsha’s Haunted Cabaret, which takes place Friday and Saturday evenings. “It’s the longest running Halloween show in Los Angeles,” says Barsha, unless you count the parade in West Hollywood.

In part, Barsha attributes the profusion of adult-oriented Halloween activities to the fact that many in her generation -- she’s in her mid-30s -- don’t have children, but still want to participate in the rituals.

“I just love Halloween,” says Barsha.

For this year’s cabaret, which will take the form of a late-night talk show, Barsha will serve as host, with a devil sidekick. Her guests are expected to include, among others, “Carnage Miranda,” who will do a cooking segment, and “Jake the Ripper,” cousin of Jack.

Transformation and tradition

Halloween is about creating an illusion, and a face or a mask is often where it all begins.

“Although most people today think of it primarily in terms of children’s costumes, Halloween retains its symbolic role as the site of mutability,” writes Valerie Steele, chief curator for the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology. “With her extraordinary photographs of historic Halloween and masquerade costumes, Phyllis Galembo has made a significant contribution to our understanding of the power of fantasy ...”

Galembo’s work, and her book “Dressed for Thrills,” are the basis for the current show at the Craft and Folk Art Museum, a wonderful exhibition of vintage Halloween costumes and masks.

“She has done work in various places around the world, focusing on different rituals and clothing worn in those rituals. Most recently, she turned her attention to Halloween and collected vintage Halloween costumes,” says Peter Tokofsky, the museum’s executive director. “For her they were materials that could be used in her photography. We have dozens of her studio photographs. We also asked her to send us a lot of the actual costumes.”

Most of the costumes in the show are from about 1910 to 1960. The earliest are made from a material called buckram, “like a waxed-gauze type of material,” explains Tokofsky. “From the mid-century there are both handmade and manufactured costumes, everything from a pair of hepcats to Popeye and Olive Oyl. It shows the interplay of how popular culture affects costumes.”

That costumes become a window into the culture should not be that surprising. But a costume can also be a window into the individual.

“For many people, what you’re going to be for Halloween is one of the biggest decisions of the year, based exclusively on your creativity,” says Thompson. “It’s even better than what color you’re going to paint your bedroom. This is an actual transformation of yourself.”

How very L.A., it could be argued. After all, this is the capital of self-transformation.

“The whole issue of costumes is rich if you look at it from a psychodynamic perspective,” says Greg Cynaumon, an Orange County-based psychotherapist.

Makeup artist Antonella, who has been making supermodels and celebrities more beautiful for two decades, has seen the possibilities when the makeup brush and the seductions of self-disguise work in concert.

“I was born and raised in Italy in a town near Venice, so lately I’ve been obsessed with the masquerade masks, of using makeup to achieve that same effect, that same kind of romance,” says Antonella. “I think of the face as a palette.”

Movies exploit deep fears

Mark A. Vieira, the author of “Hollywood Horror: From Gothic to Cosmic,” a photo-filled compendium of the best in the film genre, has definite ideas about how Hollywood has explored the sort of supernatural fear that is the subtext of Halloween. The films serve as “the escape valve of the American psyche,” he writes.

One of his early favorites was “Werewolf of London.”

“The scene that scared me most was when his hand started to change and he started to loose control of his identity,” Vieira says. “At the end of black and white films, movies lost something: the suggestion mystery, the very intense identification with a human type of problem. There are some good films like ‘Alien’ about being overtaken from within. But the best films have a monster that is human, evil and yet must have star quality.”

David Javelosa, a professor of interactive media at Santa Monica City College, has his own vision of what makes for a cinematic scare: Darkside of the Rainbow, a screening of “The Wizard of Oz” synched with a remix of Pink Floyd’s “Darkside of the Moon.”

This won’t be the first time the movie and music have been paired up -- it’s rampant on college campuses, especially around Halloween.

“Someone probably discovered this smoking in a dorm one night,” he says. (For those who want to duplicate the experience at home, Javelosa advises starting the music, “on the third roar of the MGM lion,” adding, “the album plays 2.5 times through.”)

Fans of the big screen might enjoy the gothic horror film “Don’t Look Now” in a classic sort of setting, at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

A spooky tour and a seance

Downtown L.A. resident Adam Martin, an event planner by day, offers a flashlight walking tour of his neighborhood Friday night, complete with stops by the Hotel Cecil, where Richard Ramirez, a.k.a. “the Night Stalker,” supposedly stayed, and the Biltmore hotel, where Elizabeth Short, better known as the “Black Dahlia,” was reportedly last seen prior to her brutal murder.

Arguably even trippier are the old-fashioned seances taking place this weekend and next at the Velaslavasay Panorama in Hollywood. The main objective of this year’s seances is contacting silent film star Theda Bara. Last year it was Marchesa Louisa Casati, a wealthy Italian eccentric who was known for keeping exotic pets such as a cheetah.

“People had an interesting experience last year,” says Sara Velas, director of the event. “We did have some strange things happen. [Casati] had a number of pet snakes. We were using a snake to try to lure her back and at the end of the seance, the snake disappeared.

“Also, there was a guy who ended up going into a trance.”

And what film would Vieira turn to for costume inspiration for Hollywood?

“The best costume would be for everyone to make themselves look like the portrait of Dorian Gray -- the painting before it started to decay -- frame and all,” he says. “That’s what L.A.’s all about -- young, fit and beautiful.”

A goody bag of cultural offerings

THEATER

“A Hansel and Gretel Halloween”

A child-friendly haunted take on the fairy tale. Santa Monica Playhouse, 1211 4th St., Santa Monica. Sat.-Sun., 12:30-3 p.m.; $10 adults, $9 children.

Info: (310) 394-9779 or www.santamonicaplayhouse.com

“Arabia Exotica”

Multifaceted, Halloween-themed theatrical dance production. Club Monte Cristo, 659 S. Westmoreland Ave., L.A. Sunday, 7:30 p.m.; $20.

Info: (818) 558-0801 or www.leelabellydance.com

“Dracula”

Steven Dietz’s version of the Bram Stoker classic. Insurgo Theater Movement, 4883 E. La Palma Ave., Suite 506, Anaheim Hills. Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 7 p.m.; $15, $12 seniors, students and reservations.

Info: (714) 517-7798 or www.insurgotheater.com

“Frankenstein in Love”

“Frankenstein, Vicki”

Sacred Fools Theater, 660 N. Heliotrope Drive, Hollywood. 8 p.m. and 11 p.m., respectively. Tonight-Saturday. $15 for “Frankenstein in Love,” $10 for “Frankenstein, Vicki.”

Info: (310) 281-8337 or www.sacredfools.org

“Frankenstein: The Prometheus Experiment”

World War II France is the setting for the classic tale. Maverick Theater, the Block at Orange, 20 City Drive W., Suite 912, Thu.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 6 p.m.; through Nov. 16, $10-$15.

Info: (714) 634-1977

“Funeral Services for Josh Thomas Ryan”

ZJU’s annual Halloween show. ZJU Theatre, 4850 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood. Tonight, 8:30 p.m.; $10.

Info: (818) 202-4120

“Horror, Madness, Sin”

Works by Edgar Allan Poe (not for children), performed by Kristin Wiegand. Sierra Stage, 1444 Sierra Bonita Ave., West Hollywood. Fri., 8 and 9:30 p.m.; $7.

Info: (818) 370-1344

Lili Barsha’s Haunted Cabaret

The setting is a late-night talk show with the devil as Barsha’s sidekick. Les Deux Cafe, 1638 N. Las Palmas Ave., Hollywood., Fri.-Sat., 10 p.m.; $15, or $10 for those in costume.

Info: (323) 465-0509

“The Rocky Horror Show”

Before the film, there was the live stage musical. Performance Riverside, 4800 Magnolia Blvd., Riverside. Fri.-Sat, 8 p.m.; through Nov. 16; $24-$32.

Info: (909) 222-8100

“Something Wicked This Way Comes”

Ray Bradbury produces his Halloween classic about a dark carnival that rolls into a small town. Edgemar Center for the Arts, 2437 Main St., Santa Monica. Thu.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m.; through Nov. 8.; $20.

Info: (310) 399-3666 or www.edgemar.com

“Madame Guignol’s Macabre Theatre: Once Upon a Time”

Theater event for adults, a dark comedy with audience participation, based on gruesome fairy tales. Hunger Artists Theatre, 699A S. State College Blvd., Fullerton. Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; $15, $12 seniors, students and groups of 10 or more.

Info: (714) 680-6803 or www.hungerartists.com

MOVIES

Darkside of the Rainbow

“The Wizard of Oz” synced with Pink Floyd’s “Darkside of the Moon.” Screening Room 235, Santa Monica City College’s Academy of Entertainment & Technology, 1660 Stewart St., Santa Monica. Friday, 7 p.m.; free.

Info: (310) 434-3700

“Alien: The Director’s Cut”

Universal CityWalk Imax Theatre, 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City. Fri., 9:30 p.m. and midnight; $12 adults, $10 children 3 to 12, $11 seniors (62 and older).

Info: (818) 760-8100 or www.citywalkhollywood.com/entertainment.html

“Don’t Look Now”

Hollywood Forever Cemetery, 6000 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. Saturday, gates open at 5:30 p.m.; screening at 7 p.m.; $10.

Info: www. cinespia.org

“Halloween”

Rialto Theatre, 1023 Fair Oaks Ave., South Pasadena, Friday at midnight; $8.75, $6 children 11 and under and seniors (62 and older).

Info: (626) 388-2122

BOOKS

“Dressed for Thrills: 100 Years of Halloween Costumes & Masquerade”

By Phyllis Galembo, Harry N. Abrams publisher, $24.95.

“Hollywood Horror From Gothic to Cosmic”

By Mark A. Vieira, Harry N. Abrams publisher, $45.

“Profoundly Disturbing: Shocking Movies That Changed History!”

By Joe Bob Briggs, Rizzoli publisher, $35.

CULTURAL EVENTS

Day of the Dead Altar

A collaborative piece by Mexican ceramist Veronica Castillo Hernandez and 12 members of an arts cooperative. UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, Sunset and Westwood boulevards. Begins Sun.; Wed.-Sun., noon to 5 p.m.; Thu., noon to 8 p.m.; free; through Jan. 4

Info: (310) 825-4361

“Dressed for Thrills”

A show of vintage Halloween masks and costumes from about 1910 to 1960. The Craft and Folk Art Museum, 5814 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. Wed.-Sun. through Nov. 9; 11 a.m.-5 p.m.; $3.50, $2.50 for students or seniors, free for children under 12.

Info: (323) 937-4230

“Masque Arrayed”

Mask-making workshops with artist Annie Hallatt. Contemporary Crafts Market at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, 1855 Main St., Santa Monica. Fri-Sun., 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Materials fee of $12 to $20 per mask, plus admission ($6 for adults and free for children under 12).

Info: (310) 458-8551 or www.craftsource.org

Times staff writer Carolyn Patricia Scott and freelance writer Jessica Hundley contributed to this story.