(Historic) Homer Tate

Homer Tate, who from the 1930s to 1960s was the "go to" guy for making (mostly from papier-mâché) and selling myriad horror-related items for curio shops, roadside attractions, mom & pop museums, etc. -- like fake shrunken heads, Fiji mermaids, mummies, human-animal hybrids, and on and on, most famously the "Thing" advertised on countless billboards along Interstate 10 between El Paso, Texas, and Tucson, Arizona. For a while, Tate even had his own "museum" in Apache Junction and a Curiosity Shop (with a Parlor of Horror) in Phoenix from which he sold his creations. (Not to be confused with the Tate Geological Museum in Casper, Wyoming or any of various other "Tate" Museums like the Tait Britain art museum. Probably no problem there!) The Thing now is the star of its own museum, shared with dinosaurs and aliens.