By the last 1950s, studios saw television as a convenient dumping ground for thousands of films that had been gathering dust in their vaults. Distributors grouped them by genre-- and Chicago's tradition of TV horror movie shows was born. From giant grasshoppers to Dracula epics, Okuda and Yurkiw take a comprehensive look at these programs, with career profiles of the "horror hosts," a look at the politics behind the shows, and broadcast histories, as well as guides to many of the films themselves.
From December 1957 through October 1959, Chicago TV viewers were held in thrall by "Marvin," the ghoulishly hilarious host of WBKB-TV's late-night horror film series Shock Theatre. Marvin and his lady friend "Dear" (her face ever hidden from the camera) introduced thousands of Chicagoland youngsters to such classic Universal chillers as Frankenstein, Dracula and The Wolf Man. This history of Shock Theatre focuses on the series and its creator, Marvin himself--in real life, the multi-talented Terry Bennett, whose wife Joy played "Dear." Terry's son Kerry Bennett provides an affectionate foreword, while celebrated horror host Count Gore De Vol (Dick Dyszel) supplies the afterword. Included are dozens of photos and vintage advertisement reproductions, as well as two appendices featuring a resume of Terry Bennett's career and a list of films telecast during his two-year Shock Theatre run.
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.
'An irresistible page-turner that reads like the most compelling, sleep defying fiction' TIME OUT One was an architect. The other a serial killer. This is the incredible story of these two men and their realization of the Chicago World's Fair of 1893, and its amazing 'White City'; one of the wonders of the world. The architect was Daniel H. Burnham, the driving force behind the White City, the massive, visionary landscape of white buildings set in a wonderland of canals and gardens. The killer was H. H. Holmes, a handsome doctor with striking blue eyes. He used the attraction of the great fair - and his own devilish charms - to lure scores of young women to their deaths. While Burnham overcame politics, infighting, personality clashes and Chicago's infamous weather to transform the swamps of Jackson Park into the greatest show on Earth, Holmes built his own edifice just west of the fairground. He called it the World's Fair Hotel. In reality it was a torture palace, a gas chamber, a crematorium. These two disparate but driven men are brought to life in this mesmerizing, murderous tale of the legendary Fair that transformed America and set it on course for the twentieth century . . .
From the late 1940's through the early 1970's, local TV stations created a golden age of children's television. These programs were rich in imagination, inventiveness, and devoted fans. This book tells the back stories and details of the special Chicago children's programming created during this period.
From 1973 to 1987, Fright Night was a fixture of the late Saturday evening schedule on independent New York television station WOR-TV. A genre fan's nightmare come true, the modestly produced showcase featured horror films both classic and obscure, from Universal's Frankenstein series to such lesser-known delights as Beast of Blood and The Living Coffin. Fright Night suffered no delusions of grandeur and never claimed to be anything more than what it was: great entertainment on a Saturday night. This thorough if affectionate tribute to Fright Night's glory days includes a complete listing of all films shown on the series, as well as discussion of WOR-TV's other horror movie programs from the 1970s and 1980s. Also featured are interviews with the major surviving players, including Fright Night creator Lawrence P. Casey.
Lock your doors and gather close . . . if you dare! Once a rising TV journalist, Jerri Bartman has returned to her small Midwest hometown station. Demoted to hosting the nightly Creature Feature, Jerri's professional humiliation is eclipsed by the discovery that her new job comes with a secret, supernatural duty. Her missing predecessor, Count Crowley, was one of the last "Appointed" hunters of monsters. Yes. Monsters. They're real and they're hell bent on controlling the news and information consumed by humans. Everything we've ever been taught about monsters is a lie and Jerri's only possible advisor is a senile male chauvinist. It's 1983 and the outlook for humanity is getting . . . gnarly and their only hope is an alcoholic, acerbic horror host from Missouri. David Dastmalchian's authorial comics debut with artist Lukas Ketner--this terrifying trade collects issues #1-#4 of the Dark Horse Comics series Count Crowley: Reluctant Midnight Monster Hunter!
Based on Sam Raimi¿s 80s cult classic films, EVIL DEAD tells the tale of 5 college kids who travel to a cabin in the woods and accidentally unleash an evil force. And although it may sound like a horror, it's not! The songs are hilariously campy and the show is bursting with more farce than a Monty Python skit. EVIL DEAD: THE MUSICAL unearths the old familiar story: boy and friends take a weekend getaway at abandoned cabin, boy expects to get lucky, boy unleashes ancient evil spirit, friends turn into Candarian Demons, boy fights until dawn to survive. As musical mayhem descends upon this sleepover in the woods, ¿camp¿ takes on a whole new meaning with uproarious numbers like ¿All the Men in my Life Keep Getting Killed by Candarian Demons,¿ ¿Look Who¿s Evil Now¿ and ¿Do the Necronomicon.¿
Emilio Enzo and his associates have discovered just how deeply involved with the occult and the supernatural the criminal underworld in Prohibition-era Chicago is. Using hidden pathways between worlds, these forces of pure evil work in secret to maintain their positions, but now they have crossed the one man willing to challenge their dark reign.
"24 year old ed Becker purchases a house for himself and his expecting wife; a two-flat apartment building, which would allow them to live in one apartment and rent the other. What Ed doesn't know, is that there are already tenants residing in this building that he cannot evict ... Skeptical and street-smart, Ed has a difficult time coming to the realization that this apartment is home to the paranormal. As tensions begin to build between his spouse and himself, he attributes the stress to the new lifestyle they had accumulated, as both property owners and new parents. Coupled with the efforts of working long hours and restoring a dilapidated home, Ed ignores the unusual happenings that have no viable explanation. And what happens when something that wants to be noticed goes unacknowledged? Things escalate ... Read this hauntingly true story, of one of the earliest televised exorcisms in the nation, brought to the forefront by NBC. Interviewed and reported by nationally known news correspondent, Carole Simpson, and conducted by nationally known psychic Joseph DeLouise and exorcist, Rev. William Derl-Davis. Go behind the scenes of the known history of this truly haunted home--one that shattered the dreams of a young couple, and the family that can never leave it."--Page 4 of cover
