Sixties
City presents
a wide-ranging series of
articles on all aspects of the Sixties, penned by the creator of the iconic
60s music paper Mersey
Beat
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Sixties
City presents
a wide-ranging series of
articles on all aspects of the Sixties, penned by the creator of the iconic
60s music paper Mersey
Beat
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Although
Dennis Wheatley, who was born in London on 8th January 1897, had his first
book published in 1933, he was particularly popular during the 1960s when
his books were selling a million copies a year in the UK alone. Wheatley
was most noted for eight of his books, in which the theme was black magic
- 'The Devil Rides Out', 'Strange Conflict', 'The Ka of Gifford Hillary',
'To the Devil - a Daughter', 'The Haunting of Toby Jugg', 'The Satanist',
'They Used Dark Forces' and 'Gateway to Hell' which, during the Sixties,
had an average annual sale of 80,000 copies per title. Also during the Sixties
his remaining 59 books, all of which were in print, recorded average annual
sales of 12,000 copies per title per year. All of Wheatley's knowledge of
the occult came from books he had read, but he was still regarded as an
expert on the subject and penned a non-fiction work 'The Devil and All His
Works'. He was to write: "The fact that I had read extensively about ancient
religions gave me some useful background, but I required up-to-date information
about occult circles in this country. My friend, Tom Driberg, proved most
helpful. He introduced me to Aleister Crowley, the Reverend Montague Summers
and Rollo Ahmed". The release of his occult story, 'The Devil Rides Out', hailed by James Hilton as "the best thing of its kind since Dracula", cemented his reputation as 'The Prince of Thriller Writers'. He was a prolific writer and his novels covered many themes including the occult, war, espionage, historical, science fiction and lost worlds, many of them a series of novels with the same characters: Gregory Sallust (said to be Ian Fleming's inspiration for James Bond), the Duc de Richleau, Julian Day, Roger Brook and Molly Fountain. Among his more than seventy published works were ones published during the Sixties which were: 'Vendetta in Spain', 'Dangerous Inheritance', 'They Used Dark Forces', 'The White Witch of the South Seas'; 'Bill For the Use of a Body'; 'The Sultan's Daughter'; 'The Wanton Princess', 'Evil in a Mask', 'The Satanist', 'Unholy Crusade' and 'Mayhem in Greece'. His final major project was to present a series of 45 paperback books, including some of the most classic supernatural and horror novels of all time, in addition to some non-fiction occult works, under the series title 'The Dennis Wheatley Library of the Occult'. They were: |
| 1. 'Dracula'
by Bram Stoker 2. 'The Werewolf of Paris' by Guy Endore 3. 'Moonchild' by Aleister Crowley 4. 'Studies in Occultism' by Helena Blavatsky 5. 'Carnacki the Ghost-Finder' by William Hope Hodgson 6. 'The Sorcery Review' by Elliott O'Donnell 7. 'Harry Price: The Biography of a Ghost-Hunter' by Paul Tabori 8. 'The Witch of Prague by F. Marion Crawford 9. 'Uncanny Tales 1' selected by Dennis Wheatley 10. 'The Prisoner in the Opal' by A.E.W. Mason 11. 'The Devil's Mistress' by J.W. Brodie-Innes 12. 'You and Your Hand' by Cheiro 13. 'Black Magic' by Marjorie Bowen 14. 'Real Magic' by Philip Bonewits 15. 'Faust' by Goethe |
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16. 'Uncanny
Tales 2' selected by Dennis Wheatley 17. 'The Gap in the Curtain' by John Buchan 18. 'The Interpretation of Dreams' by Zolar 19. 'Voodoo' by Alfred Metraux 20. 'The Necromancers' by R.H.Benson 21. 'Satanism and Witches' - selected by Dennis Wheatley 22. 'The Winged Pharaoh' by Joan Grant 23. 'Down There' by J.K. Huymans 24. 'The Monk' by Matthew Lewis 25. 'Horror at Fontenay' by Alexandre Duman 26. 'The Hell-Fire Club' by Donald McCormick 27. 'The Mighty Atom' by Marie Corelli 28. 'The Affair of the Poisons' by Francis Mossiker 29. 'The Witch and the Priest' by Hilda Lewis 30. 'Death by Enchantment' by Julian Franklyn |
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31. 'Fortune
Telling by Cards' by Ida Prangley 32. 'Dark Ways to Death' by Peter Saxon 33. 'The Ghost Pirates' by William Hope Hodgson 34. 'The Phantom of the Opera' by Gaston Leroux 35. 'The Greater Trumps' by Charles Williams 36. 'The Return of the Magi' by Maurice Magre 37. 'Uncanny Tales3' selected by Dennis Wheatley 38. 'King Is a Witch' by Evelyn Eaton 39. 'Frankenstein' by Mary Shelley 40. 'Curse of the Wise Woman' by Lord Dunsany 41. 'Brood of the Witch Queen' by Sax Rohmer 42. 'Brazilian Magic: Is It the Answer?' by Pedro McGregor 43. 'Darker Than You Think' by Jack Williamson 44. 'War in Heaven' by Charles Williams 45. 'Morwyn' by John Cowper Powys |
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| When Hammer
Films felt that their original horror movies, most of them based on the
Universal horror characters, had passed their sell-by date, they began to
negotiate to film a series of Wheatley novels, the first released in 1968.
This was 'The Lost Continent', based on his novel 'Uncharted Seas', which
was a fantasy rather than horror subject. The second Wheatley horror outing
was 'The Devil Rides Out' starring Christopher Lee. Unfortunately, although
Wheatley was popular in Britain, he was virtually unknown in America and
the films did little business in the States. As a result, Hammer cancelled
plans for the filming of 'The Haunting of Toby Jugg' and a 12-part television
series of his tales called 'The Devil and All His Works'. Wheatley and Christopher
Lee had become friends during the filming of 'The Devil Rides Out' and Lee
accepted an offer to film more of Wheatley's books. He teamed up with Hammer
producer Anthony Nelson Keys and set up a film company specifically to film
several of Wheatley's works. The first was 'To The Devil A Daughter', but it was almost unrecognisable from Wheatley's book. The company were on a tight budget and attempted to get the American company AIP to co-finance the film, but AIP didn't like the script and commented, "This has all the visual horrors, apparitions, nightmares, hallucinations and special effects to appeal to those who are into seeing occultism and exorcism conjured up. However, the story is written in a confusing style. While the central characters are good, interesting types, their inter-relationships are never satisfactorily explained, which accounts for much of the confusion, thereby leaving big holes in the overall plot". Hammer eventually found a co-producer in the German company 'Terra Filmkunst', who insisted that the 15 year-old Nastassja Kinski be cast as Catherine Beddows, a girl who is to be sacrificed to the Devil. The star of the film was American actor Richard Widmark, who was granted script approval. However, the scripts were repeatedly re-written and Widmark called the company 'Mickey Mouse Productions' and had to be talked out of catching a plane back to Los Angeles on a number of occasions. At the time of his death from liver failure at the age of 80 on 10th November 1977, it is estimated that Wheatley had sold in excess of fifty million copies of his books worldwide. |
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Bill Harry attended the Liverpool College of Art with Stuart Sutcliffe and John Lennon and made the arrangements for Brian Epstein to visit The Cavern, where he saw The Beatles for the first time. Bill was a member of 'The Dissenters' and the founder and editor of 'Mersey Beat', the iconic weekly music newspaper that documented the early Sixties music scene in the Liverpool area and is possibly best known for being the first periodical to feature a local band called 'The Beatles'. He has worked as a high powered publicist, doing PR for acts such as Suzi Quatro, Free, The Arrows and Hot Chocolate and has managed press campaigns for record labels such as CBS, EMI, Polydor. Bill is the critically acclaimed author of a large number of books about The Beatles and the 60s era including 'The Beatles Who's Who', 'The Best Years of the Beatles' and the Fab Four's 'Encyclopedia' series. He has appeared on 'Good Morning America' and has received a Gold Award from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors. |
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