Written By Richard Roy, Once A Young Ghosthead
During GHOSTBUSTERS™ early movie history, Mark Lister and Jim Garvey founded the first licensed Ghostbusters fan club. (GBI Blog Post, June 8, 2014)
I was a kid and the internet wasn’t really a thing. I don’t think I had $8.95 USD laying around to join the official, licensed Ghostbusters fan club. For anyone that knew that Ghostbusters had a real, get in the mail stuff club and applied for a job they received:
- Personal membership card.
- A metal badge.
- Certificate of Anti-Paranormal Proficiency.
- Not 1, but 4 color “This property protected by Ghostbusters” stickers.
- Ectomobile sticker.
- Ghostbusters Logo patch.
- The Official Trade Journal of Certified Ghostbusters.
I can’t tell you if ghostheads in 1984 and for however long the club was around actually received all seven items. Since Ghostbusters 30th anniversary I’ve mostly seen on-line about 3 of those items. Ever since, I would ask about the original Ghostbusters club. My hope was eventually Ghostbusters International could share the original physical Ghostbusters fan club experience.
During Ghostbusters 35th anniversary, Ghostbusters International can do that. This year when something new surfaced on Facebook and I asked about it, I was contacted by Robert Maxwell Barbieri. (Facebook) If you didn’t know, “Bobby_80’s,” restored the original The Real Ghostbusters pilot. That was awesome enough for Sony Pictures to add the restored video to the official Ghostbusters website! That could have been the only recognition. It wasn’t. Sony made a bazillion copies as a feature on the Ghostbusters 35th anniversary edition 4K/Blu-Ray.
As a ghosthead collector, Robert has items from the original Ghostbusters fan club. I asked for pictures or scans. Could they be shared for ghostheads? Robert agreed and I wasn’t disappointed by what he sent over. Including some extras from his archives.
Again qualifying applicants may not have received everything they were “promised.” I still hope that someday we’ll have one edition or more of “No-Ghosts,” the quarterly newsletter to share. Or the newer TECHPAC. I’m happy during Ghostbusters 35th anniversary to share these photos from the original Ghostbusters Fan Club!
Note: As I couldn’t be a member at 6 years old I don’t know the order of how items within the club were sent. I’ve tried to recreate the experience in order of how it seems to have made sense.
Files may be around 10MB each.
Membership Card
Certificate Of Anti-Paranormal Proficiency
Stickers
Cleanin’ Up The Town
Tools Of The Trade
Popular Lines
Ghostbusters II 3D Photo Frame/5 FT Standee
Sources:
- Mark Lister and Jim Garvey
- Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.
- Sony Pictures
- Dr. Ray Stantz, Original Ghostbuster
- Ghostbusters (Official Website)
- Robert Maxwell Barbieri (Instagram)
- Ghostbusters Official Fan Club (Spook Central Blog Post)
ghostbusterscities.com 