Although Japanese rubber suit monsters like Godzilla have a large fan-base, sometimes we like our homegrown latex space aliens and cinematic scientific accidents best. Though not as famous as American film monster technicians like Ray Harryhausen or Bob Westmoreland, no rubber suit monster blog would be complete without looking at Paul Blaisdell's work for the insane American International Pictures.
Through the 50s and 60s American International specialized in producing low-budget screamers pitched at teen audiences. Blaisedell was their monster maestro making wonders on a shoe-string for much of their history. Stories of Paul are legion among his fans, such as having to whip up monsters after filming ended and inserting them post production. Paul is also known for cobbling quite convincing creatures together with basically rubbish. Paul used sections of carpet tied together with rubber cement because his budgets wouldn't allow for a full rubber casting of the monster. He is also famous for making due with a negative cash flow when directors spent the fx budget on a different film. This is supposedly how Paul came to American International in the first place, when the now legendary Roger Corman left nothing for special effects after shooting a creature feature, and they needed someone who could make them something out of nothing.
Paul's referral to American International and the Corman debacle came from a friend-turned-agent, Forrest J. Ackerman. Ackerman, who was writing for the magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland, liked the illustrations Paul did for his story, and got Paul working in the B film industry post haste. Interestingly, Paul had a similar background to Godzilla's creator, Eiji Tsuburaya, as a technical draftsman. Also, Paul made the monster suits to fit himself, in order to test their operation. If the suit did not fit the stunt actor, it would be Paul inside the suit performing on camera.
Snaps to Chad Plambeck and his excellent tribute to Paul and Jackie Blaisdell.
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