Edited to add story link: Pigeons from Hell
Part 1-Pigeons from Hell
If you haven't read the story, stop reading this as I am going to talk about Chapter One of the story. There are two friends from New England in America who have traveled by car to the southern states of America for a holiday/sightseeing trip. They have stopped at an old, spooky plantation house. (I think Howard thought the two guys come from Massachusetts and the house is in New Orleans). The start of the story is in eyes of one of the fellows, a guy called Griswell. Griswell's friend is named John Branner. They had pulled over on the side of the old dirt road near this spooky old plantation mansion, to investigate, but decided to sleep in the house for the night because they were tired from travelling. The story starts when Griswell wakes up from dreaming.
This story can be seen in an episode from the television show called Thriller, hosted by Boris Karloff, that can be found here, Stephen King mentions this program in his book, Danse Macabre:
When I worked at a High School back in 2002, one of the students said he was the grandson of Boris Karloff, and he had no reason to lie. I liked how 'Doc Creed' on here said he was related to Lon Chaney. My father sailed on a ship and one of his crewmates was Stan Laurel's brother.
This is the episode Stephen King mentions in his book, Danse Macabre, which I will talk about later.
Back to the actual short story.
The first part of the story is titled 'Whistler in the Dark'. It starts with Griswell waking up from a dream. He had been dreaming of how his friend, John Branner and he had come upon the house.
Let Robert E. Howard, via the character, Griswell, explains just after he wakes up from dream:
This, in part, was what Griswell had dreamed. He saw again the gaunt house looming stark against the crimson sunset; saw the flight of the pigeons as he and Branner came up the shattered walk. He saw the dim room in which they presently lay, and he saw the two forms that were himself and his companion, lying wrapped in their blankets on the dusty floor. Then from that point his dream altered subtly, passed out of the realm of the commonplace and became tinged with fear. He was looking into a vague, shadowy chamber, lit by the gray light of the moon which streamed in from some obscure source. For there was no window in that room. But in the gray light he saw three silent shapes that hung suspended in a row, and their stillness and their outlines woke chill horror in his soul. There was no sound, no word, but he sensed a Presence of fear and lunacy crouching in a dark corner... Abruptly he was back in the dusty, high-ceilinged room, before the great fireplace.
So Howard is letting the reader know something is quite not right. Presently, an eerie whistling sound comes from upstairs. Griswell sees his friend, who was laying down asleep, suddenly spring upright, and then stand and walk zombie-like up the stairs. There is a terrible scream from upstairs. And then Griswell hears the sound of footsteps coming back down the staircase. It is his friend, John Branner, coming back down the stairs, with a hatchet in his hand, and his skull caved in, with blood and brains to be seen by Griswell in the moonlight shining through a window. In terror, Griswell crashes through a window and runs to the car. On the front car seat is a coiled up snake, so he runs down the dirt track, but is aware he is being chased by what he thinks is a wolf or a panther. Just then, Griswell comes across a Sheriff who is riding a horse. The sheriff takes a few shots with his six-shooter at the green eyes in the bushes staring at them, then they go back to the house. The sheriff hears Griswell's story and thinks it's kooky, and says that no one is going to believe him. But when they go upstairs, there is a supernatural foreboding that the Sheriff is aware of as well. The end of Chapter one explains that the Sheriff and Griswell are going back to the house to spend the night after they take the body of Griswell's friend, Branner, back to the County seat. That's where I finish talking about the story, you have to read the rest yourself.
Part Two: Stephen King and Robert E. Howard and Pigeons from Hell.
Stephen King--talking in Danse Macabre on page 258 of the 1987 Futura edition about the television series Thriller hosted by Boris Karloff and in which one of the episodes was based on 'Pigeons from Hell'--says: “Robert Bloch was represented by 'The Hungry Glass', a story in which the mirrors of an old house harbor a grisly secret; Robert E. Howard's 'Pigeon's from Hell', one of the finest horror stories of our century, was adapted, and remains the favourite of many who remember Thriller with fondness.*
*Stephen King has a footnote at the bottom of the page, where he says the most scariest television show he had seen on television at that time was the last episode of a television show called Bus Stop, and he also suggests that the Robert Bloch episode 'I Kiss Your Shadow' is brilliant as well.
So, there is a slight connection between Stephen King and Robert E. Howard straight away. Robert Bloch used to correspond with H.P. Lovecraft who used to correspond with Howard. Did Stephen King ever meet Robert Bloch? I bet he did (I am only surmising this, but it would be a good guess). If King met Robert Bloch, I'm sure King asked Bloch about those days, what Lovecraft was like; talked to Bloch about pulp magazines, maybe even talked to Robert Bloch about Howard and this story. Recently I read a short story by Robert Bloch titled 'Almost Human', and it is brilliant. Robert Bloch is one of my favourite writers because he also has a great sense of humour in his writing.
So, I have discovered a connection between Stephen King and Howard (I'm having problems typing because I burnt my fingers on the stove).
The next book I want to talk about is Bare Bones: Conversations on terror with Stephen King, edited by Tim Underwood and Chuck Miller. I recently purchased a copy this at a used bookshop here where I live.
King talking in Bare Bones on page 143: “I talked with Aaron Spelling about this on the telephone; he was interested in an anthology program. He dangled this particular carrot in front of me:
'”Wouldn't you like to be Rod Serling or Alfred Hitchcock and introduce the programs?”'
I said, “Not for six weeks.”
He was kind of quiet, and he said, '”What do you mean?”'
I said, “Do you remember the old Thriller?” He said he did, and I said, “They did an adaptation of the old Robert Howard story Pigeons from Hell, and there's one scene where a guy staggers down the stairs with a hatchet in his head. If you can give me an assurance that I can run a program with the equivalent of a hatchet in the head, we got a deal”
There was a long pause, and he said, “Well, we could show him with the hatchet in his chest.”'
And I said, “I just don't believe it!”
King couldn't become Alfred Hitchcock, which is a shame. I don't know my favourite director of all time. I don't think I have one. I like particular movies. I think King could have been a good director, not so much in feature films, but I think he would have been good at directing television programs in the vein of The Twilight Zone and Thriller. I wished King had directed some made-for-television movies. Those scary made-for-television movies. You used to seem them on television at midday and on Friday and Saturday nights. I think King wouldn't have been so good at feature films because he mightn't have been able to handle the egos of the actors, who think they would run the show, whereas at television level, King would have been the boss, because many of them might have been unknown actors thankful for the chance. I most definitely think King should have directed some of his short stories.
So back to the story, Pigeons from Hell. Why I like King, is that he has obviously read widely, but he also knows the movies and television programs he talks about.
So the last book I want to talk about is the fantastic book (the one I have is published in 1986): The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural edited by Jack Sullivan.
In the entry under 'Robert E. Howard', the book quotes King saying that Pigeons from Hell is one of the best short stories of the 20th century. There is also an entry in the encyclopedia titled 'The Pulps', talking about magazines like Weird Tales. The Stephen King entry in this book mentions something about King and Lovecraft.
I have other books written by other authors about Stephen King. But that's all for today.
Part 1-Pigeons from Hell
If you haven't read the story, stop reading this as I am going to talk about Chapter One of the story. There are two friends from New England in America who have traveled by car to the southern states of America for a holiday/sightseeing trip. They have stopped at an old, spooky plantation house. (I think Howard thought the two guys come from Massachusetts and the house is in New Orleans). The start of the story is in eyes of one of the fellows, a guy called Griswell. Griswell's friend is named John Branner. They had pulled over on the side of the old dirt road near this spooky old plantation mansion, to investigate, but decided to sleep in the house for the night because they were tired from travelling. The story starts when Griswell wakes up from dreaming.
This story can be seen in an episode from the television show called Thriller, hosted by Boris Karloff, that can be found here, Stephen King mentions this program in his book, Danse Macabre:
When I worked at a High School back in 2002, one of the students said he was the grandson of Boris Karloff, and he had no reason to lie. I liked how 'Doc Creed' on here said he was related to Lon Chaney. My father sailed on a ship and one of his crewmates was Stan Laurel's brother.
This is the episode Stephen King mentions in his book, Danse Macabre, which I will talk about later.
Back to the actual short story.
The first part of the story is titled 'Whistler in the Dark'. It starts with Griswell waking up from a dream. He had been dreaming of how his friend, John Branner and he had come upon the house.
Let Robert E. Howard, via the character, Griswell, explains just after he wakes up from dream:
This, in part, was what Griswell had dreamed. He saw again the gaunt house looming stark against the crimson sunset; saw the flight of the pigeons as he and Branner came up the shattered walk. He saw the dim room in which they presently lay, and he saw the two forms that were himself and his companion, lying wrapped in their blankets on the dusty floor. Then from that point his dream altered subtly, passed out of the realm of the commonplace and became tinged with fear. He was looking into a vague, shadowy chamber, lit by the gray light of the moon which streamed in from some obscure source. For there was no window in that room. But in the gray light he saw three silent shapes that hung suspended in a row, and their stillness and their outlines woke chill horror in his soul. There was no sound, no word, but he sensed a Presence of fear and lunacy crouching in a dark corner... Abruptly he was back in the dusty, high-ceilinged room, before the great fireplace.
So Howard is letting the reader know something is quite not right. Presently, an eerie whistling sound comes from upstairs. Griswell sees his friend, who was laying down asleep, suddenly spring upright, and then stand and walk zombie-like up the stairs. There is a terrible scream from upstairs. And then Griswell hears the sound of footsteps coming back down the staircase. It is his friend, John Branner, coming back down the stairs, with a hatchet in his hand, and his skull caved in, with blood and brains to be seen by Griswell in the moonlight shining through a window. In terror, Griswell crashes through a window and runs to the car. On the front car seat is a coiled up snake, so he runs down the dirt track, but is aware he is being chased by what he thinks is a wolf or a panther. Just then, Griswell comes across a Sheriff who is riding a horse. The sheriff takes a few shots with his six-shooter at the green eyes in the bushes staring at them, then they go back to the house. The sheriff hears Griswell's story and thinks it's kooky, and says that no one is going to believe him. But when they go upstairs, there is a supernatural foreboding that the Sheriff is aware of as well. The end of Chapter one explains that the Sheriff and Griswell are going back to the house to spend the night after they take the body of Griswell's friend, Branner, back to the County seat. That's where I finish talking about the story, you have to read the rest yourself.
Part Two: Stephen King and Robert E. Howard and Pigeons from Hell.
Stephen King--talking in Danse Macabre on page 258 of the 1987 Futura edition about the television series Thriller hosted by Boris Karloff and in which one of the episodes was based on 'Pigeons from Hell'--says: “Robert Bloch was represented by 'The Hungry Glass', a story in which the mirrors of an old house harbor a grisly secret; Robert E. Howard's 'Pigeon's from Hell', one of the finest horror stories of our century, was adapted, and remains the favourite of many who remember Thriller with fondness.*
*Stephen King has a footnote at the bottom of the page, where he says the most scariest television show he had seen on television at that time was the last episode of a television show called Bus Stop, and he also suggests that the Robert Bloch episode 'I Kiss Your Shadow' is brilliant as well.
So, there is a slight connection between Stephen King and Robert E. Howard straight away. Robert Bloch used to correspond with H.P. Lovecraft who used to correspond with Howard. Did Stephen King ever meet Robert Bloch? I bet he did (I am only surmising this, but it would be a good guess). If King met Robert Bloch, I'm sure King asked Bloch about those days, what Lovecraft was like; talked to Bloch about pulp magazines, maybe even talked to Robert Bloch about Howard and this story. Recently I read a short story by Robert Bloch titled 'Almost Human', and it is brilliant. Robert Bloch is one of my favourite writers because he also has a great sense of humour in his writing.
So, I have discovered a connection between Stephen King and Howard (I'm having problems typing because I burnt my fingers on the stove).
The next book I want to talk about is Bare Bones: Conversations on terror with Stephen King, edited by Tim Underwood and Chuck Miller. I recently purchased a copy this at a used bookshop here where I live.
King talking in Bare Bones on page 143: “I talked with Aaron Spelling about this on the telephone; he was interested in an anthology program. He dangled this particular carrot in front of me:
'”Wouldn't you like to be Rod Serling or Alfred Hitchcock and introduce the programs?”'
I said, “Not for six weeks.”
He was kind of quiet, and he said, '”What do you mean?”'
I said, “Do you remember the old Thriller?” He said he did, and I said, “They did an adaptation of the old Robert Howard story Pigeons from Hell, and there's one scene where a guy staggers down the stairs with a hatchet in his head. If you can give me an assurance that I can run a program with the equivalent of a hatchet in the head, we got a deal”
There was a long pause, and he said, “Well, we could show him with the hatchet in his chest.”'
And I said, “I just don't believe it!”
King couldn't become Alfred Hitchcock, which is a shame. I don't know my favourite director of all time. I don't think I have one. I like particular movies. I think King could have been a good director, not so much in feature films, but I think he would have been good at directing television programs in the vein of The Twilight Zone and Thriller. I wished King had directed some made-for-television movies. Those scary made-for-television movies. You used to seem them on television at midday and on Friday and Saturday nights. I think King wouldn't have been so good at feature films because he mightn't have been able to handle the egos of the actors, who think they would run the show, whereas at television level, King would have been the boss, because many of them might have been unknown actors thankful for the chance. I most definitely think King should have directed some of his short stories.
So back to the story, Pigeons from Hell. Why I like King, is that he has obviously read widely, but he also knows the movies and television programs he talks about.
So the last book I want to talk about is the fantastic book (the one I have is published in 1986): The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural edited by Jack Sullivan.
In the entry under 'Robert E. Howard', the book quotes King saying that Pigeons from Hell is one of the best short stories of the 20th century. There is also an entry in the encyclopedia titled 'The Pulps', talking about magazines like Weird Tales. The Stephen King entry in this book mentions something about King and Lovecraft.
I have other books written by other authors about Stephen King. But that's all for today.
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