tv horror hosts

[dennisinsc]

another good theme would be tv horror hosts.Growing up in california in the 70s on ktvu there was bob wilkins.not really scary looking but just nerdy looking.But thats were i saw night of the living dead for the first time.(the original).I think i didnt sleep for a week.I even boarded up the windows in my room(JUST KIDDING)

[Czaple]

If this is a topic, you can't leave out this guy!

[img]http://www.milwaukee-horror-hosts.com/images_2/Koz_Svengoolie.jpg[/img]

[james in erie pa]

Count Floyd, if any of you are SCTV fans.

[Dead Guy]

I agree about Svengoolie.
Morgus should be in there too. I hear he's actually back on TV. He's been doing his show since 1959 in New Orleans (and breifly in Detroit). [url]http://www.morgus.com[/url]
Dr. John even did a song about him. It still gets played on the radio every now and then. download it here: [url]http://drmysterian.com/mp3s/MorgusTheMagnificent.mp3[/url]
[img]http://www.nycnolahelp.org/images/morguschop.jpg[/img]

[Daniel]

I know this doesn't really count, but Willy Whistle used to scare the heck out of me. And he is...you know a host of a sort, right?

[lyle perez]

How about radio hosts? if that counts then Vincent Price all the way. His Price of Fear series is wonderful, to bad there was only 22 or so episodes but man are they great.

[dennisinsc]

maila nurmi aka vampira,the first female horror host passed away jan.10,2008 she was 86

[beades]

I'll add my vote for this! I grew up in Indiana and our horror host Sammy Terry. He had a pet spider named George.

For those looking for horror hosts can visit the E-gor's Chamber of TV Horror Hosts ([url]http://myweb.wvnet.edu/e-gor/tvhorrorhosts/[/url]) There is also a film about horror hosts called [i]American Scary[/i]. I haven't seen a release date for it in theaters or on DVD. They do have a website at [url]http://www.americanscary.com/index.html[/url]

Lynn in Chapel Hill

[Dead Guy]

Bryan, Gene,

If y'all are actually considering this topic, here is a little insider info on Dr. Morgus. This came from a reply to a blog post 12/2005. Morgus was supposed to return to the airwaves in October of that year but you may remember that New Orleans had a bit of weather at the beginning of September that put a lot of things on hold. So people were reminiscing a lot.

JP



Dennis Simpson said...

I worked for WWL TV in New Orleans for several summers in the mid 1960s, where I was involved with the Morgus productions in one way or another. It was for 3 summers starting either 1963 or 1964 when I went to college.

I worked there when Sid Noel was doing his Morgus show. It was every Saturday night, and it was great.

It was an amazing time, and I have some interesting "war stories".

Back then, initially, all the Morgus shows were live. While we had black and white video tape machines, they were used for commercials, not any of his live productions. So everything was live. Sid was really fast on his feet, and was what I would call a true performer. The 'show must go on' type of person.

War Story One:

One night, he was giving his show. The set consisted of 3 very large, tall plywood walls that were painted and somehow fastened together to form the set, which was a back of the old ice house room, plus the left and right sides of the set. The plywood was painted to show windows, a night view of New Orleans, and in general a very creepy, disgusting room. We used those three "walls" every episode, by standing them up and fastening them together. However, this evening while walking about the set during this live session, Sid accidentally bumped into one of the walls. That wall to our astonishment fell backwards to the floor. Then the two side walls likewise fell backwards to the floor. There was Morgus standing obviously in the middle of a television studio, with all kinds of props for other shows, unused TV cameras, cables, etc. We were in shock. But to our surprise, Sid just kept on with his episode as if nothing had happened. A couple minutes later, we went back to the next segment of the movie, and we very hastily put the back "walls" of the set back up, and the rest of the Morgus evening went on as if nothing had happened. The show must go on.

War Story Two:

On another time, we had a movie where a group of people were in a small paddle boat on the Amazon, where they were always being attacked by piranhas. So Morgus decided he would match the plot. He rented the largest aquarium/tank we had ever seen. It was about 5 feet high, 3 feet wide and about 6 feet long with glass sides. It was just like what you probably had as a kid for your goldfish, just really big. It was placed on the floor in the set, and was filled with water. It took forever to fill it. It had a set of wooden steps outside it and inside it for Sid to walk up and then down into the water. He had rented a wet suit and a spear gun. He was going to get on his wet suit, and climb into the aquarium and "study" the piranhas. This is the spooky part. He actually rented a couple of REAL piranhas. For about an hour before the show, we were throwing every type of meat we could think of into the tank so the piranha would not be hungry when Sid entered the aquarium. We threw in beef, chicken, fish, hot dog weenies. Everything we could think of.

Again, remember, this was LIVE. The movie segment ended and we gave SID the cue. He talked about not being afraid of piranhas, and that he was going to do a scientific study on them. He had on his wet suit, grabbed his spear gun and climbed up the stairs to the top of the aquarium. He then started to descend into the tank, and threw his spear gun in first. He then started stepping down. All of a sudden, he screamed like we had never heard before, and it was NOT part of the script. We were terrified and in a state of shock. But before we could do anything, Sid continued with is dialog as if nothing had gone wrong. We were so scared. We could just see the piranha tearing him up.

When we finally went back to the movie, we RAN to the tank to see if we could help. No, he had not been attacked or eaten by the piranhas. Remember I said when descending into the tank he first threw in his spear gun? Well, it happened that Sid stepped on the tip of the spear and it stuck his foot. Of course with the pain and the suddenness, he probably thought of the piranhas, too. But he got over it, I guess, and just went on.

War Story Three: The Archer

This Saturday night, the movie was something about a medieval castle doing battle. It had nothing to do with horror, as Morgus movies usually were. I guess he was hard up and that was the best he could find. That happened occasionally. But as usual, even if the movie was bad, he made up for it.

Part of the plot of Sid's parallel story, was for him to get fatally shot by an arrow. Now remember, there were no real ways for us in a TV studio to do special effects. So Sid hired a REAL archer to shoot him! Sid put on a bunch of protection over his chest, like plywood, and then put his clothes over it. So one could not see he was wearing "protective armor". We were pretty impressed. So during his scene, the archer was behind those on camera. Sid stood facing the cameras directly, which had him facing the archer. The archer was given time to aim. The arrow flew, and Sid screamed almost as convincingly as with the piranhas. His yell was likewise not in the script. But he kept on with his scene, really limping and really showing pain, and then dying. Then we went back to the final portion of the movie. He then sat up and had us call an ambulance. The archer missed the plywood and actually shot him in the chest next to his shoulder, blood and all. No wonder it was so realistic!

War Store Four: Special Effects

We got what I believe were the first color TV cameras and color video tape machines in New Orleans, and Morgus was one of the first programs where they were used.

I remember one time the movie was about a mummy that in the end turned to dust. As usual, the Morgus program paralleled the movie of the night, and at the end of his parallel plot, he would have something go wrong, and he would turn to dust, also. Sid had an interesting idea, which at that time was a "first" as far as I know. We were video taping the Morgus shows then for playback on Saturday nights. Sid had us put a lot of sand on the floor of the set, in the shape of a decomposed body and taped it on a separate reel of video tape. Then Sid had us tape the entire show. But at the end, as he fell to the ground and started to die (like the mummy), the production director started the other video tape machine playing the pre-recorded video of the sand, and the director slowly faded the video taped program that had Morgus dead on the floor - to the video tape machine with the pile of sand. It looked like Morgus really did decompose to sand. By those day's standards for special effects, it was absolutely great. It was Sid's idea to do this special effect. And since it was in color, it was very realistic.

The Cast:

I remember a few people on the Morgus project. I was usually in projection (reels of movies and commercials, color slides, video tapes), but occasionally on camera. The producer/switcher was Alan. The audio person was Sid Warren. The master control operator was Bob. A college student Bill Freeburger was there one summer. The station manager was the legendary J.D. Bloom.

After that third year, I no longer worked for WWL, but worked for a TV station in Baton Rouge during college and graduate school. We had funny things go wrong, too, but nothing like Sid Noel's Morgus.

...Dennis Simpson

[jackoftrades]

This weekend my wife and I went to a horror movie convention in Strongsville, Ohio this past weekend and met a host I had seen on the net, The Pimp of Horrors. The quality of the internet video I saw was moderate and I never thought I'd be holding a few of his dvds shortly after meeting him. We talked and his knowledge of computers, pets, humans and sales seemed to be advanced compared to my wife and I. He smiled at me and apologized for being rude and not using laymans terms. We met other tv and movie personalities at this meeting and enjoyed our short time there.
Upon getting home, the dvds The Pimp gave me called to the dvd player, I obliged. Soon color and heavy metal music filled the air and I thought I had left my current dimension. My wife came in the room to see what was going on and the channel changed to a retro commercial starring some singing raisins. Next was a cartoon of a flamingo, next was 1 second of a woman screaming. We control transmission showed while static and hundred of images filled the screen. The movie was Attack of the giant leeches. I never seen it before. I assumed the insects and other creatures were additions by The Pimp since scenes with him and his cohost included him swinging at bugs. The sound track was interesting, the amount of bugs multiplied with various buzzes and flybys made me hypnotized. With my wife at my side we watched the entire movie without getting up. The Pimp did get inappropriate with a few topics that needs no advertising, though the whole package could not be ignored. The technology that they use is amazing and I am suprised they did this all out of a house.
We still have Monster from green hell, whores,horrors of spider island, night of the living dead and bad taste to watch.
My interest in horror hosts began with our local tv hero The Ghoul played by Ron Sweede, he was a spinoff replica of a 1960s host, Ghoulardi. The Pimp took some of that with the sound effects, but the very short segments, though plenty, were all his own. Our compliments to your show.
Merle and Jayson S.
The Pimps' website:
http://www.ilovehorror.com