Most readers below a certain age or from other countries might never have heard of Bob Burns III, who was, on the surface, a nice guy living with his wife in the Los Angeles suburb of Burbank who put on a cool neighborhood Halloween show every year. That short description is not wrong, but it’s far from the whole story…

Sadly, I never got the chance to meet Bob Burns, but in my early teens, I’d read about his glorious suburban Halloween shows in the pages of Starlog and SFX magazines, and I envied him. With a “little help from his friends” in the entertainment industry, Burns amassed a massive collection of props, miniatures and makeup appliances, along with other collectibles from sci-fi/horror/fantasy movies and TV shows. As I got older, I realized the trick was that Burns never fully grew up. That little boy from Oklahoma who played at being “Major Mars” and made props/costumes for low-budget sci-fi movies always kept his childlike sense of wonder close by. Bob Burns was who I wanted to be someday…

At age 21, army veteran Burns married the love of his life and partner in fandom, Kathy Burns (1938-2021). In the 1950s, Burns and his actor/prop-maker friend Paul Blaisdell collaborated on low-budget sci-fi fare such as “The She-Creature” (1956) and “Invasion of the Saucer Men” (1957), as well as a 1960s fan magazine called “Fantastic Monsters of the Films” (not to be confused with Forrest Ackerman’s “Famous Monsters of Filmland”). Burns himself would play ‘Kogar the Gorilla’ for a 1956 Superman short called “Superman and the Gorilla Gang.” He would later suit up for a 1975 Saturday morning kid’s show titled, “The Ghost Busters,” which was entirely unrelated to the popular “Ghostbusters” movies or their offshoots. In that short-lived series, Burns played ‘Tracy,’ the car-driving gorilla companion to a pair of bumbling, monster-seeking private eyes played by Larry Storch and Forrest Tucker. Burns was jokingly credited as Tracy’s “trainer.”

His props and that gorilla suit helped open doors for Burns within the entertainment industry, as his versatility with construction and occasional suit-acting helped him make a few influential friends, including Oscar-winning makeup artist Rick Baker (“Star Wars,”“American Werewolf in London” “Ed Wood”), FX artists Dennis Muren (“Star Wars,” “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,”“Jurassic Park”), Greg Nicotero (“Day of the Dead,” “From Dusk Till Dawn,”“The Walking Dead”), actor Walter Koenig (“Star Trek,““Babylon 5”), and so many others.

In February of 2020, right before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down nearly everything, I attended the Gallifrey One Doctor Who/sci-fi convention in Los Angeles, which featured a tribute panel to the late screenwriter/story editor Dorothy Fontana (“Star Trek,” TV’s “Logan’s Run”). Speaking at the panel was Fontana’s widower, visual effects maestro Dennis Skotak (“ALIENS,”“The Abyss,”“T2”). Skotak recalled meeting his then-future wife Fontana while both were assisting their friend Bob Burns with one of his famed neighborhood Halloween shows. You could say Bob Burns acted as their unwitting cupid. Needless to say, my eyes got more than a bit misty after hearing Skotak’s moving story about his then recently-deceased wife.

Fontana and Skotak were part of the all-volunteer crew of industry professionals who regularly lent their talents to the Burnses neighborhood Halloween show in Burbank. Fontana and Skotak were actually part of the crew which helped to restore the original titular prop from producer/director George Pal’s “The Time Machine” (1960), which was found in terribly dilapidated condition at a thrift store in Orange, California. The remaking of the prop, much of which had to be hand-crafted from scratch, was well chronicled in the bonus features of “The Time Machine” DVD/Blu-Ray.

The restoration of that prop also led to the creation of a made-for-video short film called “The Time Machine: The Journey Back” (1993), which featured Rod Taylor returning as time traveler “George” with Alan Young returning as George’s faithful friend “Filby.” This fan servicing short sees George making a return from the far future to his Victorian laboratory in a vain attempt to talk his ill-fated friend Filby out of returning to the the First World War. The two friends (and actors) enjoy a brief, sentimental reunion before they go their separate ways once again. This short film is available via YouTube and as another bonus feature on “The Time Machine” DVD/Blu-Ray.

Sometime in the early 2000s, my wife and I were shopping in the now-defunct Virgin Megastore at the Block at Orange mall, where I found a large softback called “It Came From Bob’s Basement!” The book–with an appropriately 1950s B-movie style cover–was cowritten by Burns and John Michlig, and it featured an introduction from Burns’ FX-genius friend, Dennis Muren. Still vividly remembering those articles chronicling Burns’ Halloween shows in the pages of those old Starlog and SFX magazines, I grabbed a copy without a second thought. After taking it home, I read it cover to cover the following morning, and I learned so much about Bob Burns; his early childhood in Oklahoma, his brief army career (in between wars), and his eventual move to California, where he sought to fulfill his childhood ambitions and work in the entertainment industry. For fellow fans of a certain age, this book is a must-own (check Amazon and eBay).

Burns’ high-profile friends would eventually help him create his legendary neighborhood Halloween shows (his “ALIEN” show in Halloween of 1979 used actual props loaned to him by 20th Century Fox). How many neighborhood Halloween shows employ Oscar & Emmy-winning talent? Burns’ friends would also help him to amass the scores of unique collectibles in “Bob’s Basement,” which held props from such high-profile films as the original 1933 “King Kong,” “Star Wars,” “ALIEN,” and “An American Werewolf in London.”

Despite these high-profile items in his collection, Burns wasn’t an esoteric snob; he also kept many screen-used props and pieces from low-budget flicks and old Republic serials such as “The Purple Monster Strikes” (1945) and a pair of gorilla heads (made by future Oscar-winning friend Rick Baker) from “The Thing With Two Heads” (1972). Burns also owned pieces from “Invasion of the Saucer Men” (which he worked on with his friend, Paul Blaisdell), “This Island Earth,” and many others. He loved his B-monster movies and action serials every bit as much as he loved the latest James Cameron and Peter Jackson opuses.

Burns’ collection of ALIEN props from the first four movies (including multiple costume heads and face-huggers) was so extensive that it was chronicled in the bonus features of the “ALIEN Quadrilogy” DVD/Blu-Ray box set in a featurette. As mentioned above, some of his ALIEN props were originally loaned to him by 20th Century Fox for his spectacular 1979 Halloween show, only to wind up in his personal collection years later. Clearly, Burns gained much trust in the entertainment industry.

The collector’s many stories behind his various props made him a walking treasure trove of facts and history, which was smartly employed on audio commentary tracks for the DVD/Blu-Rays of such films as “The Mummy” (1933), “The Bride and the Beast” (1958), “War of the Worlds” (1953), “Godzilla Raids Again” (1955), “Revenge of the Creature” (1955), “The Creature Walks Among Us” (1956), “Frankenstein 1970,” and “The Fly II” (1989).

In 2021, Kathy Burns passed away, leaving the collector a heartbroken widower. This past May, Burns himself reached the milestone age of 90, though he hadn’t been able to stage his legendary neighborhood Halloween shows for quite a while. Nevertheless, his value as collector, at-home curator and film historian saw him making contributions to fandom almost up to the very end of his long and colorful life. Being a part of the film industry, as well as a collector, presenter and showman, the late, great Bob Burns lived every fan’s dream. And the the best part was that he couldn’t wait to share it with as many people as possible.

What better legacy could there be for an old sci-fi/fantasy/horror kid?

Bob Burns III, May 12th 1935–December 12th, 1935.