Robert Bloch, The Author of Psycho, Was The Creative Genius Who First Came Up With The Idea Of Dropping Balloons From The Ceiling of a Political Convention

Another odd one from Wisconsinology:

He was yet another Wisconsin author who was greatly influenced and encouraged by H P Lovecraft (click). Robert Bloch wrote dark fiction for pulp magazines and later supplemented his income by working as a copy writer for the Gustavus Marx Advertising Agency. Along the the way he helped run Carl Zeidlers' successful 1940 Milwaukee mayoral bid and created the first ever (and soon to be copied all over the nation) "release the balloons from the ceiling at the convention hall" gag. Bloch continued his work as a writer into the 50's, and then Ed happened... The revelations that followed the arrest of Ed Gein in 1957 shook the entire world and pushed Bloch into writing the one book that changed his life..."Psycho." Alfred Hitchcock bought the rights and a new genre was born and Bloch was able to establish a prolific and successful Hollywood career. He was once asked about the mechanics of horror and weird fiction, "If you see a clown in a parade or at the circus, it's a normal occurence, however if a clown comes to your door at midnight and knocks...."

Carl Zeidler resigned as mayor in 1942 to join the war effort and was killed later that year. His brother Frank was the Socialist Mayor of Milwaukee from 1948 to 1960 and just passed away a couple of years ago.

Comments

[TooMuchTime]

I recognized the name and remembered that Robert Bloch also wrote three scripts for the original Star Trek series.

"What Are Little Girls Made Of?" in season 1 and "Wolf in the Fold" and "Catspaw" in season 2.

I guess horror fiction can be turned into science fiction if you do it well.