(no subject)

[janradder]

I recently opened a flickr account where I posted some of photos I scanned this weekend. One set is of a place called Holy Land USA, which is on a tallest hill in Waterbury, CT. Back in the 50's (at least I think it was the 50's) some guy in Waterbury bought up all the land on the top of the hill and began building a replica of the holy land along with recreations of Biblical scenes (Lot's wife, turned into a pillar of salt is there, for instance. It's a four or five foot tall column of crumbling plaster). It also features a giant cross that is lit each night. During its hay day, it was apparently the biggest tourist attraction in the state of Connecticut. When the guy died, he left it to a group of nuns who closed it up and let it fall into disrepair. A friend of mine and I used to go there on occasion and in 1986 we took some photos there, which is what I put up. If you're interested, you can see them here (and if you want to read a more detailed history of the place, you can find that here).

The other set of photos I uploaded were some early forays into the world of special makeup FX (also from 1986). My friend and I were obsessed with horror movies and hoped to one day work on them (which we actually did about a month or two after these were taken when I got us both a job as production assistants on Psychos in Love). Most of these were taken at my mom's house late one Saturday night after my mom had gone to bed. Being bored we decided to raid my mother's makeup kit (and with the refrigerator) to see what we could come up with. One thing we discovered was that mortician's wax doesn't really stick to skin all that well. Another thing we discovered was that toilet paper covered in flesh colored makeup and liberal amounts of ick, made a decent substitute for latex skin. The photos were intended for a fanzine we never put out. Anyway, you can see those here.

Comments

[justinhowe.livejournal.com]

Wow. Great pictures. I remember passing Holy Land USA often while going to school in CT.

[janradder.livejournal.com]

Thank you. It's neat place. Unfortunately, the photos I had of the miniature Jerusalem and a lot of the Biblical scenes were lost years ago. I've seen more recent photos of the place and it looks like all lot of it has literally crumbled into nothing so that a lot of the stuff is completely unrecognizable now. Not too far from Holy Land, by the way, are the ruins of an old amusement park. I've never been, but I've seen pictures.

[justinhowe.livejournal.com]

My dad lived in Waterbury right after he graduated college in the early 60s.Whenever we drove along 84 he talked about "Brass City". He never mentioned the Park, but he did talk about Holy Land USA.

Wasn't there a time when Waterbury was the murder capital of the states?

[janradder.livejournal.com]

That's very likely possible. I know it was voted worst city to live in at one point in the 90's (or maybe it was Bridgeport -- if so, Waterbury was like one rung up from that).

Here's a link to the old amusement park, by the way:

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/ct/littlepeopletown.html

It's not in Waterbury (I don't think), but just down the road off 84.

[janradder.livejournal.com]

Brass City is the nickname for Waterbury because of all the brass mills that used to be there, all of them are long gone, though. There's still Brass City Records, though, which is one of the better record stores in the area (or at least it was).

[justinhowe.livejournal.com]

Heh. I remember shopping there. It's where I bought my first Big Black album.

[janradder.livejournal.com]

That's neat. Did you ever go to Phoenix Records, also in Waterbury? It's been gone for quite a few years now. It was the most amazing record store I've ever been to in my life. It was run by this guy called Professor Morono until he sold the store to some kids who worked for him. The building it was in on Bank Street in Waterbury burned down in maybe 1987 or 88, and he reopened down the street, then moved to a larger location a year or two later near where the Naugatuck Valley Mall was (if you know where that is). For years after, you could still buy records with water damaged sleeves or that smelled like smoke.

[justinhowe.livejournal.com]

Never went there. I went to Brass City between 91 - 96. My friend lived in Waterbury and we'd go there to shop. My buddy later became friendly with the owners.

[janradder.livejournal.com]

Ah. By then it was only a shadow of its old self, anyway.

[justinhowe.livejournal.com]

Er. An edit. My friend lived "near" Waterbury. He actually lived in Southbury.

[janradder.livejournal.com]

I used to stop in Southbury when I'd take the Bonanza bus from Waterbury to New York.

[justinhowe.livejournal.com]

I've taken that bus myself.