Freakling Bros founder got scary start with home attraction

You may enjoy Halloween. You may even think that you love it.

For Duke Mollner, though, the holiday is a way of life. About the only thing keeping the Freakling Bros. patriarch from having Halloween in his blood is the fact that the candy corn would get lodged in his veins.

“It’s probably nine months that we’re thinking about this,” Mollner, 77, says of the “Trilogy of Terror” haunted houses. “And then we take three months off during the holidays, and it’s a nice break.”

What began as a fun night at his east valley home in 1976 soon morphed into a neighborhood phenomenon. One night, a squad car showed up, and an officer told Mollner he was drawing too big of a crowd with his decorations, that kids were running across the street to get there, and he’d have to shut down.

“As he was about to do that, his partner walked in the house,” Mollner says. “He looked at me and said, ‘Are you Duke? I used to come here when I was 12 years old. It was great!’ ” The second officer, Mollner says, talked his partner into staying and controlling the crowd for the rest of the evening.

In 1992, Mollner’s neighborhood favorite grew into Las Vegas’ first freestanding Halloween attraction, then located at Sahara Avenue and Decatur Boulevard.

Freakling Bros. has become a family business for Mollner, Ginnie, his wife of 41 years whom he met in “Casino de Paris” at the Dunes, where he was a dancer and she was the lead singer, and their son, writer-director JT.

In addition to dancing, Mollner has been a Marine Corps pilot, an actor, and he’s dealt baccarat at Bellagio since it opened 20 years ago. Nothing, though, rivals his ability to scare generations of Las Vegans with “Trilogy of Terror,” which once again includes the haunted attractions “Castle Vampyre,” “Coven of 13” and “Gates of Hell,” at 4245 S. Grand Canyon Drive. They open at 7 p.m. each night through Halloween and will continue to scare visitors until the last ticketholder goes through.

Mollner took time out from his two jobs to talk about the origins of Freakling Bros.

Review-Journal: What is it about Halloween for you?

Mollner: I was a big fan of Halloween since I was a child, like I think most kids are. Through college, I would get tremendous makeup, go to parties as some odd character, back when that kind of makeup wasn’t really in fashion.

What made you decide to start decorating your home?

We had to work every single night (at the Dunes). The union came in, gave us three days off a month together. And those three days — the first three we had — happened to fall on Halloween. So that was the first time we were able to spend Halloween at home. I just thought, “We’ve got to take advantage of this. Let’s make a coffin, I’ll jump in it, put some candy on my chest; you dress up like the Bride of Frankenstein, and we’ll start scaring kids.”

Why do you think people really latched onto your decorations?

Hardly anyone fixed their house up back then. Now, there’s so much access to props and makeup and sound effects and animatronics. You can buy almost anything. But back then, there was nothing available. We had to make all our own stuff. … People would drive over, they would park their cars across the street, and they would spread lawn chairs out and watch the character that I was portraying that year.

While all this was going on, what were your neighbors like?

There’s the rub. (Laughs.) Once they got used to it, it was fine. But as this progressed from one year to the next, the neighbors would make a number of snide remarks during the year. “Duke, you’re not doing this again, are you?” “I’m sending my candy bill to you.” But they got into the swing of it.

What was that first professional haunted house like back in 1992?

It was a huge, what looked like a circus tent, pink-and-black stripes, with a 30-foot clown face in front, and you entered through the mouth. … And I’m telling you, we had a line a block long. We were dumbfounded.

When did you first realize you really had something?

The people running out, we had to think of a way to block the exit path, because they were running too fast and too far. They were starting to run into Decatur. And I put a couple of characters out there, too, which also attracted the attention of drivers. We would have small crowds outside just watching people coming out of the exit, not even going in to experience it.

What has it been like getting to work with your family all these years?

My wife is in the ticket booth, every single night for 26 years. … Oddly enough, she is deathly afraid of going into any of the haunted houses and has refused to do so. About five years ago, I convinced her by turning the lights on, having no actors in there, in the daytime. I wanted her to walk through one of the shows to see how cool it is, how inventive it is. She got about halfway through and she said, “Duke, I think that’s enough. I’m sure it’s great, but get me out of here. Life is scary enough.”

Getting to know: Duke Mollner

What scares you? “Well, I guess what scares me is the unknown.”

Favorite scary movie? “The original ‘Alien.’ I had never seen anything like it when it came out. I don’t think anybody else had seen anything like it, either.”

Do you have hobbies that aren’t related to Halloween? “Wow. It’s hard to have time for nonrelated hobbies. I do like to play racquetball. One of my favorites.”

Favorite holiday besides Halloween? “My second favorite holiday is very predictable, and it’s Christmas. … It just brings family together. There’s a great spirit going on, as opposed to scaring the hell out of people.”

Contact Christopher Lawrence at clawrence@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4567. Follow @life_onthecouch on Twitter.