I'd like to thank the intrepid souls who came attended last night's test of the Livestream channel. I do believe they enjoyed the program. A few glitches but, overall, Livestream performed great. With that in mind, please remember that this Saturday, 10:00 P.M., there will be a re-run of Movie Madness Episode 2, featuring the film Battle Beyond the Sun. If you haven't seen it yet, then it's a new broadcast for you.
Looking toward the future, in May I will be really kicking off the service. May 18th and 22nd, I will show a short program called "A Man Called Charlie." Tramp Studios is named in honor of Charlie Chaplin's character, the Tramp. Therefore, to really launch the Internet TV service of Tramp Studios, what could be more fitting than a program of four Charlie Chaplin short films? Join us, May 18th and 22nd, 7:00 P.M. Central Time for A Man Called Charlie.
The week after that, May 25th, I will start running my film "Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat: The Saga of WWII." The 25th is tentatively scheduled for 7 PM Central Time. There will be a repeat that week, but I would like to work out a time where some friends of mine in Europe would find it easier to attend. More on that as we get closer to the actual date.
After BTTS, I will be showing my film "Please Stand By: The Invention of Television." Please Stand By doesn't concern itself with television shows and how they started. Please Stand By is about how the physical television set was invented, who was the inventor and how the TV set entered into our homes. Please Stand By covers the time from the day that it was first noticed that light energy could change the natural resistance of certain metals till when NBC hired Milton Berle to host the Texaco Star Theater.
In August, I'll be presenting my two Atomic Government Films on two dates. Want to know what dates? Look it up. You can find the dates on Google. Look over Hiroshima if nothing else...
November 11th will see a repeat of my program "Over There: Remembering World War One."
The new season of Movie Madness will kick off the first weekend of October with more of your favorite bad movies and even worse jokes.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Saturday, April 3, 2010
News 04-03-10
News, news, exciting news!
A major re-alignment of Tramp Studios online presence is about to occur. First of all, two of the Blogspot blogs will be shut down as well as, in all probability, the Blip TV sites. The reason for shutting down is I have opened a profile on Ustream's website for broadcasting live as well as storing the items as video on demand files.
The profile is named WBKB in honor of WBKB, Chicago's first commercial television station.
Ask any long-time Chicagoan what the Chicago, Granada, Nortown, and Uptown theaters have in common and they'll say Balaban & Katz. B & K didn't just build theaters, they built palaces. It was the 1920s, vaudeville was on the way out but Hollywood was coming up fast. By the 1930s, B & K theaters were packed, thanks to their pioneering efforts in air-conditioning. Balaban & Katz was one of many satellite companies owned or controlled by Paramount Pictures, Inc. Commonplace in the early to mid twentieth century, film production companies controlled the theaters playing their movies, allowing them complete control over the distribution and presentation of their product. Across the country Paramount had more than 1500 theaters plus more in Canada, Europe, and in parts of South America.
There was one more equally significant connection between Paramount and Balaban & Katz the companies were run by brothers. Barney Balaban had been made president of Paramount Pictures Inc. when the company emerged from the bankruptcy of its predecessor company Paramount Publix Corporation in 1935. John Balaban, along with Sam Katz, ran Balaban & Katz Theaters Inc.
In Chicago, Balaban & Katz had more than 100 theaters displaying their name. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer had a similar set-up with its Loew's Theater circuit. However, these monopolistic practices caught the attention of the U.S. Justice Department and in the end Paramount (as well as MGM and others) were ordered to decide which business they wanted to be in film producing or theater ownership. Paramount chose to stay in the picture producing business. Because of this, in 1950, a new corporation was formed United Paramount Theaters Inc., presided over by Leonard H. Goldenson.
But back in 1939, John Balaban convinced Leonard H. Goldenson, then a on-the-rise Paramount corporate lawyer, to acquire an experimental television license that would become W9XBK. The second electronic station on the air (the first was W9XZV, Zenith Radio Corporation's experimental outlet on Channel 1), W9XBK transmitted at 60 66 megacycles, then television's Channel 2. Balaban & Katz also held the experimental television licenses for W9XBT, W9XBB, and W9XPR. When the VHF frequencies were changed by the FCC, W9XBK found itself transmitting at 66 72 megacycles, the current Channel 4. W9XZV ended up on Channel 2. Late in 1943, the station would become the first commercial station in Chicago, WBKB. Around the same time Paramount would launch a second television station, KTLA in Los Angeles.
Neither Paramount or B& K had any idea what to do with a television station. John Balaban decided to hire Bill Eddy who had been working for NBC. Eddy was given $60,000 to start up W9XBK. Eddy quickly assembled his staff. As chief engineer was Arch Brolly, who Eddy knew from his days with Philo Farnsworth; Reinald Werrenrath, who worked with Eddy at NBC; and from Chicago, Bill Kusack and Dick Shapiro, TV repairmen who worked for RCA Victor; and Stan Osterlund.
Rigging a small truck they nicknamed "Mobile Unit Number One," Eddy and Werrenrath drove around the outskirts of the city checking the signal strength of the transmitter. Cameras had to be homemade including the mounts which Eddy fashioned from old barbers' chairs which had been rigged with small motors to raise and lower the camera. While still working for Farnsworth, Eddy was given the task of dealing with the lighting problems that were common to early television. He later honed his talents at NBC. By the time Eddy and his staff would move into the fourth floor of the State-Lake building at 190 N. State St. (now the home to WLS-TV), Eddy's input was the standard of the industry.
Al Rhone was WBKB's film director. He chose the films seen on Channel 4.There were no schedules. Much of what viewers tuned into was man-on-the-street interviews. Because the Chicago Theatre was often packed, there was never a shortage of people to talk to. Performers on stage at the theater would often came over to be on the station. It was all hit or miss.
December 7, 1941, the country would enter the war. Knowing the Navy would need radar (Eddy had developed the Eddy Amplifier, a highly sensitive sonar device) Eddy offered the Navy department his staff and facilities of W9XBK as a training school. Originally estimated to train 135 technicians, the total came closer to 86,000. The school became such a success that similar classes were set up all across the country.
Shortly after the war began, the FCC announced that any experimental stations on the air for at least four hours a week would be able to stay on the air for the duration of the war. Chief engineer Arch Brolly was saddled with the task of replacing the station's original transmitter in time to satisfy the FCC. Although Paramount ordered a new transmitter to be delivered, the order was cancelled when the New York firm that was building the unit was ordered to convert their facilities for the war effort. Brolly and his staff decided to complete the transmitter themselves and after working day and night and using a ten-gallon pickle jar as a water-cooling system, got the station on the air.
In 1943, W9XBK would become WBKB, Chicago's first commercial television station. Programming began to develop. In 1945, veteran newsman Hugh Downs announced a fifteen-minute newscast sweating under the hot studio lights. Mike Wallace auditioned but worried about his skin. Boxing and wrestling became popular because it was cheap to produce, and especially in the case of wrestling, easy to schedule commercials between bouts. It was open audition all the time. If you thought you had talent, you would go over to WBKB and be on television. WBKB would also air "B" and "C" films, usually the old cowboy shoot 'em ups to fill out their air time.
Eddy approached his friend, puppeteer Burr Tillstrom, with an offer to develop a children's program. It was Eddy who suggested Fran Allison who Tillstrom had worked with before. Beulah Zachery, after whom Beulah Witch is named, was the producer and Lew Gomavitz was the director. Kukla, Fran, & Ollie appealed to children and adults alike. In fact, it was believed early on that its audience was primarily adults. Now there was television programming that could appeal to the whole family. A much better reason to fork out the big bucks for a set. WBKB would continue to develop programming to appeal to a wider audience. They would hire Lincoln Park Zoo director Marlin Perkins (later to star for years on Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom) to host a show called Zoo Parade. Years later, a similar program would appear as a segment of Ray Rayner & Friends on WGN-TV with Dr. Lester Fisher of the Lincoln Park Zoo. It would all begin at WBKB.
But all of this was expensive and Paramount, who had by now spent millions of dollars on WBKB (as well as its sister station in Los Angeles KTLA) was growing tired of television. Unlike his brother John, Barney Balaban did not believe in pouring money into television. This philosophy was made even more clear by the stormy relationship between Paramount and The Allen B. DuMont Laboratories. They also felt that Eddy was costing them too much money. Eddy, however, cared little for the bean counters at B & K or Paramount. Capt. Bill Eddy was let go.
By the early 1950s, WBKB was able to boast a bevy of firsts...
* First baseball game broadcast from Wrigley Field
* First interstate telecast of boxing matches live ringside at Michigan City Indiana
* First television remote- the Shriner's parade in front of the Sheraton Hotel
* First intercity relay golf tournament from Tam O'Shanter Country Club in Niles
* First football game relayed from Dyche Stadium in Evanston
* First interstate relay from South Bend Indiana of Notre Dame football
* First full-length drama ever to be telecast in its entirety
* First telecast of the midnight Mass at Holy Name Cathedral
* First Easter Sunrise service telecast from Cook County Hospital
* First concert to be televised from the Grant Park band shell
WBKB Channel 4 became CBS-owned and operated WBBM-TV on Channel 2, part of the home made "tornado alert" system. (If I think about it long enough, hard enough, I can probably remember what we did. It was something to do with Channel 2 and Channel 13The newly formed American Broadcasting-Paramount Theaters Inc. dropped the WENR-TV calls on Channel 7 and became WBKB. WBBM-TV would soon move to Channel 2 in response to the FCC's action to clean up the VHF assignment mess. Channel 4 would be reallocated to Milwaukee Wisconsin and WTMJ-TV. Channel 2 in Chicago, long held by Zenith and the experimental W9XZV, the city's first electronic television station (beating out W9XBK by a year) and (as KS2XBS), the station that broadcast Phonevision, the ill-fated pay television experiment in 1951, was forced to go dark. The station's transmitter would later be donated to Chicago's first educational station WTTW.
Not many remember a station on Channel 4 in Chicago. The names Capt. Bill Eddy, Arch Brolly, Bill Kusack, and the others at WBKB are well-respected among their industry peers but virtually unknown to the public. Yet we have these men to thank for being there and the pioneering efforts despite overwhelming odds. (Re-printed from Steve Jajkowski's site of Chicago's Television history, http://www.chicagotelevision.com/)
There is still a WBKB TV Channel 11 in Alpena, MI, but we are not in any way affiliated with the commercial WBKB.
Ustream allows its members to broadcast video through a variety of methods. Ustream also allows people to chat while the program is broadcasting. There has been a small set up for this purpose on the Screen Scream website, the difference is that Ustream uses real streaming technology. If you enter the profile 30 minutes late, you miss the first thirty minutes of the program.
The main profile was named wbkb in honor of Chicago's (my hometown) first commercial television station. This internet station is currently running two shows. Movie Madness/Scream Screen and Tramp Studios Presents!
Movie Madness has, of course, finished it's first season. I am currently re-formatting the show for its second season. The characters will be different looking, the backgrounds will be re-drawn and the show is probably going to be re-named from Movie Madness to Scream Screen. The jokes, rest assured, will be as bad as ever. During the hiatus, reruns of the Movie Madness will be shown every other Saturday night at 10:00 P.M.
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/scream-screen
The other show, Tramp Studios Presents! Will premiere on May 18th, 2010 with a program called "A Man Named Charlie." Tramp Studios is named in honor of Charlie Chaplin and his character, the Tramp. Therefore, to premiere the show, I think its only natural that I broadcast a program of my favorite Chaplin short two reel films. Which films specifically, I haven't decided. I'm still researching. In the weeks following the Chaplin program, I will be running both Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat: The Saga of World of II and Please Stand By: The Invention of Television in their entirety. Which one will I broadcast first? I'll give you a hint: What famous event occurred in the first few days of June?
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/tramp-studios-presents
This is an exciting turn of events! I hope you will join us to celebrate!
A major re-alignment of Tramp Studios online presence is about to occur. First of all, two of the Blogspot blogs will be shut down as well as, in all probability, the Blip TV sites. The reason for shutting down is I have opened a profile on Ustream's website for broadcasting live as well as storing the items as video on demand files.
The profile is named WBKB in honor of WBKB, Chicago's first commercial television station.
Ask any long-time Chicagoan what the Chicago, Granada, Nortown, and Uptown theaters have in common and they'll say Balaban & Katz. B & K didn't just build theaters, they built palaces. It was the 1920s, vaudeville was on the way out but Hollywood was coming up fast. By the 1930s, B & K theaters were packed, thanks to their pioneering efforts in air-conditioning. Balaban & Katz was one of many satellite companies owned or controlled by Paramount Pictures, Inc. Commonplace in the early to mid twentieth century, film production companies controlled the theaters playing their movies, allowing them complete control over the distribution and presentation of their product. Across the country Paramount had more than 1500 theaters plus more in Canada, Europe, and in parts of South America.
There was one more equally significant connection between Paramount and Balaban & Katz the companies were run by brothers. Barney Balaban had been made president of Paramount Pictures Inc. when the company emerged from the bankruptcy of its predecessor company Paramount Publix Corporation in 1935. John Balaban, along with Sam Katz, ran Balaban & Katz Theaters Inc.
In Chicago, Balaban & Katz had more than 100 theaters displaying their name. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer had a similar set-up with its Loew's Theater circuit. However, these monopolistic practices caught the attention of the U.S. Justice Department and in the end Paramount (as well as MGM and others) were ordered to decide which business they wanted to be in film producing or theater ownership. Paramount chose to stay in the picture producing business. Because of this, in 1950, a new corporation was formed United Paramount Theaters Inc., presided over by Leonard H. Goldenson.
But back in 1939, John Balaban convinced Leonard H. Goldenson, then a on-the-rise Paramount corporate lawyer, to acquire an experimental television license that would become W9XBK. The second electronic station on the air (the first was W9XZV, Zenith Radio Corporation's experimental outlet on Channel 1), W9XBK transmitted at 60 66 megacycles, then television's Channel 2. Balaban & Katz also held the experimental television licenses for W9XBT, W9XBB, and W9XPR. When the VHF frequencies were changed by the FCC, W9XBK found itself transmitting at 66 72 megacycles, the current Channel 4. W9XZV ended up on Channel 2. Late in 1943, the station would become the first commercial station in Chicago, WBKB. Around the same time Paramount would launch a second television station, KTLA in Los Angeles.
Neither Paramount or B& K had any idea what to do with a television station. John Balaban decided to hire Bill Eddy who had been working for NBC. Eddy was given $60,000 to start up W9XBK. Eddy quickly assembled his staff. As chief engineer was Arch Brolly, who Eddy knew from his days with Philo Farnsworth; Reinald Werrenrath, who worked with Eddy at NBC; and from Chicago, Bill Kusack and Dick Shapiro, TV repairmen who worked for RCA Victor; and Stan Osterlund.
Rigging a small truck they nicknamed "Mobile Unit Number One," Eddy and Werrenrath drove around the outskirts of the city checking the signal strength of the transmitter. Cameras had to be homemade including the mounts which Eddy fashioned from old barbers' chairs which had been rigged with small motors to raise and lower the camera. While still working for Farnsworth, Eddy was given the task of dealing with the lighting problems that were common to early television. He later honed his talents at NBC. By the time Eddy and his staff would move into the fourth floor of the State-Lake building at 190 N. State St. (now the home to WLS-TV), Eddy's input was the standard of the industry.
Al Rhone was WBKB's film director. He chose the films seen on Channel 4.There were no schedules. Much of what viewers tuned into was man-on-the-street interviews. Because the Chicago Theatre was often packed, there was never a shortage of people to talk to. Performers on stage at the theater would often came over to be on the station. It was all hit or miss.
December 7, 1941, the country would enter the war. Knowing the Navy would need radar (Eddy had developed the Eddy Amplifier, a highly sensitive sonar device) Eddy offered the Navy department his staff and facilities of W9XBK as a training school. Originally estimated to train 135 technicians, the total came closer to 86,000. The school became such a success that similar classes were set up all across the country.
Shortly after the war began, the FCC announced that any experimental stations on the air for at least four hours a week would be able to stay on the air for the duration of the war. Chief engineer Arch Brolly was saddled with the task of replacing the station's original transmitter in time to satisfy the FCC. Although Paramount ordered a new transmitter to be delivered, the order was cancelled when the New York firm that was building the unit was ordered to convert their facilities for the war effort. Brolly and his staff decided to complete the transmitter themselves and after working day and night and using a ten-gallon pickle jar as a water-cooling system, got the station on the air.
In 1943, W9XBK would become WBKB, Chicago's first commercial television station. Programming began to develop. In 1945, veteran newsman Hugh Downs announced a fifteen-minute newscast sweating under the hot studio lights. Mike Wallace auditioned but worried about his skin. Boxing and wrestling became popular because it was cheap to produce, and especially in the case of wrestling, easy to schedule commercials between bouts. It was open audition all the time. If you thought you had talent, you would go over to WBKB and be on television. WBKB would also air "B" and "C" films, usually the old cowboy shoot 'em ups to fill out their air time.
Eddy approached his friend, puppeteer Burr Tillstrom, with an offer to develop a children's program. It was Eddy who suggested Fran Allison who Tillstrom had worked with before. Beulah Zachery, after whom Beulah Witch is named, was the producer and Lew Gomavitz was the director. Kukla, Fran, & Ollie appealed to children and adults alike. In fact, it was believed early on that its audience was primarily adults. Now there was television programming that could appeal to the whole family. A much better reason to fork out the big bucks for a set. WBKB would continue to develop programming to appeal to a wider audience. They would hire Lincoln Park Zoo director Marlin Perkins (later to star for years on Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom) to host a show called Zoo Parade. Years later, a similar program would appear as a segment of Ray Rayner & Friends on WGN-TV with Dr. Lester Fisher of the Lincoln Park Zoo. It would all begin at WBKB.
But all of this was expensive and Paramount, who had by now spent millions of dollars on WBKB (as well as its sister station in Los Angeles KTLA) was growing tired of television. Unlike his brother John, Barney Balaban did not believe in pouring money into television. This philosophy was made even more clear by the stormy relationship between Paramount and The Allen B. DuMont Laboratories. They also felt that Eddy was costing them too much money. Eddy, however, cared little for the bean counters at B & K or Paramount. Capt. Bill Eddy was let go.
By the early 1950s, WBKB was able to boast a bevy of firsts...
* First baseball game broadcast from Wrigley Field
* First interstate telecast of boxing matches live ringside at Michigan City Indiana
* First television remote- the Shriner's parade in front of the Sheraton Hotel
* First intercity relay golf tournament from Tam O'Shanter Country Club in Niles
* First football game relayed from Dyche Stadium in Evanston
* First interstate relay from South Bend Indiana of Notre Dame football
* First full-length drama ever to be telecast in its entirety
* First telecast of the midnight Mass at Holy Name Cathedral
* First Easter Sunrise service telecast from Cook County Hospital
* First concert to be televised from the Grant Park band shell
WBKB Channel 4 became CBS-owned and operated WBBM-TV on Channel 2, part of the home made "tornado alert" system. (If I think about it long enough, hard enough, I can probably remember what we did. It was something to do with Channel 2 and Channel 13The newly formed American Broadcasting-Paramount Theaters Inc. dropped the WENR-TV calls on Channel 7 and became WBKB. WBBM-TV would soon move to Channel 2 in response to the FCC's action to clean up the VHF assignment mess. Channel 4 would be reallocated to Milwaukee Wisconsin and WTMJ-TV. Channel 2 in Chicago, long held by Zenith and the experimental W9XZV, the city's first electronic television station (beating out W9XBK by a year) and (as KS2XBS), the station that broadcast Phonevision, the ill-fated pay television experiment in 1951, was forced to go dark. The station's transmitter would later be donated to Chicago's first educational station WTTW.
Not many remember a station on Channel 4 in Chicago. The names Capt. Bill Eddy, Arch Brolly, Bill Kusack, and the others at WBKB are well-respected among their industry peers but virtually unknown to the public. Yet we have these men to thank for being there and the pioneering efforts despite overwhelming odds. (Re-printed from Steve Jajkowski's site of Chicago's Television history, http://www.chicagotelevision.com/)
There is still a WBKB TV Channel 11 in Alpena, MI, but we are not in any way affiliated with the commercial WBKB.
Ustream allows its members to broadcast video through a variety of methods. Ustream also allows people to chat while the program is broadcasting. There has been a small set up for this purpose on the Screen Scream website, the difference is that Ustream uses real streaming technology. If you enter the profile 30 minutes late, you miss the first thirty minutes of the program.
The main profile was named wbkb in honor of Chicago's (my hometown) first commercial television station. This internet station is currently running two shows. Movie Madness/Scream Screen and Tramp Studios Presents!
Movie Madness has, of course, finished it's first season. I am currently re-formatting the show for its second season. The characters will be different looking, the backgrounds will be re-drawn and the show is probably going to be re-named from Movie Madness to Scream Screen. The jokes, rest assured, will be as bad as ever. During the hiatus, reruns of the Movie Madness will be shown every other Saturday night at 10:00 P.M.
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/scream-screen
The other show, Tramp Studios Presents! Will premiere on May 18th, 2010 with a program called "A Man Named Charlie." Tramp Studios is named in honor of Charlie Chaplin and his character, the Tramp. Therefore, to premiere the show, I think its only natural that I broadcast a program of my favorite Chaplin short two reel films. Which films specifically, I haven't decided. I'm still researching. In the weeks following the Chaplin program, I will be running both Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat: The Saga of World of II and Please Stand By: The Invention of Television in their entirety. Which one will I broadcast first? I'll give you a hint: What famous event occurred in the first few days of June?
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/tramp-studios-presents
This is an exciting turn of events! I hope you will join us to celebrate!
Saturday, March 27, 2010
It's been the best of times, it's been the worst of times.
The first season of Movie Madness comes to a close this weekend. Although the show will be available, even in the Saturday night broadcasts, these will be reruns of the episodes as I take a much deserved break and planning for next year's season.
This has been an incredible learning curve. So many things I wished I had been able to do, yet, generally, I've been pleased with the results. I can still recall the rush that occurred when my recording system failed causing me to record an entire show using the built-in mic on my little Canon digital camera. Noisy, sound quality was bad, but I managed to finish the show. On time as well.
The Saturday broadcasts were a great idea. I've enjoyed being able to chat with Dr. Zoid and Corpse S. Chris while watching the program, making certain we're all more or less in the same place, commiserating over all the people who were missing out on the fun. Boys and girls, kiddies of all ages, I thank you for the time you've taken out of your busy lives to enjoy a monster movie with me.
Next season should see some changes. The sets are going to change. The characters will, hopefully, be redrawn. I would like to improve the animation, but, even if I were able to, the time involved would certainly preclude my being able to do so. However, the web site for the television show, http://screenscream.bravehost.com, will be expanded. How, I don't know as of yet. Those plans will be formulated over the show's hiatus. One other change of note will probably be made over hiatus.
When I formulated the plans for this show, I chose the name "Movie Madness with Dr. Praxis" (doctor malpractice, Dr. Mel Praxis. Get it?) Because you could sing that phrase to the chorus of "Wooly Bully."
"Movie Madness, Movie Madness.
Movie Madness with Dr. Praxis,
The Movie Madness."
Movie Madness with Dr. Praxis,
The Movie Madness."
Not that I thought I could receive permission to use "Wooly Bully" as my theme song. Fortunately, I knew someone who probably had a tune or two lying around that would make a wonderful theme song for a horror movie show. And, I was right. He did. Thank you, Kevin MacLeod, for your tune Netherworld Shanty. Kevin's music can be found at http://incompetech.com The use of this as my theme song, and Kevin's music in general, is one thing that will not change.
However, before I become even more off the track I was following, I choose the name "Movie Madness With Dr. Praxis" for the reason I mentioned before. When I set up the website for the Movie Madness, I decided to use a graphic of a lady screaming. I created a flash file that contained her, the name of the website and the sound of a lady screaming in terror. I had already planned on having a site where people would be able to watch the movie and chat with each other. Like we use to do perched in front of our television screens. Therefore, I wanted a name that contained the idea of the site being a "screen" to watch movies on. "Scream Screen" suggested itself as a play on the phrase "Scream Queen" (we all know what those are) as well as "green screen" which is used so frequently in horror movies (and I use so frequently in my show). However, using this name seems to have confused people as to the name of the program. Between the two names, I think "Scream Screen" is better, so, probably, next season, the program will be come "The Scream Screen." (Shouldn't there be the sound of a female screaming in terror right about now?)
Other future plans include a fan club you can join for free. More about that at a later date.
All of these plans are for the future season of the Scream Screen. But for now, I would like to conclude this by saying thank you to Kevin for his music, to Steve Dean at Public Access 72 for broadcasting the program. To Dr. Sigmund Zoid, Corpse S. Chris, Nyla Alisia, Marlena, Robyn, Penny, Count Gore, among others, for their support and friendship and, most of all, I would like to thank horror movie fans everywhere for their love of horror movies of all types.
Good night, kiddies. See you in October.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Movie Madness, the director's cut
During the mid 1950s there began a local television tradition that has continued in various forms to this day. As televisions became more common in the home, the movies studios, long hesitant to release movies to the small screen, finally relented and made available movies produced post 1948. As a result of this, hundreds of cheaply made mad scientist/werewolf/cheap rip-off Frankenstein monster type movies became late night filler. The relative in expense of the films made them very attractive to local stations looking to fill air time and commercial space. But just running the movie wasn't enough. These were films that couldn't possibly be taken seriously.
The show needed a host. Again to keep costs down, use someone already on staff, add some cheap greasepaint, maybe a small set, and just sit back and watch the fun- during the commercial breaks!
The idea caught on and soon local stations all over the country were airing their own version. In Chicago, it seems like almost every station had some horror movie show on the air at least sometime during their broadcast existence. Many consisted of nothing more than a slide (and maybe some strange music) with the name of the show. WMAQ-TV ran Thrillerama, WSNS had Monster Rally. For a while, WLS-TV ran horror movies during their The 3:30 Movie timeslot.
But there are certain shows that to this day are remembered with good times, a lot of laughs, and maybe just a scare or two- though maybe you probably still wouldn't admit it!
There are literally hundreds of horror hosts who deserve to be listed here. Unfortunately, we only have room for a few.
The very first hosted horror show was The Vampira Show is a 1950s Emmy-nominated television show hosted by Vampira. The series aired on the Los Angeles ABC television affiliate KABC-TV from April 30, 1954 through April 2, 1955. The series was produced and created by Hunt Stromberg, Jr. and featured the Vampira character created by Maila Nurmi.
The costume of Nurmi's Vampira character was inspired by the spooky The New Yorker cartoons of Charles Addams, later adapted for the TV series The Addams Family in 1964. As Nurmi told Box office in a 1994 interview, she had dressed as Addams' at-the-time nameless ghoul-woman to attend Lester Horton's annual Hollywood costume ball the Bal Caribe in 1953. Nurmi's ghoul woman beat out over 2,000 attendees to win the evening's prize for best costume, and drew Stromberg's attention. When Stromberg approached Nurmi about doing the character for television, Nurmi then re-imagined the character and costume as a buxom and glamorous single vampire instead of the mother of a family, and she named her creation Vampira. Nurmi told Box office that her intention was to invent a unique creation of her own that was "campier and sexier" than the mute and flat-chested Addams character, in part to avoid plagiarizing Addams' intellectual property.
Vampira's personality was based on elements of several silent film actresses including Theda Bara and Gloria Swanson as well as the Evil Queen from Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. In Vampira: The Movie, Nurmi reveals she appropriated the long cigarette holder and extra-long fingernails from the Dragon Lady character in the Terry and the Pirates comics. The new costume was inspired by the artwork of John Willie featured in the fetish magazine Bizarre. Each show began with the spectral image of the wasp-waist Vampira gliding through knee-deep fog down a dark corridor toward the viewer. At the end of her trance-like walk she would suddenly let out a long, piercing scream as the camera zoomed in on her face. She would then smile and coyly remark, "Screaming relaxes me so." After that Nurmi would sit on a Victorian double-ended sofa decorated with skulls and introduce the movie of the night, sometimes pausing to play with her pet spider Rolo, talk with off-camera ghosts, torment her advertiser, Fletcher Jones, in amusing commercials, or drink a Vampira Cocktail at her poison bar. The show's theme music was from the Adagio movement in Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta by Bela Bartok and excerpts from Uranus from The Planets by Gustav Holst.
The show's concept of having a host introduce films was fresh at the time, having never been done before. In later years, stations all over the world would duplicate its format with similar hosts. The Vampira Show was seen in the Los Angeles area only but was featured in articles and photo spreads in Newsweek, TV Guide and Life within weeks of its first broadcast. The show and its bizarre hostess were an instant success and led to Nurmi's appearance on numerous 1950s television shows including The Red Skelton Show and Ed Sullivan's Toast of the Town.
Ghoulardi was portrayed by disc jockey, voice announcer, and actor Ernie Anderson as the horror host of late night Shock Theater at WJW-TV, Channel 8, in Cleveland, Ohio.
Shock Theater featured grade-"B" science fiction films and horror films. Shock Theater was aired in a Friday late-night time slot, but at the peak of Ghoulardi's popularity, Anderson also hosted the Saturday afternoon Masterpiece Theater, and the weekday children's program Laurel, Ghoulardi and Hardy.
His irreverent and influential host character was a hipster, unlike the horror character prototype. Ghoulardi's costume was a long lab coat covered with "slogan" buttons, horn-rimmed sunglasses with a missing lens, a fake Van Dyke beard and moustache, and various messy, awkwardly-perched wigs. Ghoulardi's stage name was devised by Cleveland restaurateur Ralph Gulko, who was making a pun of the word "ghoul," and his own similar last name, with a generic "ethnic" ending.
During breaks in the movies, Anderson addressed the camera live in a part-Beat, part-ethnic accented commentary, peppered with catchphrases: "Hey, group!," "Stay sick, knif" ("fink"), "Cool it," "Turn blue" and "Ova-dey." Anderson improvised because of his difficulty memorizing lines. He played novelty and offbeat rock and roll tunes, plus jazz and rhythm and blues songs under his live performance. He frequently played the Rivingtons' "Papa-Oo-Mow-Mow" over a clip of a toothless old man gumming.
Shock Theater drew both a black and white cult audience, who loved Ghoulardi's beatnik costume, the music, and his hip talk, which was a nod to black jazz and R&B artists. More mainstream viewers enjoyed his broad, unpretentious ethnic humor.
Ghoulardi spared no unhip targets: the bedroom communities Parma, Ohio, ("Par-ma?!") which he often called "Amrap" (Parma backwards) and Oxnard, California, ("Remember...Oxnard!"), bandleader Lawrence Welk and polka music, Cleveland television personalities Mike Douglas and Dorothy Fuldheim ("Dorothy Baby"), plus other public figures. In particular, Ghoulardi unmercifully jeered Parma for its ethnic, working-class, "white socks" sensibility, creating a series of taped skits called Parma Place. He adopted a crow and named him "Oxnard."
He frequently mocked the poor quality films he was hosting: "If you want to watch a movie, don't watch this one," or "This movie is so bad, you should just go to bed." He had his crew comically insert random stock footage or his own image at climactic moments. In movies with chase scenes, for example, they might superimpose a shot of Ghoulardi running away, as if it was Ghoulardi being pursued.
More than 40 years after Ghoulardi signed off, his legacy endures: Residents of Cleveland still associate polka music, white socks, and pink plastic flamingo and yard globe lawn ornaments with Parma, Ohio.
In the mid-1960s, Ghoulardi's irreverence overtook the rarefied Severance Hall, where Cleveland Orchestra conductor George Szell introduced one of his musicians as being from Parma, Ohio. According to Tim Conway, the concert audience replied: "Par-ma?!"
Ron Sweed went on to fame of his own under the name "The Ghoul," which ran in the Cleveland, Detroit areas and had a limited national syndication.
Chicago's first horror show was WBKB's "Shock Theater." Shock Theater was hosted by Marvin, played by WBKB kid show host Terry Bennett. Marvin could best be described as a demented beatnik type, dressed all in black and sporting a pair of thick lensed black horn rim glasses. He spoke with a voice that was a cross between Peter Lorre and Renfield, the hapless sap that unsuccessfully tries to secure a real estate deal with Count Dracula in the 1931 Universal classic "Dracula." Many viewers referred to him as "Mad Marvin."
"Marvin" wasn't alone down there in the cellar. He was kept company by his wife who he only called "Dear." "Dear" was played by Bennett's wife, Joy, who also appeared on Bennett's daytime kid show as "Pamela Puppet." You never saw "Dear's" face as the camera was always behind her or her face would be obscured. One was never sure just who or what "Dear" was as it was common for "Marvin" to ask "Dear" to lend him a hand only to get the entire arm instead!
There were other characters on the show including "Orville" the hunchback servant and "Shorty," who bore more than a passing resemblance to the Frankenstein monster. The show even had its own "shocktale" house band called "The Deadbeats." usually a five piece combo variously consisting of bass fiddle, bongos, guitar, woodwinds, and squeeze box. Dressed all in black, they provided background music while "Marvin" read some offbeat poem or performed hilarious musical parodies.
On the last telecast of Shock Theater viewers finally got to see what "Dear" looked like. The show was being cancelled to make way for ABC-TV's Fight Of The Week. As the show was winding to a close, Marvin turned to his companion and said "Dear, why don't you say good-bye to our friends?" "Dear" then turned around and faced the camera for the first time ever and said "Goodnight! Talk to you soon!" The final half hour, normally the Shocktale segment, featured Terry and Joy, out of character, just chatting about the past shows. Many fans of the show thought it to be the perfect ending. Interestingly a similar gimmick would be used on the final telecast of NBC's Howdy Doody Show one year later as the always mute Clarabell The Clown said good-bye to all the kids at home and in the Peanut Gallery as that series passed into television history.
The two shows I remember the most was Creature Features on WGN and Screaming Yellow Theater, aka The Svengoolie Show, on WFLD.
Creature Features was WGN-TV's entry into the horror show world. Known for it's main title vignettes of Universal Studios classic horror movies set to the haunting guitars of Henry Mancini's theme from the film Experiment In Terror, and the dark sinister voice of WGN-TV announcer Marty McNeely reading a poem.
WFLD offered Screaming Yellow Theater which in the beginning was very similar to WGN-TV's entry in that it was a slide on air between commercial breaks with off camera announcer Jerry G. Bishop. Instead of Mancini, WFLD had Link Wray's classic Rumble (as covered by The Dave Clark Five) playing in the background. The addition of a woman belting out a blood curdling scream every 15 seconds added to the "suspense."
Eventually Bishop, ad-libbing, began to add some humor to the commercial wrap arounds. The single Screaming Yellow Theater slide gave way to still shots of Bishop, now dressed as a burned out 60's-ish hippie named "Svengoolie." The show was slowly becoming a hit and before long, the Screaming Yellow Theater concept was dropped and replaced with live action comedy bits performed by Bishop and written by him and staff writer Rich Koz.
During the show's heyday, it was not unusual to hear and see odd things during the movie that were not there originally. This was the kind of humor Bishop and Koz gave their series and it made the show a huge hit. Sven would appear during the commercial breaks hawking products in commercial parodies (through Sven's exclusive distributor S.T.D.- Sham, Trickery, & Deceit- though most of the time the "D" was changed), welcome local guests, sing songs, and tell stories all with the vaguely familiar "Bela Lugosi" accent which had been popularized by the comic Lenny Bruce. (Lugosi's accent never sounded like the comic version.)
Jerry Bishop left the show in the mid 70's. Rich Koz took over the show as The Son of Svengoolie.
Today, Rich Koz continues the show on WCIU in Chicago as a grown-up Svengoolie.
There is one other host I wish to mention. I never had the pleasure of seeing this host on television, but I have the pleasure of knowing the lady who portrayed this character.
Legend states that Stella was "born in North Libido, New Jersey, a small village outside of Atlantic City." The only child of traveling hecklers, she was dropped in a plastic basket at Fifth and Skunk in front of Guido's Hair Weaving and Plumbing Supplies. Stella was the host of Saturday Night Dead, played by Karen Scioli on KYW-TV, Channel 3, which at that time was the NBC affiliate in Philadelphia, PA.
"I actually auditioned for the role. It was sort of like Gone With The Wind only they were looking for the Man-Eater From Manayunk," Karen Scioli said in an interview, "I was living in New York and my mom in Philadelphia cut out the newspaper ad and sent it to me. I was doing stand up comedy at the time so I thought, 'What the heck,' so I auditioned and I got the part. I think there were 150 people that tried out for the role. They brought out every ghoul and vampire and crazy person that came out for it. I think also that because I was doing comedy they figured I could be helpful with the writing."
Many infamous personalities visited the show including John Zacherle, Jane "Pixanne" Norman, Bill "Wee Willie" Webber, Rip Taylor and Sally Starr. Each week, Stella introduced a "B" horror movie, and performed ultra dodgy skits with her sidekicks Hives the butler, Iggy the dungeon monster, and Beda Lugosi, her talking and vibrating bed
Scioli's slapstick "can't win" delivery is what made her series memorable. Using a combination of decadence, innuendo and shady-natured hijinks; she led the cast and viewers right into the flick of the night as only she could. Most of us relished the combination as did WKYW, the NBC affiliate that kept her on air and following Saturday Night Live for several gore filled years. And while Stella never became a national name like Vampira or Zacherley, she will always be remembered as the "Daughter Of Desire" in this genre of American folk art.
 |
| Stella in her disguise as a normal person named Karen Scioli |
Karen Scioli is listed in the Broadcast Pioneers of Philidelphia, but she may be known more as "Re Re DeNucci" from WOGL's "Breakfast Club" with Ross Brittain and Valerie Knight.
As the years went on, horror shows fell by the wayside. People went on with their lives and careers. Ratings fell, shows were canceled. More network shows became available for late night slots. In some instances, independent stations suddenly decided these type of shows were beneath them.
But horror shows enjoyed a resurgence via both Community (Public) access television stations and the Internet.
Across the country, hundreds of community groups, educators, artists, non-profit organizations and residents are reaching their community through one of the most powerful communications tools: cable television. They are creating programs for their communities with the help of their local "public access" channel.
In the United States, public access is an alternative system of television which originated as a response to disenchantment with the commercial broadcasting system, and in order to fulfil some of the social potential of cable television.
Public Access was created to provide a free-speech forum, open to all on a first-come, first-served basis without discrimination or favoritism based on content. It should be noted that the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is not public access television and has no official connection with PEG. PBS is funded publicly and by private grants and contributions, as well as an element of commercial sponsorship. PEG is funded by cable television companies through subscription fees, and also by private grants and contributions. PBS does not regularly provide free use of facilities to produce programming.
In 1968 the Dale City, Virginia Jaycees' Junior Chamber of Commerce operated the first community-operated closed-circuit television channel in the United States, when Cable TV Incorporated gave a channel to the public access center Dale City Television (DCTV), but the center failed two years later.
The FCC issued its Third Report and Order[citation needed] in 1972, which required all cable systems in the top 100 U.S. television markets to provide three access-channels, one each for educational, local government, and public use, where if there was insufficient demand for three in a particular market, the cable companies could offer fewer channels, but at least one, and any group or individual wishing to use the channels would be allowed to. Mostly, cable companies use the public access channels for the benefit of the local communites. Public access channels can allow programming that was produced outside of the municipality.
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) to serve billions of users worldwide. It is a network of networks that consists of millions of private and public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope that are linked by a broad array of electronic and optical networking technologies. The Internet carries a vast array of information resources and services, most notably the inter-linked hypertext documents of the World Wide Web (WWW) and the infrastructure to support electronic mail.
The origins of the Internet reach back to the 1960s when the United States funded research projects of its military agencies to build robust, fault-tolerant and distributed computer networks. This research and a period of civilian funding of a new U.S. backbone by the National Science Foundation spawned worldwide participation in the development of new networking technologies and led to the commercialization of an international network in the mid 1990s, and resulted in the following popularization of countless applications in virtually every aspect of modern human life. As of 2009, an estimated quarter of Earth's population uses the services of the Internet.
The Internet has no centralized governance in either technological implementation or policies for access and usage; each constituent network sets its own standards. Only the overreaching definitions of the two principal name spaces in the Internet, the Internet Protocol address space and the Domain Name System, are directed by a maintainer organization, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The technical underpinning and standardization of the core protocols (IPv4 and IPv6) is an activity of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), a non-profit organization of loosely-affiliated international participants that anyone may associate with by contributing technical expertise.
Many horror hosts maintain a show on public access stations or the Internet. In some cases, both mediums are used. This community of hosts and fans have grown to the point that conventions have grown in different parts of the country.
Count Gore De Vol is a horror host who originally appeared on Washington, DC's WDCA from 1973 to 1987.
Count Gore De Vol
Originally named M. T. Graves, the character was played by announcer Dick Dyszel, and originated on the WDCA's version of the Bozo the Clown program. When the character got a positive reaction, he was given his own program called Creature Feature. The character's name is either a play on the name of acerbic author Gore Vidal or the name of a prominent Washington D.C. funeral home, "De Vol." Gore De Vol was the Washington/Baltimore area's longest running horror host. He returned to DC airwaves for a one-time special, Countdown with the Count, on New Year's Eve 1999/2000.
Count Gore De Vol's contribution to the American horror host tradition is significant in a number of ways. As Washington D.C.'s horror host throughout most of the 1970s and 1980s, Gore used the platform to satirize national politics from a local perspective. In the era of Watergate and Iran-Contra, Count Gore took frequent shots at the political folly with an ad lib, shoot-from-the-hip style that led local audiences to feel they were part of an Inside the Beltway private joke even when the subject was high profile.
Count Gore's Creature Feature also embraced the sexual revolution of the 1970s and his guests for the show included several Penthouse pets. Though he never had an official sidekick, he frequently employed the talents of writer and actress Eleanor Herman in the role of Countess von Stauffenberger. The two played off each other with a series of romantic near misses and sexual innuendos that made the show a success even when many horror hosts were losing their shows in the wake of the original Saturday Night Live.
Gore's iconoclastic style surfaced in a number of other ways. He was the first host in America to broadcast an unedited version of Night of the Living Dead. He also secretly began transmitting his own show in stereo a week before his station officially made the announcement, making Creature Feature Washington's first stereo broadcast.
In 1998, Count Gore De Vol became the first horror host to present a weekly show on the Internet, featuring streaming video of movies and shorts hosted by The Count, and interviews with celebrities. Other hosts from around the country also contribute to the program, providing reviews, contests, and other "strange and evil creations." There are also several regular features on the site, from movie and book reviews to monster model building and horror inspired music and video games.
Dick Dyzel,
the man behind Count Gore De Vol
Since Count De Vol's pioneering web site on the Internet, the numbers of horror hosts have grown. A quick sampling of hosts include:
Penny Dreadful's Shilling Shockers http://www.shillingshockers.com/
Alternative Realities with Dr. Sigmund Zoid http://www.alternativerealities.tv
Midnite Mausoleum http://midnitemausoleum.com
Fendred's Chamber http://www.myspace.com/fendreds.chamber
Sally the Zombie Cheerleader http://www.thezombiecheerleader.com
There are many, many more horror hosts on the Internet. A good place to start searching for horror hosts is http://www.horrorhostgraveyard.com/
Penny Dreadful the 13th
For Halloween of 2009, Tramp Studios, through its Firefly Television logo, launched the Movie Madness, its entry into the world of horror hosts.
The Cast of Movie Madness
Stromboli, Alice and Dr. Praxis
 |
| Dr. Mel Praxis |
Movie Madness is an animated show. The animation tends to make South Park appear to be a classically animated show. The cast consists of Dr. Praxis, Dr. Mel Praxis (that should give you a taste of the humor used), Alice and Stromboli. Dr. Praxis was originally conceived as a cross between Dr. Caligari and Dr. Demento. Alice was named after Alice in the Wonderland books. Stromboli is - yeah, well, he's Stromboli. He likes to think of himself as a musician, though the rest of the world tends to disagree.
The three characters introduce the movie, make jokes and perform some sketches during the program. Humor, usually bad jokes or bad puns, are almost as important to the Movie Madness as the movies are. The movies are drawn from the Internet Archive and are in the public domain.
Movie Madness bills itself as a place of "bad movies and worse jokes." The producer, Keenan Powell, fondly remembers watching the original Svengoolie on Friday Nights.
 |
| Alice |
"Svengoolie told jokes about a Chicago west side suburb called Berwyn. If you drive into Berwyn, you need to set your watch back twenty years. To this day, if I meet someone from Berwyn, my first impulse is to ask to see their passport and visa. Svengoolie is where I aquired my fondness for the rubber dead chickens."
Movie Madness is shown on Owensboro Time-Warner Public Access Channel 72. Friday nights @ 10:00 P.M., Saturday @ 1:00 P.M. and 10:00 P.M., Sunday at 1:00 P.M. Additionally, Movie Madness is available as on-demand video through madmov.blogspot.tv
If you would like to see Movie Madness on your local public access channel, e-mail us at producer@trampstudios.com. If you would like to comment on the show, write us at madmov1960@gmail.com
 |
| Stromboli |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)