By I.Z. Sella

Long before today's modern horror films, before the high-tech makeup and costume wizardry, before special effects became the handiwork of computers, there was Boris Karloff. His eyes alone were enough to scare your pants off. Add some thick makeup and a couple of bolts on his nect and he made everyone believe in Frankenstein.

Then there was Bela Lugosi. "I - am - Drac-u-la. . .," he said with a heavy accent that was widely imitated. As vampires go, he was the creepiest. After watching him on the silver screen, how many older brothers ran after their little sisters yelling: "I vahnt to suck your blood?"

The earliest horror master was Lon Chaney, called "the man of a thousand faces" for the long list of tortured characters he created. Best known for The Phantom of the Opera, he passed his genetic predisposition for frightening moviegoers on to his son, Lon Chaney, Jr., a hulking man who kept changing into the Wolf Man.

So it is with ghoulish delight that National Stamp Collecting Month this October will feature these Classic Movie Monsters and the actors who made them famous. Under the theme "Get the Creeps!" National Stamp Collecting Month kicks off with the issuance of the Monsters stamps available nationwide beginning October 1.

Last year, National Stamp Collecting Month focused on getting youngsters interested in the Stampers program, which has been phenomenally successful. "This year, we are using the fun of these 'monsters' to get kids interested in collecting stamps," says Azeezaly Jaffer, manager of Stamp Services.

There's something for everyone. The grownups get to think back on their first encounters with movie monsters. If you're in Los Angeles on Halloween night, take a ride along Hollywood Boulevard, where retail stations will be spotlighting the monster stamps and other merchandise as part of a celebration with the American Film Institute.

The kids, anxiously awaiting the arrival of trick or treating, undoubtedly will be in a monster state of mind for much of the month. Building on that, the USPS wants to show teachers stamps can be used in different ways as part of the educational curriculum. Jaffer says the USPS mailed about 87,000 kits to schools, libraries and community youth organizations as part of a program designed to bring teachers a diverse lesson plan using the monster stamps as a teaching tool. "The kids are learning about the arts, history, science and math while they are getting introduced to stamps," he says.

The goal is keeping things fun. "The subject matter of these kid-appealing stamps offers employees the opportunity to promote the hobby," Jaffer says. "I think that's important. We can get the community involved in fun activities connected to stamp collecting."

It's an opportune time to try to motivate stamp collectors to buy stamps, ultimately increasing revenue for the Postal Service. Postal managers will be provided with "monstrous" promotional ideas and materials to give everyone the creeps. Garlic not included.

The daughter of Frankenstein

Boris Karloff did not bring the office home with him.

"He never wore Frankenstein makeup to scare me," laughs Karloff's daughter, Sara, graciously responding to questions about the private life of an actor who will be remembered forever for creating the stiff-gaited, square-headed laboratory experiment gone awry.

"He was absolutely the antithesis of the roles that he played," says Sara, the 58-year-old only child of Karloff. "He was soft-spoken, funny, articulate, extremely well-educated and well-read, and very modest." Born to Karloff and his fourth wife on his 51st birthday, Sara Karloff says she didn't watch Frankenstein until she was in her early teens and the movie showed up on television one Saturday afternoon on a classic film channel.

"I enjoyed watching his films. I'm proud of his career," she says of her father, who was born William Henry Pratt in London and appeared in more than 140 films. He died in 1969 at age 82.

Sara Karloff spearheaded the effort to get the Classic Movie Monsters honored by the Postal Service. She was aided by the offspring of the Chaneys and Lugosi.

"The response by people all over the world was absolutely heartwarming. It's a remarkable example of the influence that the entertainment industry has on people," she says.

Sara Karloff says the classic films have a multi-generational appeal and, unlike current horror movies, left a lot to the imagination. The movies pioneered by Universal in the 1930s were "frontier-type films," she says. "Nobody had explored this genre on film before. Frankenstein dealt with a very controversial subject: the creation of artificial life by man."

What would her father think about being honored with a stamp? "It's an incredible honor," Sara Karloff says, "but he would have asked what's the big fuss about?"

— IZ Sella

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