Writer and filmmaker John Waters is the ultimate fan of horrormeister Vincent Price. “I actually prayed I would wake up and be Vincent Price,” he has been quoted as saying.
This fall, Waters is showing his affection for Price by helping his daughter Victoria and her neighbors cope with a real-life horror: losing everything in a flood.
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Price’s daughter lives in an area of western North Carolina that suffered extensive flood damage caused by Hurricane Helene, and that’s how Waters became involved.
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He recently released a video on YouTube in which he asks horror fans for donations to help people seeking to recover from the hurricane, which made landfall on September 26 in northwestern Florida and also battered parts of Tennessee, Georgia and North Carolina.
“Hi, this is John Waters, aka the Duke of Dirt, the Prince of Puke,” the video begins. “I’m reaching out to all the horror fans out there to ask you for your help because the daughter of the King of Horror, the Master of Menace himself, Vincent Price, has asked me for my help.”
“I’m sure you’ve heard about how Hurricane Helene wreaked havoc, particularly in western North Carolina,” Waters continues. “Vincent’s daughter Victoria lives in the area and watched in fury as insurance companies refused to help people who have lost everything to mud and flood damage. So she has partnered with the Community Foundation in her county to create The Mud & Flood Fund. This will go directly to individuals and small businesses trying to rebuild.”
Waters tells fans there are two ways for people to help Victoria Price and her neighbors.
“You can donate directly and also bid on amazing things she is gathering for an online auction launching October 30,” he says. “I’ll be donating an autographed vintage two-sided Horror Film Festival poster that makes me feel like doing The Creep.”
Other auction items include: a signed copy of Cassandra Peterson’s autobiography, Yours Cruelly, Elvira: Memoirs of the Mistress of the Dark; a signed Elvira Black Light Funko Pop; a Raven poster signed by Victoria Price and Sara Karloff, the daughter of actor Boris Karloff; a signed painting of Vincent Price by Graham Humphreys, a Vincent Price sculpture and a Rubber Chicken signed by Svengoolie (Rich Koz), a Chicago-based TV personality.
Also, an Edgar Allan Poe vacation package in Richmond, Virginia; a signed Robert Englund/Freddy Krueger photo; two tickets to the sold-out Blind Pilot concert on November 20 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and several Munsters-related items. Additionally, Victoria’s publisher, Dover Press, has donated copies of her book, Living Love, which she will sign and include with each winning auction item. More information is available on the Vincent Price Facebook page; vincentprice.com, and @masterofmenace on Instagram.
Vincent Price was an American actor known for his work in the horror film genre, mostly portraying villains. His films include House on Haunted Hill, The Tingler, House of Wax and Theatre of Blood. He collaborated with director Roger Corman on a series of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations, including House of Usher, The Haunted Palace, The Pit and the Pendulum and The Masque of Red Death. He appeared in the television series Batman as the villain Egghead and has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for motion pictures and one for television. Married three times, he was the subject of persistent rumors that he was gay or bisexual — speculation that only grew after a 1977 one-man show in which he portrayed the out gay writer Oscar Wilde.
His daughter Victoria, 62, lives in Hendersonville, a city of about 15,500 in the Southern Appalachians between the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains. It’s the county seat of Henderson County, North Carolina, about 25 miles south of Asheville.
Victoria Price is a public speaker, designer, art consultant and writer who came out as a lesbian in the 1980s. She spends much of her time traveling and speaking about her father and other topics, sometimes at horror conventions. In her 1998 book, Vincent Price: A Daughter’s Biography, she explored many different facets of her father’s life and career but refrained from offering a firm opinion about his sexuality. But in a 2015 interview with Boom Magazine, she was more explicit.
“I am as close to certain as I can be that my dad had physically intimate relationships with men,” she said in the interview with Colin Murphy, titled ‘Vincent Price’s Daughter Confirms Father’s Bisexuality.’ “I know for 100% fact that my dad was completely loving and supportive of LGBT people.”
Growing up in a Hollywood Hills mansion, she told the publication, she knew a number of LGBT folks.
“We lived across the street from Rock Hudson and we had a lot of gay friends growing up,” she said. “I mean, ‘Uncle Rupert’ and ‘Uncle Frank’ came to every dinner party and it was very clear that they were together. And while the word [gay] was never mentioned, it was very much the norm.”
When she came out to her father in her 20s, she recalled, “He said to me, ‘You know, I know just how you feel because I have had these deep, loving relationships with men in my life and all my wives were jealous,’” adding, “He understood me at 22 better than I understood myself then.”
After Hendersonville was hit hard by Hurricane Helene, Victoria collaborated with the Community Foundation of Henderson County to create a fund to assist people there who lost their homes or small businesses due to mud or flooding from that storm and aren’t receiving any compensation from their insurance companies.
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The Mud & Flood Fund that they created is targeted to assist people in a limited area of western North Carolina.
According to its website, it was established to “help residents and small businesses in Henderson County whose homes or small businesses have suffered damage due to mud and/or flooding during Hurricane Helene. It is estimated that only 2 percent of residents possessed flood insurance, making recovery for those community members especially daunting. The Mud & Flood Fund aims to aid individuals, families, and small businesses who might otherwise fall through the cracks in being able to rebuild and come back stronger than ever!”
With the funds raised, the website states, the fund will assist homeowners in need through Henderson County Habitat for Humanity programs. In addition, “a portion of the funds raised will be used to boost small businesses, the backbone of the local economy, buoying access to low-interest loans or services from the Chamber of Commerce to help them rebuild and thrive once again,” the website states.
Waters ends his video by making one more appeal on behalf of Vincent and Victoria Price.
“We know how supportive the horror community is,” he says. “This is a way you can help people experiencing the real horror of losing everything. Come on, monster kids. From beyond the grave, Vincent Price commands you to donate. Do it or die!!!”
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