Primarily, this book is a thank you to horror hosts in general, particularly the Baltimore-area hosts-The Great Zucchini, Dr. Lucifer, Ghost Host, Sir Graves Ghastly and Count Gore De Vol-for the immeasurable pleasure they gave their young and young-at-heart viewers throughout the years they served. For many people, their first exposure to horror films was through these hosts, and this in turn began a love affair with the genre. In fact, these friendly fiends created little movie monsters with insatiable appetites, not nearly satisfied by a once-a-week-fix. Thus, this book does not just include filmographies of local hosts, but also chapters on local television airings that would have been of interest to the budding horror fan. Some stations had dedicated "Chiller Theaters" that specialized in horrific programming, even if there was no host. Other horrors frequently popped up on the more inclusive "Late Late Show." This type of programming would not last much past the 1980s, when the combination of the cable television explosion and the home video revolution sent networks scrambling to reconfigure their schedules. Author John Carter Stell worked over 10 years gathering the films, dates and times to remind those little monster kids of the joys of their youth. Waiting for a new (to them) monster, mad scientist or alien to scare the bejeezus out of them. Includes mini bios of the horror hosts and complete listings of the films shown. Guaranteed to bring a smile and happy memories to those little horror fiends that still reside in all of us.
Primarily, this book is a thank you to horror hosts in general, particularly the Baltimore-area hosts-The Great Zucchini, Dr. Lucifer, Ghost Host, Sir Graves Ghastly and Count Gore De Vol-for the immeasurable pleasure they gave their young and young-at-heart viewers throughout the years they served. For many people, their first exposure to horror films was through these hosts, and this in turn began a love affair with the genre. In fact, these friendly fiends created little movie monsters with insatiable appetites, not nearly satisfied by a once-a-week-fix. Thus, this book does not just include filmographies of local hosts, but also chapters on local television airings that would have been of interest to the budding horror fan. Some stations had dedicated "Chiller Theaters" that specialized in horrific programming, even if there was no host. Other horrors frequently popped up on the more inclusive "Late Late Show." This type of programming would not last much past the 1980s, when the combination of the cable television explosion and the home video revolution sent networks scrambling to reconfigure their schedules. Author John Carter Stell worked over 10 years gathering the films, dates and times to remind those little monster kids of the joys of their youth. Waiting for a new (to them) monster, mad scientist or alien to scare the bejeezus out of them. Includes mini bios of the horror hosts and complete listings of the films shown. Guaranteed to bring a smile and happy memories to those little horror fiends that still reside in all of us.
