The Daves have always been fans of horror hosts. In fact it was our mutual love of Svengoolie that not only brought us together as friends but brought about this very site. The show Midnite Mausoleum, starring Marlena Midnite and Robyn Graves, have always been one of our favorites and we are proud to announce the ultimate Midnite Mausoleum DVD collections!
This year’s Flashback Weekend offered something different from previous years and specifically geared towards younger horror fans; a screening of the 1967 Rankin/Bass Mad Monster Party hosted by national commercial TV horror host, Svengoolie! Though not as popular as the animation team’s Christmas TV specials (Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town, The Year without a Santa Claus, etc.) this full-length film featured the voice work of the legendary Karlos Borloff as well as Phyllis Diller!
It’s been far too long since we’ve featured a “Horror Host Spotlight” and focused our attention on the career and antics of one who presented horror/monster movies back in the days of local, commercial television. Both Terror Daves grew up with the still active (and now national), Rich Koz Svengoolie but many monster fans across the country were raised with their own local hosts as well. Today we’ll be featuring one of the country’s most prolific examples while directing your attention to the book Dr. Paul Bearer’s Creature Feature dedicated to a career that spanned thirty years and multiple states!
National TV horror host, Svengoolie, has never had any trouble attracting long lines at C2E2 (Chicago Comics & Entertainment Expo) and this year would be no exception. The only notable difference was the time of his appearance; earlier than previous years and conflicting with the photo op time tickets I had for Stan Lee. Fortunately C2E2 is a well-oiled machine and despite missing his arrival I was still able to get to him rather quickly…though hardly alone.
On Monday, March 30th we spent the day at the Nashville Zoo before walking the streets of the city like Rhinestone Cowboys. Neither of us is particularly keen on Country music so most of the local flavor was lost on us as we strolled right past the numerous amateur crooners (who seemed to be every twenty feet) in search of a prognosticating Elvis I found via Roadside America. Unfortunately, by the time we located the animatronic, fortune-telling “King of Rock n Roll” we discovered it was broken and had to settle for just a picture.
Dave: Doug Scharf (a.k.a. Doug Graves) arrived at the studio and this was a big deal to me. I’d watched him accompany Svengoolie during his musical numbers since I was eight years old as well as participate in various skits and viewer mail segments. He settled in and I was particularly happy to see that he’d brought his horn with him which meant I’d get to see him play two instruments for two different numbers! As soon as he arrived, he and Sven hunkered down Sven to discuss their segments.
