Alfred Hitchcock’s movie “Psycho” — I helped with the special effect for the skull!

While we were filming Leave it to Beaver, Bob Dawn was hired as the make-up man for the first season.  His specialty was appliances and special effects.  In the episode “The Haircut ”  he created an appliance for me to wear which was made to look like I had “butchered” my own hair.  And, at the end of the show he made another appliance which was a mohawk.  Like his father Jack Dawn, Bob was also one of the top make-up artists in Hollywood, especially for specialty make-up.  While he was working on our show, Alfred Hitchcock hired him to prepare a skull for the final scenes of Psycho.  He brought it to our set to age it and glue long hair on it to make it look like the corpse of Mrs. Bates.  He had to apply each strand one by one.  I was fascinated and asked him if I could help.  He said “yes” and for the next few days, with his guidance, I attached some hair strands one by one on the skull.  As a young boy, I thought, what could be cooler than this!!!

(The above photo was taken right after we opened the box from the medical supply company that supplied the skull that Bob had ordered for Psycho)

A clip from Leave it to Beaver – “The Haircut” — http://bit.ly/AhX8Z