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| Kathy and I at WonderFest in Louisville, KY back in 2012. |
The terribly sad news of Kathy Burns' passing was announced on Facebook today by her longtime friend, special makeup effects artist Chris Walas. I had the good fortune to spend some quality in-person time with her and her husband Bob, over the years - and it all started back in 2000 when I read Bob Burns' book IT CAME FROM BOB'S BASEMENT. The first thought I had after finishing it was, "How is it that this man and I aren't friends?" - and when I asked this question in my review of the book for VIDEO WATCHDOG, our mutual friend Tom Weaver promptly sent me his contact information, as if to say "Go to it!" He added this personal note: "There's only one nicer person in the whole world than Bob... and that's his wife, Kathy." And true enough, Kathy Burns turned out to be one of the warmest, smartest, dearest people I would ever meet.
As Bob's fiancée and wife, she was a member of 1950s Los Angeles horror-science fiction fandom and, with him, she got to behind the scenes by assisting their friend, pioneering special makeup effects artist Paul Blaisdell, on some early AIP pictures like Roger Corman's NOT OF THIS EARTH and INVASION OF THE SAUCERMEN (in which Bob himself played a Saucerman). When Bob subsequently performed his military service at an Army military base in San Antonio, Texas, he and Kathy took an apartment there and found that a local station was running a bare-bones weekly SHOCK THEATER. Bob lamented the great opportunity going to waste and Kathy suggested, "Let's call them!" Almost immediately, the Burnses were on the air each week, hosting the film as a variety of mad doctors, monsters, and vampires. When William Castle himself came to town to promote THE TINGLER, Bob applied scary makeup to Kathy and called her "Miss Shock" and they greeted Castle at the airport and presented him with the Skeleton Key to the city! Castle loved it.
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| Bob Burns turns Kathy into Miss Shock, back in 1958. |
Back in LA, Kathy held an important position at Universal for years while Bob pursued his career as one of Hollywood's top gorilla suit actors and historians. Together, they became the very hub of the burgeoning Hollywood special effects community, nurturing a whole new generation of talented kids like Rick Baker, Rob Bottin, and Chris Walas, whose gifts the industry would soon find indispensable. Young runaways raised on monster magazines would show up at their door and find the warm meal, the counsel, and the connections they needed to find the path to realizing their dreams.
The community always showed the Burnses their thanks by pitching in with the annual refashioning of their Burbank home as a hugely elaborate Haunted House - haunted exterior AND interior - based on a different classic horror movie each year. And, of course, the built-on structure they eventually added to their house became Bob's famous Basement, a world-reknowned collection of the most prized genre-related artifacts, costumes, and props - including the original King Kong armature. Their notoriety as the custodians of Kong inspired Peter Jackson to bring them down to New Zealand for a cameo in his KING KONG remake - just one of hundreds of great adventures Kathy had with Bob.
Kathy and I had a few great conversations over the years, and each one added to my deep appreciation and respect for her. She was so open, so warm, and had so much heart - but she would recoil a little when, noting what a den mother she had been to such an important arm of the film business, I likened her and Bob to angels. Bob and Kathy's story is told in loving detail by Frank Dietz and Trish Geiger's award-winning documentary BEAST WISHES, and it can tell and show you even more more about her.
One personal day we shared stands out in memory, the day when - after getting to know them both at a WonderFest or two - Donna and I got to visit them at their home, and go through Bob's Basement, but particularly afterwards when we had lunch with Kathy and Bob at the very same Bob's Big Boy - in the very same booth! - where they'd spent their first date around the time we were born. Our lunch coincided with a monthly show of classic cars in the restaurant's parking lot, and I walked around admiring these with Kathy, whose passion for vintage automobiles I hadn't realized. There were a dazzling assortment of cherry reds, sapphire blues, and various metal flake finishes to be admired, but she had her eye on a white one, which stood out from the others like a stallion out of a fairy tale.
Kathy was also a gifted photographer. That same day, I remember being very impressed by some animal photographs she had taken during a then-recent safari trip to Africa.
Though the news of her passing was only announced today, Chris mentioned that Kathy actually passed away on May 12 - which Donna immediately recognized as Bob's own 86th birthday. It's a painful detail but a sign of how closely these two were bound together. They were together some 60+ years, the truest of soulmates, and it's impossible to consider them separately. Donna and I send our most loving hugs and tears to Bob, and all of our sympathy to the hundreds of others, like us, whose lives were touched by this remarkable lady.
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