Halfway to Halloween event scares up a 60s TV icon
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Butch Patrick AKA Eddie Munster (“The Munsters” TV Show 1964) arrived in town Friday to set up his car “Dragula” and his Chopper for the inaugural Halfway to Halloween Faire and Car Show.
“I do a lot of automotive events usually,” Patrick said. “I occasionally do things like this. It’s kinda fun to work with the smaller communities.”
Patrick said that the “Munsters” fan base is very broad. He makes appearances at events that range from horror to sci-fi.
“It’s always a really positive experience,” he said.
Dragula is built to the authentic specs of the original. His special built cycle is also Munster themed and built to the same layout as Peter Fonda’s Easy Rider bike.
The original Dragula is in Allen’s car club, Dead Man’s Curve, in New Jersey, with the Munster’s Number Three Munster’s Coach.
The Dragula that Patrick brought to Manchester is basically a display car.
Built to the original, Dragua has a Ford 289 small block, with a big cam and 11½ pistons in it, straight headers and a beef-up power glide two-speed drag racing transmission, with a 3,000 stall speed in it.
“It’s built like a dragster, with all the Munster goodies on it. And if I was to get on it, it would pull a wheelie,” Patrick said.
The bike was built Bill Farmer of USA Choppers. With a coffin-shaped gas tank, dragon tail chain link frame and Munster photos, the bike is also a tribute to the original show.
Halfway to Halloween organizer Cliff Allen said he doesn’t recall the first event when he met Patrick, but the second was Mid-Summer Scream in Long Beach, Calif.
Patrick said that a lot of his appearances come from connections made at various shows.
“A lot of people help each other out. A lot of celebrities on the circuit do that. They help each other out. Organizers know celebrities; celebrities know toy dealers, we all try to put a good word in for each other when we can,” Patrick said.
“It’s kinda like a little family,” he said. And that family has carried him to some unusual places and to meet some great friends.
Patrick recalls being the first to arrive for a show at the Superdome in New Orleans.
“I was there all by myself with my cars and I thought, can you imagine the things that have happened right here, ground zero in the Superdome?”
Patrick said he has been friends with Evel Knievel, Hollywood car builder George Farris, and countless other personalities through the decades.
Patrick looks back and enjoys the memories of meeting people at these types of shows.
Countless fans tell him stories of growing up watching the show, enough for his book “Munster Memories.”
“You always get this warm fuzzy feeling. And they come up and say that was my favorite show,” he said.
Since the days as Eddie Munster, Patrick has starred in a variety of programs, mostly connected to his fame as the iconic TV child of Herman Munster.
