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nolabear

(41,991 posts)
Mon Oct 1, 2018, 10:04 PM Oct 2018

In honor of October-Post your favorite horror movie host!

Lots of us had a local denizen who gave the late late monster movies a particular flavor. In New Orleans we had Morgus the Magnigicent, who started in 1959 and went well into the 80s.

31 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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In honor of October-Post your favorite horror movie host! (Original Post) nolabear Oct 2018 OP
Svengoolie and Son of Svengoolie from Berwyn, IL lunasun Oct 2018 #1
number 2..... for Svengoolie Stuart G Oct 2018 #3
Is that where he's from? I see him in Seattle on a cable channel. nolabear Oct 2018 #6
I never understood how it translates in syndication. There are many jokes that are local, if lunasun Oct 2018 #12
Ghoulardi. First and Forever. blm Oct 2018 #2
Dr. Paul Bearer ornotna Oct 2018 #4
Oh him I like! nolabear Oct 2018 #7
Love his name lunasun Oct 2018 #13
John Zacherle fmdaddio Oct 2018 #5
I Had a Couple of Them Leith Oct 2018 #8
Youtube has everything. 😀 nolabear Oct 2018 #9
What? No love for Elvira, Mistress of the Dark? Wounded Bear Oct 2018 #10
She belongs to us all. 😍 nolabear Oct 2018 #14
Just saw a recent pic of her the other day... malthaussen Oct 2018 #19
Love here!! underpants Oct 2018 #27
Bob Wilkins - Creature Features Brother Buzz Oct 2018 #11
OMG I love him! You just know he's really a psycho. nolabear Oct 2018 #15
I grew up with him Brother Buzz Oct 2018 #16
Bob Wilkins had a real life nemesis by the name of Leon Heskett Doc_Technical Oct 2018 #23
Heskett's Carpet Coliseum got all burned up. Brother Buzz Oct 2018 #24
Count Floyd - SCTV Tripper11 Oct 2018 #17
I lived in Pittsburgh when that was on. He did Pbgh jokes. nolabear Oct 2018 #18
Sir Cecil Creape Docreed2003 Oct 2018 #20
Eddie Driscoll WABI TV Bangor Maine - host of late-night Weird jpak Oct 2018 #21
He's AMAZING! 😂 Bud Abbott meets Cowardly Lion! nolabear Oct 2018 #22
Savid, Fantastic Features, local Memphis, TN, 1960s. Laffy Kat Oct 2018 #25
Sir Graves Ghastly. Crutchez_CuiBono Oct 2018 #26
Central Va - Bowman Body underpants Oct 2018 #28
Oh, sheesh, I haven't seen that name in years. Many, many years. mahatmakanejeeves Oct 2018 #29
Yep. Channel 12 underpants Oct 2018 #30
In DC, it was Channel 20's Count Gore de Vol mahatmakanejeeves Oct 2018 #31

lunasun

(21,646 posts)
1. Svengoolie and Son of Svengoolie from Berwyn, IL
Mon Oct 1, 2018, 10:09 PM
Oct 2018

?w=670

Still on Saturday nights although my kids are teens so I think it is -they stopped watching it awhile ago. when younger we went to see him at a fest they bought Tshirts and admired his rubber chickens
But i found a link saying yes!it is still on Saturday nights
This town just cant let go!
https://bloody-disgusting.com/editorials/3500715/svengoolie-still-keeping-tradition-horror-host-alive-years/

lunasun

(21,646 posts)
12. I never understood how it translates in syndication. There are many jokes that are local, if
Tue Oct 2, 2018, 12:11 AM
Oct 2018

you were not in Chicago it wouldn't mean anything , but I guess it would just be a brief Huh?moment. Plus , he does plenty of other funny stuff so I can see why it would be a horror hit elsewhere regardless of the local digs.

I may start watching it again now with twitter might be fun some night yes I am that silly
Found out a recent addition to the show is the simultaneous use of Twitter with the hashtag #svengoolie, allowing those watching to comment on the show.

fmdaddio

(192 posts)
5. John Zacherle
Mon Oct 1, 2018, 10:55 PM
Oct 2018

He hosted Shock Theater in the lste 50's followed by Chiller Theatre in New York. Later became a dj on a progressive rock station. He introduced the Grateful Dead at the Filmore in 1970. And so much more. I remember his Halloween shows from NY when I was about 6 years old.

Leith

(7,813 posts)
8. I Had a Couple of Them
Mon Oct 1, 2018, 11:30 PM
Oct 2018

Sir Graves Ghastly. He was a vampire and would end the show by lying back in his coffin.

The Ghoul. Kind of a mega-punk zombie.

underpants

(182,871 posts)
27. Love here!!
Fri Oct 5, 2018, 12:59 PM
Oct 2018

Saw her walking down the street in NYC about 10years ago. No costume, no make up. I told the people I was with "Hey that's Elvira" they asked how I knew. Oh! I know.

Brother Buzz

(36,458 posts)
16. I grew up with him
Tue Oct 2, 2018, 12:57 AM
Oct 2018

He was in both the Sacramento (KCRA) and Oakland (KTVU) markets and I lived right between both. In Sacramento, he seemed to do everything and appeared to work twenty-four hours a day; morning news, noon news, evening news.

To his credit, he brought a air of sophistication to the horror film genre

Doc_Technical

(3,527 posts)
23. Bob Wilkins had a real life nemesis by the name of Leon Heskett
Thu Oct 4, 2018, 08:53 PM
Oct 2018

who owned a "Carpet Coliseum" just across highway 17 (Now 880)
from the Oakland Coliseum and he was always putting Heskett down
because Leon was not the most honest of businessmen.
Always good for a laugh as Bob put him down with that droll humor of his.


Brother Buzz

(36,458 posts)
24. Heskett's Carpet Coliseum got all burned up.
Thu Oct 4, 2018, 09:03 PM
Oct 2018

Haskett claimed he had an irate customer in the day before threatening to ruin him. We can assume Bob Wilkens knew what he was talking about.

nolabear

(41,991 posts)
18. I lived in Pittsburgh when that was on. He did Pbgh jokes.
Tue Oct 2, 2018, 06:43 AM
Oct 2018

One of his frequent “movies” was The Creature from West Mifflin,” an area near the city. We thought we were the cool kids. 😄

jpak

(41,758 posts)
21. Eddie Driscoll WABI TV Bangor Maine - host of late-night Weird
Thu Oct 4, 2018, 07:08 PM
Oct 2018

Influenced a young Stephen King.

Fact





underpants

(182,871 posts)
28. Central Va - Bowman Body
Fri Oct 5, 2018, 01:02 PM
Oct 2018


He was a Technician at the local ABC afiiliate and hosted horror movies after Soul Train. Met him at a Halloween event at an elementary school - he signed band-aids with an X

mahatmakanejeeves

(57,595 posts)
29. Oh, sheesh, I haven't seen that name in years. Many, many years.
Fri Oct 5, 2018, 02:11 PM
Oct 2018

Last edited Fri Oct 5, 2018, 02:51 PM - Edit history (1)

What channel had the "Justice is the name of a grand old horse" video?

Google knows what I'm talking about:

TV's Circuit Rider

By Blaine Harden June 25, 1979

In this one-street town west of Richmond, a former traveling salesman and his sad-eyed horse appear on television each week at 1 a.m. - right after NBC's "Saturday Night Live." ... "When they see me and that horse come riding up, they think some spoof is coming on," he says. "You can sneak into a home on a horse. Most anybody will stop and look at a good horse."

For nearly seven years on 12 commercial stations and nearly 50 cable outlets across the South, the sad-eyed horse has held an audience long enough for the Rev. William R. Livermon, the salesman turned preacher, to deliver a low-key message about the Lord.

Livermon, a 62-year-old Methodist minister with a honey-smooth voice and a face like worn leather, calls himself the "Circuit Rider" when he is on television. The horse, a 23-year-old thoroughbred pacer, is called Justice.

At the beginning of each of his more than 60 four-minute "spots" - shown thousands of times to an audience that he says consists mainly of "drunks, dope addicts and college students" - organ music plays and the old chestnut horse walks along a country road beside a white picket fence. The Circuit Rider does a television voice-over: ... "Justice is the name of a grand old horse," he says. "Once he paced the race tracks (winning one race 12 years ago in Harrington, N.J.), but now he brings a friend for a visit."

That would be channel 12, right?

Sermon on the Mount

The homespun “Circuit Rider” offered late-night life lessons.

BY DALE BRUMFIELD



Late-night television viewers of a certain age may not know William R. Livermon, who died 18 years ago this week. But they may remember him as “The Circuit Rider,” who rode into Central Virginia living rooms for years on WWBT-TV 12 after “Saturday Night Live” and just before sign-off.

“Justice is the name of a grand old horse. Once he paced the racetracks, but now he brings a friend for a visit,” Livermon's voice would intone at the opening of each four-minute TV “sermonette,” filmed by his wife, Thelma. “Out of the fascinating heart of nature, the circuit rider brings a simple secret in his saddlebag. Let's see what it is.”

The former railroad worker, tobacco auctioneer, roof coating salesman and “hard-drinking, poker-playing, dirty-joke teller” answered the call to the ministry in 1959 at age 42. “Lord, I accept your call,” the Plymouth, N.C., native reportedly said. “But you will need to break the news to Thelma.”

“Dad said because of his life he considered himself an expert on sin,” says his son Robert Livermon, adding that was the exact audience that “The Circuit Rider” broadcast sought on the late-night airwaves.
....

For information on ordering a DVD that contains all of the surviving “Justice and the Circuit Rider” episodes visit circuitrider.webs.com.

The link no longer works.

mahatmakanejeeves

(57,595 posts)
31. In DC, it was Channel 20's Count Gore de Vol
Fri Oct 5, 2018, 02:48 PM
Oct 2018
The Insider

Scared Silly With Count Gore De Vol



Yeah, that's a rubber chicken in a noose. The vampire? Count Gore De Vol, played by Dick Dyszel. (Dick Dyszel)

By Dan Zak
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 12, 2008

He lives in a housing development where the streets have names such as Autumn Breeze Court. His lawn is a lush green. His kitchen walls are painted canary yellow. As you walk in the front door, his tidy office is to the left. The entrance to his dungeon is straight ahead, through the plain white door under the stairs.

Down there is an altar with red candles, orange buttons to toggle fake lightning and a very real coffin. He's hoping it endures longer than his last three coffins. ... It's the hinges that wear out quickly, says Dick Dyszel, sighing and resting his hand on the lid in his basement in Northern Virginia. Coffins aren't made to be repeatedly opened and closed. This particular coffin he's had for eight years. It's solid maple, with stronger hinges. It should last. ... "It's a shame I'm gonna be cremated," he says.

That is, if he ever dies. Dyszel's alter ego is Count Gore De Vol, a vampire who hosted "Creature Feature," a horror show that aired Saturday nights on Washington's WDCA-TV (Channel 20) off and on from 1973 to 1987. He masterminded the count during his first job as a TV anchor in Paducah, Ky., in 1971. At 20 minutes past the hour, the sports reporter on the 10 o'clock news would take over from Dyszel, who then had 10 minutes to run off camera, change into his vampire costume and makeup, and slip into in his coffin for "Night of Terrors," the station's own horror show. All of that was done on the fly. ... "Everything was live," Dyszel says. "Well, the count was kind of dead."

The count is still dead, but very much alive. (Stay with me here.) After leaving TV in the late '80s, Dyszel resurrected "Creature Feature" in 1998 on the Web at http://www.countgore.com, becoming perhaps the first horror host to introduce and stream horror films online. He's also the patron ghoul of the Spooky Movie film festival, about to start its third year Thursday at Cinema Arts Theatre in Fairfax. The count will be there Thursday and Friday to do what he does best: emcee the show with cheeky, cheesy wit.
....

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