If you were a child in the mid-'60s, chances are your parents dropped you off at the Bijou on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon for a K. Gordon Murray children's matinee. Among the possibilities: "Puss n' Boots," "Santa Claus" and "Little Red Riding Hood and Her Friends." If you were a teen-ager at the drive-in back in the late '50s, chances are you wound up in the heated company of a K. Gordon Murray sexploitation quickie. Among the possibilities: "The Birth of Twins" and "Wasted Lives."

If you are a fan of class-Z horror movies on late night television, chances are you've had a close encounter with a K. Gordon Murray made-in-Mexico chiller. Among the possibilities: "The Brainiac, "Samson in the Wax Museum" and "The Wrestling Women vs. the Aztec Mummy." One thing is for certain: Once you've seen a K. Gordon Murray movie, you'll never forget the experience.

Today, Murray is a beloved figure among aficionados of that cult cinematic genre that has come to he known as "Psychotronic movies" - exploitation films produced cheaply, quickly and ofttimes in foreign climes. Murray is also perhaps the most unsung of Bloomington's native sons to make it big in the entertainment industry.

Although Murray tolled on the fringes of Hollywood, producing most of his films at his Florida studio and in Mexico, he released an estimated 62 movies In just 15 years, (1957-72): 30 horror films, 22 children's features and 10 "miscellaneous".

According to his widow, Irene, who still lives in Florida, Murray almost single-handedly invented the concept of the weekend "children's matinee,"' wherein a film produced especially for the juvenile market was booked solely for weekend and holiday matinee showings. Although most were extremely low-budget Mexican-made productions, Murray released enough of them that, during his peak period of success in the mid-'60s, he came to be known among film buffs as the "poor-man's Walt Disney." A savvy promoter and showman, Murray featured his name prominently in all the print, radio and television advertising to sell the films. So closely did his name become associated with children's films that, at one point, NBC committed itself to a daily television series, "The Wonderful World of K. Gordon Murray" (ala its popular "Wonderful World of Disney"). The series, however, came to naught.

While Murray is best known for filmmaking, his interests and activities in show business date back to his days as a youth in the Twin Cities.

Born In Bloomington in 1922, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Murray, Kenneth Gordon Murray told a Pantagraph reporter in 1949 that his love of show business began at age 6, when he pestered his father into taking him to see the Beckman and Gerrety Circus in San Antonio. By the time he was a student at Trinity High School (now Central Catholic), he spent much of his free time with circus and show people who wintered in Bloomington.

One of these acquaintances made it possible for Murray to set up a bingo game in Normal. Borrowing a cemetery tent from his father's funeral home (the former Murray Funeral Home, where he worked several years as an ambulance driver), the young showman staged his bingo extravaganza then took on the road around Central Illinois.

In time, he also acquired a carnival ride called a "chair plane" and a custard machine. At age 22, he become the proprietor of his own carnival and billed himself as "the youngest owner in show business." The carnival was called United Liberty Shows, and it took 15 railroad cars to transport the rides and equipment, which were headquartered at Randolph, six miles south of Bloomington.

Irene, an Illinois State Normal University graduate he married in 1941, said Murray was "good at press and promotion, drawing crowds to the circus. He loved that kind of work."

During this period, her husband also got into the theater-building business with his father. The old Starchief Drive-In Theater in Pontiac was the result of that collaboration. In later years, Murray also purchased a chain of movie theaters In Florida.

His entry into moviemaking occurred in 1950, when he and his wife moved briefly to Hollywood. After working in promotion for Cecil B. DeMille, the Murrays moved to Miami and founded their own film production and distribution company, K. Gordon Murray Productions (later Trans-International Films). The company had its own offices, dubbing studios and laboratory. Among his earliest releases was the classic exploitation double feature, "Wasted Lives" and "The Birth of Twins," both imported from France and dubbed into English. According to a Pantagraph story dated Sept. 28,1958, "Through their realistic qualities, as indicated by their titles, the pictures will be for adults only."

Because it was more economically feasible, Murray entered into an agreement with Churubusco Studios in Mexico and began a lengthy association wherein he imported Spanish-language children's fantasies and horror movies, then dubbed them into English. Mrs. Murray recalled the first of these films. "Santa Claus" (released

Murray was one of the first American distributors to engage in dubbing on a large-scale basis. "We had a regular writing staff," Mrs. Murray said. "They would change the script and use words that matched the actors' lips, but that still meant the same thing."

During the next five years, Murray's filmmaking activities were divided between highly promoted children's films ("Little Red Riding Hood," "Rumpelstiltskin," "Little Boy Blue and Pancho," "The Little Angel," etc.) and less highly promoted horror films ("The Living Coffin," "World of the Vampires," "Curse of the Crying Woman," etc.).

When "Little Red Riding and Her Friends" premiered at Bloomington's Castle Theater on Dec. 6, 1964, Murray made a personal appearance with one of the film's characters, Stinky the Skunk. Stinky was Murray's attempt to establish a character to compete with Disney's Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck.

Also during the '60s, Murray petitioned the FCC for a license to construct a television station (Channel 43) and cable TV system In Bloomington. After lengthy legal wrangling, the project was aborted in 1969.

As the market for children's films shrank in the late '60, Murray's filmmaking endeavors dwindled. His last feature was "The Daredevil," filmed In Tampa, Fla., in 1972 and starring Terry Moore and George Montgomery in a tale about race car drivers. A Tampa Times critic wrote, "The Daredevil" is stretched further than three-day-old bubblegum to even approach a semblance of a storyline."

Mrs. Murray said "Ken got out of films right after that. There was so much sex and violence. That wasn't his type of film."

Undaunted, Murray began anew and became a contractor and builder for the State of Florida, developing huge industrial complexes in the Miami area. "It was like moviemaking in a way - there was the promotion, the production. He loved building," Mrs. Murray said.

Then, at 1 p.m., Dec. 30, 1979, the career of K. Gordon Murray came to an end when he suffered a fatal heart attack at his Key Biscayne home - at the same age (57) and on the same date his father had died.

Recalls his sister, Joan Stevens, who still resides in the family home at 701 W. Wood St. in Bloomington: "Ken was always thinking about something. And he was usually very successful at it."

K. Gordon Murray poses with midget Robert Powers, who is dressed as Stinky
the Skunk, for the opening of the new film, "Little Red Riding Hood and her Friends"
in Bloomington, Ill. in December 1964.

THE BEST OF K. GORDON MURRAY

One of the titles, "The Wrestling Women vs. The Aztec Mummy," will be shown at 6:30 p.m. March 31 as part of ISU's Student Center Board Film Society spring semester series (see story on page 22). Subscribers to cable TV's The Nostalgia Channel can see Murray's 1960 release, "The Vampire," at 1 p.m. Thursday and 6 a.m. Friday.

SANTA CLAUS (1959) - Although produced in 1959, Murray didn't release this Mexican-made epic in America until 1961, after which it played Christmas season matinees for nearly a decade. Starring Jose Elias Moreno as the jolly old elf, "Santa Claus" is set in an outer space castle, where "through all the modern conveniences of science fiction, he sees and hears children all over the world and can tune in on their dreams and wants." Before it's over, Santa Claus makes a trip to Hell to do battle with Satan. He gets some help from Merlin the Magician. Winner of the "Golden Gate Family Film Award" at the San Francisco Film Festival.

SAMSON VS THE VAMPIRE WOMAN (1961) - You have to understand the psychology behind Mexican superheroes to appreciate this one. In Mexico, Santo is a "Superman"-style masked wrestler who protects the world from the forces of evil. Murray changed the name from Santo to Samson during the dubbing process, but no amount of dubbing could alter the truly bizarre nature of this saga about a group of buxom female vampires and the coterie of muscular slaves they keep trussed up on a row of slabs in a crypt.

THE BIRTH OF TWINS (1958) - The ads told all about this French-made import: "Shown For the First Time on Any Screen! Amazing ... True ... Real! You've Never Seen Anything Like It! Bold! Frank! Daring! The Beginning of Life Itself Told With Delicacy and Reverence - Awesome But Inspiring! Shown by Caesarian Section! Also a Natural Birth! In Color! Hear In Person Carlton Howard, Noted Sex Commentator! Adults Only!"

LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD AND HER FRIENDS (1964) - Another of Murray's Mexican-made kiddie matinee hits, a sequel to the less ambitious "Little Red Riding Hood" of the previous year. In this installment, co-starring Murray's ubiquitous answer to Mickey Mouse, Stinky the Skunk, Little Red gets trapped in a haunted forest by a giant spider, is kidnapped by a band of roving gypsies and sings one of the film's five big songs, "Fairy of the Forest". Stinky the Skunk also guest-starred in other Murray hits such is "The Queen's Swordsman," "Tom Thumb and Little Red Riding Hood" and "Puss n'Boots."

THE WRESTLING WOMEN VS THE AZTEC MUMMY (1965) - A Murray classic. Made, as per usual, at Churubusco Studios in Mexico, this one features Lorena Vasquez as Golden Rubi and Elizabeth Campbell (!) as Gloria Venus, a sibling wrestling duo. Together, the pair do battle with a band of female Oriental wrestlers and a woman mummy named Xochitl, who can change into a snake or a bat when the going gets tough. Murray also produced another "Wrestling Women" classic, 1962's "Doctor of Doom,' co-starring the ever-popular Gomar the Ape Man.