Ray Dennis Steckler began making 8mm movies as a boy in his native Reading, Pennsylvania, paying for the film by selling broken pretzels to neighborhood bars.

Steckler learned photography as an Army cameraman stationed in Korea.

New in Hollywood, Steckler lived out of and slept in the back seat of his Nash Rambler.

Steckler was fired from a job as a grip on the set of Alfred Hitchcock Presents for nearly running over the Master of Suspense with a piece of scenery.

Steckler shot second unit photography for the classic schlock film Eegah! (1962), directed by Arch Hall, Sr. and starring Arch Hall, Jr. and Richard Kiel.

Steckler later worked as a director of photography on ABC's Wide World of Sports show.

Steckler met his future wife Carolyn Brandt on the set of a TV pilot called The Magic of Sinbad in which she had the small part of a harem girl.

Steckler's first film as a director was the short subject Goof on the Loose (1964), a tribute to silent film comedians shot in and round Echo Park Lake.

Steckler and Brandt both worked as ushers at Hollywood's Ivar Theater, where he later shot his first feature film, Wild Guitar.

Steckler's "Cash Flagg" nickname was partly derived from his refusal to accept checks for his services...just cash!

Brett O'Hara was once a stand-in for Susan Hayward.

Cast as a sideshow barker and eventual murder victim, Neil Stillman was the letter carrier bringing the mail to the Glendale soundstage where The Incredibly Strange Creatures... was shooting.

Co-scenarist Robert Silliphant is the less well known brother of veteran screenwriter Stirling Silliphant.

The amusement park scenes from The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!? were filmed at a defunct Long Beach, California amusement park known as The Pike.

During the shooting of an episode of The Six Million Dollar Man at The Pike in 1976, a funhouse "hanging man" prop was found to contain the skeleton of wild west outlaw Elmer McCurdy, killed in 1911.

Ray Dennis Steckler turned down a role in The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant (1971), which was directed by the editor of The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!?.

When The Incredibly Strange Creatures... was shot and mocked on the comedy series Mystery Science Theater 3000 Steckler commented "I hope they made a lot of money off that and spent it unwisely."

Compiled by Richard Harland Smith

Sources:
Ray Dennis Steckler audio commentary, The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!? DVD
Ray Dennis Steckler interview by Boyd Rice, ReSearch: Incredibly Strange Films
Ray Dennis Steckler/Carolyn Brandt interview by Boyd Rice, RE/Search: Incredibly Strange Films
Ray Dennis Steckler interview by Ed Tucker, CrazedFanboy.com
Titus Moede interview by Rudolph Grey, Psychotronic Video, No. 54