Shindig! (found footage of Boris Karloff "Monster Mash" singing performance; 1965)

The Original Monster Mash album art.

Status: Lost

"Monster Mash" is a 1962 novelty song by Bobby Pickett. Nicknamed "Boris" due to his excellent Boris Karloff impression, Pickett released the hit single in August 1962 and it soon reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in October of the same year. A full-length LP was released later that year titled The Original Monster Mash, featuring the song and many other Halloween-themed tracks. It is widely considered by many to be a perennial Halloween favorite.

In an episode of ABC’s Shindig! from October 1965, "Monster Mash" was performed by none other than Boris Karloff himself, who was also hosting the episode. Unfortunately, the footage of his performance has since been lost due to unknown reasons. Surprisingly, the rest of the episode is still intact and is available online, but the "Monster Mash" clip remains missing.

Despite the footage being missing, a YouTube user by the name of lionelatwill managed to record the audio of the 1965 performance from a reel-to-reel tape recorder when it originally aired and posted it online in 2008. The audio only has Karloff singing the first verse and was then followed by what is said to be Ted Cassidy introducing a new dance as Lurch. Aside from a couple of fan recreations made using existing clips, the authentic footage still remains lost to this day.

Videos

The original audio recorded from a reel-to-reel tape recorder.

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A recreation of what the footage may have looked like, along with other musical numbers.

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