Memories of a Giant Claw or If I had known what the Monster Looked like......

I had the great honor of becoming a friend of, and convention guest planner for Robert Shayne. If that name does not ring a bell, He was one of the finest actor's to come off of the Broadway Stage. Most people today remember him as Superman's Contact on the Metropolis Police Department Inspector William J. Henderson in the now Immortal ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN t.v. series starring George "There is only one" Reeves. Bob was fortunate enough to start his movie career at Warner Bros. in 1946. After several successful movie roles with that studio, he decided to seek greener cinematic

Pasteur's. As he told me back in 1988 "Sometimes actors do not make the best decisions for themselves". Ha landed at P.R.C. in a little gem (!?) called FACE OF MARBLE. Bob told me that at end of a screening

of this opus in a second run movie house, he was in the lobby when a very sweet little woman walked up to him and stated: "Mr. Shayne, I have seen all of your movies. After seeing this one, you should be ashamed of yourself"!

He said that that was the low point in his career. Until.......1957. Bob signed on with Columbia Pictures to make something called THE GIANT CLAW. "I knew it was another Science Fiction film and had a Giant Bird of some kind". The Columbia artists proudly showed me sketches of a truly impressive Bird Monster, kind of Dinosaur Looking". At the screening of G.C. at a Westwood Theatre, Bob gathered with co-stars Mara (yum yum) Corday and Jeff Morrow. The audience was in great anticipation of the first look at the bird creature. "I had never heard such laughter!" Bob related. "The entire place was howling"! "I remember Jeff Morrow saying "I'm out of here, will you join me in a stiff drink Bob?". Mara and I joined him. "If I had known what the "Creature" was going to look like, I would have played my role much less seriously!".

I miss Bob "Pop" Shayne and think of his wonderful company and his terrific laugh. You dear reader, have the chance to buy this great flick on DVD along with 3 other greats in the SAM KATZMAN collection. I give this DVD set 5 Claws, I mean stars. Amazon.com has the beast, I mean best deal on it.