HIS BARK'S WORSE THAN HIS BITE.......WE ROOT OUT TABONGA, OUR FAVORITE TREE MONSTER OF "FROM HELL IT CAME'

From Hell It Came (1957)    True story.........long before we ever got to see this movie, our first view of its legendary staggering pissed off tree stump came from the wondrous pages of 'Famous Monsters Of Filmland'.........the mag that launched a thousand rabid sci-fi/horror fanboys.........

                It was love at first sight.......along with all the other photos and stories on King Kong, Frankenstein, Dracula and all of Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion beasties..........

                Took us some time, and a lot of Googling........but exclusively for you BQ visitors alone, we tracked down the star himself, Larry Arbor......for a no-holds-barred, one-on-one interview.....

                Yes, you heard it right. It wasn't a guy in a costume.

                 Larry is an real-life tree, retired from acting since the completion of "From Hell It Came"......we found him living quietly in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, spitting at the occasional squirrel.........

                 He sometimes delights fans by appearing at Comic-Cons throughout the country, where crowds line up for autographs and selfies........remembering him from his two signature roles, the angry apple tree in "Wizard Of Oz" who hurls his fruit at Judy Garland.......and Tabonga, the nuclear-mutated Pacific islander turned into a tree after the jealous tribal chief has him stabbed and buried vertically......

\BQ:     Wow, 61 years after "From Hell It Came" and here you are, still healthy.

LARRY:  Knock on wood.....heh, heh, heh.....

BQ:    So your first film, in 1939, becomes an iconic blockbuster. How'd you end up with the role in "The Wizard Of Oz" anyway?

LARRY:  What can I tell ya......pure luck. They were gonna put W.C.Fields in a tree costume but he got terrible claustrophobia every time they sewed him up in it.  Louis B. Mayer came across my head shot, called the casting director......said, "Why don't you get a real tree?  You can pay 'im half as much as an actor..."

BQ:   That discriminatory.

LARRY:   Tell me about it. But....eh.....those were the times, ya know?  How many roles you think were floatin' around for a walking tree?

BQ:   Not many, we imagine.

LARRY:   Damn right. I kept tellin' my agent I needed to branch out.......heh, heh, heh....

BQ:   What do you recall about working with Judy Garland?

LARRY:   Kinda sad. Ole Louis B......he kept her doped up out of her mind. There was one take where I accidentally hit her with one of the apples.....nailed her good in her left eye.   Poor kid never felt a thing......

BQ:     You had to wait 18 years, til 1957, to secure your starring role as Tabonga in "From Hell It Came".........how did you survive during that dry spell?

LARRY:    Tough years, BQ, tough years........had to settle for extra work in Tarzan flicks......ya know, just standing around, playing part of the foliage........I was down to my last dime, filling in for a pal who played a tree at the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland.......and this stinkin' script comes in the mail.....

BQ:    Didn't care for it, huh?  It was pretty awful......\

LARRY:    Please, don't remind me. But I was the friggin' star!   And let me tell ya, starring roles for guys like me....

BQ:......don't grow on trees?

LARRY:    Heh, heh......no wonder I dig your blog. And the culture hasn't improved much for us......only one of us gettin' work is Groot.......at least the little knothead gets three words of dialogue.........which is three more than I ever had...…

BQ:  Didn't it upset you when they credited a human actor with playing your part?

LARRY:  Oh man, that hurt me more than the termite colony nesting in m ass. . They didn't want to scare the shit out of everyone if it got out that they used a real tree.  Happened all the time in those days...….between you and me....ya know the guy with the fly's head in "The Fly"?  That was a real guy with a fly's head. Morty Thorax. He had as much luck finding roles as me.

BQ:   Wow. Had no idea.  And then you retired?

LARRY:   Oh, I kept my branch in from time to time.  Loads of screen tests, auditions......tried out for "Day Of The Triffids".....too much walkin' for me.......I went out for both versions of 'Little Shop Of Horrors'......sons-of-bitches ended up using puppets, for Christ's sake.  I did a quick cameo as one of the plant samples in E.T.'s spaceship, but Spielberg cut it out....but he leaves in the goddamn Triffid.

BQ:   I guess those are the show biz breaks. Anyway, great catching up with you, Larry.

LARRY:  Likewise, likewise........listen, you want an autographed photo?

BQ:  You mean it? Love one!

LARRY:    Only 24.95......cash or credit card?

BQ:   How about if I rate "From Hell It Came"  2 & 1/2 stars (**1/2)?   Strictly for your memorable performance......

LARRY:  $18.95......and I'll throw in a poster.

BQ:  Larry, you're the best. Stay grounded....

LARRY:   Heh, heh......it's what I do, buddy.....