A Lighthouse Tale from 1953

The following pages are from the March 1953 issue of Beware Terror Tales. They are reprinted with appreciation and thanks for the blog of Mr. Karswell www.thehorrorsofitall.blogspot.com.

Sci-fi was big in the 1950s. I still enjoy watching b&w sci-fi films and reading sci-fi stories in magazines and comic books. This was the cold war era, and many of the monsters and aliens in the stories were metaphors for the Soviet Union and communism.

History has its share of sea monster sightings at lighthouses. Who else, besides sailors out at sea and lighthouse keepers, would have a ringside seat for viewing the horrors lurking in the deep? Perhaps those same horrors were created in their imaginations.

Thankfully, there's no Eastham Lighthouse, grisly old lighthouse keeper, or multi-tentacled purple monster like the one in this tale! At least I think not... I'll warn you there's no happy ending to this story. I suppose you could write your own ending. I vote for a satisfying wrap-up with the Coast Guard coming out to the lighthouse to do maintenance, encountering that big-eyed monster, and bonking the daylights out of him with a buoy crane. How would you end this tale?

 (Click on the images to enlarge them.)