I’m sure most Pittsburgh area Dopers remember Bill “Chilly Billy” Cardille. He was an on-air personality for WIIC (now WPXI) channel 11. I remember when I was a kid watching wrestlers like Bruno Sammartino and Gorilla Monsoon on Studio Wrestling on Saturday nights, which was hosted by Cardille. But he was probably most famous as host of Chiller Theatre, which ran late Saturday nights and featured a castle set. Cardille, looking dapper in a tuxedo, would set up a showing of two horror or sci-fi features and would feature skits before and after commercials and between movies, assisted by the lovely Terminal Stare, who never spoke, but exuded a smoldering sensuality. In fact, Chiller Theatre was so popular that when Saturday Night Live premiered in 1975, the station, an NBC affiliate, declined to carry it during its first four years.
Cardille remained active in Pittsburgh broadcasting until 2014. He passed away last Thursday, July 21, aged 87.
I remember Chilly Billy. I grew upon the Pittsburgh area and he was my childhood interaction to horror films. Every Saturday night I’d stay up to watch (most of) the first monster/horror flick. It wasn’t until I got into my teens that I could stay up for the second feature.
Interesting that you note SNL. I remember seeing an ad for it, with George Carlin as host (so yes, this was the first SNL episode) airing only on channel 6. Channel 6 was also an NBC affiliate, but out of Johnstown, PA. Where my family lived we got channel 11 (the Pittsburgh NBC affiliate) and also channel 6. I was able to watch that first SNL and became addicted to it!
I stopped watching Chiller Theater because of that, but will always have fond memories of the show and host.
R.I.P. Bill Cardille
BTW, if any of you have ever seen George Romero’s original*** “Night of the Living Dead” ***Bill Cardille plays the news reporter.
I grew up in Johnstown. We had an aerial on our roof and could pick up most Pittsburgh stations clearly. Channel 11 came in a bit snowy, but we always watched Studio Wrestling and Chiller Theater on Saturday nights.
Cardille also appeared in both the original version and the remake of George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. His daughter Lori had a leading role in Day of the Dead.
I was going to post about this when I heard about it a few days ago. As a young boy, I had a love of horror and sci-fi movies. Back then, we had maybe 4 or 5 TV stations, 2 of them being UHF. Weekend TV revolved around cheesy sci-fi and horror, and Chiller Theater was a highlight. One of the few happy memories I had of my father was watching Chilly Billy together with a bowl of Jiffy-Pop popcorn.
The only time I ever skipped a class was when I went to see Lori Cardille in, “Day of the Dead.”
Grew up in Johnstown in the mid-60s. My parents refused to get a rooftop antenna, so we couldn’t get any of the Pittsburgh stations, with much sullen resentment from the kids. We had cousins who lived in Pittsburgh area, however, and the parents would ship us off there for a couple weeks every summer, enabling us to briefly revel in the glory that was Studio Wrestling and Chiller Theater.
BTW, Bruno Sammartino had a house in the North Hills area, a couple blocks from where the cousins lived. We’d go past there, hoping we’d see him out mowing the lawn or something, but never did.
I met Bruno ten years ago. He was working on an idea to release a “highlight” reel of Studio Wrestling on DVD. He was a pretty cool guy. I don’t think his idea panned out, though.
Even though Mr. Cardille was basically playing himself in the original NoLD, he was far and away the best acted role in the film–he was a natural. I wouldn’t be surprised if he improvised his lines.
