There is no body in the family plot

 

I grew up watching Alfred Hitchcock on television. He had a show called Alfred Hitchcock Presents that later became the Alfred Hitchcock Hour.  I don't remember much about the program, but I remember Alfred Hitchcock's droll British voice and distinct profile.  I think he started every program (after the distinct theme song) with "Good Evening, I'm Alfred Hitchcock."  Then he would introduce that evening's program.

I knew Alfred Hitchcock was a famous director, too. I eventually saw and love Psycho, The Birds, and  Vertigo. One of the things I was always fascinated by was that Alfred Hitchcock always seemed to do a cameo appearance in all of his programs.  He was one of the few directors that seemed to love to be in front of the camera as well as behind it. Narcisism I suppose, but as I branched out in my own career in marketing and shooting commercials I've always enjoyed interjecting myself in them as well.

The reason I put Family Plot in here was not because I thought it was a great film. I don't think I ever saw it. But I remember the promos and Alfred Hitchcock's narration with that distinctive British accent saying, "There is no body in the Family Plot."  It stuck with me all of these years.

The other thing I connect to Alfred Hitchcock about are this books I read when I was in 5th and 6th grade. There was a mystery series called "Alfred Hitchcock Presents the Three Investigators and the Mystery of the..." Alfred Hitchcock was a character in the books and introduced them. I was so into them I convinced three of my grad school friends to form a club called the "Three Investigators." We even put an ad in the grade school newspaper that read simply, "We solve mysteries." It was the motto of the book Three Investigators.  We got razzed unmercifully for the ad and we never encountered a mystery to solve.

The reason I bring up Alfred Hitchcock is that I found this on a Southern California Goodwill eBay auction:

It is obviously a life mask of Alfred Hitchcock but it was listed simply as "Erik Erickson Signed Gold Male Life Mask Sculpture 101/1000 Limited Edition."   It already had 7 bids when I discovered it so I wasn't the only one who recognized it as Alfred Hitchcock.  I didn't have a clue who Erik Erickson was until I did some research. I discovered he was a quirky artist who sold the masks through his web page called House of Masks. I believe he used to work in the film industry as a make up artist and that's how he got access to the molds to create the masks.  I also found out he had a house in Florida that he had turned into a funky funhouse shrine with each room having a different theme. I found a youtube video about him. He introduced his house as an "Intensly themed house." It kind of reminded me of my office. 

Anyway Erik's studeo was in a garage at the house and he his masks became fairly collectible. The house burnt down in the late 2020s and Erik passed on in 2024. So there aren't going to be any new masks produced by him.

So I won the auction and bought the mask. But my personality being fairly obsessive when it comes to collections I began looking for other masks. Then I bought this one:

It is of course, Marlon Brando as the Godfather.  I had lots of interaction with Microsoft Copilot about both masks and it assured me they were both highly sought after by collectors. And now I put an offer on this one:

This is Boris Karloff as the Frankenstein monster. All three are signed by Erik Erickson and are limited editions and numbered. I haven't heard back about Frankenstein but I am fairly confident I'll win it. The challenge is where to put them in my office. Between swords, guitars and tiki mugs, I don't have much space left. 

But I always find a way.