Late night horror hosts...

[Jedburgh OSS]

Let's date ourselves and see who remembers staying up late on the weekends watching your local TV horror movie host in all its cheesiness and loving it. I watched Sammy Terry out of Indianapolis and, through travels. Houlihan and Big Chuck out of Cleveland and Chilly Billy out of Pittsburgh. For those of you only familiar with Elvira, Mistress of the Dark she had scores of hosts before her who laid the groundwork. No matter how bad the movie was you stayed up to watch it and the host until he signed off followed by the Star Spangled Banner, the Indian head test pattern, then the electronic EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. Ah, those were the days...uh, nights.

 

[Hawkcigar]

Growing up as a kid in Iowa we had the Acri Creature Feature. It was hosted by Chuck Acri who owned a home improvement/siding business and he had a bunch of characters on the show with him. It was campy and cheesey and as a ten year old kid in 1970 I loved every minute of it. Thanks for bringing back some good memories!

I was surprised when I found a couple of web pages about it.


Acri Creature Feature #1 Acri Creature Feature #2

 

[Matt Crunk]

Yeah, once upon a time (in my pre-teen years) I lived for late-night Saturday night TV. Locally for us it was Channel 31 (ABC) and the host was this crazy mad scientist type who's name escapes me now. I remember Star Trek (the original series) came on at 10 pm, followed by a classic horror movie at 11. The show also repeated at 9 am Sunday morning, in case we missed it or wanted to watch it again. It was there that I first saw all the classic Universal horror films: Dracula, The Wolfman, Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, The Mummy, Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Blob, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and many more cheesy horror flicks from the50's and 60's.
By the time I reached my teens Saturday Night Live (original cast) had captured my full attention and the horror shows seemed somehow less important.

My best friend at the time was originally from Cleveland and I remember him always talking about Big Chuck and Houlihan as well as someone called The Ghoul, though I never saw either of them (the days before VCRs).

Fun stuff to remember.

 

[scotrace]

Oh EEK.

I watched the Ghoul (hey Hey HEY!!!!), Ghoulardi (who became, I think, the guy who says "It's Saturday night live...."), Houlihan and Big Chuck (and Little John - they're still around).

 

[KY Gentleman]

I used to watch Bob Shreve out of Cincinnati, he was funny and weird and the breaks were more fun than the actual movie feature. I later moved to Dallas and "discovered" Elvira. I never missed a show of hers.....

 

[$ally]

Growing up as a kid in Iowa we had the Acri Creature Feature. It was hosted by Chuck Acri who owned a home improvement/siding business and he had a bunch of characters on the show with him. It was campy and cheesey and as a ten year old kid in 1970 I loved every minute of it. Thanks for bringing back some good memories! I was surprised when I found a couple of web pages about it.

Yes, but do you remember Floppy?
http://www.whotv.com/Global/story.asp?S=5336381&nav=menu100_10_12
I remember there was a always a silly B&W 'scary' movie on after it. There was also a late night horror show and a cooking show, but I didn't get to watch them. My elementary school class visited the sets on a field trip though. The horror host set was so cool. The books on the shelves had real witches brew and spell recipes. they told us not to touch but a couple of us lingered back and looked them over until the head count gave us away.

 

[mike]

Purple Knif!?!?

Stay Sick Already!

Only on bootleg versions as I'm a youngin'! But I do have Ghoulardi hosting Island of Lost Souls & Brain From Planet Arous!

 

[Hawkcigar]

Yes, but do you remember Floppy?
http://www.whotv.com/Global/story.asp?S=5336381&nav=menu100_10_12
I remember there was a always a silly B&W 'scary' movie on after it. There was also a late night horror show and a cooking show, but I didn't get to watch them. My elementary school class visited the sets on a field trip though. The horror host set was so cool. The books on the shelves had real witches brew and spell recipes. they told us not to touch but a couple of us lingered back and looked them over until the head count gave us away.

Do I remember Floppy!!??

Why did the man put the car in the oven?

I watched Floppy every day growing up. Sally, I didn't know you were an Iowa kid.

 

[Mike in Seattle]

In LA, it was Channel 9 - KHJ-TV (before Disney bought it) and watching Seymour on Friday nights. He got sick and died and they brought in some chick he knew...what was her name...oh yeah, Elvira, and from there she became the cult figure she is today.

If he had met her, I'm sure Oscar Levant would've used one of his better known lines on her - "Gee, that's a nice dress you're almost wearing!"

And decades before either, there was Vampira who just died a few months ago.

 

[Brinybay]

Being a native to the NW, it was Kiro-TV's (Channel 7) Nightmare Theater. "The Count", played by Joe Towey, was the host. Man, it was hard staying awake until 11:30pm to watch it.

Interesting bit of trivia that I just found and never knew:

Joe was also the director of the J.P. Patches show, and his best friend Chris Wedes (aka J.P.) was the director of Nightmare Theater

 

[Harley Quinn]

Nearest thing we had here in the 'Old Country' was Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected in the 1970s... oh, and 'Night Gallery' repeats at some ungodly hour on BBC2

TotU was slightly cheesy, but seemed to get top flight British character actors (Joan Collins just around the time she got all her nooks and crannies out in The Bitch being a stand out memory...)

 

[DblCoronaMS]

We didn't have any late night creature feature hosts growing up near Oklahoma City but in New Orleans there was a guy on Saturday nights that EVERYONE watched! The kids would get home early from their dates to watch Dr. Morgus. He was in other cities as well but shot the show in New Orleans. He made a feature film in '62 that is still available on video from Amazon. Very campy!

He made a comeback in the '80s and is still around. He even has a website, www.morgus.com, and to this day is a cult hero in New Orleans. Dr. John and a few other New Orleans musicians did a rock & roll song about him in the '60s. The guy was HUGE!

The deal was that he was this mad scientist who lived above the old city ice house downtown. His assistant, Chopsley, was horribly disfigured by one of Dr. Morgus' experiments gone wrong... and they all went wrong! He was dressed head to toe in brown with his face covered and never spoke. The computer, ERIC (The Eon Research Infinity Computer), spoke through a human skull who's jaw moved. You could see the rubber band inside!

Google Morgus. Great fun!

Morgus in the '60s

Morgus in the '80s

 

[LocktownDog]

Reno still has a show like that. Zomboo. Bad makeup, terrible cue-card reading, scantily clad babes, but the tremendously terrible movies more than make up for it. I guess they've been broadcasting for a decade or so.

 

[Hondo]

Bob Wilkins, Creature Features

Let us NOT forget Bob Wilkins, The Legendary Creature Features host, Movies like "Billy the kid meets Dracula". Wilkins is still around, loved that stoogie
I can still remember that theme song they played at the beginning and ending of show, can any one recall the name of it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aZGN0VM2s8

 

[Panache]

Here in the Bay Area we had Bob Wilkins and "Creature Features" on Saturday Night.

http://www.bobwilkins.net/index.html

Somewhere I think I still might have have the 45 single with the "Creature Features" theme song

Fun Stuff

Cheers

 

[$ally]

Do I remember Floppy!!?? Why did the man put the car in the oven? I watched Floppy every day growing up. Sally, I didn't know you were an Iowa kid.

I adored Floppy. What happened when the boy swallowed a doorknob?
Yup, I'm a cornfed dame.

 

[$ally]

Stay Sick Already!
Only on bootleg versions as I'm a youngin'! But I do have Ghoulardi hosting Island of Lost Souls & Brain From Planet Arous!

I mostly know of that through being a Cramps fan, it was before my time too.

 

[Twitch]

As a kid in St. Louis I can't remember any personna hosting sci-fi or horror movies at all. Many years later after I was married we lived in Ft. Smith AR and got a Tulsa OK station 90 miles away.

Well after the Buddy Holly movie came out with Gary Bussey we recognized one of the 2 goofballs that hosted the moster flicks on that station, a younger Bussey.

Heard him acknowledge it in an interview once...

 

[mike]

I mostly know of that through being a Cramps fan, it was before my time too.

Well sure! Lux was shaped as a youngin by Ghoulardi & (on the radio) the Mad Daddy!

 

[skyvue]

We didn't have any late night creature feature hosts growing up near Oklahoma City

Sure we did! I grew up in Oklahoma City, and Count Gregore ruled the late-night weekend airwaves there for years (perhaps you're too young to remember him).

He debuted in 1958 on "Shock Theatre" on what was then WKY-TV (now KTVY), and he would bounce around from local station to station, with the show being called, at various times, "Creature Features," "Horror Theatre," "Sleepwalker's Matinee," "Thriller," "Nightmare," and "Scream Country Theatre."

Here's a recent story about him.

And here's a YouTube tribute to him.