Or ketchup. With the local broadcast of horror films came the local horror host. Local stations employed assorted spooky characters to host the monster movies in weekend late-night "fringe" timeslots that were a tough sell to advertisers--airtime that station sales departments already considered to be a "graveyard" of unsold commercial spots.
Imagine, then, your local station's surprise when horror flicks proved immensely popular. Perhaps it was Cold War Paranoia, perhaps the local hosts exercised a mysterious power over their viewing minions. (Perhaps the next sound you hear will be...a theremin) Classic hosts ran the gamut from KABC-TV's Vampira, the original Lady of Horrors, and Elvira, the stacked Mistress of the Dark and presenter of Movie Macabre on KHJ-TV (both in Los Angeles), to Count Gore DeVol, the (literate!) vampire host on WDXR-TV in Paducah, Kentucky.
The local horror movie broadcast was quite lucrative for TV stations. The film packages were a cheap source of programming, the local host segments were no-budget productions--often to hysterical effect--and the monster chiller horror theatre shock show quickly proved itself a reliable vehicle for delivering many bloodshot eyeballs to local advertisers. Long after TV was a mature business, in Omaha, Nebraska the Saturday night Creature Feature broadcast with Dr. San Guinary (played by a KMTV staff director, the late John Jones) was still pulling an estimated 52% share of that market's TV audience at the height of its popularity in the early to mid-70s.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, the local horror host tradition lives on in the person of Doktor Goulfinger (no "H,"--"they're for the weak," he says). The Doktor keeps the scary flag flying on Berkeley cable access, in personal appearances and at his web site, The Hip Crypt of Doktor Goulfinger.
The Dok is also one of the nation's leading experts on local TV horror hosts. He maintains a huge memorabilia collection including props, costumes and airchecks--expertise that led him to a gig as an Associate Producer and research specialist on American Scary, a documentary overview of the horror host genre by filmmakers Sandy Clark and John Hudgens.
Dok Goulfinger was kind enough to write the rest of this piece for us answer a few questions on the history of local TV horror hosting earlier this month as he completed preparations for his busy season:
Article comments
1 - Eric Olsen
excellent interview on a great topic - I loved Elvira when I was in LA and the Ghoul here in Cleveland, keeping you company while you watch the (mostly) bad scay movies. Thanks Rechercher!
2 - Pereire
Very cool story. Merci bien Rechercher!
3 - Vic R
What an informative and well-written piece. Great to know that even the hosts in different markets didn't know each other. My cousins from Cleveland and ourselves from Chicago used to regale each other with tales of our local Creature Feature horror hosts and the movies they showed. Great stuff, Rechercher.
4 - Tom Terrell
In the late '60s, my sister Bevadine and I would dance on Zacherley's "Disco Teen Dance Party". We'd go down to Newark, NJ's Symphony Hall on Thursdays and Fridays to tape the show. They'd have local bands and big time R&B acts. We became local celebs a la American Bandstand. And Zach was the coolest, nicest cat. We were his favorites. Man it was a gas!! Zach was one of my TV idols. To meet him and talk and hng out with him was beyond the pale. Cat was Kyrpt Kool!!
5 - Doktor Goulfinger
Hey there Tom:
Man! That is so cool that you were on Disc-o-teen!
Zacherley is indeed the coolest. When I think of horror host royalty, I consider Zach the King, Vampira the Queen and Ghoulardi the court jester. They are clearly the most influential, and you cannot discuss host history without placing them at the top of the pyramid.
And thank you, Rechercher, for the nice editing job on my clumsier responses. The illusion of eloquence is uncanny.
DokG