The Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards

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Rondo Award

The Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards are a set of fan-based awards created by David Colton and Kerry Gammill in 2002. The award itself, sculpted by Gammill and cast by Tim Lindsay, is a bust of actor Rondo Hatton, similar to a sculpture of the actor which appears in the Universal Studios film House of Horrors (1946). The Rondos have been praised by recipients for their quiet beauty and evocation of classic horror. The awards are fan-based, and have no connection to any commercial sponsor. Anyone in fandom can vote or propose nominees.

Nominees for the Rondo are selected from suggestions by horror fans, pros and enthusiasts offered all year at the Classic Horror Film Boards, a fan forum which migrated from AOL to the Internet over 5 years ago to become the most popular genre message board ever.

Each year's nominees are finalized by classic horror fan David Colton, with the help of more than 20 classic horror fans from around the world, and with expertise in all parts of fandom.

1 Monster Kid Hall Of Fame
2 2002 Recipients
3 2005 Recipients
4 External links

[edit] Monster Kid Hall Of Fame

[edit] 2002 Recipients

BEST GENRE FILM of 2002: LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS

Runner-ups: SPIDER-MAN, THE RING

TV PRESENTATION OF THE YEAR: BUFFY, THE VAMPIRE SLAYER

Runner-ups: JUSTICE LEAGUE, TAKEN

DVD of 2002: CURSE OF THE DEMON/NIGHT OF THE DEMON

Runner-ups: IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE, THEM

RESTORATION OF THE YEAR: A Tie: LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT and METROPOLIS

BOOK OF THE YEAR: HEAVEN AND HELL TO PLAY WITH: the Filming of Night of the Hunter, by Preston Neal Jones

Runner-ups: SPAWN OF SKULL ISLAND, SCIENCE FICTION CONFIDENTIAL

ARTICLE OF THE YEAR: Kay Linaker, by Tom Weaver (Video Watchdog #90)

Runner-ups: "Jack Pierce" by Weaver, Bob Burns, MONSTERS FROM THE VAULT #1 ; "Boxed Turtle: The Classic GAMERA on Import DVD: Part One," by Bill Cooke (VIDEO WATCHDOG #86).

MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR: VIDEO WATCHDOG

Runner-ups: MONSTERS FROM THE VAULT, FILMFAX

CONVENTION OF THE YEAR: MONSTER BASH

Runner-ups: Chiller, Fanex.

BEST HORROR BOARD: MONSTER KID ONLINE MAGAZINE

Runner-ups: Astounding B-Monster, Mobius Home Video Forum.

FAN EVENT OF THE YEAR: BOB BURNS HALLOWEEN: RECREATION OF THE THING

Runner-ups: Ackermansion auction, Gary Don Rhodes Lugosi DVD.

COUNT ALUCARD AWARD FOR CONTROVERSY OF THE YEAR: Forry vs. Ferry

COMEBACK OF THE YEAR: FORREST J ACKERMAN

CLASSIC MOST IN NEED OF DVD RELEASE: KING KONG

Runner-ups: HOUSE OF DRACULA,

WRITER OF THE YEAR: TOM WEAVER.

Runner-up: Tim Lucas

[edit] 2005 Recipients

Best Book of 2005: The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre, by Stephen D. Youngkin, a revealing look at the iconic character actor who defined melodrama and menace from the silent era to the 60s.

The book topped a crowded field of works, including Crystal Lake Memories,, a history of the Friday the 13th films by Peter M. Bracke, Earth vs. the Sci-Fi Filmmakers, a collection of interviews by Weaver, and Beating the Devil: The Making of Night of the Demon, by English writer Tony Earnshaw.

Best DVD Commentary went to the Unholy Trio of Joe Dante, Bob Burns and Bill Warren, whose work drew nearly 300 votes for their joint commentary about the special effects and production of the 1953 version of "War of the Worlds.

"I hope this combo is used as a template for how future commentaries should be done, said one voter, Mike O'Connor, because you have all the relevant areas covered: the professional (director Dante), the scholar (Warren), and the knowledgeable fan (Burns).

Best Fan Event: Daniel Roebuck's Spook Show won for its recreation of a 1950s "spooktacular, complete with live ghosts and monsters at a theatre in Glendale, Calif., last Halloween. "Totally amazing, said one voter. "It was like a time machine, taking the audience back to midnight spook shows.

Best Independent Film went to Monster Kid Home Movies, a collection of 8mm homemade horror shorts made by kids and young fans in the 1950s, 60 and 70s. The now-grown filmmakers, including director Bob Tinnell and Disney artist Frank Dietz, provided narrations for the amateur films which were restored and color-corrected after years of neglect and deterioration.

The project was a labor of love by Cincinnati horror fan Joe Busam, who was also named Monster Kid of the Year for his efforts.

Magazine of the Year: Video Watchdog, edited by Tim and Donna Lucas, won top magazine honors for a fourth straight year despite a reduced schedule as Lucas completes a book on horror director Mario Bava.

The top runner-up was Monsters from the Vault, which trailed VW by only 16 votes, followed by Fangoria, Rue Morgue, Scary Monsters and Filmfax.

Writer of the Year: Tom Weaver, a prodigious interviewer of near-forgotten B-movie figures won best writer honors for the fourth straight year. Although a write-in-only category, Weaver was named by almost 100 fans, topping Lucas by a small margin. Other top writers included Greg Mank and Bill Cooke.

Best Convention: The Monster Bash, a family-friendly gathering of monster fans in Pittsburgh won the honor for the third time, beating out last year's winner, Chiller, a mega-event held in New Jersey and the up-and-coming WonderFest, a model-building and fantasy show in Louisville.

Best Website went to Nashville horror host Dr. Gangrene, whose Chiller Cinema site and TV show is a horror landmark in Tennessee. His show is now seen on Ch. 58 in the region.

The top website runner-up was Marty Baumann's Astounding B-Monster, a past Rondo winner which though halting monthly updates remains a destination for monster fans.

Best Horror Comic went for a second straight year to The Black Forest, a retelling of classic monster suspense set during World War I. The book is by Robert Tinnell, Todd Livingston and artist Neil Vokes.

Runner-ups included Bruce Campbell's The Man With the Screaming Brain and Eric Powell's The Goon.

Best CD went to Film Score Monthly's recreation of Dmitri Tiomkin's chilling score for the 1951 science fiction classic, The Thing from Another World. The soundtrack narrowly edged out an album by a popular rock horror band from Nashville, the Creeping Cruds.

Best Cover was a razor-thin affair as well, with Lorraine Bush's painting of the original Kong for Monster Bash #4 edging out work by Joe Schovitz for Monsters from the Vault and Daniel Horne for Chiller Theatre magazines.

Best Magazine Article was Kong-related as well as the popular team of Tom Weaver and Bob Burns recounted Burns' trip to the set of the Peter Jackson film in Starlog #343.

A who's-who of talented writers vied for top honors as well as voters also cited Bill Cooke for his piece on Universal films in Video Watchdog #118, Greg Mank's interview with Lionel Atwill's son in Monsters from the Vault #20, Frank Dello Stritto's account of a lost Lugosi Dracula performance in Cult Movies #41, and Jack Hagerty's analysis of Earth vs. the Flying Saucers in Filmfax #105.

Best Model or Collectible was a bit unusual for the usually iconoclastic Rondo voters, going to Hawthorne Collections Universal Monster Village, a subscription-based assemblage of castles and monsters, including the Bride of Frankenstein and Dracula.

Best DVD Company went to Warner Brothers, a reward for the restoration of the Kong film and other classic horrors, including a Val Lewton collection, in the past year.

Count Alucard's Controversy of the Year category presented monster fans with several issue-oriented choices, including a dispute over an English magazine, The Dark Side and its reported use of reviews printed elsewhere online, and consumer discontent with multi-movie DVDs, which do not play on all players.

Classic Most Needed on DVD: With many horror classics now available on DVD, attention turned to more obscure films. The Lugosi favorite, "Island of Lost Souls topped several still-missing horrors from MGM, along with Universal 50s scifis, including "The Incredible Shrinking Man" and "Tarantula.

Finally, seven honorary Rondo awards were announced Sunday night:

Monster Kid of the Year was bestowed on Joe Busam for, the award states:

"Busam's tireless work brought a generation of young monster filmmakers -- some of whom didn't even know they were filmmakers -- into the light with his 'Monster Kid Home Movies' project. Joe Busam combines the wonder of fan enthusiasm with the energy and skill needed to make those dreams a reality. His DVD will forever be a time machine into the days when even the oldest of us was forever young.

Monster Kid Hall of Fame: Seven new members were announced for induction into the Monster Kid Hall of Fame, which already includes Forrest J Ackerman, James Warren, Zacherley, Vampira, Bob and Kathy Burns, Ray Bradbury, Ray Harryhausen, Richard Gordon and the late Alex Gordon, Rick Baker and the late William K. Everson.

The new inductees are:

Artists Basil Gogos and James Bama for their unforgettable paintings in the 1960s and beyond.

Gogos' use of color and pathos on his covers for Famous Monsters turned black-and-white images into living, breathing monstrosities for a legion of then-young fans.

And Bama's detailed paintings of the Universal monsters for the covers of the first Aurora monster models taught wide-eyed kids a respect for the genre and, more importantly, the actors behind the makeup, that lives on today.

Film director Roger Corman, whose independent, brash and thought-provoking films of the 1950s remain vital, ironic and smart, and who paved the way for many of the fast-but-powerful techniques still used in moviemaking today.

Film director Roger Corman, whose independent, brash and thought-provoking films of the 1950s remain vital, ironic and smart, and who paved the way for many of the fast-but-powerful techniques still used in moviemaking today.

Musician Bobby "Boris" Pickett, whose rendition of the Monster Mash is still a Halloween perennial and who helped put the fun in monster fandom. It was, and is, a graveyard smash.

And in a continuing series of salutes to the pioneers of monster magazines, inductions go to:

Gary and Sue Svehla of Midnight Marquee, who over five decades of magazines, books, conventions and, recently, independent films, prove that there is always something new to find in the world of monsters and mayhem. They didn't invent monster magazines or conventions, but they showed what they could be.

Richard Klemensen, whose ultimate Hammer magazine, Little Shoppe of Horrors, has been obsessive and definitive in every way for decades. From floor plans of Hammer sets to interviews with survivors of the Studio That Dripped Blood, Klemensen is one of the genre's most important chroniclers.