Boy Meets Monster:
A forty-year journey

Ed Tucker may hold the title of ZAAT?s biggest fan. He has been fascinated with the film ever since the age of six. He sat in a dark theater and watched as the monster climbed out of the transformation tank and into his life. In this excerpt from the April, 2001 edition of Scary Monsters magazine, Ed tells of how he first met the monster.
Ed: I suppose being born in Ocala, Florida in the 1960's in some way predestined me to my love and appreciation of motion pictures. The small town of Silver Springs is located so close to Ocala that, today, it is almost considered a suburb of it, but in the 1950's and 60's, it was a booming conglomeration of widely varied tourist attractions. Chief among these was Silver Springs itself, with its glass bottom boats, jungle cruises, and wildlife exhibitions. Hollywood often utilized the spring's clear waters and jungle-like settings for every manner of production. From installments in the Tarzan film series to episodes of Sea Hunt and I Spy. But in my mind it will always be remembered for the underwater footage filmed for the 1957 3-D horror icon, Creature from the Black Lagoon. Even as a young child, I was fascinated by that fact that one of my favorite monster movies had been filmed there. Add to that the regular airings of the Black Lagoon and it's sequels on my Saturday afternoon staple, Creature Feature, only further fueled my interest. It was this love of monster movies that led me to beg my parents to take me to a matinee at, fittingly enough, the Springs Theater one Saturday afternoon in 1973. I remember that I had seen an ad for a film called ZAAT in the paper and had questioned my father about the plausibility of the giant walking catfish monster it depicted. He had explained to me that there was such a thing as a walking catfish that could survive for brief periods on land, but the likelihood of it attacking humans was slim.

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