Talk:The Milpitas Monster

Release and production date
I graduated from Samuel Ayer High School in Milpitas in 1975. The film production class, led by Bob Burrill, and including my twin brother (Michael Clausen -- who appears in the credits as "Assistant Director" among other titles, and scores of others, as well as some additional help from part of the production team of the movie 'The Hindenburg', and the cafeteria (for the making of 'candy glass' for the 'Kozy Kitchen Resturant') began this project at the start of my senior year (Sep, 1974), and continuing through the school year and into the summer following. It was released at the end of the year (Nov-early Dec, 1975 --  I forget precisely) and the premier was held at the 'Serra Twin Theaters' in Milpitas and was hosted by Bob Wilkins of Northern California 'Creature Features' fame at that theater on premier night.  The original narration in the movie was done by Tennessee Ernie Ford and that narration was in place during the premiere.  In 1976 the movie was re-edited and the narration was re-done by Paul Frees. There is a movie trailer on 'You Tube' (www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vCu4C1szCk) and the movie is available to rent on 'Netflix'. I was surprised to be able to rent the movie in Milpitas back in 1988. That version, the only available version as far as I know, is the Paul Frees version. I suspect that they wanted Paul Frees to narrate the movie in the first place, but that scheduling difficulties prevented this during the first production the movie.

The film production class would traditionally make a monster movie in an effort to learn all the aspects of movie production because it is a simple and forgiving genre. The assignment for the Milpitas Monster was originally conceived as typical class projects would normally be, a 10-minute, 8mm, black and white, silent movie produced by the class. It eventually became a 90-minute, 35mm, color with sound movie produced with the assistance of the community up to and including the Mayor (Joseph House) who was also the Vice-Principal of Samuel Ayer at the time.

I hope this helps to clear things up and make for an improved article.

Richard Clausen (richardclausen@earthlink.net) Manteca, California -- —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.181.97.171 (talk) 15:26, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

Deleted text
Sorry, but I had to delete a lot of text from this article because it was unencyclopedic, unreferenced, had informal tone and violated a lot of Wikipedia policies like WP:CONFLICT, WP:AB, Verifiability, WP:No original research. My advice to the author, if he is indeed the creator of this movie, is maybe to put this text into the official website of the movie or something like that (but not a blog) and then put an external link to it to the wikipedia article. In case anyone can use it in some way, here it is:

beginning of the citation

"The Milpitas Monster production was the first feature-length motion picture ever produced at the high school-community level." Technicolor Labs

I can speak from experience about the Milpitas Monster Movie because I am Robert Burrill the Produce-Director of this film. The idea began the first of October in 1972 during my commercial art class at Samuel Ayer high school. Students were instructed to create an original movie poster. I remember simply stating, "someone should draw The Milpitas Monster." It just sounded so good! In January 1973 the film began as a 10 minute short, in homage to the film "Godzilla Meets Bambi" and of course the classic horror films from Japan. Our film became environmental based on the early history of bad odors from prevailing winds, the salty bay waters and cannery tailings that were in close proximity to a local dump and land fill. In 1965 San Jose built the first raw sewage treatment plant on near by Zanker Road. From the early days of vaudeville, Milpitas had to put up with more than their share of bad joke humor.

The "Monster's original image" came through a collboration with my talented students. Patti Thorpe's mother, Anna Thorpe was a professional seamstress and assisted her daughter by tailoring a complete custom costume to fit the large body of student Scott Parker. We glued fur to a gas mask and inserted orange filtered lights in to the eyes. A metal shop armature and plastic packaging completed the wings. To build an accurate scale model of the "Kozy Kitchen restaurant we were aided by local modeler Duane Walz and photography from many of my capable students.

In the beginning we never planned to make a feature length film, but everything fell into place and it was a very special time. "Everyone was real except one actor, Doug Hagdohl who played George Keester." As for everyone else my students simply played themselves. That really was the mayor and mayor's daughter, the Milpitas City police and fireman and the pollution control experts. The Bob Wilkins TV show on KTVU Channel 2 "Creature Features" was another perfect fit. So after Bob had me on as a guest to screen our test shots of our 50 foot-garbage can stealing Monster destroying the Kozy Kitchen Restaurant, we later gave Bob Wilkins a speaking part as the "Monster" Expert."

"50 Tons of bestial fury on a rampage in a small American town! Can Anything stop it? It could only happen in Milpitas!"

The story was first drawn by student-artist David Kottas and the screenplay followed by David Boston. It was a community collaborate effort. We had a great title that made people laugh and as the film caught on we formed a booster club with my Adult Education photography class and the film was endorsed by the Milpitas Chamber of Commerce, the City Council, and The Milpitas Unified School District with support from the City's Public Works, Fire and Police departments, not to forget The Browning Ferris Industries and all their garbage truck drivers. This was their chance to be in a movie and everyone played it straight. Our local Milpitas Post newspaper kept everyone informed every week and asked for a date for the premiere which we replied would have to be on Halloween. But as the production values continued to grow, including a complete musical score donated by the talented Robert Berry, (from the band "Hush") we decided to extend the production to the following Halloween.

After four yeas of production the film premiered at the Serra Twin Theaters in Milpitas May 21, 1976. The original 120 minute film was narrated by "Tennessee Ernie Ford." The film sold out for a full week and received a proclamation into the Congressional Record in Washington D.C. from Congressman Don Edwards. The S.F. Bay area newspaper and television folks all got into the act and we were featured in the media across the country. We were approached by William Thrush--a film producer from Texas-- who offered to buy the Motion Picture for $100,000, but we needed time to acquirer all the property and talent releases and the offer fell void. The film sat in a closet for two years all tied up in red tape after the film was cut down to a shorter version of 84 minutes.

Finally on Oct 24,1978 the film was sold to a Milpitas merchant, Mr. George Loughborough with Huntford Printing Incorporated. Huntford had helped produce the original posters and bumper stickers with the help of their talented graphic artist Stephen Wathen. Owner George Loughborough became the Monster's hero by paying the lawyer bills and saw that the film was re-recorded with improved sound. The two year delay allowed for a third and final cut to 70 minutes and thanks to Steve Wathen arrangements, we accepted the donated narration by Paul Frees who many agree is the greatest voice in Hollywood's history. Soon the film was distributed to television throughout the country and through New York internationally, in Australia, Canada and Europe. We found one VHS copy from Japan with subtitles.

Recently, beginning in 2009, other new companies started to sell "pirated" DVD's. Unfortunately many are copies of copies with a degraded quality. One company is selling the 84 minute-second cut. A number of companies have designed new covers. Some of the new art work is very good but Illegal. The only legal owner of The Milpitas Monster Movie is George Loughborough c/o HUNTFORD PRINTING & Graphics 275 Dempsey Road Milpitas, CA 95035. Currently letters to "seize and desist" are needed.

May 21, 2011 will be the 35th year anniversary of The Milpitas Monster production. Monster festivities will be planned via www.MilpitasMonster.com. RLB

end of the citation --tired time (talk) 01:36, 20 February 2011 (UTC)