02/13/2020
Not Dead Yet
Howdy Newsletterees – Happy Thursday.
I haven’t died, but I think I blew a lung. Whatever was going around (no, I didn’t get the Miller Light) really threw me. I haven’t had to cancel tours in a very long time. So, I’m on the mend and things are back to their regularly scheduled mess.
End Times
This weekend is the foreseeable end to our museum. On Sunday Feb 16 at 5pm, the museum will be shutting its doors. We’ll still operate tours out of the building for a couple of more weeks until we come up with a reasonable solution, taking parking, personal safety and security into consideration. Maybe Pacoima. kidding. No one cares more.
Clearance
This weekend we are doing a major merchandise move. Books are 40% off – that includes the Helter Skelter books as well as books that are autographed. Apologies and no disrespect intended to the authors – we need this stuff gone. Lots of true crime, paranormal, bios – a majority came from my own personal collection. There are some movie posters etc, they are 40% off too. Other merch is 25% off. That’s the shirts, candles etc.
You know those cool collapsible fans that are perfect for the vapors? 3 bucks.
This is in-person, in-store only.
FAB
Troy and I were able to crash the biggest event of the year – the Oscars. Finally, I got to enjoy the reason Hollywood shuts down for an entire month. A very kind friend who knew that my association with… the movie… meant a lot to me, offered – and we said HELL yes and enjoyed the heck out of the night. Thank you to our friend – it was great to be in the room when Barbara Ling and her team won the Oscar for best Production Design for… the movie. Barbara is really the powerhouse behind literally taking Hollywood back in time for… the movie.
KC
Sunday the 2nd we honored the anniversary of Karen Carpenter’s death by having our annual Karen CarpenTour. And once again, it SOLD OUT. Thank you to everyone who came along. We LOVE that we’re still getting enough interest to remember her every year. So much so, we added an additional tour on the day before what would be Karen’s 70th birthday. If you’re free on March 1, you can now indulge in the smooth sounds of the 1970s with us!
POD
The Dearly Departed Podcast is now on Patreon, which is a is a great way to support “creators” (that’s the Patreon lingo, not ours) in the endeavors they share with audiences.
Don’t have kittens – our normal podcast episodes will continue to be free for all.
Part of the reason we don’t as many episodes as we would like to is because there are production costs and time associated with making the podcast. If you like—no one is forcing you—you can pay $2 per month to hear our “mini episodes” every month, which will be offered to Patreon customers only. If you go up to the next level, $5 per month, you can listen to our regular episodes early. Clearly, we’re not getting rich off this. Clearly. It’s just to defray some of the costs. As we’ve said before, Mike and I love putting the shows together and are so grateful for the support everyone has shown us.
LET YOUR FINGERS DO THE WALKING
Oh, I almost forgot. We had a fascinating visitor to the shop recently – John Kozik from the Talking Board Historical Society in Salem, Massachusetts. John and I talking about his museum and I learned a lot of great information. First off, did you know that “Ouija” is actually a brand name, like Kleenex and Scotch tape? Their museum is devoted to the history of the Talking Board. Check them out!
John and I both collect Colonel Sanders memorabilia and Blow-Mold (like the Lugosi light behind us).
That’s that, pussycat. Out of here.
Love,
Scott
