Profile: Robert Horror Bob Masters
So for the assholes who don’t believe that Robert Masters
ever existed and have been trying to bury his legacy, here is the story of a
simple video store owner who was an innovator and a businessman who did things
his own way.
I met Robert Ean Masters in 1986 when I was taking an afternoon
movie criticism class at The College of San Mateo. Robert had just opened his
store, Video Universe, in San Francisco.
He was able to attend the class because it was at 10 am on
Wednesday and Video Universe opened at noon everyday except on Sunday when it
opened at 1 pm.
Robert ran a very unique video store. His story only stocked
horror, science fiction, fantasy, and mystery films. Later he would amusingly
add horror themed porno films, like A Nightmare on Porn Street, Trampires, and
all the Devil and Miss Jones films.
Robert actually took a cue from some Canadian video dealers
and built onto the video store The Horror Bob Theater. For $20 each people could
rent the theater and could watch two rented videos right there. Robert would
also offer popcorn, canned drinks, and candy. The theater seated ten people,
but with folding chairs, which he had available seating could be extended to twenty
people.
The theater was popular with people who didn’t have a VHS, Beta, or video disc player,
because Robert had all three available. Towards the end he would a DVD player
as well.
The theater was also popular with video clubs and
independent movie groups.
As well it was when the original version of Horror Bob’s Blog
was created. The Blog started out as a free newsletter that Robert would print
and have available at the cash register. Unfortunately all my copies of the
original blogs were burned up in my house fire
It wasn’t all fun at
the store though. Like a lot of businesses in the City, Robert’s video store
was próne to being robbed. During one very nasty Robery Robert was shot and one
of the things that were stole was an original poster from James Whales
Frankenstein that he got from the Golden Gate Theatre. This really upset my
mother who had been a nightly customer at the Golden Gate when the film had its
premiere there. My mother had been having me try to convince Robert to sell her
the poster if he ever wanted to sell it. Unfortunately the poster was never
recovered.
In 1998 Robert decided to expand Horror Bob’s Blog to the
internet. He found a French/American Blog site, Overblog and with my help we
built his first blog site there. The hits on the site were fantastic. The only
issue was you had to hit a translation program because all the text on the site
was in French and the program would glitch qúite a lot. It was very annoying.
In 2005 I started my own blog on the website Blogger,
William Pattison /Eric Morse Raw, and talked to Robert and The Wolf Pack, who
were now involved, about creating a second Horror Bob’s Blog on Blogger so we
could eventually disgard Overblog. Robert had started his Facebook page and was
excited about expanding the blog.
Unfortunately, so after Robert had what turned into fatal
health issues, His hearing started to fail him, so he ended up using hearing
aids. Then his sight started to go. He had surgery that failed with one eye, so
he was partially blind. Then Robert had a massive stroke and he had to end up
selling off his video store because he could only use the left side of his body.
He was stuck using an electric wheelchair. All this happened in a matter of two
years…
After his stroke The Wolf Pack and I started to help Robert
continue on the internet. During this time Robert continued to do movie reviews
as well as did a couple interviews. But, but unfortunately in February of 2015
Robert died from a héart attack known as a widow maker.
Luckily he had been
smart enough to put my name and The Wolf Pack as the persons to take over all
his internet identity.
So, since then I, William Pattison have been keeping
Robert’s legacy alive. Since his death I have expanded Horror Bob’s Blog all
over the Internet. You can find links, profiles, and pages for Horror Bob’s
Blog on Facebook, Blogger, Overblog, MeWe, Slasher,Threads, Instagram, X,
Tumbler, and Bluesky. You can also find links on groups like MadamCadaver’s
Video Reviews, Horror Nerdz, and
Collectors, Slash Tracks Network, The Eric Morse Army, Assholes of Horror, Bay
Area Horror Grouo, The Nerds Group, Cranky’s Place, Horrorland, and Horror Video Group on MeWe William Pattison’s
Bloodbath Theatre, and Bloodbath Beyond Podcast page.
Robert died at the age of 78 and left his wife and daughter,
who I cannot name because a certain group of asshole immature cyberstalkers
harassed both her and her daughter, so they now are only able to come on the
internet using fake names.
The reason I’m
writing this is clear. The horror community is trying to bury Robert and
everything he achieved. I won’t allow
this. Robert was a bear friend. He was like family. He was an honored member of
The Wolf Pack. These assholes are trying to say Horror Bob was Joe Bob Grigs or
Bob Wilkins, or twenty other Bob’s. Fuck you assholes!!! FUCK YOU BITCHES!!!!
Robert Masters is Horror Bob. His legacy is a love of Horror and this fandom,
even though some of you fucks don’t deserve it.
I was actually so hurt the last few days that I thought
about closing the blog for a while…but guess what, Fuck you, I’m going to once again double down and continue
the blog just to shit in the faces of those trying to bury Robert. Horror Bob
will keep going as long as I have breath on my lungs. Keep on Creepin’ , assholes…Horror
Bob Forever!!!
Also, if you happen
to have any of the print copies of Robert’ s newsletter he made at Video
Universe I would really like to have a couple since mine got burned up (Note to
funny people out there, the current logo I made for Robert for the internet
blog. The printed newsletter logo is totally different. So don’t print up an
internet review and try to trick me…)
