For a lot of people, when they think of horror hosts, they think of characters such as vampires, ghouls, werewolves or even mistresses of the dark. They don’t think of horror hosts as being someone basically dressed in a suit and being themselves, a fan of monster movies. This actually doesn’t happen very often…in the past we had Bob Wilkins and John Stanley. Today we have Mr. Lobo!
Since delving into the world of horror hosting, I have come across many diverse points of view. Debates regarding who is worthy of the title of “horror host,” who’s the better and most original host, or whether or not true hosts even exist in a post local TV world often come up. This is not surprising since hosts and their fans are, above all else, human beings. Despite all these varying opinions, I was surprised to discover that there was one thing just about everyone agreed on –
Horror hostess, Penny Dreadful is the one to watch!
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On the final day of the convention, we packed our belongings and loaded the car before making a final sweep of the main hall. The Vampira Tribute began mid day and I stood in line to enter the event. In the distance, I could see all the hosts talking and joking around with each other. After spending the previous days moving about the convention, attending to all their individual commitments, this was the moment that would bring all the participating hosts together.
Growing up in the 70’s was an awesome time to be a kid. The toys were cool, Saturday morning cartoons were alot of fun and we had a regular dose of monster movies every week on the Creature Double Feature. I was a huge monster movie fan and every Saturday afternoon I could be found glued to the television watching such movies as WAR OF THE GARGANTUAS, RODAN and all of the GAMERA movies (as well as all of the classics we have grown to love). For us, the Creature Double Feature was not a hosted program (though a scary voice was used each week to introduce the movies). Then something happened in the early 80’s…all of a sudden the CDF was being hosted by some guy named the Son of Svengoolie. This started my love of horror hosts.
Wolfman Mac has the honor of being the first local horror host I’d ever watched after Svengoolie. Last January I was thumbing through YouTube clips when I stumbled upon “Wolfman Mac’s Chiller Drive-in.” Although Mac is a fellow Midwesterner (Michigan), it was the other Dave in Rhode Island who had access to his show via a cable channel called RTV (Retro Television). I asked him to send me some copies and he was happy to oblige.
Saturday promised to be the busiest day of the Horrorhound convention. Wanting to get an early start, I immediately went down to the main hall after breakfast. Due to the large number of hosts attending the Vampira Tribute, I had no illusions about meeting them all. In an effort to stay focused, I created a short list of the ones I really wanted to meet.
