Many apologies - I guess I thought the Ghoul was in Detroit in my younger days, then realized he was in Cleveland after one of the channel changes and thought he had moved. I remember him making a few Detroit references as well, and probably brushed off the Cleveland ones as me just not getting the joke.
In Atlanta in the early 60’s, we had the “Big Movie Shocker” Friday night at 11:30, hosted by Bestoink Dooley. Bestoink was played by George Ellis, who later went on to open the Festival Cinema in Atlanta, and then the Film Forum. Those houses showed films by Warhol, Russ Myer, Roman Polanski, etc., so Ellis was very leading edge for the time in Atlanta, the first to develop any sort of alternative film scene. So I think there was some genuine love for film in play when he hosted those Friday night horror flicks. In addition to the Universal classics (Frankenstein, Wolf Man, Dracula, the Mummy, etc.), I recall seeing Peter Lorre in “The Face Behind the Mask,” and Dana Andrews in “Curse of the Demon” on the Big Movie Shocker.
After he quit playing Bestoink Dooley, and became a full time theater owner, I saw Polanski’s “Cul de Sac,” “Night of the Living Dead,” and Tod Browning’s classic “Freaks” courtesy of Mr. Ellis.
The first time I ever went to one of Mr. Ellis’s theaters, at age 16, it was due more to the novelty of seeing the guy who played Bestoink Dooley at the ticket counter, rather than interest in the film playing. I wonder how many other Atlanta kids ended up being exposed to great foreign film because of a late night horror movie host?
I guess we’re just lucky here in Reno: every Saturday night at midnight, we get Zomboo (pronounced Zom-boe, not Zom-boo, oddly enough)!!! He’s this wonderful freaky guy who wears a big fluffy white wig, skeleton hands, a top hat and sun and moon pajamas and plays a bunch of REALLY bad old horror movies and cult films. He has a whole cast of people with him too, like “Werewolfie” and “The Rack Girl”. Zomboo has, by far, been the best thing about moving here so far.
BTW, best old horror movie of all time? Spider Baby.
Since I can’t edit, I’ll just post again!
I wanted to add, Zomboo has been kind enough to include a list of other local horror hosts around the country on his page, right here. Hopefully there’s one near you.
We actually got The Ghoul in…gasp…New Jersey. Then I moved to Detroit, and kept watching. How to best describe him…check out http://www.theghoul.com for one. He was just bizarre, between the sunglasses with one lens missing, blowing up froggie with firecrackers every week, and skits like Mission Keilbasi, it was surreal stupidity. The movies were horrible!
He still is on occassionally, and makes live appearances every now and then…
I don’t think kids would like any of the old horror movies. We didn’t have video games and such, so there was still a thrill watching Creature from the Black Lagoon…god I sound old…