Vampires and Bunnies: A Conversation with Kathryn Leigh Scott

Television's first supernatural drama, Dark Shadows, brought vampires, werewolves and witchcraft to TV audiences on a daily basis from 1966 to 1971

For the last twenty years, vampires have been big business.  Having graduated past the capes and coffins of yesteryear, through franchises such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Twilight, Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles, The Vampire Diaries and True Blood, the vampire has gone from being a demonic figure of evil and terror, to a romantic anti-hero that ignites the screen with a combination of supernatural drama and sex.  It’s not surprising that the original vampire anti-hero, Barnabas Collins, and his franchise of residence, Dark Shadows, has begun to regain fan interest.  Filled with vampires, werewolves, sorcerers, ghosts and other supernatural figures, Dark Shadows was television’s first gothic soap opera which, throughout the decades, has maintained its legion of die-hard fans and has gained new devotees through its legendary status as one of the groundbreaking horror franchises.  Most recently, riding on the high tide of the vampire craze, director Tim Burton and actor Johnny Depp have announced their plans to bring Dark Shadows and Barnabas Collins back to the big screen which is sure to bring more attention to this beloved series.

Kathryn Leigh Scott played Maggie Evans, the desire and victim of a number of monsters, on Dark Shadows

However, long before there was Buffy or Bella, actress Kathryn Leigh Scott played the original gothic heroine, waitress Maggie Evans.  The obsession of Barnabas Collins due to her resemblance to his long lost love Jossette, Kathryn Leigh Scott became the “damsel in distress” to not only Dark Shadows’ resident vampire, but also warlock Nicholas Blair and werewolf Quinton Collins.   From 1966 to 1971 Maggie found herself haunted, kidnapped, institutionalized and even had her soul almost sold to the devil, making her one of Dark Shadow’s most popular characters.  When the program’s original star, Alexandra Moltke, left the program, Maggie Evans even replaced her in Collinswood as the new governess and became the leading lady in the 1970 big screen adaptation of the series, House of Dark Shadows.  Yet Maggie Evans wasn’t the only character that Kathryn Leigh Scott played on Dark Shadows.  As the ghostly Jossette, Kathryn Leigh Scott played Dark Shadows’ first supernatural character prior to the introduction of Barnabas Collins.  She also played a number of various roles in different “times past” sequences during the run of the series.  Kathryn Leigh Scott’s various roles made her an essential element to the success of Dark Shadows, endearing her to the program’s legion of fans.

Known today primarily as a succsseful author and publisher, Kathryn Leigh Scott runs her own publishing house, Pomegranate Press

Never a fan of the horror genre herself, these days Kathryn Leigh Scott devotes her time to writing and running her own publishing house, Pomegranate Press.  Starting with her first book, Dark Shadows Memories, Kathryn Leigh Scott has authored fourteen books and is in the process of writing her third fictional novel.  However, she gained possibly her biggest success in publishing with The Bunny Years, a chronicle of the history and story of the Bunny’s that worked at the Playboy Clubs throughout the US in the 1960s, which gained critical praise and was made into an A&E Documentary. 

In April 2010 I had the opportunity to talk to Ms. Scott about her career as both an actress and an author.  Having finally had the opportunity to indulge in Dark Shadows for the first time over the last year, it was hard not to be unleash the fanboy deep inside of me while talking to the show’s heroine.  However, I was able to contain myself long enough for us to have a discussion about her early days as a Bunny working in the New York City Playboy Club, her friendship with Jimmy Stewart during a stage version of Harvey, her career as an author and, of course, the phenomena known as Dark Shadows:

CONFESSIONS OF A POP CULTURE PRESENTS

VAMPIRES AND BUNNIES

A CONVERSATION WITH KATHRYN LEIGH SCOTT

I spoke to Kathryn Leigh Scott via phone from her home in Los Angeles in March 2010.

Sam Tweedle:  What got you originally interested in acting?

Kathryn Leigh Scott:  I think it was something I enjoyed doing from the time I was five or six years old.  Little things that I would do for the family.  Then grade school, high school and college.  That and writing were always a great interest.  I applied for a scholarship with the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and decided to pursue it professionally.

Sam:  One of the books that you recently wrote and that you have had great success with chronicled your experience as a bunny in the New York Playboy Club.  How long did you work as a bunny for?

Kathryn:  I was a bunny while I was attending the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.  This year is the fiftieth anniversary of the Playboy Bunny. 

Sam:  How many Playboy Clubs were there in the US when you started working at the Club?

Kathryn:  When I started at the Playboy Club in New York there were only three other Playboy Clubs – Miami, Chicago and New Orleans. 

Kathryn Leigh Scott during her days as a bunny in the New York Playboy Club

Sam:  How much input did Hugh Hefner have within the Clubs at that time? 

Was he pretty hands on?  Was he often at the Club?

Kathryn:  He was in the Chicago Club all the time, and he visited the other clubs.  He was at the openings at all the Clubs, but he was also publishing the magazine so that was his primary interest.

Sam:  So the Club was more of a secondary venture?

Kathryn: It was integral to the success of Playboy and it was certainly his idea.  His brainstorm.

Sam:  There is of course different myths about the Club from it being a glamorous star studded private Club to it being a legalized brothel.  What was the actual reality of the Club during the 1960s?

Kathryn:  The truth is that the Playboy Club was a very popular restaurant and night club that featured terrific entertainment and great food, and having said that, the Playboy Bunny was the reason that people went to the Playboy Club.  It was a novelty and they became a pop culture icon.  The truth of the matter is that the Playboy Bunnies were probably more protected in that environment then working in any other kind of job at the time.  It was very much protected.  It certainly was not a brothel.  It was a very trendy kind of place.  There is nothing like it today that I can think of.  There are other places where women wear costumes and serve food and drinks, but nothing of that caliber.

Sam:  Were there a lot of celebrities coming through the New York Club?

Kathryn:  Yes.  Everybody who was anybody at the time, from Tony Bennett to Johnny Carson went there.  Woody Allen actually performed at the Club.  Anybody who was a celebrity in New York came to the Playboy Club.

Kathryn Leigh Scott's "The Bunny Years" became the subject of an A&E Documentary

Sam:  You wrote The Bunny Years, which was turned into an A & E documentary.  When you decided to delve into your memories and you contacted the other former Bunnies, did you find that the stories ranged in various degrees?

Kathryn:  The interesting thing about Playboy Bunnies is that most of them were eighteen or nineteen years old when they were working there and they were working there when they were going to school working towards careers.  So it was like a high school graduating class of just girls.  Some of them became teachers, some of them became movie stars, some of them started restaurants.  One or two became librarians.  In other words, when you’re talking about eighteen and nineteen years old everybody goes off in different directions.  There were two great joys in doing the book.  One was to reunite with these women that I had known such a long time ago and the other was to see what they did with their lives because I think one of the characteristics of being a Playboy Bunny was they were adventurous and cutting edge and willing to take chances – in other words a lot of the ingredients that would lead to latter success.  They were self starters. 

Sam:  It was while you were a Bunny that you got involved with Dark Shadows.  How did you first hear about Dark Shadows?

Early Dark Shadows cast photo. Kathryn can be seen as Maggie Evans, wearing her waitress outfit, on the left hand side just behind the children

Kathryn:  I had an agent that sent me on an audition.

Sam:  At the time did you expect that it would become the phenomena that it did?

Kathryn:  No.  In the beginning we struggled with the ratings and it wasn’t until Barnabas Collins came on as the resident vampire that the show really became a huge success.  But in the beginning we had no idea, and certainly when the show went off the air it never occurred to any of us that there would be any lasting interest at all.

Sam:  Really?  Because the series was truly groundbreaking in the horror and fantasy genres.  It was the first of its kind and has influenced everything from Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles to Twilight.

Kathryn Leigh Scott also doubled as the ghostly Jossette

Kathryn:   It’s true, but if you think about it there were also a number of groundbreaking things happening in the 70’s.  When we went off the air George Lucas and Peter Bogdonavich and all these people were doing these amazing movies.  But with Dark Shadows it was really the fan interest and the fans that didn’t want to let the show go who kept it alive.  There were no DVDs or anything like that at the time.  It was really phenomenal that the show had stayed popular with fans that had no way to watch the show. 

Sam:  You mentioned that the show struggled at first, but even before Barnabas Collins came into the series, you were primarily involved in the first supernatural plot by playing the ghost of Josette.  When they first came to you and told you they were going in that direction, what was your initial reaction?

Kathryn Leigh Scott took center stage when vampire Barnabas Collins, played by Johnathan Frid, joined the cast and became dangerously obsessed with Maggie Evans

Kathryn:  Nobody ever told me they were going in that direction.  It just happened and we just went with it.  The very first time there was a ghost on the show we were all surprised and Dan Curtis said “Lets see how it goes” and the ratings went off so we just went with it.  I think the first time that we realized that there was going to be a vampire on the show a lot of us groaned and thought “Oh my God.”  Before that vampires were associated with drive in movie theaters.  It was pretty low class.  It was really was.

Sam:  And there had never been a serious vampire on television at that point.  The only vampire before Barnabas Collins on a regular series was Grandpa Munster. 

Kathryn:  Yeah, and that was a spoof, and this was not a spoof and we sort of thought “Oh dear.  What have we got ourselves into here?”  We thought we’d be doing something that children would be watching because really vampire and horror and all that was teenage stuff.

Sam:  Obviously it worked.  Dark Shadows became overnight phenomena.

Kathryn:  It worked and oddly all of us were surprised but the kids weren’t.

Sam:  Was introducing a vampire Dan Curtis’ idea?

Kathryn:  Oh yes.

Sam:  What was working with Dan Curtis like?

Kathryn Leigh Scott and Johnathan Frid with Dark Shadows' creator Dan Curtis during the filming of "House of Dark Shadows" (1970)

Kathryn:  I didn’t work with him until we did the feature film, House of Dark Shadows.  He had a huge presence.  He was not necessarily a big man but he had broad shoulders and he was huge.  He was the sort of person who would walk through the room and you knew who the boss was.  He was a very powerful personality. 

Sam:  When Jonathan Frid joined the cast, what kind of dynamic did he bring to the set?  Did things change as he became the focus of the program?

Kathryn:  He did take over because he caught the imagination [of the viewer] and all of a sudden he became the central figure and the story began to revolve around him.  The story revolving around him became so gripping that it became the show. 

Sam:  Was Mr. Frid comfortable with that?

Although a late addition to the Dark Shadows cast, Johnathan Frid became the show's star as well as television's first serious vampire in a regular series and pop culture's first vampire "anti-hero"

Kathryn:  I’m sure he was.  He was a working actor glad to be working but as the show went on he viewed it with alarm.  It was like somebody playing Superman.  I think he thought “Is this all there is?”  As it turned out, that was all there was.

Sam:  Famously, Mr. Frid has spoken against the part of Barnabas Collins and has famously tried to distance himself from the part and Dark Shadows itself.

Kathryn:  That’s his nature.  Anything discouraging that he has said is total of his character.  He is actually a very simple fellow and he doesn’t put on airs at all.  I don’t think he got all caught up in the celebrity of it.

Sam:  But you have seemed to have embraced your time on Dark Shadows.  Why is that?

Kathryn:  Well at first none of us embraced it.  Not until I came back from England and ran into various actors who said “Your not going to believe this but twenty years after the show went off the air its now this big thing.”  Then there is a certain point you don’t want to be typecast but then all of a sudden you realize why fight it.  You might as well embrace it.

Sam:  Dark Shadows became popular in the teen magazines as well.  Jonathan Frid, David Selby and David Henesy were featured prominently in the pages of 16 Magazine.

David Henesy and David Selby were featured, along with Johnathan Frid, in issues of "16 Magazine," under the collective banner "The DS Gang" making them unlikely teen idols

Kathryn:  Well when David Henesy joined the cast he was twelve years old.  The teeny bopper magazines took over because he was the right age.  I remember the first time he did one of those magazines, they got him to do a picture with his shirt off, none of us could stop laughing but you didn’t want to hurt his thirteen year old feelings.  But you have to be thirteen to be into thirteen year old boys.  But I have to hand it to him because he was a wonderful actor.  The only person on the show when it began who was more experienced was Joan Bennett.  David Henesy and Joan Bennett had the most credits.  For the rest of us it was our first job.  I have to hand it to David because he was a wonderful actor, but then when he gave it up, he gave it up.  He has not turned into one of these young actors who is in there thirties and forties and having a bad time.

Sam:  Now what about David Selby.  He became sort of a heartthrob for the show and took some of the edge off of Mr. Frid’s shoulders. 

Kathryn:  David Selby was sort of an equal amongst equals.  That entirely had to do with storylines.  The character of Jossette was as important as the character of Quinton.   The character of Angelique was a later addition as well, but she was also an equal amongst equals. None of them changed the dynamic of the show because the show had werewolves and pheonixs and all kinds of things going on, but the lead character was Barnabas.

Maggie Evans was "Very romantic, swept off her feet. She was a bit of a pawn."

Sam:  When you were doing the part of Maggie Evans, you had vampires and werewolves and warlocks falling in love with you.  You took on the role of the permanent damsel in distress.  Were you just following the script, or did you have input into your character?

Kathryn:  I was just following the script and creating the character as I saw her.  That happens in the soaps when there are writers writing in order.  They pick up on your rhythms and your take on things and that becomes your character and you start writing to your strengths.

Sam:  How did you see Maggie Evans.

Kathryn:  As I played her.  Very romantic, swept off her feet.  She was a bit of a pawn.  It was interesting because I often played Maggie and Jossette at the same time and Maggie was the feisty one, but then she came under the power of Barnabas and became Jossette.  It was really exciting to play her reincarnation and make a real character out of her.

Sam:  Why did you decide to leave Dark Shadows?

Kathryn:  My contract was up and I was leaving for Europe.  I had finished House of Dark Shadows and I felt it was time to move on.  I had done as much as I was paid to do on the show and then the show went off the air four and a half months after I left.

Kathryn Leigh Scott and Johnathan Frid in "House of Dark Shadows" (1970)

Sam:  Were you happy with House of Dark Shadows?  I love the film, but I feel that it moves too quickly at points and its so different then the series. 

Kathryn:  I enjoyed doing the film.  I just wish I had more experience.  I think I should have been better in the film then I was.  If anything I’m disappointed in that because I was still functioning as if it were still live TV.  I would have done things differently if I had really realized what I was doing. 

Sam:  When you went to Europe, and you did a stage version of Harvey with one of my very favorite actors, Jimmy Stewart.

Kathryn:  Yes.  I worked with him for about seven months.

Sam:  What was Mr. Stewart like to work with?

After leaving "Dark Shadows" Kathryn Leigh Scott worked with Jimmy Stewart for seven months in a stage production of "Harvey"

Kathryn:  We became very close friends and we had lunch together twice a week on matinee days and he would come to my dressing room and pick me  up and we would walk down to the restaurant and on Wednesdays he would pay and on Saturdays I would pay.  It was wonderful because he was like a companion.  We genuinely hit it off.  He was hard of hearing and he wore a hearing aide but there was one time when his hearing aide went out and I made sure he could see my lips.

Sam:  Your current projects seem to revolve around your writing.  You’ve written fourteen books.  The first one was the Dark Shadows book.  What made you to delve into your Dark Shadows papers and write a book?

Kathryn:  I was asked to write a memorial for Joe Caruthers and I realized when I started writing that, for myself, there was a lot of things that came up as I was writing and I kept writing and I realized I had a book. 

Sam:  What year did you start Pomegranate Press.

Kathryn Leigh Scott's first book delved into her time as Maggie Evans

Kathryn:  1985.

 Sam:  Where are your books available?

Kathryn:  They are all available through amazon, and the web-site and in bookstores.   You should take a look around the web-site at the books available through Pomegranate Press because a lot of them cover the topics we’ve been talking about.

Sam:  What are you writing now?

Kathryn:  I am currently working on my third novel.

 Sam:  Dark Shadows came up in the news again because Johnny Depp and Tim Burton are doing a big screen version of it.

Kathryn:  They are hoping that film starts production before the end of the summer.

Sam:  Obviously with the Twilight phenomena vampires are a huge commodity at this time.  Do you think this will bring another resurgence of popularity to the production of Dark Shadows that you were involved in to a new generation, or do you think that it will eclipse the original version?

Kathryn:  I have no idea.  One hopes for the best. 

No doubt that while Tim Burton will most likely bpt his own spin on Dark Shadows, new fans are sure to spring up, introducing the world of Collinsport to an entire new generation of vampire lovers.  Dark Shadows has managed to defeat all odds which, just like its heroic vampire, will not die.  One of the most prolific of the Dark Shadows cast, Kathryn Leigh Scott continues to appear at autograph shows and horror conventions selling her books and signing autographs for pop culture fans and horror buffs throughout the US.  The resurrection of Dark Shadows under the guidance of Tim Burton is sure to increase her prominence even greater, securing her character, Maggie Evans, into the scream queen hall of fame.