Larry Blamire
Encyclopedia
Larry Blamire is an American filmmaker, writer and artist best known for the independent film
The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra.
and studied illustration
at the Art Institute of Boston under Norman Baer, a second generation student of Howard Pyle
.
illustrator
for Galileo
, and later Aboriginal Science Fiction
, among others.
theatres; the Open Door Theatre, the Alley Theatre, as well as a season at the Boston Shakespeare Company. It was with the Open Door Theatre that he found a home, particularly in their outdoor summer productions at Jamaica Pond
by the Pinebank Mansion
in a natural formation known as the Kettlebowl. His first play, In the Nations, a dark western
which he also directed, received critical and audience acclaim and was followed by his version of Robin Hood
in which he played the title role but did not direct. It was later published by Bakers Plays, continuing to be performed worldwide. In 1984 he wrote and directed Interface, a science fiction thriller based on the alleged Philadelphia Experiment
featuring ambitious effects and sound design. Performed indoors, it played well with audiences but, like Robin Hood
, received a mixed reaction from the press.
and Boston Phoenix. Moving outdoors again, Blamire's next play, Bride of the Mutant's Tomb, was a comedy about a hapless Ed Wood-inspired director trying to make his low-budget science fiction movie in the 1950s with a group of misfits. Despite less than complimentary reviews, it proved to be another crowd pleaser. In 1987 Blamire next wrote Whyo, a revenge tragedy about Irish gangs
in 19th Century New York. It received a grant from the Massachusetts Council on the Arts and Humanities and an ambitious staged reading at Gloucester Stage Company. This led to Israel Horovitz
commissioning a play, The Chroma Line, a partly autobiographical look at life in a wallpaper warehouse. His last play of the '80s was Ha'nt, a one-act performed as part of a horror anthology. During this period, Blamire received critical acclaim for a series of leading stage roles, including MacMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
, Hotspur in Henry IV, Part 1
, John Proctor in The Crucible
, Tilden in Buried Child
and Al in In the Boom Boom Room
, for which he won The Boston Theatre Critics Circle Award for Best Actor. He also played the rapist in the Boston premiere of Extremities
.
In the 1990s, despite revivals of In the Nations and Jump Camp (the latter at the Alliance Repertory Company in Los Angeles) and a lead role as the country DJ host in the hit show A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline at the Charles Playhouse
, Blamire found himself moving away from theatre. In 1992 Blamire's comedy sketches were chosen for the HBO Writers Search, and he directed several at the Stella Adler Theatre in L.A. They were also collected in an evening called Larry Blamire's Sketch-O-Rama by a new Massachusetts company, Theatre 9. Towards the end of the '90s, Blamire was writing more and more screenplays on spec, several of which were quarter- and semifinalists in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Nicholl Fellowship.
In 1997 Blamire began working with an internet start-up called Bali Hai Interactive, given carte blanche to develop new cutting edge entertainment. What resulted was The Wise Eye Guys, a quirky interactive nonlinear animated adventure for which he did thousands of drawings and directed the voice actors (which included his wife, actress Jennifer Blaire). Months after the company moved its offices to Los Angeles, it went under in the dot com crash of 2000. Trying unsuccessfully to raise money for the floundering Bali Hai, Blamire, having recently read about developments in digital video, got the idea of shooting an ultra-low-budget spoof of 1950's bargain basement science fiction movies, incorporating elements from Bride of the Mutant's Tomb. The resulting film, The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra
, premiered at the Mill Valley Film Festival
in 2002. Picked up by Michael Schlesinger for Sony
, the film was released in 2004.
That same year, Blamire wrote and directed Johnny Slade's Greatest Hits (now Meet the Mobsters), produced by and starring John Fiore
and some of The Sopranos
cast. In 2005, he wrote and directed Trail of the Screaming Forehead. Though continuing the retro science fiction spoof theme, the film had a different look and feel, in widescreen and color, under the Ray Harryhausen
Presents banner, with a title song composed by Blamire and sung by The Manhattan Transfer
. After festival screenings, it was picked up by IFC
, playing VOD
in 2009, slated for DVD release in 2010. In 2007, Blamire formed a company, Bantam Street, with his core group of actors and technicians. Their acclaimed web series Tales From the Pub launched that same year. In 2008, Bantam Street made two films back-to-back; The Lost Skeleton Returns Again, a sequel to The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra
, and Dark and Stormy Night
, a stylistically authentic takeoff on 1930s "old dark house" movies. Both feature Bantam Street's ever-increasing pool of veteran character actors, including Betty Garrett
, H.M. Wynant
and James Karen
.
.
released both Dark and Stormy Night and The Lost Skeleton Returns Again on DVD on August 17, 2010.
Independent film
An independent film, or indie film, is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. In addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, independent films are also produced...
The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra.
Biography
Blamire was raised in MassachusettsMassachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
and studied illustration
Illustration
An illustration is a displayed visualization form presented as a drawing, painting, photograph or other work of art that is created to elucidate or dictate sensual information by providing a visual representation graphically.- Early history :The earliest forms of illustration were prehistoric...
at the Art Institute of Boston under Norman Baer, a second generation student of Howard Pyle
Howard Pyle
Howard Pyle was an American illustrator and author, primarily of books for young people. A native of Wilmington, Delaware, he spent the last year of his life in Florence, Italy.__FORCETOC__...
.
Comic author
He dabbled briefly in underground comics, writing and drawing the Predator, a vigilante character, in Ace of Spades and Blazing Violence. After several years of various blue collar jobs, Blamire started working as a science fictionScience fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
illustrator
Illustrator
An Illustrator is a narrative artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text...
for Galileo
Galileo (magazine)
Galileo Magazine of Science & Fiction was a science fiction magazine which appeared as a quarterly in the 8½ × 11 format for five issues, issue #5 being published in October 1977. It then changed to a bimonthly publishing schedule beginning with issue #6 published in January 1978. The last issue...
, and later Aboriginal Science Fiction
Aboriginal Science Fiction
Aboriginal Science Fiction was a high-circulation semi-professional science fiction magazine started in October 1986 by editor Charles Ryan. After releasing 49 issues it ceased publication in the spring of 2001...
, among others.
Stage acting career
In the 1980s Blamire began acting on stage on a whim, landing roles at various BostonBoston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
theatres; the Open Door Theatre, the Alley Theatre, as well as a season at the Boston Shakespeare Company. It was with the Open Door Theatre that he found a home, particularly in their outdoor summer productions at Jamaica Pond
Jamaica Pond
Jamaica Pond is a kettle pond, part of the Emerald Necklace of parks in Boston designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. The pond and park are in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston, close to the border of Brookline...
by the Pinebank Mansion
Pinebank Mansion
Pinebank Mansion was a Queen Anne-style house sited on a hill overlooking Jamaica Pond in Boston, Massachusetts. Built in 1868 by John Hubbard Sturgis, it was the only mansion retained by Frederick Law Olmsted in his plans the Emerald Necklace park system...
in a natural formation known as the Kettlebowl. His first play, In the Nations, a dark western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
which he also directed, received critical and audience acclaim and was followed by his version of Robin Hood
Robin Hood
Robin Hood was a heroic outlaw in English folklore. A highly skilled archer and swordsman, he is known for "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor", assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his "Merry Men". Traditionally, Robin Hood and his men are depicted wearing Lincoln green clothes....
in which he played the title role but did not direct. It was later published by Bakers Plays, continuing to be performed worldwide. In 1984 he wrote and directed Interface, a science fiction thriller based on the alleged Philadelphia Experiment
Philadelphia Experiment
The Philadelphia Experiment is the name of an alleged naval military experiment said to have been carried out at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA sometime around October 28, 1943. It is alleged that the U.S. Navy destroyer escort USS Eldridge was to be rendered...
featuring ambitious effects and sound design. Performed indoors, it played well with audiences but, like Robin Hood
Robin Hood
Robin Hood was a heroic outlaw in English folklore. A highly skilled archer and swordsman, he is known for "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor", assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his "Merry Men". Traditionally, Robin Hood and his men are depicted wearing Lincoln green clothes....
, received a mixed reaction from the press.
Writing and directing movie career
In 1985, however, Blamire wrote and directed Jump Camp, a surreal dark comedy about a writer searching for a missing psychiatrist in a ghost town that took the quirky dialogue suggested by In the Nations and elevated it to heights of absurdity. The play was an instant hit with audiences and critics alike, ending up on the year's ten best lists in the Boston Globe, Boston HeraldBoston Herald
The Boston Herald is a daily newspaper that serves Boston, Massachusetts, United States, and its surrounding area. It was started in 1846 and is one of the oldest daily newspapers in the United States...
and Boston Phoenix. Moving outdoors again, Blamire's next play, Bride of the Mutant's Tomb, was a comedy about a hapless Ed Wood-inspired director trying to make his low-budget science fiction movie in the 1950s with a group of misfits. Despite less than complimentary reviews, it proved to be another crowd pleaser. In 1987 Blamire next wrote Whyo, a revenge tragedy about Irish gangs
Irish Mob
The Irish Mob is one of the oldest organized crime groups in the United States, in existence since the early 19th century. Originating in Irish American street gangs of the 19th century — depicted in Herbert Asbury's 1928 book The Gangs of New York — the Irish Mob has appeared in most...
in 19th Century New York. It received a grant from the Massachusetts Council on the Arts and Humanities and an ambitious staged reading at Gloucester Stage Company. This led to Israel Horovitz
Israel Horovitz
Israel Horovitz is an American playwright and screenwriter.-Theatre career:An American dramatist, Horovitz has written more than 70 produced plays, many of which have been translated and performed in more than 30 languages worldwide . The 70/70 Horovitz Project was created by NYC Barefoot Theatre...
commissioning a play, The Chroma Line, a partly autobiographical look at life in a wallpaper warehouse. His last play of the '80s was Ha'nt, a one-act performed as part of a horror anthology. During this period, Blamire received critical acclaim for a series of leading stage roles, including MacMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (play)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a play based on Ken Kesey's 1962 novel of the same name. Dale Wasserman's stage adaptation, with music by Teiji Ito, made its Broadway preview on November 12, 1963, its premiere on November 13, and ran until January 25, 1964 for a total of one preview and 82...
, Hotspur in Henry IV, Part 1
Henry IV, Part 1
Henry IV, Part 1 is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written no later than 1597. It is the second play in Shakespeare's tetralogy dealing with the successive reigns of Richard II, Henry IV , and Henry V...
, John Proctor in The Crucible
The Crucible
The Crucible is a 1952 play by the American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatization of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Province of Massachusetts Bay during 1692 and 1693. Miller wrote the play as an allegory of McCarthyism, when the US government blacklisted accused communists...
, Tilden in Buried Child
Buried Child
Buried Child is a play by Sam Shepard first presented in 1978. It won the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and launched Shepard to national fame as a playwright...
and Al in In the Boom Boom Room
In the Boom Boom Room
In the Boom Boom Room is a play by David Rabe. It focuses on a go-go dancer whose difficult relationship with her parents has propelled her into a series of unfortunate affairs with both men and women....
, for which he won The Boston Theatre Critics Circle Award for Best Actor. He also played the rapist in the Boston premiere of Extremities
Extremities
Extremities may refer to:* Extremities , a play by William Mastrosimone* Extremities , a film based on the play* limbs of the body, in medical terminology...
.
In the 1990s, despite revivals of In the Nations and Jump Camp (the latter at the Alliance Repertory Company in Los Angeles) and a lead role as the country DJ host in the hit show A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline at the Charles Playhouse
Charles Playhouse
The Charles Playhouse is an Off-Broadway theater located at 74 Warrenton St. in Boston, Massachusetts near Beacon Hill.Blue Man Group and Shear Madness currently play there....
, Blamire found himself moving away from theatre. In 1992 Blamire's comedy sketches were chosen for the HBO Writers Search, and he directed several at the Stella Adler Theatre in L.A. They were also collected in an evening called Larry Blamire's Sketch-O-Rama by a new Massachusetts company, Theatre 9. Towards the end of the '90s, Blamire was writing more and more screenplays on spec, several of which were quarter- and semifinalists in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of motion pictures...
Nicholl Fellowship.
In 1997 Blamire began working with an internet start-up called Bali Hai Interactive, given carte blanche to develop new cutting edge entertainment. What resulted was The Wise Eye Guys, a quirky interactive nonlinear animated adventure for which he did thousands of drawings and directed the voice actors (which included his wife, actress Jennifer Blaire). Months after the company moved its offices to Los Angeles, it went under in the dot com crash of 2000. Trying unsuccessfully to raise money for the floundering Bali Hai, Blamire, having recently read about developments in digital video, got the idea of shooting an ultra-low-budget spoof of 1950's bargain basement science fiction movies, incorporating elements from Bride of the Mutant's Tomb. The resulting film, The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra
The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra
The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra is an independent film spoofing 1950s era B-movies. It was videotaped on a budget of less than USD $100,000, and converted to black-and-white film in post-production. Larry Blamire acted in and directed the film, wrote its screenplay and provided the voice of the...
, premiered at the Mill Valley Film Festival
Mill Valley Film Festival
The Mill Valley Film Festival is an annual, non-competitive film festival presented by the California Film Institute. Known as a filmmakers’ festival, the annual Mill Valley Film Festival offers a non-competitive environment for exhibiting independent and world cinema.Founded in 1978 by MVFF...
in 2002. Picked up by Michael Schlesinger for Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
, the film was released in 2004.
That same year, Blamire wrote and directed Johnny Slade's Greatest Hits (now Meet the Mobsters), produced by and starring John Fiore
John Fiore
John Fiore may refer to:*John Fiore , American actor*John Fiore , American politician who succeeded Jim Stork...
and some of The Sopranos
The Sopranos
The Sopranos is an American television drama series created by David Chase that revolves around the New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the often conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads...
cast. In 2005, he wrote and directed Trail of the Screaming Forehead. Though continuing the retro science fiction spoof theme, the film had a different look and feel, in widescreen and color, under the Ray Harryhausen
Ray Harryhausen
Ray Harryhausen is an American film producer and special effects creator...
Presents banner, with a title song composed by Blamire and sung by The Manhattan Transfer
The Manhattan Transfer
The Manhattan Transfer is an American vocal music group. There have been two manifestations of the group, with Tim Hauser being the only person to be part of both...
. After festival screenings, it was picked up by IFC
Independent Film Channel
The Independent Film Channel is an American cable TV network that airs independent film and related programming. IFC programming includes commercially interrupted feature-length films, original documentaries, shorts, animated series, original series, acquired series, and content exclusively for...
, playing VOD
Video on demand
Video on Demand or Audio and Video On Demand are systems which allow users to select and watch/listen to video or audio content on demand...
in 2009, slated for DVD release in 2010. In 2007, Blamire formed a company, Bantam Street, with his core group of actors and technicians. Their acclaimed web series Tales From the Pub launched that same year. In 2008, Bantam Street made two films back-to-back; The Lost Skeleton Returns Again, a sequel to The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra
The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra
The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra is an independent film spoofing 1950s era B-movies. It was videotaped on a budget of less than USD $100,000, and converted to black-and-white film in post-production. Larry Blamire acted in and directed the film, wrote its screenplay and provided the voice of the...
, and Dark and Stormy Night
Dark and Stormy Night (film)
Dark and Stormy Night is a 2009 independent film spoofing the haunted house and murder mystery films produced by Hollywood in the 1930s and 40s. Larry Blamire directed and acted in the film and wrote the screenplay...
, a stylistically authentic takeoff on 1930s "old dark house" movies. Both feature Bantam Street's ever-increasing pool of veteran character actors, including Betty Garrett
Betty Garrett
Betty Garrett was an American actress, comedienne, singer and dancer who originally performed on Broadway before being signed to a film contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer...
, H.M. Wynant
H.M. Wynant
H.M. Wynant is an American film and television actor.Among his many television credits are appearances on shows such as Playhouse 90, Hawaiian Eye, The Wild Wild West, Perry Mason, Daniel Boone, Gunsmoke, Get Smart, Hawaii Five-O, Mission: Impossible, and Dallas.One of his more memorable appearances...
and James Karen
James Karen
James Karen is an American character actor of Broadway, film and television.-Life and career:Karen was born Jacob Karnofsky in Wilkes-Barre, in northeastern Pennsylvania, the son of Russian-born Jewish immigrants Mae and Joseph H. Karnofsky, a produce dealer. As a young man, Karen was encouraged...
.
Writing career
In 2009, Blamire published two books; Tales of the Callamo Mountains, a collection of his western horror short stories, and I Didn't Know You Came With Raisins, a collection of his surreal cartoons. He also completed a screenplay of Steam Wars, an ambitious longtime project with copious illustrations. Blamire continues to keep his hand in graphics, working in both Photoshop and acrylic paint. His paintings tend toward surrealismSurrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
.
Personal life
Is the nephew of British actor Bert Edgar. Blamire has two sons—Cory, by his first marriage and Griffin, by wife Jennifer Blaire, whom he has been married to since 1998.Releases
Shout! FactoryShout! Factory
Shout! Factory is an entertainment company founded in 2003 that was started by Richard Foos , Bob Emmer and Garson Foos initially as a specialty music label...
released both Dark and Stormy Night and The Lost Skeleton Returns Again on DVD on August 17, 2010.