Frisco’s Floating Phantoms Halloween Store caters to those with a flair for the macabre

Clowns ... why did it have to be CLOWNS!?

by John P. Meyer

FRISCO — I first ran into James Sale when he was showing off his creepy wares (and his sweet Dracula duds!) during Texas Frightmare Weekend this spring. We somehow neglected to do an interview with him (perhaps because we were distracted by other dreadful delights).

Given the looming approach of Halloween, we thought it was an appropriate time to remedy that omission.

So on October 19, I journeyed from Dallas up to the southwest corner of Preston and Gaylord Pkwy. in order to confront scaremeister Sale on his home turf, arriving at his shop (right next to a vitamin mega-store) around mid-afternoon. He calls the place Floating Phantoms, in honor of the mechanical prop of the same name he pioneered a few years ago.

It was quiet in the spacious store, with only two customers prowling the aisles of scary-sexy costumes, grisly props, and devilishly-responsive motion- and sound-activated devices. James and his co-worker Franchelle went about their ghoulish retail business while I walked around the place taking pictures, and then set up my tripod for our interview.

A soccer-mom-ish-looking woman spent quite some time browsing through the store (with her wide-eyed young son in tow); before leaving, she told James she'd be sure to get the word out about his shop. A friend of hers, she said, was planning a big neighborhood Halloween shindig.

As James toured me around the store, he told me about a brother and sister who came in with their parents to browse. The little boy was scared and asked to wait outside, but the girl took one look around and exclaimed: "This is like Halloween heaven!"

Then I heard the tale of the big burly guy who wandered in last year, glanced trepidatiously towards the wall of rubber masks, and beckoned James over to the front door:

"Man, could you go turn those clown faces around? I just can't handle that (stuff)."

Consider this little tour a pre-Halloween (trick-or-) treat.

Highlights of our interview with James Sale:

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