Famous Monsters of Filmland Club Certificate 1958-59

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Famous Monsters of Filmland Club Certificate 1958-59:
$10.00

Jim Warren was the Publisher of a new magazine that had taken Philadelphia (and the country) by a storm. It seemed that kids everywhere were scouring the neighborhood stores and newsstands for a copy.

I first heard Jim Warren on WPEN radio, a Philly talk show hosted by Frank Ford. He mentioned editing the Sentinel Magazine at Wagner Junior High. Age 13, I was the current editor. I called him and set up an interview.

Delighted by the resulting article and impressed by my 28 fan clubs for Philly area disc jockeys and rock singers, Jim Warren asked me to join the staff as Monster Club Editor, send each member a Certiicate, personalized by my 75 year old Royal typewriter, a membership card and a pinback bright yellow button, compile a members list (published in issue #3) with a brief column.

He also requested that I send out back issues of issue #1 and deposited both 1000 paperbags for shipping and 1000 copies of issue #1 on my parents\' dining room table.

Monsters and monster movies in the provincial 1950\'s were frowned upon by both parents and magazine distributors. Warren, enjoyed such great success despite industry and parental concerns, with the one-off printing of Famous Monsters that he was encouraged to continue FM as a monthly and built a publishing empire that lasted two decades.

Sometime in the \'70\'s a storage unit was set up for my parents and this was recently unloaded, discovering boxes containing many folders, one of which contained almost 100 copies of the original Famous Monsters Club Certificate.

Dated 1958-59 thses examples are on a better grade of paper, almost parchment, far superior in quality than the cheap, flimsy yellow paper of the first printing that I remmeber. Therefore, I cannot categorically state that this are the first printing.

You can now, for a brief time, secure a framed-ready copy of the Famous Monsters Club Cerificate which can be personalized to you or whomever you designate or left blank.