Home Museum About Us Events Contact Us Introduction Contents Community Arts Corner Links
JOURNAL OF MODERN MYTHOLOGY AND POP CULTURE INTRODUCTION PAGE 78
Left: Shock Theater ad for what seems to be a Christopher Lee film. Middle: Ghoulardi. Right: Zacherley's way-out record album, 1962.
A local TV tradition of the mid-1950s was the showing old science fiction, fantasy, and horror films, hosted by someone in cheap makeup, and on a cheap set. These shows helped fuel the increase of popularity for science fiction, fantasy, and horror begun with Forrest J Ackerman's Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, and the American International and Hammer film companies. Ghoulardi (Ernie Anderson) was the TV horror film host of Shock Theater in Cleveland from 1963 to 1966. He often added sound effects, superimposed himself into the film, and performed other wacky stunts. Another wacky TV horror host was John Zacherley (The Cool Ghoul), who had a long career broadcasting movies in New York City and Philadelphia in the 1950s and 1960s. Sometimes known as Zacherle, or Zacherlie, he also recorded the top ten song Dinner with Drac, in 1958, and edited two horror anthologies: Zacherley's Vulture Stew and Zacherley's Midnight Snacks. Les Daniels, in his book Living In Fear. A History of Horror in the Mass Media: "The myths and legends of ancient days are often full of horrors, but these are presented in a context where marvels are commonplace, so much so that virtually all of the narratives that have survived from the distant past have some fantastic element. The horror story as a distinct entity is a relatively recent invention, only a few centuries old, and it developed almost simultaneously with the idea of fiction."
Home Museum About Us Events Contact Us Introduction Contents Community Arts Corner Links