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Milwaukee Journal (25/Sep/1994) - Ex-state resident looked to Gein for inspiration to write 'Psycho'

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Ex-state resident looked to Gein for inspiration to write 'Psycho'

How much of the classic thriller "Psycho" was drawn from Wisconsin's Ed Gein? That's not a secret author Robert Bloch carried to his grave.

Bloch, writer of pulp magazine stories, novels and film and television scripts, died Friday from cancer in Los Angeles. He was 77. He spent more than 30 years in Wisconsin before going to Hollywood in 1959. And he spoke liberally about his inspiration for "Psycho" after its success.

Born in Chicago in 1917, Bloch moved to Milwaukee in 1927 when his mother, the former Stella Loeb, returned to direct the old Abraham Lincoln House, at 9th and Vine Sts., which helped immigrant families. The house later metamorphosed into the Milwaukee Jewish Center.

Bloch attended Lincoln High School, remembering later, "I spent most of my time dodging study hall and getting into high school dramatics." He pondered a career as a burlesque comic, but veteran talents crowded the stage during the Depression.

He turned down an offer by a family friend to pay for a year of college. Instead, he pursued his passion: writing.

Bloch sold his first story to Weird Tales magazine in 1934. "After that there was no stopping," he later said. "But it must have been four or five years before I could say I was making a living from it."

By the time he turned 18, Bloch was the subject of an article in The Journal's old Green Sheet. Years later, he set the record straight: The story said he had spent all night seeking literary inspiration at Concordia Cemetery. Bloch insisted he left well before midnight.

Bloch for a time dabbled in politics. He and another man ran the 1940 mayoral campaign of Carl Zeidler, then a 32-year-old assistant city attorney. In an upset, Zeidler defeated Daniel Webster Hoan.

For years he also held down a full-time job in advertising in Milwaukee, while churning out hundreds of stories. He moved his family in 1953 to Weyauwega, his then-wife's hometown. Enter Ed Gein

Weyauwega is about 50 miles from Plainfield, home of Gein, the infamous murderer and grave robber whose crimes came to light in 1957.

Bloch, detailing their impact on "Psycho," suggested later that the book was very loosely drawn from Gein. At the time, he said, he didn't have a car. Nor did he subscribe to a daily paper. But a person couldn't help but hear the stories.

"Inevitably, I heard the mumbled mixture of gossip and rumor concerning the 'fiend' and his activities.

"What interested me was this notion that a ghoulish killer with perverted appetites could flourish almost openly in a small rural community where everybody prides himself on knowing everyone else's business."

"Psycho" tells the story of a demented hotel owner who stabs his guest in the shower and talks to his mummified mother. Bloch said he made his killer, Norman Bates, a motel operator instead of a farmer for the potential for plenty of victims. "Then came the ticklish question of what made him tick. . . . The Oedipus motif seemed to offer a valid answer and the transvestite theme appeared to be a logical extension."

Director Alfred Hitchcock made Bloch's work a classic in 1960. Bloch kept writing horror, fantasy and science fiction but "Psycho" eclipsed his later writings.

Bloch is survived by his second wife, the former Eleanor Alexander; a daughter, Sally Francy of Los Gatos, Calif.; and a sister, Winifred Marcus.

In August, he typed notes for his obituary, saying he did not want to cheat readers out of a surprise ending. In those notes, he specified that his ashes be placed in a book-shaped urn at the University of Wyoming, in Laramie.

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