Actor Butch Patrick, who played Eddie Munster of the 1960s television series “The Munster” poses with the “Munsters Koach, his custom car themed from the spooky show during a Wednesday, July 20, 2022 promotional appearance in Munster, Indiana. (Philip Potempa / Post-Tribune)
Actor Butch Patrick, forever connected to his child star 1960s TV alter-ego Eddie Munster, braved the sun and 90-plus degree temperatures Wednesday for a two-hour fan meet-and-greet drive-thru in Munster, despite his moon-howling werewolf character association.
“We found out just a few days ago that Butch was going to be in the area and he wanted a shop to spend a couple hours to meet fans,” explained Christina Yeo, who owns Screaming Monkey Comics, 21 Ridge Road in Munster with her husband John, both of Hammond.
“He just happened to pick our comic shop randomly. On Wednesday, he showed up with his fun themed car and suddenly, there’s our daughter, Cameron, who’s 12, riding in the front seat with him. We’ve had our shop here in Munster for three years, and previously in Crown Point going back 20 years, and this is one of the coolest things to ever happen.”
Patrick, who celebrates his 69th birthday on Aug. 2, greeted fans, signed autographs and posed for photos from 5-7 p.m. at the comic book store in Munster.
“I love Munster, Indiana and if I’m coming through this area, I always stop for a visit,” said Patrick, whose last Munster stop-through was for a Hammond event in October 2019 paired with Chicago spooky favorite Svengoolie.
As I reported in an October 2016 column, I wrote about the pre-Halloween surprise Munster denizens received when Patrick showed up that month unannounced to the Munster Town Hall. He said he was traveling through, and decided to visit the Town of Munster for his first time because of the town’s name association with his TV show claim-to-fame. He posed for a few photos, which Munster town officials later shared on Facebook, alerting the world that Butch Patrick aka “Eddie Munster” had visited the mecca which shares the same name as his pop culture TV persona.
Patrick’s travels this time had him headed down to Indianapolis, Noblesville specifically, to the Ruoff Music Center to appear with singer and musician Rob Zombie for his Freaks on Parade Tour concert on Thursday.
Zombie, 57, real name Robert Bartleh Cummings, is the creative force for a Netflix film treatment reboot of “The Munsters” franchise, which will stream starting in September 2022. The trailer was released this month, and the movie project stars Rob Zombie’s wife Sheri Moon Zombie in the role of Lily Munster, the character originated by the late Yvonne De Carlo on the CBS television series, which only lasted for two seasons from 1964-66. Jeff Daniel Phillips is cast as vampiress Lily’s Frankenstein monster hubby Herman and Daniel Roebuck plays Lily’s vampire father The Count.
“We are having a publicity event at Rob’s Thursday Indianapolis concert and I’ll be there signing autographs and posing for photos with Daniel Roebuck who plays The Count in the new movie,” said Patrick, who stays in contact with fans for updates via his website www.munsters.com.
Rob Zombie also cast Patrick in the new Netflix film to provide the voice of a robot character called Tin Can Man.
“Tin Can Man is an original character who also made an appearance in the original TV show too,” said Patrick, who is joined by his original series Marilyn Munster “normal cousin” co-star Pat Priest, who also has a cameo in the new film, and will celebrate her 86th birthday Aug. 15.
Patrick kept busy as a working child star throughout the 1960s with casting appearances on other popular TV series of the day like “My Favorite Martian,” “Bonanza,” “Rawhide,” “Gunsmoke,” “I Dream of Jeannie” and “The Monkees.”
“I also did a couple episodes of ‘Mr. Ed’ with the talking horse, which was a big secret for how he was made to talk,” Patrick said.
“It really wasn’t much of a secret. It was just some fishing line used to lift the horse’s upper lip.”
And as for any souvenirs he kept from the Universal Studios soundstage while doing the original “The Munsters” TV series, Patrick said he gave everything away years ago.
“Being on ‘The Munsters’ was more about another working opportunity at the time, and I was so young that keepsakes didn’t mean much to me,” Patrick said.
“I remember I had one of the Frankenstein headpieces that Herman wore as part of his makeup, and I think I gave it to one of my kid friends at the time back then.”
Patrick also refrains from putting on his creepy TV counterpart’s signature pointed ears and full makeup for his personal appearances.
“I did once put on my full makeup, and the ears too, a few year back, because it was a special annual event called Mad Monster Party in Phoenix and the other character guests were also coming in their full makeup,” Patrick said.
“When I did the Sid and Marty Krofft TV show ‘Lidsville’ later, with Charles Nelson Reilly as the villain Hoodoo, he was so much fun to work with, but he hated all of that green makeup. I used to tell him not to be such a big baby, since I had to wear even more makeup for two years when I did ‘The Munsters’ which wasn’t so fun.”
Philip Potempa is a journalist, published author and the director of marketing at Theatre at the Center. He can be reached at pmpotempa@comhs.org.