Ilse, She-Wolf of the S S. - easily one
of the most repulsive films ever made-offered plenty of challenge
for Blasco, as he was called upon to inflict torture scars, radiation-induced
cancers, and maggot-ridden infected wounds on Ilse's many victims.
manage to meet and talk to the folks he wanted to, and established
some very good contacts. When he was through with the phones—he hadn’t
sold any magazines—he decided to get a job that would pay better,
and so became a copy-boy for the Los Angeles Times. Even then he would
spend all of his spare time at ABC Television studios watching Rudy
Horvatich doing make-upfor the shows that were taped there. Pretty
soon Blasco had quite a bit of knowledge stored up from his own background
and what he had seen others doing, and he practiced a lot on his friends.
The older make-upartists befriended him and taught him many useful
tricks, seeing that he already knew what he was doing and where he
was headed. Says Blasco, “I wasn’t even old enough to get into the
make-upunion. You had to be 21, and I was only 19.” Blasco decided
to try teaching his craft when he saw an ad in the paper for a make-upschool.
“They only taught beauty make-up,” says Joe, “So I got this
idea that I would put together a course in film and TV make-up, and
try to sell them on it and get them to let me teach it.” The idea
paid off, and Blasco had his first crack at teaching make-up and make-up effects.
Blasco saw this as an opportunity to learn for himself, as
well, by inviting leading film industry make-upartists, such as Ben
Nye and George Bau, to give demonstrations and lectures on their techniques.
“I kept inviting Ben Nye over, and pretty soon he invited me to his
lab, and after that I began spending more time in his lab than in
my own; and without pay.” Blasco finally decided to quit the make-up school
and go to work for Nye in his lab (for a salary, this time),
and learn everything Nye had to teach. George Bau also taught Blasco
what he knew. “It was like getting the information right from the
horse’s mouth,” laughs Blasco. Through his friendships, |
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established valuable contacts with industry people, and began his
career at CBS television doing make-upon The Red Skelton Show and
The Jim Nabors Show. "I got an offer from NABET [the National Association
of Broadcast Employees and Technicians] to go on the road with comedian
John Byner's traveling variety show for two years. It paid $150 more
per week than my job at CBS, so I took it .” Blasco learned a tremendous
amount while on the road with the show. “Mostly how to improvise-which
is extremely important in this business-and speed.” When he returned
from doing Byner’s Make-ups, he started doing commercials with Alan
Waite Productions. “Frankenstein’s monsters and werewolves,” says
Blasco, are what he mainly did. It was during this time that Blasco
got work on his first big feature, Touch of Melissa (later retitled
Touch of Satan). Says Blasco, “I did a ripped up neck and the old
age prosthetic make-up for the old woman in the movie.” Blasco also did
a disintegration scene that, unfortunately, didn’t make it into the
picture. “I made seven skulls that were animated so they could do
dissolves-having one skull fade into another, so it looked as if the
mouth was moving. It was Raiders of the Lost Ark 12 years ahead of
its time . . . But they were afraid they’d lose their G rating if
they left it in.” Blasco’s next picture was 1972’s notorious Ilsa
(She-wolf of the S.S.). Joe was responsible for the design and application
of some effective radiation burns and skin cancer wounds on the faces
and arms of some of the actors. He used only the technique of, “Construction”
- that is, he used no prosthetic appliances; Only cotton, collodion,
liquid latex rubber, and the coloring. Each make-upwas built up on
the actor’s face-the construction technique can save time when you
can’t spend the extra days it takes to go through the process of mold-making
and sculpting in the lab. The picture also featured some convincing
gunshot wound Make-ups by Blasco. In 1973, Blasco designed and manufactured
the monster for Dario Productions’ Track of the Moon Beast, a film
that was also one of Rick Baker’s first jobs. “I had had a serious
accident,” explains Blasco. “I ripped out my thumbnail with an electric
sander, and I still hadn’t sculpted the hands of the monster yet,
so I called up John Chambers and told him my problem and asked if
he knew any good sculptors. He told me that there was this new guy
in town who was a pretty good sculptor, and good at making molds too;
so I gave him a call.” And the rest, as they say, is history. During
the time that Blasco was doing make-upeffects for features, he was
also working on and off at ABC television, and running his own school
for film and TV make-upout of his apartment (he had seen how successful
his first teaching venture had been, and decided to try again, this
time for him self). His classes were fairly small, but big enough
to be crowded. Eleven people would cram into his two bedroom studio
apartment. One of his students, David Dittmar, would later assist
Blasco on his next feature, a film called The Parasite Murders which
was also shot in 1973. The Parasite Murders was a Canadian film, director
David Cronenberg’s first commercial feature. The picture went through
a few name changes before it was finally released in the U.S. as They
Came From Within. For the movie, Blasco was called upon to create
some appropriately disgusting make-upeffects, one of which was an
air-bladder effect; |
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