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After a while the thing you begin to realize most about Robert Quarry is his bitterness, justified or not, regarding his career in Hollywood. The whole “Count Yorga” thing had his back up as soon as the afterglow of publicity wore thin, not to mention his exclusive contract with Samuel Z. Arkoff, whom Bob would always refer to as “Mr. Heeb.” He once sent a Xmas card to the Arkoff family which depicted Count Yoga in full regalia sitting on a toilet. As Bob would explain later on, “Arkoff, with little regard for building my chances of a real movie career, chose to put it firmly in the toilet with shitty films that exploited my name and little else, which is basically what he did to Vincent as well.”

Robert had cultivated an intense hatred of the late Louis M Heyward, who was head of European production when Bob was making DR PHIBES RISES AGAIN and MADHOUSE in London. According to Bob it was “Deke “ Hayward who stabbed him in the back by going to some of Bob’s posh English friends during filming and “outing” him to them as well as trying to take them away from Quarry by slandering him in any way possible. When this gossip was related back to Quarry he rightly or not never stopped feeling betrayed by all this bad blood, which probably led to his contract being terminated, but not, unfortunately, before an embarrassing swan song at AIP called SUGAR HILL, a blaxsplotation flick about zombies. In this film Bob plays a gangster, originally written for a black actor, so lines like “Listen Fabulous, I may make an honest nigger out of you yet” really sound ugly even in that era where political correctness had yet to appear.

I never got the impression from Vincent Price that he ever felt any real competition from Quarry as an actor or as a potential rival in the horror market. Vincent Price was always a “STAR” in or out of horror films, not to mention a far better actor than he was given credit for in his lifetime. Bob used to give interviews regarding Vincent and made observations about Price relying too much on camp and never really creating characters beyond an extension of his personality.

This is a given with most movie stars anyway, think John Wayne or Jack Nicholson. They always create their characters as extensions of their larger-than-life personas. I have seen most of Bob Quarry’s films and there is not a one of them in which he is anything other than Robert Quarry reciting someone else’s dialogue. I believe that deep down Bob had a great respect for Vincent Price as an actor, yet circumstance, combined with meddling producers, put a wedge between them. Who knows, in a perfect world they might even have forged a rapport reminiscent of what Price enjoyed with Peter Lorre, had the chemistry been there instead of this trumped-up rivalry.

The funny stories Bob used to tell regarding Vincent – of the wrap parties where Price got the nickname Vincent “Half- Price” due to his custom of taking away anything of value that was left on the Craft-tables back to his hotel, or when Bob picked up the tab for the wrap party on the MADHOUSE set when it became obvious that Price was not going to spring for it – all made for entertaining dinner conversation, but they certainly did not help create a bond between the actors that was a given.

These were the kinds of memories crossing my mind as I sat in that audio booth trying to conjure up bits and pieces of my friendship with Price, and wondering if Bob would turn up while I was still there. I had not seen him in a good many years. However I had enough fond memories of wonderful gourmet dinners at his home( even during those really difficult times when his mother Mimi was ill, as she lived with him during her last years), and especially those evenings out on the town, to remember his friendship and generosity with sincere affection

Whatever Robert Quarry may still feel about Hollywood there is at least one producer in town that cared enough about Bob to cast him in every picture he produced that had a place for him, making it possible for Quarry to keep his SAG medical insurance solid, and that man is Fred Olen Ray, who is blessed with a generous nature not to mention a passion for old cheesy movies. We should all be so blessed with friends like Fred.

Robert is a true Hollywood survivor with more than his share of bad luck in a business that can bring you great success or bring you down, depending on timing and, most of all, luck. I know Robert Quarry will always be remembered because the fan base for these “cheesy” old horror films are loyal to the core and they will keep his legacy alive as long as there is a double bill of Count Yorga flicks, or a retrospective of films that star the incomparable Vincent Price.

THE BOARDING HOUSE

One of the many projects that almost came to pass during my time as an agent involved trying to package a horror film from scratch. What really appealed to me about all this at that time was becoming a casting director, so I could hire all my favorite actors instead of just trying to get them work from other studios which ended in rejection more times than I care to remember.

The film was to be called THE BOARDING HOUSE, with an “all star cast” of genre favorites to back it up, the real flaw in all this being that the young man who wrote the screenplay and wanted to produce as well had absolutely no experience whatsoever in the picture business and was beyond naïve in assuming he could raise money on the cast alone. As much as I loved these guys, none of them could bankroll a film even at that point in time. However, I was rather young and naïve, so I too hoped for the impossible to happen.

All that really took place when cast and script finally came together was having the very young and plumb screenwriter fly out to the coast for a series of fun but meaningless meetings with the actors and a few chats with powerless executives willing to listen to anyone ready to buy them a free lunch.

The screenwriter, Norman Bryn, was in fact a very talented painter and is at the moment a sought after make-up man, so at least there was one happy ending in the future for this erstwhile producer of Horror. He had met the sister of actress Linda Blair, a young lady named Deborah Blair. She will always remain a kind of mystery lady, just the name on a poster for me, as I to this day have never met the woman, nor has Linda Blair ever mentioned her in the few times we have met over the years at parties or autograph shows.

Norman created a wild painting depicting the entire dream cast for the ad campaign, and actually placed a full-page ad in Daily Variety in hopes of attracting some backers.
When you take into consideration all the crap that does get made in this town it is really a shame that this one did not see the light of day, after all, just to see COUNT YORGA’s Robert Quarry interact with the leading lady from Corman’s TOMB OF LIGEIA, Elizabeth Shepherd, while Hitchcock’s assassin, Reggie Nalder, plots with PHANTASM’s Angus Scrimm… It could have been a blast to make, and who knows, it might have been fun to watch as well.

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