Dr. Lady's Horror Hotel

by Leonard Pickel

Professional Haunted Attractions are held in all sorts of locations these days, but not many can promise patrons a trip through the owner's actual home. Now in its ninth year of operation, this small but elaborate monster museum, located in the tiny community of Chatfield, Ohio, continues to draw crowds of monster movie fans, art students and Halloween fun-seekers of every age.

David Lady was already turning his parents' garage into a neighborhood Haunted House every October at the age of 11. When David was about 15, he met Philip Morris. “He liked my cartoons and hired me to do some catalog illustrations,” recalls David, “and an entire series of single panel comics called The Costumer, (like The Far Side with Philip as the main character).” David was also a major contributor to the well-known Morris Costumes publication How To Operate A Financially Successful Haunted House. “I did much of the Clip-Art, tickets, posters, and ads for the book,” explains David. “A lot of the room designs were dreamed up, described, and illustrated by me.”

During high school, David’s haunting expanded into several ambitious full-scale Haunted Houses that he designed and ran from 1978 through 1982 for various charities in the nearby town of Bucyrus. Richard Fortner, David's best friend at the time, did a lot of the design and decorating on the attraction called The Bucyrus Haunted House, held in a building at the Crawford County Fairgrounds in 1978. One day Richard brought his sister, Laura Fortner, a big horror fan to see the Haunt. It was there that Richard introduced Laura to David. The following year Laura returned to assist with many facets of the attraction, which was to be held that year in the basement of the local roller skating rink. Laura shared David's enthusiasm for Halloween, monsters and all things macabre, having grown up on a steady diet of monster movies on late-night television. As a kid, Laura and her big sister Carol Hicks (later to become a noted mask sculptor) even had their own “Monster Club” headquartered in a tree house, where members would get together to build Aurora monster models and read or trade magazines like Creepy, Eerie, Vampirella and Famous Monsters Of Filmland.

That year and for several years to follow David and Laura labored together on The Bucyrus Haunted House. Laura was quite the seamstress and had been making clothes for herself since she was a child. David put her talents to work making costumes for the Haunted House. You could say it was a match made in “horror,” as the two teenagers grew quite fond of each other during this close working relationship. David recalls the couple’s first kiss occurred one night while he was in costume. “She kissed me right through a mask I was wearing at the time, and we first told each other “I love you” in the attic of one of our Haunted Houses, behind a row of rotted corpses.” For the next four Octobers, David and Laura teamed up to design and operate the 35-actor Bucyrus Haunted House, and then for October of 1983 the decision was made to move the attraction to the Richland Shopping Mall in Mansfield, Ohio. Moving the show out of Bucyrus meant two things: first, the name of the attraction would have to change, and second, that staffing might be a problem. David and Laura decided to change the format of what had been a “jump out and scare people” style haunted house, into a wax museum style attraction, to be exact, a Chamber Of Horrors Museum. This format was repeated in the couple’s 1984 production of the chamber in the same location. On August 10, 1985, David and Laura were married, and shortly thereafter the newlyweds moved to Hollywood, California, to in search of fame and fortune.

For the next seven years, the Ladys worked on (and sometimes appeared in) a number of low-budget horror films and videos shot in the Los Angeles area. Laura did a great deal of costume work for flicks like Tremors, Slave Girls From Beyond Infinity, Saturday The 14th Strikes Back and Zombiethon (Laura is the zombie who rises out of the grave in the title shot, and David played 6 different zombies). “I had loved masks and monsters for so long that I guess it was unavoidable for me to start creating my own,” recalls David, who began sculpting, molding and painting his own line of latex masks. While in California, Laura also made several famous mascot costumes including Smokey The Bear, Sparky The Fire Safety Dog, and a Cabbage Patch Kid for the Texas State Fair. “The weirdest costumes were mascots for overseas amusement parks,” recalls Laura, “With characters like a big strawberry, a lobster, and an alien.”

David’s middle initial is R, and “Ever since my first mailing address I would receive junk mail addressed to ‘DR LADY,’ explains David, “Which has caused numerous mail carriers over the years to greet me as Doctor.” During this time, David was the official "Mask Doctor" for an organization called The Halloween Society, a Los Angeles based mask-collecting club. David would restore or “doctor” old and worn masks for the group. “Several of my mask clients had already taken to calling me Dr Lady, saying that I reminded them of a classic mad doctor kind of persona,” recalls David. Eventually the moniker stuck. Now everyone knows him as Dr. Lady or just David, “Except for Leonard Pickel,” jokes David, “who prefers to think of me as Fred Flintstone because I do not own a computer.”

David had become reasonably successful as a mask-maker selling custom latex collector masks via mail order, and was sadly resigned to the idea that his years of running a Haunt were over. Then in 1992, the couple decided to return to Ohio and settle in Chatfield, where they purchased a 150-year-old former hotel. “We needed room for our ever-growing collection of monsters and horror film memorabilia,” explains David. “The place was simply the biggest dwelling available in the area at that time, with plenty of workspace for future projects.” The dark, decrepit old hotel already had a local reputation of being haunted and required extensive repairs before the Ladys could even move in. With a large collection of monsters and some large remodeling bills to pay, David and Laura decided in the summer of 1993 to share their personal gallery of horrors with the public and open their home for Halloween tours.

Since the building really had been a hotel, David concocted a story about how all the monsters and ghosts, who walk the earth every October needed a place to stay during their annual visit to the world of the living. Horror Hotel was opened as a temporary “resting place” for all the traveling ghouls of the Halloween season. The hotel is a guided tour with a special emphasis on the attention to detail and realism of the monsters. David’s narrated script is laced with puns, inside jokes and movie references for horror fanatics.

At first the project was envisioned as a simple one. After all, the Ladys' home would need little in the way of “Haunting” since their taste in home decorating and the extensive gallery of on-display work ensured that their dwelling looked like a haunted mansion already. It soon became apparent, however, that David and Laura never do anything simple, and like the home Haunt and the Haunted Houses they did before, the two would have to go “all out.” The Hotel’s first season was put together as inexpensively as David felt he could get away with, since there was no way of knowing whether people would drive out into the small town of Chatfield to see a monster museum. Happily surprised with the initial year’s attendance and encouraging comments from patrons, David and Laura decided that the Hotel should continue in future years. Since then, Horror Hotel has become much more elaborate and costly to put on, but despite the heavy workload the Ladys have kept their off-the-wall Haunt going ever since.

David’s experience in creative writing and Laura’s costuming expertise came together to create an environment where monsters of every description can be seen partying it up in celebration of the Halloween season. Each year the Hotel features all new scripting and scenes, requiring a formidable amount of work for only two people. The ghostly tour has been narrated every year by the disembodied “head” of the Hotel, whose voice is provided by the Ladys’ actor friend Daniel Roebuck, recently seen in The Fugitive movies, Final Destination, and Double Take, as well as several television shows. David writes the script each year and sends it to Hollywood where, after a phone call or two, Roebuck performs the audio on tape in a ghoulish voice (described as a cross between Boris Karloff and Hans Conried) telling the audience about what they are seeing.

Since the Ladys actually live in the Hotel, it was decided not to go for the usual “pop-out-and-go-Boo” type of attraction. Instead, Horror Hotel offers curious humans a unique cross between a wax museum and a Haunted House. Patrons get a guided tour that surrounds them with the creepy sights and sounds associated with the season, plus a running commentary featuring plenty of morbid humor and monstrous jokes and puns. Visitors get a close look at dozens of life-size monster figures (most of which are built by David and Laura just for their museum) along with a barrage of lighting and sound FX sure to make each visit a memorable one. “Running a Haunted Attraction is much like making movies,” describes David. “And each new season is something of a ‘sequel,’ which needs to offer enough surprises to make sure the ‘victims’ get something new and different, while still giving them the elements they know and love from previous shows.” David personally chooses and records each room’s soundtrack, be it either a sound effect or piece of music that he feels will fit the scene. “I probably use fewer sounds and more music than the average Haunt, although I try to create a unique blend of both,” describes David, who lights the scenes according to whatever he feels will look the most dramatic and emphasize the best colors for the mood of each room. “I’m easily impressed by anything that flashes on and off, so Horror Hotel has a lot of flashing lights,” jokes David, whose favorite part of setting up is arranging the lighting. “Unfortunately it’s one of the last tasks and sometimes I don’t get to devote as much time to it as I’d like.” Although a number of animations are used, the Hotel’s only live (if that’s the word for it) performers are David and Laura themselves, who personally conduct each tour.

There are only a few special women who would be willing to share their home with thousands of Halloween/Horror fans, not to mention the hundreds of creatures who live year round at Horror Hotel, but Laura Lady seems to be one of those few. “I’m really thrilled about living at Horror Hotel!” explains Laura, “Having a home that’s an old fashioned mansion full of horror collectables is like a dream come true. I never would have believed this kind of life was possible when I was a monster-obsessed little kid, scared to death of all the horrors of the late night monster movies on TV.” One of David’s best selling pieces is a likeness of Laura in her vampire persona, sculpted by renowned artist Henry Alvarez, and Laura loves the fact that she gets to Haunt a lot of other attractions, without leaving home.

Haunted Attractions do come in many shapes and sizes, and while many of us dream of living in our attractions, David and Laura Lady would not have it any other way. When the U.S. Post Office issued their Classic Monster Stamps in 1997, Horror Hotel was declared an Official Postal Station and a special Cancellation Stamp with an image of Laura in her vampire make-up was made. Today, David continues selling collector masks and props. An accomplished author, he has written Dr. Lady’s Collector’s Guide to Movie and TV Monster Masks, on mask collecting, and Extreme Mask Making, for those who would like to make masks the Dr. Lady way.

Leonard Pickel is one partner in the design team of D.O.A., a design, decoration and consulting firm specializing in dark attractions like the October seasonal Haunted House. He can be reached at 704-366-0875, or by email at Leonard@hauntedattraction.com

One of the most popular scenes at Horror Hotel is the infamous “dinner party” tableaux, an elaborate party scene in the form of a “Class Reunion” for the class of 1872 to 1972, in that the attendees are all zombies. In the past, the Hotel has hosted a Mental Health Seminar for homicidal maniacs headed by the psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal Lecter; a retirement party for Baron Frankenstein; a Werewolves’ reunion; a special meeting for female monsters, and a roomful of Egyptian mummies, to name a few. These scenes always have a large number of life-size characters and great attention to the smallest detail. As a hotel aimed specifically at the needs of monsters, Horror Hotel caters to its “special” guests. Visitors may notice signs announcing, “Free Extra Sheets For Ghosts,” “Rooms Without Running Water Available For Vampires,” “Free Extra Pillow For Guests With More Than One Head,” “Convenient Rooftop Parking For Flying Saucers” and “Sundown Wake-up Calls For The Undead.”

Visitors to Horror Hotel start their visit at the front desk where they meet the friendly hotel staff, including the Wicked Witch cleaning lady (she’s so good with a broom), Quasimodo as a Bellhop (very experienced with bells), the cannibalistic Leatherface as the house Chef, and various living-dead desk clerks and maids. Patrons visit the hotel library, where there is always something supernatural going on. Once the various movie Frankenstein monsters got together to look up legal advice for their class action malpractice suit against the Frankenstein family. Another time, noted FBI Agents Scully and Mulder showed up to investigate reports of spooky and mysterious goings-on (which they failed to confirm, despite being surrounded by obvious supernatural manifestations and weird creatures peeping at them from every corner). Horror Hotel also has its own Medical Lab, which has featured such sights as Jason waiting for the on-duty Mad Doctor to pry the axe out of his head, Hellraiser’s Pinhead getting an acupuncture treatment for his splitting headaches, and Mr. Hyde injecting a batch of pumpkins with the famous Jekyll/Hyde Serum and thus creating... Jekyll-Lanterns!

The 10-minute guided tour also includes a visit to the hotel's haunted lobby and various upstairs guestrooms occupied by all kinds of monsters, space aliens and the undead. A concession stand on the porch (usually for the benefit of some local charity) offers hot cider, cold soft drinks, candy and various baked goodies (most with monster-oriented gag names) to those waiting in line. After the tour there is the Horror Hotel gift shop, where souvenirs like official Horror Hotel T-shirts, caps, towels, mugs, cups, bumper stickers, soundtrack CDs and videos are sold, along with a selection of collector masks, monster magazines, and Halloween toys like plastic fangs and rubber spiders.