It was the dream of Philip and Megan Todd to one day open their own antique shop. In December of 1969 they did just that and opened their business in Collinsport. Carolyn Stoddard discovered the store and took an interest in it early on. She even voluntarily worked part-time at the shop for a while.
Finding and buying their treasures from area estates and auctions was a short-lived endeavor for the Todd's however. The antique shop burned to the ground in mid-February of 1970, one of a string of "unfortunate events" that also took the lives of the Todds shortly thereafter.
We keep the Todd Antique Shop open here in their memory.
The Barnabas Collins Ring is one of the rarest DS collectibles. It's made of metal,
with a fake onyx-like stone. It could only be purchased by mail, by sending in five
DS bubble gum card wrappers and 50 cents. It was produced by Timco Industries in 1969.
Three Dark Shadows scale models were released by Model Products Corp. in 1969 --
one of Barnabas, one of a werewolf, and one of a hearse-like "vampire van." The van
was re-released after the show went off the air, without any DS tie-in on the box.
(Both van boxes are pictured here.) Below, the sides of the Barnabas Vampire Van box
provide a closer look at the model's details. On DS, Barnabas may have borrowed Liz
& Roger's station wagon a few times, but he never tooled around Collinsport in
anything quite this snazzy.
The Dark Shadows View-Master Reels. The reels and booklet summarize the DS storyline featuring Angelique as a vampiress, Dr. Julia Hoffman, Barnabas Collins, Nicholas Blair, and the Frankenstein-and-Bride-inspired Adam and Eve.
The Barnabas Collins Dark Shadows Game has the spooky distinction of being the only
Milton Bradley board game whose pieces include a coffin, tiny wooden stakes, scaffolds,
and plastic bones. Players twirl a spinner and receive a bone that matches the picture
on the square the spinner stops on. Using these bones, players race to complete an
entire skeleton, and the winner gets the right to wear an included set of vampire fangs.
The game was manufactured in 1969, and today is a fairly common collectible.
Two Dark Shadows Magic Slates were manufactured by Western Publishing in 1969. Magic Slates are kind of a primitive version of the classic Etch-A-Sketch -- you can draw on them, but when you lift the plastic sheet, your image disappears. They retailed for 39 cents.
Gold Key Comic Books: From 1968 to 1976, a comic book series was based losely on the
original show. The art wasn't bad, though the characters didn't resemble their TV
counterparts; and the stories were unrelated to the TV plots -- but as a stand-alone
DS parallel time series, they're enjoyable. The comic series lasted twice as long as
the TV series, ending ten years after the show debuted.
A number of Soundtrack Albums have been released over the years. The first volume came
out in July 1969 and spent 19 weeks on Billboard's charts (peaking at number 18 in August).
It features 18 cuts -- five of which are accompanied by dramatic narration by Jonathan
Frid, and one of which features narration by David Selby.
Sheet Music was sold for "Quentin's Theme," "Shadows of the Night" (which is really just "Quentin's Theme with lyrics), and "Ode to Angelique.
Trading Cards: The Red Series, manufactured by Philadelphia Gum Corp in 1968.
The set consists of 66 cards with black-and-white stills from the TV show.
Almost half of the cards feature Jonathan Frid as Barnabas alone, but on other cards such fan favorites as Grayson Hall, Nancy Barrett, Joan Bennett, and Alexandra Moltke are pictured. Character "autographs" are printed on the cards as well.
One of the rarest of the Dark Shadows collectibles is this plastic music box, a replica of the music box given to Josette by her beloved Barnabas on the show. It was produced in 1970 by Paul Randolph Associates and was only available through mail order. It was packaged in the cardboard box pictured above. The box plays the popular "Josette's Theme," just like the boxes featured on the TV show and in the movie House of Dark Shadows.
The box is rare for several reasons: It hit the market not long before Dark Shadows
was cancelled, when the show's popularity was waning a bit, so it wasn't available
for long; it was made of flimsy plastic, so many copies didn't survive; and since
it wasn't sold in stores, it didn't sell as well as such items as gum cards and
paperbacks, which were much more widely available.
The music box was re-created and sold by MPI Media Group in 1996, packaged in a different cardboard box. (The MPI box, featuring a photo of Jonathan Frid and Kathryn Leigh Scott, is pictured here.) The reproduction is currently available from MPI for $40.
One of the more pricey items is the replica of the Alpacca Wolf Head cane carried by Barnabas Collins. For $399, you can order this from Canes Galore. The original cane is on the left (below); the Canes Galore reproduction is on the right.
Marilyn Ross is a familiar name to Dark Shadows fans, seen on millions of copies
of the Dark Shadows novels produced in the 1960s.
In reality, the author of the books was Canadian writer Dan Ross, who used his wife’s name as a pseudonym for the books.
The Paperback Library began releasing novels based on the TV series Dark Shadows in December of 1966. There were thirty-three novels released through to 1972.
All of the novels, with the exception of House of Dark Shadows were part of one shared continuity separate from the history supplied in the original television series. House of Dark Shadows was an adaptation of the MGM film, House of Dark Shadows and as such, represented a separate continuity.
These books can still be found, from time to time, at used book stores and thift shops. And of course, there's always e-Bay!
For those interested in collecting these treasures, here is a list of all titles in the series.
1. Dark Shadows (1966)
2. Victoria Winters (1967)
3. Strangers at Collins House (1967)
4. The Mystery of Collinwood (1968)
5. The Curse of Collinwood (1968)
6. Barnabas Collins (1968)
7. The Secret of Barnabas Collins (1969)
8. The Demon of Barnabas Collins (1969)
9. The Foe of Barnabas Collins (1969)
10. The Phantom and Barnabas Collins (1969)
11. Barnabas Collins vs. the Warlock (1969)
12. The Peril of Barnabas Collins (1969)
13. Barnabas Collins and the Mysterious Ghost (1970)
14. Barnabas Collins and Quentin's Demon (1970)
15. Barnabas Collins and the Gypsy Witch (1970)
16. Barnabas, Quentin and the Mummy's Curse (1970)
17. Barnabas, Quentin and the Avenging Ghost (1970)
18. Barnabas, Quentin and the Nightmare Assassin (1970)
19. Barnabas, Quentin and the Crystal Coffin (1970)
20. Barnabas, Quentin and the Witch's Curse (1970)
21. Barnabas, Quentin and the Haunted Cave (1970)
22. Barnabas, Quentin and the Frightened Bride (1970)
Un-numbered Special Edition. House of Dark Shadows (1970)
23. Barnabas, Quentin and the Scorpio Curse (1970)
24. Barnabas, Quentin and the Serpent (1970)
25. Barnabas, Quentin and the Magic Potion (1971)
26. Barnabas, Quentin and the Body Snatchers (1971)
27. Barnabas, Quentin and Dr. Jekyll's Son (1971)
28. Barnabas, Quentin and the Grave Robbers (1971)
29. Barnabas, Quentin and the Sea Ghost (1971)
30. Barnabas, Quentin and the Mad Magician (1971)
31. Barnabas, Quentin and the Hidden Tomb (1971)
32. Barnabas, Quentin and the Vampire Beauty (1971)
