Zombos' Closet

Creatures of the Night That We Loved So Well: TV Horror Hosts of Southern California

ZC Rating 3 of 7: Good (with extensive format and edit issues in the paperback version)

James M. Fetters' Creatures of the Night That We Loved So Well: TV Horror Hosts of Southern California is an important and entertaining book, which makes it all the more disappointing to wade through its poor text-formatting and lazy page layout.

When I received my "Perfect Paperback" $24.95 copy from Amazon, my heart sunk when I saw the misprinted cover cutting off the title; it was a foreshadowing of the poor publishing standards overhwelming this book's otherwise welcomed contents. I recommend you don't buy the paperback version as it appears to be a print-on-demand book with no proofing to accomodate fixed page lengths or any common print sense for that matter. The sloppiness includes quotes appearing ad nauseum in italics, double-spaced paragraph blocks, and Fetters' overused exclamation marks! Photographs, full script pages and show production sheets, and newspaper clip advertisements are either improperly sized, or reproduced so faintly they're hard to read, a shame because they provide a wealth of information for the diehard horror host fan. Captions are out of alignment with photographs, and interviews are not properly referenced and vaguely introduced with a they can explain it better than me  so here you go attitude, so I'm not sure how they were conducted or when.

Ignore all this amateurish presentation and you'll find worthwhile reading that, when paired with Elena M. Watson's Television Horror Movie Hosts: 68 Vampires, Mad Scientists and Other Denizens of the Late-Night Airwaves Examined and Interviewed, satisfyingly fills in the background for horror hosts Watson only briefly mentions. Fetter's meticulously provides show and channel information for each host, a superb timeline chart comparing national hosts to Southern California hosts, and he even lists what movies were shown, show by show; although the listing is unecessarily repeated in back of the book. More unnecessary page-filling is accomplished by providing capsule summaries for every Shock! and Son of Shock! movie, information easily found elsewhere.

What's really good here are the interviews, included scripts, and coverage for hosts like Ghoulita (Lietta Harvey) , Moona Lisa (Lisa Clark), Sinister Seymour (Larry Vincent), Grimsley (Robert Foster), and The Old Lady (Ottola Nesmith), who was sued by Mae Clark (Frankenstein) for wrongful impersonation. Grimsley takes you on a wild acid trip as he answers questions--I think those were answers, my head is still reeling--about his show, Moona Lisa's  own scripting ("Lisa wrote all of her scripts usually around 5 a.m.") is enlightening, and Sinister Seymour is vividly recollected by Douglas McEwan, who provides his complete, but unproduced, Octaman script for Sinister Seymour's Fright Night. While much of the reminiscenses are nostalgic, the ego-intrigue between Moona Lisa's appearance with Sinister Seymour (he was very ill with cancer at the time) at the Knott's Berry Farm Halloween Haunt provides a rare glimpse into the politics of hosting. 

The Famous Morris (Don Sherman) chapter provided a pleasant surprise for me. Back in the 1970s I was holed up in a motel room, flipping channels until I came across a horror movie. I was shocked (more like wow, this is neat, really, I was young) to see breasts bared. Now I know who's show it happened on, even if I don't remember the actual movie shown. This is one real "Urban Legend" I still remember. Famous Morris also explains how he became Andy the Bartender in the Rocky movies. 

Clarification in the lineage for Jeepers' Creepers Theatre (Jeepers, Ghoulita, Jeepers' Keeper, and The Creeper) cleared up the cobwebs for me regarding the hosting for this long running show. What's clear after reading Fetters' book is how much fun and work went into producing a horror host show, and how clearly American the phenomenon was and still is. We do love our schlocky horror hosts with our horror: they made the bad movies palatable and the good ones even better. 

For more on television horror hosts see the Hi There Horror Movie Fans: The Bowman Body Documentary and Virginia Creepers: The Horror Host Tradition of the Old Dominion DVDs,  and John Stanley's book, I Was a TV Horror Host: Memoirs of a Creature Features Man. 

Jeepers' Keeper On KCOP TV Channel 13

Here's an audio cassette tucked away in Professor Kinema's archive that's historically interesting. Jeepers Keeper (Fred Struthman) is the host, I believe. (The cassette listed 1963 as the date of the source recording, but E-gor's Chamber of TV Horror Hosts lists 1964 as Struthman's start on Jeepers Creepers.)

Click the link below the picture.

Jeepers' Keeper on KCOP TV CH13

Ghoulardi Music Party April 30th, 1997

This is a fun tribute to Ernie Anderson (Ghoulardi), hosted by Chris Quinn. The recording comes from a dusty audio cassette courtesy of Professor Kinema.

Ghoulardi Music Party 4-30-1997 Part 1

Ghoulardi Music Party 4-30-1997 Part 2

Happy Holidays From the Dreadful Gang Penny, Garou, Luna, and Manfred

I enjoy getting my howl-iday card from horror host Penny Dreadful and the Shilling Shockers Gang. Hmm...looks like they'd make a wonderful cartoon; like Scuby Doo and Penny, too, only Scuby would have to be replaced by Garou of course.

My Halloween: Mr. Lobo

Five questions asked over a glowing Jack o'Lantern, under an Autumn moon obscured by passing clouds...in between mouthfuls of candy corn...with Mr. Lobo...up all night at Cinema Insomnia...

Why is Halloween important to you?

For the world it’s a time when adults can give themselves permission to act like kids. And kids are able to dabble in the adult arts of overindulgence and masochism. On a personal level, it’s more economic. Mr. Lobo tends to eat better around Halloween. As a working genre personality/ horror host, it’s our “bread and butter” time--Well, “brownie and peanut butter cup time”. Not only does Mr. Lobo have more work, we also like to hit the sales the Day After Halloween to do my yearly shopping for –Well-Everything…clothes, kitchen wares, pantry items, birthday-X-mas-Valentines-Mothers Day-bereavement gifts! It’s the only time I can buy amenities and necessities that suit Mr. Lobo’s demanding tastes and at deep discounts.

Describe your ideal Halloween.

The season begins with an experiment where we mutilate gourd-like squash of the genus Cucurbita and let them rot on my front stoop. Not having dental insurance, this is the time of year Mr. Lobo likes to prepare and eat Carmel Apples--to remove any loose are damaged teeth or inferior dental work. It’s always a hoot to make embarrassing or cumbersome costumes for my children out of recyclables. Mr. Lobo is a workaholic--so ideally we will host film shows, make misunderstood movies, and as a legal reverend, marry a Goth couple or two. And Finally, as Mr. Lobo does every “Devil’s Night”, we soap windows, TP the CVS, smash and destroy early Christmas decorations at major department stores, crank call my mother, and set fire to television stations and sponsors that have wronged Mr. Lobo or CINEMA INSOMNIA in the past 10 years of the show.

What Halloween collectibles do you cherish, or hate, or both?

The cheap 49 cent glow in the dark vampire teeth—the kind that come in a little sealed plastic bag and the tops and bottoms are connected with excess plastic: They make you drool like a teething Saint Bernard and they cut your gums so you’re leaving steamers of crimson slime at everyone’s front porch.

I’ve found that that a lot of Elvira dolls are badly made, it goes to prove how hard it is to capture her combination of sexy, silly, and scary…I have one with a witch hat and broom made by Figures Toy Co. that looks like a drag queen with Down Syndrome.

I also like to collect spooky Pez dispensers and those flimsy vintage Halloween treat bags that can maybe hold like 6 and a half pieces of penny candy. Even though they are maddeningly impractical—Mr. Lobo loves the kitschy artwork!

When was your very first Halloween, the one where you really knew it was Halloween, and how was it?

That would be three years ago. It was OK.

Just Kidding. Y’know, it was great when it all began. Mr. Lobo was a regular Frankie fan. I had a Don Post Frankenstein Mask when I was 5 or 6 and I remember wetting it in the sink to make the cut on his forehead look real.

Also, at a school contest I made a classic cardboard box/ tinfoil/ dryer hose robot costume and won a free ice cream at Baskin Robbins--or what I called it: “31 Flavors”. I also remember the belly aches and thinking I would die after consuming Pop Rocks and Coke.

What's the one Halloween question you want to be asked and what's your answer?

Great. Now I get to do YOUR JOB!

I have some novelty songs on iTunes including one called “HALLOWEEN CANDY” and I also have over 20 full length CINEMA INSOMNIA episodes on YOUTUBE on our “CINEMAINSOMNIATV” channel including several HALLOWEEN SPECIALS. So I suppose a question I wished someone would ask would be…

Q: Isn’t it amazing that your song “HALLOWEEN CANDY” is the most downloaded song in history, easily eclipsing THE MONSTER MASH and that more people watch CINEMA INSOMNIA episodes at HALLOWEEN than anything else in all of media?

A: Yes, it is amazing.

 

Dr. Shock

From Professor Kinema: "Here are three giveaway cards from Zach immitator (with his approval) Dr. Shock.  I got these from his daughter, Bubbles, at a Chiller con."

Jeepers' Keeper Giveaway Cards

Here are fan giveaway cards of Jeepers Keeper and Jeepers Creepers -- from Professor Kinema.

Morgus the Magnificent

From Professor Kinema: "Hese's some Morgus stuff (name, I heard, was derived from Morbid or Morgue, and Disgust)--a giveaway card, a poster and lobby card from his film (THE first film to be based on a TV Horror Host), and a more contemporary coin."

Can't Get Enough Zacherley?

Professor Kinema strikes again with more vintage Zacherley...

Professor Kinema Provides More SHOCK! For You

Courtesy of Professor Kinema

Professor Kinema Wants You To Join the SHOCK! Club

Professor Kinema's a member; are you? Here's your Zacherley passport to more from the Kinema archives...

Welcome to the Spook Show

by Sean Kotz

Hi There, Horror Movie Fans!

If you are a horror movie fan, you know the last few years have seen a number of documentaries on the subject of television horror hosts. Vampira: The Movie came out in 1998, but it wasn’t until it hit DVD shelves in 2007 that most people got a chance to see it. While it got mixed reviews, the film was important for several reasons. Foremost, it cast light on a major cult figure of the 1950s who officially set in motion the craft of television horror hosting. In turn, the documentary launched the craft of documenting those boils and ghouls who kept several generations up late.

Since then, American Scary, Watch Horror Movies, Keep America Strong, Every Other Day is Halloween and other documentaries have followed, including a film my company released in late 2009, Virginia Creepers: The Horror Host Tradition of the Old Dominion. In that particular opus magnum, we explored the chronological history of Virginia and DC hosts, a subject much richer than even we knew when we began the project.

And...that in turn has sprung a new documentary, Hi There, Horror Movie Fans, which is something of a sequel to the previous film. We kept getting requests for more on Bill Bowman and his character, The Bowman Body, and there was a ton of material we had to cut to trim the Bowman section to a manageable length, so...sure! There’s room for that too.

Penny Dreadful is Naughty and Nice

Just received my first Christmas Card! It comes from Penny Dreadful and the Shilling Shockers Gang at NBTV95. Looks like Santa has his hands full. Between you and me, it also looks like getting on the naughty list can be more fun. Love the antlers, Garou.

Dreadful HallowGreen Special for Halloween

This just flew in from Dr.Gangrene and Penny Dreadful...

"Hallowed horror hosts Penny Dreadful and Dr. Gangrene are teaming up to save Halloween in an all new half-hour television special entitled “The Dreadful HallowGreen Special” premiering in October on stations around the country.

"The duo finds themselves readying for the upcoming Halloween season when suddenly all things go awry. It’s up to the physician of fright, Dr. Gangrene, and the eerie enchantress, Penny Dreadful, to set things right and save Halloween for everyone in a brand new television special."

The Dreadful HallowGreen Special premieres Halloween weekend 2010 on finer television stations. Check local listings for show times. For more information on Dr Gangrene or Penny Dreadful please visit www.drgangrene.com and www.shillingshockers.com.

Who Can Ever Forget Vampira?

Flashback courtesy of Professor Kinema...and Terence O-Flaherty writing in the San Franciso Chronicle, 1984 (click to enlarge)...