Tuesday, October 13, 2015

The Monster Movie/Horror Host; a History and Tribute.




It is October, and now the time of year for Halloween and all things that go bump into the night.

When I look back at my life, I realize I was always fascinated with monster movies. I can recall sitting in front of our old TV set and watch anything that came on that was macabre or had a monster in it.

This post will talk about those people who present those movies, the monster movie/horror host. I know there were, and are; many hosts of this genre around the country, but these are the ones I am familiar with.

The first horror host was Vampira, a black dressed and haired female vampire who introduced the movie and commented about it during commercials. Although she lasted only for a couple of years, she still has an impact on the genre of monster movies.


For me my introduction to monster/horror movies was Monster Movie Matinee. Each week this show brought a different monster or horror movie to me. The show was broadcasted from Syracuse on WSYR-TV from 1964- 1980.

The opening of this show was a scene of a model of a cemetery, which was flooded with fog via dry ice. The camera would then pan up a small hill to what was obviously an old doll house. This intro was set to the ominous music from the classic sci-fi movie This Island Earth.

Once inside the spooky house, you met your host Dr. E Nickolas Witty, played by Alan Milair. In the show’s history I never saw this character’s face. He was so horrible that if you saw him, it would cause you to instantly become insane, or at least go into a coma like trance. Viewing the show, you could only see his ringed fingers moving around as he spoke, many times his hand was coming from the inside of a coffin. If you want to see the opening a found a link to the opening of the show on YouTube.

Every good coffin ridden monster TV host, needs an assistant and Dr. Witty’s was Epal. Epal was a scarred, one eyed lab assistant who would do the bidding of his master. He was played by Bill Everett Lape (The name Epal is his last name spelled backwards).

Not only did the pair introduce movies, each week they would have an adventure. For a short period Epal lost his hand, only later to have Dr. Witty create a synthetic one for him. Another time Epal was cursed as a werewolf.

This show had an impact on me, and I guess started my love of horror and monster movies. I watched great movies on this show; movies like Horror of Dracula, The Wolfman, and of course Godzilla movies.

I also have to say that these movies instilled into me a sense of right and wrong into me, beyond that of my personal morality.  Good guys like Van Helsing destroyed the evil represented by Dracula and I maintain this concept of good vs. evil in my current writings.

The evolution of horror hosts moved on over time. Elvira’sMovie Macabre (Cassandra Peterson) was the next important host of this type. Her large hair and other massive attributes were popular on TV during the 80’s and 90’s. Elvira’s show kept the horror host alive during this period. She brought a unique style as being a host, commenting on the movies with a quick wit and almost a valley girl type speech and attitude.

Mystery Science Theatre 3000 was another unique show, featuring a stranded astronaut and his robot companions who were being tortured by an evil scientist who would force him to watch cheesy movies, many of them B grade horror movies. This show has seen many variations and was also bounced around from different cable networks until its cancelation in 1999.

Today, there is Svengoolie, he is a host on a show on Saturday nights on Me-TV. Like many of his predecessors, this show features horror and science-fiction movies, including some of the classic Universal Monsters of the 1930’s and 1940’s.

Originally the show first debuted in 1970. The host at that time was Jerry G. Bishop. The show was cancelled in 1973. In 1979 the “Son of Svengoolie” premiered and starred Rich Koz, who, as a fan had sent in sketch ideas and later became a writer on the previous show. The show ran until 1986.

The show was brought back in 1994, again with Rich Koz, this time simply as Svengoolie. His show features skits and sometimes bad jokes, with each episode having a parody song dealing with the topic of the movie being shown.

I like this show, not only because of the movies, and the skit comedy, but also because of Koz’s knowledge and respect for these movies. Each week he gives details about the making of the movie and about the cast involved.

Like Monster Movie Matinee, there are other recurring “characters” on the show. His musical numbers are accompanied by Doug Graves (Doug Scharf). There is “Zallman T. Tombstone, a skull that participates in the funny skits. The other main character is Kerwyn, a rubber chicken with teeth that likes to tell corny jokes sent in by viewers.

The show is broadcasted from Chicago, IL. BERWYN; that is a reference to those of you who watch the show.

On a side note, Rich Koz is a wrestling fan. Many times he has had wrestlers featured on the show, or he has interviewed them at other events. These included great wrestlers such as Roddy Piper, and Mick Foley. Foley is a great supporter of the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame as was Piper was before his death.

Rich Koz has assumed the mantle of hosting horror movies. I am also glad to see his treatment and respect of this genre. For like I was years ago, there is a child out there, who has or will become, a fan of these movies, and I hope that they will have a positive impact on him, as they did with me.

I am worried that with our technology, our ability to get the movies we want to see at a moment’s instance, that the horror host will no longer be with us. If it wasn’t for Monster Movie Matinee, and the others, I may have never had the imagination I have and be able to write “Legend of the Mystic Knights”. These hosts exposed me to good movies, and to bad ones; to movies I wanted to see, and those I had never had an interest to view before. These shows broaden my horizons and helped me view the world a little differently.

 

Next Week: I am giving you a short story for Halloween.

20 comments:

  1. I love the classic horror movies and remember Elvira and Vampira from when I was a little kid. I own many digitalized versions of early movies like Dracula, Wolfman, etc. But I've also collected some of my favorite campy B movies like the blob and one of my all time favorites is the Crawling Eye. And of course then there are the goofy ones like Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein. While they don't have the special effects we've come to take for granted, they are great fun to watch.

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    1. I love The Crawling Eye too.
      You would like Svengoolie. He just showed, "Hold That Ghost" with Abbott and Costello. Svengoolie mentioned in that show, they delayed its release because they did not think audiences would like the pair in a monster movie type comedy, but as you know this later became a staple for them. Thanks for leaving a comment.

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  2. I am not a horror movie person. But, I did like the Nightmare on Elm Street ones from years ago. My husband, on the other hand, loves everything horror. Sorry to say he is the only one in our house. Thanks for sharing.

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  3. My parents made the mistake of taking me to see The Brides of Dracula when I was 7 years old. Never mind that I slept in their bed for a week after, I STILL am terrified of all things vampire! So, I can't say that monster movies ever found a place in my heart:)

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    1. We must be kind of different, I saw that movie as a kid too. It was THAT movie that made me a fan of the genre, not to mention a fan of Peter Cushing.

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  4. The one I remember is Zacherle. He started in Phildelphia hosting "Shock Theater" than moved to New York. He ended up having a pretty varied career as he later was host to an afternoon teen dance show (still in his zombie garb) and then was a DJ at New York's progressive rock station WNEW-FM.

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    1. He was another early one of the 1950's. I think he is near 100 and still alive.

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  5. I like certain type of horror movies. I am a huge fan of the Halloween and Friday the 13 movies.

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  6. When I was a child I used to love horror movies. We used to be a group of kids that loved being petrified. But already in my teans I lost interest in horror movies. And since then I have never regained any interest in watching that kind of movies. Halloween was only on my map when I lived in London, UK, and kids and other strange people knocked the door at my house in Knigtsbridge. Never opened becuase criminals tried to trick people in central London to open and then rob them:-)

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    1. UK was the king of horror movies once with their Hammer Films.
      As for Halloween, I grew up in a rural area so we had no issue with that. However, I do know some places do deal with people trying to rob them at Halloween. Its a crazy world we live in.

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  7. I was raised on Elvira. Your post just made me look up that Oak Ridge Boys song on YouTube... memories :)

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  8. William you bring back so many happy memories from my childhood. I loved horror movies, or more appropriately loved to be scared by them. Many of my Saturday afternoons were spent watching the "Creature Features" show in the 70's. Elvira and Svengoolie also have a special place in my memories of watching horror films.

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  9. That clip from the monster matinee is great - when you look at that guy's scars makeup compare to the Walking Dead - wow, have we come a long way. I never used to like horror movies very much as I was too scared & would have nightmares, though there was always a draw to things like Dracula. I've since seen a lot of the classics and for the most part like then. In the UK it was the Hammer Horror films that were the big deal back in the day. Have a good halloween!

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    1. Well, to be fair they were a local horror show. There was a documentary made about them, it is available on youtube.
      I love Hammer Movies, and met Veronica Carlson recently who was a star in many of those films.

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  10. If I were the stranded astronaut of Mystery Science Theatre 3000, the evil scientist would put away the cheesy movies and instead subject me to endless reruns of the TV shows "Cheers" and "Friends": THAT would be torture. ;-)

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  11. William, I am definitely not a monster/horror movie fan. I once saw Psycho and that was more than I ever wanted to see - still have nightmares about that one 50 years later. Good thing they don't rely on me at the box office Huh?

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  12. I've never been much of a horror movie person, but I do love learning about classics that've influenced pop culture. Sad to say I know more about the characters mentioned as costumes, so I may have to plan a movie night soon. Thanks for sharing!

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  13. I remember my brother watching ,Zacherley and the Chamber of Horrors. I don't know why I wasn't scared by his show. I actually found him amusing, but he didn't inspire me to like horror. I don't like scary movies horror films at all.And yet I have friends who love the feeling of being scared. October is their favorite month.

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  14. I love horror movies. I am a huge fan of the Halloween and Friday the 13 movies too. I love the feeling of being scared. My family says "I am weird" LOL!

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  15. I love the Adam's Family. Quite an irony because of what they represent yet they are lovable.

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