Picture of the Week: Joan Lights Up

This week, Joan Bennett (Elizabeth Collins Stoddard) lights up in a 1942 advertisement for Chesterfield Cigarettes. During her 1940s heyday, Joan enjoyed a lucrative sideline endorsing products, including a long-term contract as the face of Lux soap. 

Here she's pictured in her American Voluntary Services uniform. During World War Two, Joan was an active member of the organisation, up until when she fell pregnant in early 1943.

If you would like to submit an image for Picture of the Week, email webmaster@collinwood.net.

Dark Shadows Summer Reunion

A Dark Shadows Reunion is to be held in Tarrytown, New York, this July, organised by the Friends of 1991 Dark Shadows fan group. The event will take place at the Lyndhurst Estate (Collinwood in the 1970s Dark Shadows movies) on July 13-14.

Announced guests from the original series include Marie Wallace (Eve), Sharon Smyth-Lentz (Sarah Collins), Donna Wandrey (Roxanne Drew), Donna McKechnie (Amanda Harris) and Michael Hadge (Buzz Hackett). Guests from the 1991 Dark Shadows revival include Roy Thinnes (Roger Collins), Jim Fyfe (Willie Loomis), Ely Pouget (Maggie Evans) and Rebecca Staab (Daphne Collins). Additionally, Monica Rich (Sarah Castle in Night of Dark Shadows) is also set to appear.

For more information, including pricing, registration details and local hotel guidance, visit the event's official Facebook page by clicking here. Please note that this event is not affiliated with the official Dark Shadows Festival gatherings.

Picture of the Week: Louis' Worldly Ways

This week it's a rare press shot of Louis Edmonds (Roger Collins) in the 1954 New York revival of Restoration comedy The Way of the World. Louis played the lead role Mirabell and is pictured with his co-star Gerry Fleming as Millament. Dark Shadows' Thayer David (Professor Stokes) also appeared in the same production.

Writing in The New York Times, critic Brooks Atkinson suggested that: "Edmonds will make an excellent Mirabell when he speaks with more grace and clarity and relaxes a little bit." Meanwhile, The Herald Tribune's Walter Kerr was distinctly lukewarm about both the play's leads: "Neither lacks the hauteur or diction essential to this kind of verbal antic, but both... spend most of their time chasing musical notes uphill and down dale, letting humour lag."

If you would like to submit an image for Picture of the Week, email webmaster@collinwood.net.

2013 California Festival Event Photographs

The Dark Shadows Festival's weekend of events in Coronado, California took place last month, with over 300 fans congregating to enjoy the premiere screening of the new independent film Doctor Mabuse, along with a gala celebrity luncheon the following day, which included a music concert by David Selby (Quentin Collins).

The Festival's next Dark Shadows event is a cruise to Bermuda, taking place in October; For more information, click here. The Festival have also announced that they will be hosting a 2014 summer event at the Lyndhurst Estate in Tarrytown, New York. Lyndhurst was the location for Collinwood in the two 1970s Dark Shadows movies and today is a National Trust property. More details will be announced later in the year.

Courtesy of the Festival, we have some photographs from the California event, taken by Maria Barbosa. Pictured above are Christopher Pennock (Jeb Hawkes), Jerry Lacy (Reverend Trask), Kathryn Leigh Scott (Maggie Evans), Lara Parker (Angelique) and David Selby. Seen below are Lara Parker; David Selby; and Jerry Lacy. Click on the thumbnails for larger views.