Goooood Eeev-en-ing...!

Frequent visitors to my old abode in Anchorage -- the Ink 'n' Paint Club -- were no doubt familiar with the other human-like figure who dominated a corner of my dining room (which was only ever used for dining about a half dozen times) for roughly fifteen years: that of Alfred Hitchcock, albeit in spooky cardboard stand-up form.

I had acquired him as a video buyer for the old Book Cache chain of stores in the mid-1980s, when the four Hitchcock films that had been purchased back from Paramount by Universal following Hitch's estate being settled in 1983 (he died in 1980) were finally released on VHS. We ordered several floor displays for the stores, but space being a premium in most of our then 20 locations, not all of the Hitchcock standees made it out of our building. I say space being a premium was the reason, but the real reason is that I and a couple of the bosses wanted them for ourselves. And so it was...

But Hitch, since leaving Alaska, hadn't made it back to an upright position until this very day. As part of my constant Halloween unpacking and decorating (going on three weekends now), I finally made an attempt to repair one of his bracing supports in the back and Super-Gluing his midsection back together. (He also received a nice washing and dusting as well.)

Not 100%, but he's as fit as a deceased 111-year-old director on 27-year old cardboard can be, given the circumstances. I just have to remember to not jump the next time I come home and turn the corner into the den, where he is now residing behind our desk. It actually took me a couple years when I first had him not to do that, and every once in a while, when my guard was down, he would catch me unawares again.

I have no doubt his "Master of Suspense" title probably precedes him -- even in cardboard -- no matter where he is placed, but this is ridiculous....