The True Story Behind The Real Addams Family Explained -

The Addams Family is one of the most iconic gothic dark comedies of all time. The Addams, a wealthy family of misfits, is at the heart of the spooky season every year, with the central story being adapted a number of times, updating the family’s tales for contemporary audiences. Most recently, Netflix’s Wednesday series paired gorgeous cinematography with a distinctly modern tale of fighting discrimination and critiquing colonialism. Despite the Addams’ supernatural abilities, the fictional family is based on a very real couple from New Jersey.

Cartoonist Charles Addams contributed cartoons loosely based on his own marriage to The New Yorker from 1938-1964. The cartoons depicted the fictional family attempting to do mundane activities like go to the beach or celebrate holidays, all the while humorously sticking out in their environment. Charles Addams’ was inspired by a unique Victorian-era home that still stands in Westfield, New Jersey, which resembles the Addams Family mansion.

Charles Addams Was A Cartoonist For The New Yorker

Addams Was An Accomplished Artist

Charles Addams was born in Westfield, New Jersey in 1912. Childhood friends recount that Addams would frequent the Presbyterian Cemetery on Mountain Avenue in town, and would often “wonder what it was like to be dead” (via local historian Darryl Walker). His macabre interests and offbeat humor went on to inspire his Addams Family cartoons, an era-defining series in The New Yorker. Addams worked with television producer David Levy in 1964 to flesh out his characters, giving each individual the names Gomez, Morticia, Wednesday, Pugsley, Uncle Fester, Lurch, Thing, Cousin It, and more.

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Collage of the Live action Addams Family Movies and the Animated Movies

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The Addams Family has been making people laugh since the late 1930s, and eventually, the characters made their way to the big screen.

Addams studied at Colgate University, the University of Pennsylvania, and eventually the Grand Central School of Art in New York City. It was said that “his sense of humor is a little different from everyone else’s” in a conversation with biographer Linda H. Davis (via The New York Times). After honing his craft, Addams developed the cartoons to be based on his own unique ways and his first wife, Barbara Jean Day (who bears a striking resemblance to Morticia Addams). The marriage dissolved because Addams did not want to have children – explaining his view of children as amusing creatures through his cartoons.

The Real Addams Family Home Is In New Jersey

The House Is Currently Inhabited By Local Residents

The house in Westfield, New Jersey that inspired the Addams Family mansion. — Patch.com

Addams was once caught breaking into a home in Westfield on Elm Street, and this Victorian home is widely regarded as the inspiration for the fictional Addams Family mansion. Known as a neighborhood rascal, biographer Linda H. Davis discovered in her research that he once drew a skeleton in chalk on the property. The biographer also noted that his family members and teachers noted Addams’ artistic talents from a young age.

Westfield, New Jersey is known to boast well-preserved Colonial and Victorian-era homes, with 117 listed as historic homes (via TAPinto). In the years since Addams’ marvelously macabre creations, a number of haunting events have taken place in the town. In 1971, John List killed his entire family in his Victorian mansion, known as Breeze Knoll, motivated by financial devastation and religious fanaticism (via NJ.com). List later evaded justice for 18 years, living under false identities and remarrying in a different state. The home was later burned to the ground in apparent arson, but the culprit was never found.

Needless to say, Addams’ macabre interests and gothic style certainly add up with the town in which he was raised.

Years after the List murders, in 2014 the Broaddus family moved into a similar Victorian mansion in town, only to be stalked and have threatening mail sent to their home by someone who called themselves “The Watcher” (via The Cut). The Watcher was never apprehended, and the family moved out of their home. The eerie case was adapted for a television series of the same name in 2023 by Ryan Murphy for Netflix. Needless to say, Addams’ macabre interests and gothic style certainly add up with the town in which he was raised.

How Much Of The Addams Family’s Shows Are True

While Charles Never Had Children Of His Own, Morticia and Gomez Are Based On Himself And His Wife

Gomez and Morticia sitting with baby Pubert on the sofa in Addams Family Values

Addams himself is described by friends in Davis’ memoir as being a “debonair ladykiller” who once accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Greta Garbo, and more to social events during his single period between marriages. Barbara Jean Day, Addams’ first wife, had the same pale skin and striking dark hair as many of Addams’ cartoon characters. Her witch-inspired glamor largely inspired Addams’ design for Morticia Addams, and the several people to play the character in adaptations moving forward.

Day’s signature bangs are a clear influence on Jenna Ortega’s take on Wednesday’s character in Wednesday. The couple’s relationship is likely to have inspired the devotion between Gomez and Morticia, though all the Addams Family children are entirely fictional. The supernatural hijinks are thought to be based on Addams’ own childhood daydreams. While America’s favorite mysterious family may have been fictional, the cartoons’ lasting impact on modern media would not be possible without its creator’s real-life wife and matriarch.

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Charles Addams Was Not Pleased With The Original TV Series

The family gathered together in Addams Family Values

While Charles Addams based Gomez on himself, and Morticia on his “ideal” wife (although she also bore a striking resemblance to his first wife, Barbara Jean Day), he didn’t base his original cartoons in The New Yorker in his life. Rather, he created them based on the idea of him being an outcast in society and not fitting in. In reality, Charles wanted nothing to do with having children, so this was all fictional. However, he did add the two kids (Pugsley first and Wednesday second) and then Uncle Fester after that.

While Addams was happy to license the characters for the original TV series, he didn’t feel they were his characters, saying they were nowhere near as “evil’ as the characters in his comic strips. Addams died before the movies were released, but the first two films, The Addams Family and Addams Family Values, played the closest to his original vision. The characters were less of a sitcom family and more “evil,” as Addams preferred, with Wednesday’s propensity for murder to fit in perfectly with his macabre humor.

Sources: The Cut, NJ.com, TAPinto, The New York Times, Darryl Walker