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Television Horror Movie Hosts: 68 Vampires, Mad Scientists and Other Denizens of the Late-Night Airwaves Examined and Interviewed
Midnight, 1954. A striking woman in a torn black dress slinks down a cobwebbed, candelabra'd corridor. She stops, shrieks hysterically into the camera, then solemnly says, "Good evening, I am Vampira."
Her real name is Maila Nurmi and she was the first in a long line of television horror movie hosts, commonly seen on independent stations' late-night "grade Z" offerings dressed as some zany ghoul or mad scientist.
This book covers the major hosts in detail, along with styles and show themes. Merchandise tie-in and fan reactions are also chronicled. The appendices list film and record credits.
Her real name is Maila Nurmi and she was the first in a long line of television horror movie hosts, commonly seen on independent stations' late-night "grade Z" offerings dressed as some zany ghoul or mad scientist.
This book covers the major hosts in detail, along with styles and show themes. Merchandise tie-in and fan reactions are also chronicled. The appendices list film and record credits.
365 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 1, 1991
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 11, 2010
Nice overview of the peculiarly American phenomena of hosted horror movies. In a sense, the topic is ephemeral and much more suited to a visual documentary (when footage exists, which is rare for the older hosts) than a book, but it's nice Ms. Watson took the time to put what information there is together into one package. Good show and worth reading for anyone who spent time as a kid staying up too late watching some scary movie and laughing before the commercial breaks.
UPDATE - I return to the tradition of horror hosts when under extreme stress, as it's something I associate positively with my youth and my love of horror movies. I decided to do a piecemeal re-read of this and thought I'd make a few extra notes to my review.
In retrospect, this book certainly isn't perfect. Ms. Watson occasionally repeats herself within a entry, clumsily deploys some information and constructs some sentences poorly. At times, the desire to say something, anything about a particular subject leads to some needless verbiage (for example, an entire overview of "Grandpa" Al Lewis' career, including detailed write-ups of CAR 54, WHERE ARE YOU? and THE MUNSTERS, just to set up his [fairly minor] horror-hosting career).
But, in retrospect, Ms. Watson's achievement here is still quite amazing. Realize that she is attempting a record of a large scale tradition of television which, in its earliest manifestations, took place live on an ephemeral media. On top of that, this tradition did not even result in a complete artifact, by which I mean a narrative or performance, but instead occupies a very transient status - hosting of a performance with interstitial appearances. As the medium progressed, these manifestations needed to no longer be live, but were of such a small-scale, local level as to be considered completely unprofitable to the broadcasters and were rarely recorded, and even when this recording was done, rarely saved. Alternatively, in larger markets, the horror host still occupied the lowest rung of the broadcasting chain, being seen as a late-night or weekend-afternoon time-filler. So, again, there was little desire of record keeping. The shows came and went, lasting for years or a couple of months. Outside of Elvira, very few made careers of these characters, moving on to other things.
While Elena Watson does little analysis of the concept of horror hosting, her attempts to rangle up as much information as she can about each host she focuses on is to be commended. After explaining the origin of the concept - a fortuitous meeting of an old radio tradition, a television conceit and the 1957 availability of the Universal Horror Film SHOCK! package to television stations desperate to fill time - and it's progenitor - Los Angeles' Vampira - the book follows a very similar formula for each host. Some of the aspects of this formula are to be expected - the host's real identity, their television background, the details of their broadcast history (call-letters, schedule slot, show name, dates they started and ended, etc.), what types of films they showed.
But what I really came to admire about Watson's book, despite its flaws, were the extra attention she paid to ephemeral details. She attempts to tease out a specific show's "flavor" (remember, this is mostly through interviews with surviving particpants, grown-up fans, and local media coverage like newspaper articles, and rarely through any actual viewing of the shows themselves, in most cases impossible until one reaches the 1980s). So, for example, when possible we get a description of the show opening, of the set, of the host's costume and demeanor, and of sidekicks and other recurrent cast. She attempts to give some idea of the tone of the character and of the show itself (is it spooky-serious? punning? juvenile-delinquent hi-jinks? slapstick? played for children? college level risque humor?). Did the host mock the films, present them with respect, mix it up depending on the quality? Were the jokes mostly verbal humor, prop comedy, commercial parodies or production tricks like insertion into the film itself? Was there a strong local aspect? I partiularly like that Ms. Watson makes a point of passing on any character details of the host that might have been revealed during the show - is he a vampire or ghoul or what? Is he 800 years old? What is the full name of the host character, etc.? Details like this may seem surperfluous, but one has to ask oneself, where else will they be recorded if not here?
As evidenced by such wonderful on-line websites as Egor's Chamber of TV Horror Hosts and The Horror Host Graveyard there were literally hundreds of Horror Hosts throughout the history of the tradition. Ms. Watson's book is the tip of a very large iceberg and as every year passes, memories fade, people die and videotape de-magnetizes. Recent dvd documentaries like AMERICAN SCARY and VIRGINIA CREEPERS: THE HORROR HOST TRADITION OF THE OLD DOMINION have proven that there is still material to gather, interviews to perform. I hope further books and documentaries like these will occur, attempting to document this wonderful, peculiar, local (and mostly American) art form, one of the last manifestatons of "Old Weird America" to occur in the media age.
UPDATE - I return to the tradition of horror hosts when under extreme stress, as it's something I associate positively with my youth and my love of horror movies. I decided to do a piecemeal re-read of this and thought I'd make a few extra notes to my review.
In retrospect, this book certainly isn't perfect. Ms. Watson occasionally repeats herself within a entry, clumsily deploys some information and constructs some sentences poorly. At times, the desire to say something, anything about a particular subject leads to some needless verbiage (for example, an entire overview of "Grandpa" Al Lewis' career, including detailed write-ups of CAR 54, WHERE ARE YOU? and THE MUNSTERS, just to set up his [fairly minor] horror-hosting career).
But, in retrospect, Ms. Watson's achievement here is still quite amazing. Realize that she is attempting a record of a large scale tradition of television which, in its earliest manifestations, took place live on an ephemeral media. On top of that, this tradition did not even result in a complete artifact, by which I mean a narrative or performance, but instead occupies a very transient status - hosting of a performance with interstitial appearances. As the medium progressed, these manifestations needed to no longer be live, but were of such a small-scale, local level as to be considered completely unprofitable to the broadcasters and were rarely recorded, and even when this recording was done, rarely saved. Alternatively, in larger markets, the horror host still occupied the lowest rung of the broadcasting chain, being seen as a late-night or weekend-afternoon time-filler. So, again, there was little desire of record keeping. The shows came and went, lasting for years or a couple of months. Outside of Elvira, very few made careers of these characters, moving on to other things.
While Elena Watson does little analysis of the concept of horror hosting, her attempts to rangle up as much information as she can about each host she focuses on is to be commended. After explaining the origin of the concept - a fortuitous meeting of an old radio tradition, a television conceit and the 1957 availability of the Universal Horror Film SHOCK! package to television stations desperate to fill time - and it's progenitor - Los Angeles' Vampira - the book follows a very similar formula for each host. Some of the aspects of this formula are to be expected - the host's real identity, their television background, the details of their broadcast history (call-letters, schedule slot, show name, dates they started and ended, etc.), what types of films they showed.
But what I really came to admire about Watson's book, despite its flaws, were the extra attention she paid to ephemeral details. She attempts to tease out a specific show's "flavor" (remember, this is mostly through interviews with surviving particpants, grown-up fans, and local media coverage like newspaper articles, and rarely through any actual viewing of the shows themselves, in most cases impossible until one reaches the 1980s). So, for example, when possible we get a description of the show opening, of the set, of the host's costume and demeanor, and of sidekicks and other recurrent cast. She attempts to give some idea of the tone of the character and of the show itself (is it spooky-serious? punning? juvenile-delinquent hi-jinks? slapstick? played for children? college level risque humor?). Did the host mock the films, present them with respect, mix it up depending on the quality? Were the jokes mostly verbal humor, prop comedy, commercial parodies or production tricks like insertion into the film itself? Was there a strong local aspect? I partiularly like that Ms. Watson makes a point of passing on any character details of the host that might have been revealed during the show - is he a vampire or ghoul or what? Is he 800 years old? What is the full name of the host character, etc.? Details like this may seem surperfluous, but one has to ask oneself, where else will they be recorded if not here?
As evidenced by such wonderful on-line websites as Egor's Chamber of TV Horror Hosts and The Horror Host Graveyard there were literally hundreds of Horror Hosts throughout the history of the tradition. Ms. Watson's book is the tip of a very large iceberg and as every year passes, memories fade, people die and videotape de-magnetizes. Recent dvd documentaries like AMERICAN SCARY and VIRGINIA CREEPERS: THE HORROR HOST TRADITION OF THE OLD DOMINION have proven that there is still material to gather, interviews to perform. I hope further books and documentaries like these will occur, attempting to document this wonderful, peculiar, local (and mostly American) art form, one of the last manifestatons of "Old Weird America" to occur in the media age.
July 25, 2017
"Good evening. I am Vampira."
Television Horror Movie Hosts by Elena M. Watson is a great example of what the publisher McFarland does best.
In the 1950s and 1960s (and continuing, in a different way, through today), individuals spent hundreds of hours watching local TV shows, hosted by (generally) outlandish characters, presenting (and sometimes interacting with) horror movies.
In their markets, these putatively creepy and repellent "monsters" had major fan bases, making public appearances to large crowds, getting bags of fan mail, and even running for President.
Yet, despite it being a weekly routine for so many in so many areas of the country, this is a part of our pop culture history which has been poorly documented and most would simply allow to disappear.
Enter (presumably in a cardboard coffin through a smoke machine's haze in front of a painted backdrop of a castle wall) McFarland and Watson. Rare pictures (often provided by the hosts themselves), background stories, and where are they nows give those of us who remember and the ones born too late a glimpse into these spooky wonders of the television age.
We became the "Monster Kids", thanks to "Uncle Forry" Ackerman's Famous Monsters of Filmland (from 1958) and the horror movie hosts (from 1954, but really expanding with the release of the Shock! Theater package of early horror movies to television in 1957).
While most profiles are short, it was interesting to see how similar the hosts were. They were often corny, full of puns and sight gags, although with an undercurrent of the counterculture. It's worth noting that where I watched, in the San Francisco Bay Area, we were an obvious exception. Most of the country was giving you The Munsters (at one point literally, with Al "Grandpa" Lewis being a horror host), while we watched the normal seeming Bob Wilkins and later John Stanley. I suspect that's because we think of ourselves as The Munsters (or rather, the more loving, more sophisticated Addams Family)...so it's (super)natural that our hosts would be the "Marilyns" of the group. ;)
There were a few unnecessary hyphens, and one misspelling I noted (The "Monoloth Monsters", rather than "Monolith"), but overall, it's a well-produced book.
Two areas which could see improvement in a possible future edition. The first one is simply necessary because of when it was first published in 1991...I want more! It would have been instructive to have Mystery Science Theater 3000 included, since there are a lot of the same elements (including making fun of the movies and appearing "in them", especially in the case of the new revival on Netflix...since Tom Servo can now fly, but as he notes, only in the theatre).
The other one is that I could have used more of a longitudinal commentary...more context, more outside of the hosts themselves. For instance, a listing of the movies released in the original Shock! package would have been nice. It would also be improved with active links to hosts' and fansites, and with an interactive index (it does have an Active Table of Contents), again, totally understandable given when it was released.
The bottom line: Television Horror Movie Hosts is a worthy and enjoyable documentation of a phenomenon, bringing back from the dead a big part of many of our lives.
As Elvira (who is covered...er, and partially uncovered, I suppose) might say, "Unpleasant dreams!" ;)
Television Horror Movie Hosts by Elena M. Watson is a great example of what the publisher McFarland does best.
In the 1950s and 1960s (and continuing, in a different way, through today), individuals spent hundreds of hours watching local TV shows, hosted by (generally) outlandish characters, presenting (and sometimes interacting with) horror movies.
In their markets, these putatively creepy and repellent "monsters" had major fan bases, making public appearances to large crowds, getting bags of fan mail, and even running for President.
Yet, despite it being a weekly routine for so many in so many areas of the country, this is a part of our pop culture history which has been poorly documented and most would simply allow to disappear.
Enter (presumably in a cardboard coffin through a smoke machine's haze in front of a painted backdrop of a castle wall) McFarland and Watson. Rare pictures (often provided by the hosts themselves), background stories, and where are they nows give those of us who remember and the ones born too late a glimpse into these spooky wonders of the television age.
We became the "Monster Kids", thanks to "Uncle Forry" Ackerman's Famous Monsters of Filmland (from 1958) and the horror movie hosts (from 1954, but really expanding with the release of the Shock! Theater package of early horror movies to television in 1957).
While most profiles are short, it was interesting to see how similar the hosts were. They were often corny, full of puns and sight gags, although with an undercurrent of the counterculture. It's worth noting that where I watched, in the San Francisco Bay Area, we were an obvious exception. Most of the country was giving you The Munsters (at one point literally, with Al "Grandpa" Lewis being a horror host), while we watched the normal seeming Bob Wilkins and later John Stanley. I suspect that's because we think of ourselves as The Munsters (or rather, the more loving, more sophisticated Addams Family)...so it's (super)natural that our hosts would be the "Marilyns" of the group. ;)
There were a few unnecessary hyphens, and one misspelling I noted (The "Monoloth Monsters", rather than "Monolith"), but overall, it's a well-produced book.
Two areas which could see improvement in a possible future edition. The first one is simply necessary because of when it was first published in 1991...I want more! It would have been instructive to have Mystery Science Theater 3000 included, since there are a lot of the same elements (including making fun of the movies and appearing "in them", especially in the case of the new revival on Netflix...since Tom Servo can now fly, but as he notes, only in the theatre).
The other one is that I could have used more of a longitudinal commentary...more context, more outside of the hosts themselves. For instance, a listing of the movies released in the original Shock! package would have been nice. It would also be improved with active links to hosts' and fansites, and with an interactive index (it does have an Active Table of Contents), again, totally understandable given when it was released.
The bottom line: Television Horror Movie Hosts is a worthy and enjoyable documentation of a phenomenon, bringing back from the dead a big part of many of our lives.
As Elvira (who is covered...er, and partially uncovered, I suppose) might say, "Unpleasant dreams!" ;)
April 23, 2024
No Sammy Terry? For shame.
June 22, 2025
I see people who created now-dead things.
August 4, 2009
Great topic, but it does read like a high school-level interview... Great overview of the late night (in most cases) TV horror movie hosts that have waxed and waned on the airwaves.
July 22, 2016
This book was probably very helpful at one point. It has been replaced entirely by a handful of Wikipedia pages.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews