'Witch's Curse Faces Critics Of Film "13"', The Record, 2 February 1966

The Record, Hackensack, New Jersey, Wednesday 2 February 1966, page 55. Robert Musel's UPI feature on Alex Sanders's arrival at Claridge's as technical adviser on Marty Ransohoff's film 13, starring David Niven, Deborah Kerr and Sharon Tate. Sanders arrives from his northern coven 'by pullman, rather than broomstick' in a red velvet robe, with Maxine in a silk shift and Paul King in gold lamé, and a trunk of swords, daggers, oils and portable magic circles. He offers a charm for Kim Novak's bad back, complains that the American series Bewitched knows nothing about real witches, and says he succeeded Gerald Gardner as elder by acclamation. The piece ends with Maxine ordered to prepare a spell for director J. Lee Thompson to show Sharon Tate, and the reporter leaving as she takes her clothes off. Printed with the UPI photograph of the couple, captioned 'Witch hunt'. The photograph was taken by UPI at Claridge's in London in January 1966, when Alex and Maxine Sanders were technical advisers on the MGM film Eye of the Devil, released in the United States as 13. The archive holds other photographs from the same visit. How to cite: Robert Musel, 'Witch's Curse Faces Critics Of Film "13"', The Record, 2 February 1966, p. 55. Alexandrian Witchcraft Timeline & Archive.

Witch’s Curse Faces Critics Of Film ‘13’ By ROBERT MUSEL London (UPI) - Consider the plight of the critic comes summer when he has to pass judgment on a film titled “13” knowing that Alex Sanders and his coven of witches are willing the movie into a boxoffice hit. Sanders is not a man to cross; he is not king of the witches of Britain for nothing. Anything a voodoo doctor can do by sticking pins into a doll| Sanders says he can do better| with his “fifthfath” miniatures, though he much prefers to concentrate on beneficial or white witchcraft. Assuming he has a miniature of an American critic and his crystal tells him the review is not what he wants. A pin in the right place in Manchester could, he alleges, produce a sharp ouch in New York. Sanders arrived in London from his northern coven by pullman, rather than broomstick, to act as technical adviser on producer Marty Ransohoff’s story about quasi-religious sect which begins to dominate a remote French village. A curse on the grape vines and a sacrifice called for by the script so Sanders was summoned to give expert advice on the ritual attached to both. Claridge's, most elegant of Britain's hotels, has welcomed many a potentate before but never one quite like this. For his arrival in London Sanders wore a monkish red velvet robe. His queen, Maxine, a big blonde wench of 19, wore only a silk shift which, she said, she naturally discards when she is working because clothes get in the way of the vibrations. High priest Paul King wore simple gold lame. A couple of flunkeys wrestled with a trunk containing swords, daggers, oils, essences, dried twigs, and other charms, mobile magic circles and the rest of the portable equipment from the royal court of Britain’s 30,000 witches (Sanders’s estimate). “13” stars David Niven, Deborah Kerr and Sharon Tate. One of the original stars, Kim Novak, hurt her back and had to leave the cast. “Pity they didn't send for me,” Sanders said. “I know a charm that works well on bad backs.” As Sanders prepared to coach Miss Tate into casting a spell on Miss Kerr so she throw herself off t the battlements of a chateau, he took time off to complain about the American television series “Bewitched”, seen here on the British Broadcasting Corporation. “Those American television people don’t know anything about real witches,” he said. “Why that girl who plays Samantha (Elizabeth Montgomery) only wriggles her nose and a whole house disappears. Believe me, making a house disappear isn't that easy. I can't do it and I'm the elder (he prefers the title to “king”) of all the witches of the United Kingdom.” Sanders, a slender 35-year-old with thinning hair, is the grandson of a witch. He said he succeeded to the title held by the late Gerald Gardner by acclamation. Gardner once claimed Adolf Hitler would have invaded Britain if all the witches of Britain had not “raised a cone of power” against which he was impotent. “That's the legend,” Sanders said. “We’re supposed to have stopped the Spanish Armada the same way on 1588. But my problems are more immediate are more immediate. I’ve got to show director J. Lee Thompson the kind of spell Sharon Tate ought to use.” He summoned his handsome queen and ordered her to prepare. This meant taking her clothes off, so, I left, having been warned that spell was a very potent one and might affect everybody in the immediate vicinity, Pity.