This week's Saturday Matinee is The Black Cat.
The film was part of the Shock Theatre Package. It was a menu of 52 Universal Horror offerings put together by Screen Gems and at the behest of Screen Gems the Horror Host Phenomenon was born.
In Virginia, the main horror hosts were the Bowman Body and Doctor Madblood. On occasion, your rabbit ears might pickup Count Gore De Vol. If you had cable, you could get Count Gore via DC20.
I had to go to Grandmother's House for that.
More on Jerry Harrell:
Doctor Madblood's Zombie Halloween
I vaguely remember the Doc doing a skit on the Witch of Pungo. Here's a lecture on Grace Sherwood, a.k.a the Witch of Pungo.
More on Bill Bowman:
Bowman Body Documentary Trailer
Virginia Creepers Mini Documentary. DVD.
More on Count Gore De Vol:
An interesting tidbit: Both Count Gore and Doc Madblood did stints as Bozo the Clown. The Bozo Phenomena began in 1949 and was eerily similar to the Shock Package in structure utilizing local personalities as Bozo.
