film titled No Vietnamese Ever Called Me Nigger (which played at the University on Moratorium
Day) and begins by describing a couple of scenes from the movie in detail. While King obviously
agrees with the Anti-Vietnam War sentiments expressed in this film, he finds it lacking: ‘The veterans
are telling the truth, but it is a truth that has been dinned into our ears for years now. The spectators’
reactions to the march are predictable. And in the end the most valuable lesson the movie may teach
is that the truth can become dull, and that there is a tendency to not hear it, to overlook it.’
This piece was originally published in the October 23, 1969 issue of The Maine Campus. Re-
discovered in September 2005 by Rocky Wood, the only way to track down a copy is by taking a trip
to the University’s library and making a copy from the microfilm in their archives.
Violence on Television—Too Much or Too Little? (January 17, 1976)
This is one of the first non-fiction pieces regarding a subject King will often discuss: violence
and the media. He sets forth four major arguments against violence on television: ‘It has been
theorized that TV violence causes aggressive behavior, especially in children. That it causes
indifference to real life violence. That it makes us all feel more afraid, even in circumstances where
we don’t have to. Finally, that TV violence has contributed to the general climate of violence we have
lived in since that day in Dallas 13 years ago168. ’
King goes on to state the likely sentiment of most Americans: that television news is just as
horrifying as any fictional programming available. While he doesn’t seem here to be a huge fan of
television, he does defend it against attackers and ends the article: ‘I think we need to remember that
TV is slaveringly eager to give us what we want to see. What we are. So the next time you turn on
‘S.W.A.T.’ just remember that you’re looking into a mirror. How do you look, brothers and sisters?’
The piece was first printed in the January 17, 1976 issue of the Bangor Daily News. Copies of
Bangor Daily News articles may be secured from the microfiche files at the Fogler Library of the
University of Maine at Orono (at no charge, if you actually visit), from the newspaper direct (at a
significant fee), or from visiting the Maine State Library in Augusta.
The Horrors of ’79 (December 27, 1979)
This is an essay about what magazine reviewers called the ‘scary summer’—essentially a recent
focusing on horror movies by filmmakers. King suggests the idea of horror as a kind of catharsis,
stating that ‘in the 1930s, when Depression-ridden Americans drank deeply at the black cup to forget
the all-too-real horrors of their daily situation (and in the process made household names of Boris
Karloff, Bela Lugosi, and Lon Chaney, as well as Gable and Lombard), Americans in 1979 were
ready to indulge their blacker expectations to the fullest.’ He continues with then current worldwide
troubles: ‘In a year that saw buck-a-gallon gasoline, rock’s first fifteen-dollar double album
(Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk), the fall of the shah in Iran and Jimmy Carter in the polls, the nuclear
excursion in Pennsylvania and the crash of a loaded American Airlines DC-10 jetliner in Chicago,
both the average moviegoer and the Great American Filmmaker had a lot of anxiety to get rid of.’
King has commented extensively on the Vietnam War and here delineates between the ‘real
world’ horror of Vietnam movies that year, such as Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now and The
Deer Hunter and the ‘unreal horrors’ of the supernatural or science-fiction that were also seen in
1979. ‘Offhand, I can’t think of another year when one had to be so careful to separate the real horror
movies from the fantasy horror movies.’
He deals specifically with the more famous horror films of the year: George Romero’s Dawn of
the Dead, Alien, Prophecy, The Amityville Horror, and states that Dawn of the Dead is, in fact, the
best horror film of the year and even the decade! At the end of the piece, he includes a ten best and ten
worst list of movies for the year stating, ‘I hate an end-of-the-year movie essay that cops out and
refuses to offer a ten-best, ten-worst list and so let me offer mine by way of conclusion, with no
editorial comment.’
The eight-page original manuscript exists and is deposited in Box 2702 of The Stephen Edwin
King Collection (Special Collections Unit, Raymond H. Fogler Library, University of Maine, Orono).
The original title was The Nightmare Boom of ’79.
This article appeared in Rolling Stone magazine’s December 27, 1979-January 10, 1980 issue;
and in an Australian edition of the magazine that carried the same date. Many larger libraries will
have back issues, as Rolling Stone is an important cultural magazine. Copies can be obtained from
used magazine outlets.
Some Notes onTales of the Vampyre(Fall 1980)
This extremely rare piece consists of King’s program notes to a stage production of Tales of the
Vampyre, printed on two unnumbered pages of a program booklet. Tales of the Vampyre is a
Marschner-Wohlbruck opera based on the short story, TheVampyre by John Polidori.
It was published in a program book titled Opera New England of Northern Maine, in the Fall of
1980. To date, the authors have not been able to track down a photocopy of this piece or an actual
copy of the publication in which it appears. King’s office does not have a copy and Tyson Blue
appears to be the only one in the King community to have seen it. According to his book The Unseen
King, King’s former assistant, Stephanie Leonard, ran across this piece and gave Blue a copy.
According to Blue, King writes briefly about the short story and a period in Polidori’s life. King
closes the piece, ‘And that is how a rainy June in 1816 brought about the play filled with darkness,
monsters, and music which we bring to you tonight.’ Of King’s piece Blue writes, ‘While not a
definitive nor detailed analysis of the play, these notes serve admirably to inform the audience of the
opera about the origins of this obscure work, brought to them by someone most eminently qualified to
do so, and in a format which is ideally suited to be read while waiting for the show to begin.’
Stephen King’s Guilty Pleasures (May/June 1981)
King argues, ‘If I have anything to be guilty about in regard to the movies, it’s probably that I’ve
never felt guilty at all. The best films leave me feeling nearly exalted with pleasure; the worst send
me from the theater bemused, feeling a little like Alice when she finally awoke—“Really, I’ve had
the most peculiar dream.” The only movies that really offend me are the boring ones, the ones where
you realize, halfway through, that you are rocking the seat in front of you down with your feet in a
kind of masochistic contest to see if you can get it all the way down safely or if your feet are going to
get a really wicked pinch.’
King’s writes of each of nine films he guiltily likes: Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia,
Bloody Mamma, Killers Three, Sorcerer, The Horror of Party Beach, The Amityville Horror, The
Wild Angels, Suspiria, and Night of the Juggler. In addition, he lists other ‘gems’ such as Robot
Monster, Mountain Family Robinson, Zombie, You Light Up My Life, and The Other Side of the
Mountain. He closes, ‘This is the last night in my town for The Final Conflict, and I don’t want to
miss it.’
This article was published in the May/June, 1981 issue of Film Comment magazine. Some
university libraries have back issues, and it should be possible to obtain a copy from used magazine
or King dealers.
When Is TV Too Scary For Children?: Now You Take ‘Bambi’ Or ‘Snow White’—That’s
Scary (June 13-19, 1981)
King starts by telling a modernized version of the fairy tale ‘Hansel and Gretel’ and asking if
readers recognize the story. He does this to illustrate a point about television programming that some
would consider inappropriate for children: ‘I’m sometimes asked what I allow my kids to watch on
the tube, for two reasons: first, my three children, at 10, 8 and 4, are still young enough to be in the
age group that opponents of TV violence and horror consider to be particularly impressionable and at
risk; and second, my seven novels have been popularly classified as ‘horror stories.’ People tend to
think those two facts contradictory. But...I’m not sure that they are.’
In the article, he once again makes his opinions on censorship (particularly in regard to children)
very clear: ‘Do I believe that all violent or horrifying programming should be banned from network
TV? No, I do not. Do I believe it should be telecast only in the later evening hours, TV’s version of
the ‘high shelf?’ Yes, I do. Do I believe that children should be forbidden all violent or horrifying
programs? No, I do not. Like their elders, children have a right to experience the entire spectrum of
drama, from such warm and mostly unthreatening programs as Little House on the Prairie or The
Waltons to scarier fare.’
The six page original manuscript of this piece exists and is deposited in Box 2702 of The
Stephen Edwin King Collection (Special Collections Unit, Raymond H. Fogler Library, University of
Maine, Orono). The original title was Tots and Terror.
This article first appeared in the June 13-19, 1981 issue of TV Guide magazine; and was
reprinted as If You Really Want To Be Scared, Start With ‘Hansel And Gretel’ in the Canadian
edition of TV Guide for September 5-11, 1981 (we are reporting the existence of this piece here for
the first time, as it was previously unknown in the King community). Copies of TV Guide are
generally available from used magazine or King resellers. The piece was also reprinted as Now You
Take ‘Bambi’ Or ‘Snow White’—That’s Scary! in Popular Writing in America: The Interaction of
Style and Audience, Fourth Edition169; in Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft, Fifth
Edition; and abridged in Elements of Literature with Readings in World Literature, Fourth Course.
These books can easily be obtained from the usual used book resources or textbook dealers.
Stephen King’s List of the 6 Scariest Scenes Ever Captured on Film (1981)
This is a short list of the six scariest scenes from films by King in which he writes about a scene
from each of: Wait Until Dark, Carrie, I Bury the Living, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Night of
the Living Dead, and Psycho.
The piece was first published in The Book of Movie Lists; and reprinted as Stephen King’s 6
Scariest Scenes Ever Captured on Film in The People’s Almanac Presents the Book of Lists: The
’90s Edition. They can be obtained from the usual used book resources.
Between Rock and a Soft Place (January 1982)
This lengthy and important essay is about rock music and its place on radio. King relates a story
of driving outside Boston and trying to listen to rock on his rental car’s AM radio. Unable to find
anything suitable on the dial, ‘that was when I began to worry—to seriously worry—about rock ‘n’
roll.’
He discusses the punk rock movement in the United Kingdom and the United States and
specifically the infamous band, the Sex Pistols: ‘In a way, the political commentary, the working-
class-hero bullshit, the pins in the ears and the nihilism got in the way, obscured the fact that, above
and beyond all else, the Pistols—and the punk music of which they were a part—were making
incredibly good, incredibly powerful rock ‘n’ roll.’ He continues, ‘American rock fans, as they have
moved from AM to FM, have lost their love for the primitive, driving sound.’
With this King posits a reason for the decline of real rock and roll on AM radio stations, along
with some commentary on aging: ‘Maybe what happened to AM is perfectly simple: It got old. It hung
in there through Woodstock and then it started to run out of gas. Even Dick Clark is starting to show
signs of his age. It’s a sad thought, and it’s a little startling, but it fits and it has its own comforting
logic. None of us thought we were going to get old when we were 15, and look what happened. If it
has to be FM, it has to be—the same way a guy like me says, if it has to be 33 going on 34, with all-
of-a-sudden white in the beard and those funny little wrinkles around the corners of the eyes, it has to
be. When we were young enough to believe that rock ‘n’ roll would live forever, we believed the
same of ourselves.’
A sidebar, Visit With an Endangered Species, accompanied this article (see directly below).
The two pieces were once combined under the title Mighty John Marshall and the Death of Rock n’
Roll, in a 25-page double-spaced manuscript, deposited in Box 2702 of The Stephen Edwin King
Collection (Special Collections Unit, Raymond H. Fogler Library, University of Maine, Orono).
Playboy published Between Rock and a Soft Place in January 1982. Copies of this magazine
can be obtained through used magazine dealers and, as this is one of the better known non-fiction
pieces in the King community, stores that specialize in King often have it in stock.
Visit With an Endangered Species (January 1982)
‘Mighty John Marshall, who may well be the last great AM rock jock in America, lives with his
wife and three kids in a tract-style house in Brewer, Maine. He drives a mongrel of a van, which is
always full of sound equipment; most of it looks as if it had seen better days’, King writes. After the
experience King relates in the main article (see Between Rock and a Soft Place directly above), a DJ
like Marshall is quite a relief!
Mighty John Marshall worked at WACZ in Bangor and King seems to have become good friends
with him in the process of writing these pieces, as the content of this sidebar mainly consists of fond
descriptions of the man and re-telling of some of King’s encounters with him. In fact, the article
closes with King quoting Marshall: ‘‘‘I’m gonna be rocking when I’m 80,” he says. “They’ll have to
carry me out of the booth. He hesitates and then quotes Ry Cooder. “I’m gonna bop till I drop.’’’
Visit With an Endangered Species was published in Playboy for January 1982, alongside
Between Rock and a Soft Place.
Favorite Films (June 24, 1982)
This is list a of King’s then five favorite films of all time, with a sentence or two about each. His
five choices in descending order are: E. T., The Godfather II, Psycho, The Wild Bunch and The
Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
The piece was published in the June 24, 1982 edition of The Washington Post and is easily
accessed, as larger libraries carry back issues of this major newspaper on microfilm or microfiche.
Digging The Boogens (July 1982)
This is a review of Taft International’s film The Boogens, directed by James L. Conway. King
calls it an ‘old fashioned pretty good low-budget horror movie’; and describes the plot: ‘A Colorado
silver mine is closed by a series of explosions and cave-ins in 1912; miners are trapped, and most of
them die (all of this background is elegantly presented over the credits in a series of frontier-style
newspaper headlines and gorgeous sepia photographs). Seventy years later, a mining company
reopens the mine. What else do you need?’170
King likes the film, but he knows it is one of his beloved B movies—he even goes so far as to
say that the plot, acting and special effects are subpar! ‘Now, don’t get me wrong; this is not a work
of genius on a low budget. It doesn’t have the elusive class of a film like Martin, the bleak vision of a
film like Eraserhead, or even the manic, somehow ominous energy of Don Coscorelli’s Phantasm,’
King writes. We know that King loves this type of movie and has since childhood; he believes the
average moviegoer would too: ‘I still had a pretty good time. I think you will, too, and so I
recommend The Boogens to you cheerfully and heartily.’
This piece appeared in Twilight Zone Magazine for July 1982. Back issues can be obtained
fairly easily from the usual sources for older and used magazines.
Horrors! (30 October—November 5, 1982)
In this piece King lists the ten best horror videocassettes/laserdiscs (this was 1982, remember!)
to rent for Halloween and provides a paragraph-long description for each. The ten (from 10-1) are:
The Toolbox Murders, The Fog, Dead of Night, Wolfen, Rabid, The Shining, The Thing, Invasion ofthe Body Snatchers, An American Werewolf In London and Night of the Living Dead. George
Romero’s Night of the Living Dead has always been one of King’s favorites (see the Untitled
laserdisc and DVD liner notes in this chapter). It would become a classic cult film, and spawn
several sequels.
This article was originally titled Creepy Tapes for Halloween. The five-page double-spaced
manuscript is deposited in Box 2702 of The Stephen Edwin King Collection (Special Collections
Unit, Raymond H. Fogler Library, University of Maine, Orono).
It first appeared in the October 30-November 5, 1982 issue of TV Guide magazine. Copies are
probably available from the usual used magazine or King sources. The Canadian edition of TV Guide
for the same week retitled the piece Creature Features.
The Evil Dead:Why You Haven’t Seen It Yet...and Why You Ought To (November 1982)
Sam Raimi’s horror film The Evil Dead opened to standing ovations at the Cannes Film Festival
in May of 1982. King was at that year’s festival, met the director, saw the film and raved about it.
‘ The Evil Dead has the simple, stupid power of a good campfire story—but its simplicity is not a
side effect. It is something carefully crafted by Raimi, who is anything but stupid.’ Why, then, should
such a good film not be available for moviegoing audiences to see and judge? King believes that ‘the
smart Hollywood thinking is that the day of the “raw horror film” has passed.’
This is an important article, as King calls for The Evil Dead to be picked up by an American
distributor and because, like The Night of the Living Dead, another of his favorites, The Evil Dead
went on to achieve cult status worldwide and spawn several sequels.
The article appeared in Twilight Zone Magazine for November 1982. Back issues can be
obtained from the usual sources for older and used magazines. It was excerpted as A Note from
Steven [ sic] King in Evil Dead: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1982)—these liner notes
appear in the compact disc version of the soundtrack available from some stores.
Playboy Guide People (1982)171
This piece was the Playboy Guide People department for the Fall/Winter issue of Playboy
Guide: Electronic Entertainment. It consists of different celebrities saying which movies they would
like to see preserved on videotape. Other contributors to the article include Malcolm McDowell,
Marilyn Chambers, Terry Gilliam and Tony Bill.
King’s choices include: Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Wild Bunch, Bring Me the Head
of Alfredo Garcia, Dirty Harry, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, The Brood and Star Wars.
This piece and the magazine are very difficult to secure. A photocopy was made available for
the purposes of our research in early 2005, and this was the first copy we had ever seen. Copies may
appear on eBay from time to time.
His Creepiest Movies (August 27, 1985)
This article appeared in the August 27, 1985 edition of the USA Today newspaper. The authors
have not been able to track a copy down.
According to Collings172 this is ‘One of King’s “lists that matter”’, four others of which were
published: Lists That Matter, Lists That Matter (Number 7), Lists That Matter (Number 8) and
Lists That Matter (No. 14), all in Castle Rock: The Stephen King Newsletter. Note that all other
‘Lists That Matter’ pieces remain unpublished (see Lists That Matter in our King’s Unpublished
Non-Fiction chapter).
Lists That Matter (Number 7) (August 1985)
‘I think a person has to be serious—fairly serious, anyway—when it comes to the ten best
movies of all time. I’m not saying that movies are as important as American foreign policy, or the
trade deficit, or even how good the Red Sox will be next year. But about some things a person should
tell the truth. So here’s my honest-to-goodness ten-best-of-all-time list.’ Unlike King’s other film
lists, this appearance is more of an article than an annotated list, with a couple of paragraphs for
almost every film. In 1985 King’s ten favorite films in descending order were: Casablanca, E.T., The
Godfather, Part II, West Side Story, The Haunting, Psycho, Stagecoach, Sorcerer, Cool Hand Luke
and The Wizard of Oz.
Four other Lists That Matter articles were published: Lists That Matter; Lists That Matter
(Number 8) and Lists That Matter (No. 14) in Castle Rock: The Stephen King Newsletter; and His
Creepiest Movies in USA Today. All other Lists That Matter pieces remain unpublished (see Lists
That Matter in our King’s Unpublished Non-Fiction chapter for full details).
This piece appeared in the August 1985 edition of Castle Rock: The Stephen King Newsletter.
Castle Rock was an official King-related monthly newsletter edited by Christopher Spruce173 and
Stephanie Leonard174. It ran from January 1985 to December 1989. Issues can be secured from the
usual King-related sources.
Lists That Matter (Number 8) (September 1985)
This time around King lists what he believes are the ten worst movies of all time. ‘I’ve
compiled the list, but at the risk of my own sanity. You just don’t realize how many bad movies there
have been until you start to think about them. And once you start, it’s hard to stop.’
His list of the ten worst films of all-time (in descending order) are: Blood Feast, Plan Nine
from Outer Space, Teenage Monster, Old Yeller, Missing in Action, Children of the Corn, Bring
Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, Love Story, The Gauntlet and Ocean’s Eleven. It is interesting to
note that Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia was listed as a film he wanted preserved on
videocassette in the Playboy Guide People piece; he also writes of this film in Stephen King’s
Guilty Pleasures (see above for both).
This piece appeared in the September 1985 edition of Castle Rock: The Stephen King
Newsletter.
Hello Mary Lou, Goodbye Rick (April 1986)
Popular sixties singer Rick Nelson died in a plane crash on December 31, 1985; King writes an
appreciation and notes his importance to rock music. He once again shows an expert knowledge of
music history and rock in particular: ‘Nelson was somnolent on some of his hits, but he could and did
get excited. When he sang “Be-Bop Baby” or “My Bucket’s Got a Hole in It” there was an excited
jive in his voice that matches the go-for-it rockabilly sound of the band he and Ozzie put together. In
the end, rock is rock, whether it comes from a black kid in a ghetto or a white one from Bel Air—it is
a great leveler.’
Nelson’s sudden death came as a shock to everyone, including King, who more than most
appreciated the man’s artistry. ‘What I’m trying to say is that he just rocked until God stopped him,
and that’s OK. So hello Mary Lou, and goodbye Rick. You were one of the good guys.’
This article appeared in the April 1986 issue of Spin magazine. Spin isn’t as well-known as the
other big rock magazine, Rolling Stone, and therefore it isn’t likely many libraries will archive it.
However, copies will be available on occasion at used magazine or King dealers.
Let’s Scare Dick and Jane (May 11, 1986)
‘The final reductio ad absurdum of my generation’s odd belief that a person who would put his
or her creative talents to work scaring children is only one step above a person who would molest
them was the brief national trauma that took place last year over The Day After’, King opens this
piece. The plot summary from imdb.com of this movie states: ‘A graphic, disturbing film about the
effects of a devastating nuclear holocaust on small-town residents of central Kansas.’
Again, we find King exploring violence or horror on television or in the visual medium. He
specifically explores the exposure of children to this type of programming, as he had previously, as
well as another recurrent theme: horror as a catharsis. ‘Children need make-believe fears in their
lives. They understand that there are real boogeymen out there as well as—and sometimes better than
—their parents.’
This article first appeared in the May 11, 1986 edition of the Washington Post Book World; and
was reprinted in Volume XIII, Number 2 of The Creative Child and Adult Quarterly in 1988. Those
looking for the original appearance should be able to copy it from the microfilm/microfiche archives
of any large library. TheCreative Child and Adult Quarterly will be more difficult to find, as it is a
scholarly journal, and may only be available at university libraries.
What I Watch (November 27—December 3, 1993)
This short piece is bylined, ‘Stephen King, Horrormeister.’ He very briefly writes of the
television shows he currently enjoyed, including: Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Dark
Shadows (both on the Sci-Fi Channel); NYPD Blue (see also See for Yourself in our Letters to the
Editor, Guest Columns chapter); Picket Fences; and Beavis and Butt-Head (MTV).
It appeared in the November 27-December 3, 1993 issue of TV Guide magazine. Copies are
generally available from used magazine or King sources.
Setting the End of the World to Music (1994)
This piece is King’s appreciation of W.G. Snuffy Walden’s original soundtrack score to the
miniseries adaptation of his widely loved apocalyptic novel: ‘I wanted music throughout The Stand
which sounded as though three or four fellows could have played it on some back porch in
Appalachia.’ He’d been very impressed by Walden’s scores for other movies and television shows
such as I’ll Fly Away and The Chase.
King believes Walden gave him everything he wanted and did an outstanding job of it at that.
‘It’s one of the best soundtracks I’ve ever heard—instrumentally sparse, emotionally full, beautifully
textured. It is a record, in the sense that it can exist quite nicely apart from the show it was created to
support...but in a very real way, you are feeling the show as you listen to the music. Best of all, it’s
definitely not a record you’ll get tired of.’ Walden’s soundtrack also evokes strong responses: ‘I’ll
never forget the thrill I felt when I first heard your score for Mother Abigail, or for Stu Redman’s
panicked flight from the Stovington Disease Center. It was a pleasure to work with you, and it’s a joy
to have this music.’
This piece appeared in the liner notes for Stephen King’s The Stand: Original Television
Soundtrack, by W.G. Snuffy Walden, released by Varese Records in May 1994. The album is now
out of print but used copies can be obtained online or in record stores.
Untitled (1994; 2002)
These are King’s liner notes for the laserdisc of George Romero’s film Night of the Living
Dead. He opens with vivid description: ‘They stagger out of the dark and toward the farmhouse, dull
eyes informed by nothing but hunger, hands outstretched. There is no reasoning with them, no pleading
with them. They will rip the lips off your face, gouge the eyes out of your sockets, pull your guts from
your living belly. You will watch yourself eaten by them as you die...and then, after an all-too-brief
period of darkness, you too will rise...and search...and feed....’
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