Stay sick, scratch glass, climb walls, turn blue!
Bear with me for one more Halloween post...
If you are of a certain age, and grew up in Detroit or Cleveland during the 70's and 80's, you know exactly where the post title comes from. If you are over the age of 30, you fondly remember the best late night horror movie host to ever grace the airwaves, The Ghoul.
You'll also remember jokes about Parma, Ohio, his nemesis, Froggy, Cheez Whiz abuse, his constant use of "Hey gang!" and "Overdey!" and his blowing shit up with M-80's.
For you youngsters out there who missed out on the fun, believe me, I'm just scratching the surface of the televised insanity. Late Saturday nights on channel 50 were total anarchy! It brings a smile to my face just thinking about it...
So in the spirit of Halloween, here's the classic opening from "The Ghoul Show!"
Here's Froggy catching some grief from The Ghoul...
The Ghoul would give us these words to live by at the end of every show...
"Stay sick, scratch glass, climb walls, turn blue! But most importantly of all...Do it while you can, but don't get caught!"
Wow. I feel ashamed. I don't remember ever, you know, actually *watching* The Ghoul. Yet I knew all about it, since a couple friends were obsessed with it.
ReplyDeleteWhat a disgrace to my Detroitness.
In my defense though, I did meet the number one requirement for a 70s era Detroiter: I had all the live albums by J. Geils.
Well, I wouldn't go as far as "Disgrace." But it does give your Detroit cred a blow...
ReplyDelete"Blow Your Face Out" was an awesome live album! I think it was issued to every Detroiter when they entered high school. If you grew up in the D during the 70's, you are a J. Geils Band fan. No ifs, ands or buts about it.
I was lucky to see them in concert once. Great great band, and it killed me when they broke up in the mid 80's.
Ey, what about Ghoulardi?
ReplyDelete(Son of Ghoul, who was around when I was growing up, was just crap. Oy.)
Ghoulardi was a huge influence on the The Ghoul, but was strictly a Cleveland host, I believe. Here in Detroit, the only other horror host I remember was on channel 2 Saturday afternoons in the 60's and 70's, Sir Graves Ghastly.
ReplyDeleteSir Graves had his charms, but was more kiddie oriented, showed mostly 40's and 50's Hollywood horror films, and was a very family safe show. The Ghoul, on the other hand, was more likely to show cheap drive-in, grindhouse fare, and had a strictly a late night sensibility.
Ah, that explains it -- I was born in Cleveland and grew up in a nearby small town, so my parents were all about the Ghoulardi. Unfortunately, I was too young to really see either him or Ghoul in action.
ReplyDeleteAh, Sir Graves. No Bill Kennedy, but he was a familiar face...
ReplyDelete