Going to the San Francisco International Airport can be scary under any circumstances — scary frustrating, scary inconvenient, and scary boring. A new exhibit at the SFO Museum is aiming for scary scary, with a collection of classic monster movie memorabilia from the collection of Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett.
From May 16, 2015 through December 06, 2015 SFO is home to selections from The Kirk Hammett Collection, a treasure-trove of monster movie memorabilia from films most of us have only seen during one of Bob Wilkins' Creature Features (or whoever did it where you come from — where I grew up, it was Sammy Terry's Nightmare Theatre). We're talking OG Dracula, Frankenstein, Creature from the Black Lagoon, and more.
According to the SFO Museum's exhibition notes, SF native Hammett has always been a monster guy:
Long before pursuing a career in music, Hammett developed a lifelong passion for classic horror. He recalls being mesmerized while viewing the original 1931 Frankenstein film on television at the age of six. During the second grade, while walking home from school, he began spending his milk money on monster magazines at America’s first comic bookstore, the San Francisco Comic Book Company. To the dismay of his teachers, Hammett brought copies of Famous Monsters of Filmland to school with him to read during class. His classmates soon referred to him as “the monster kid.”Hammett’s obsession with Universal monsters temporarily waned in his teens, when he became more focused on music. But in his early twenties, after he joined Metallica, Hammett began acquiring vintage monster movie posters, props, original artwork, toys, and models. In 2012, Hammett released the publication, Too Much Horror Business, which highlights his extensive collection of monster memorabilia. Classic Monsters: The Kirk Hammett Collection displays many of the objects from the book, from his custom- made monster guitars to original artwork by Basil Gogos used on the covers of Famous Monsters of Filmland, as well as novelty toys, which feature a host of Universal’s classic monsters.
The SFO Museum is comprised of 25 galleries across the airport, nine of which are located beyond security checkpoints. Though the Classic Monsters show is located in one of those post-security gates, you needn't buy a ticket to get your Mummy on. Just email [email protected] to arrange your visit and you can Wolf Man through security to see the spooky stuff without ever having to leave the Bay Area.