Television Horror Movie Hosts: 68 Vampires, Mad Scientists and Other Denizens of the Late-Night Airwaves Examined and Interviewed

The late Ms. Watson made a wonderful reference book of horror host history.She truly wrote the book on why we love these wonderful hosts and also gives a fantastic history on some of the "well known and remembered" hosts. Even though, the book is pretty "brief" as most reviewers would say about the book, you have to understand the "gathering" of information that was out there on horror hosts, which, at the time in the early 90s there wasn't much to go by (compare to today), so, i have to give Ms. Watson kudos for going by in what she had and as she said, she guessed there were at least 200 (horror hosts) altogether, but, only did 70 of them to have something of a decent book to write about. Anyways, please dont over look this great book, if you are a huge horror host fanatic, then you'll love it..highly recommended!

The information in the book is a bit dated at this point, which is understandable as it was published in 2000. However, it's an interesting little slice of TV history. For roughly 25 years, local broadcasters had men and women portray a variety of ghouls, vampires, mad scientists and crazy undertakers hosting old horror and science fiction movies. I grew up in Cleveland, OH, and well remember the antics of Houlihan and Big Chuck, and later Big Chuck and Little John, and my older brothers watched Ernie Anderson (a friend of Tim Conway, and announcer for ABC Television) portray "Ghoulardi".These hosts demonstrated a terrific amount of creative energy, some building their own sets and writing songs and skits to parody the schlock films of the 1950's. With the availability of internet streaming services, I doubt that we'll see these hosts again.I admit to watching "Svengoolie" from time to time (http://svengoolie.com/ ), and he has much of the old spark, but it's probably just nostalgia now.A good read for baby boomers, and TV history buffs.

One of the best books about horror hosts I've ever read. Fun and page turning, this reminded me of a dark and spookier time complete with comfortable pajamas, secret decoder rings, and huge bowls of cereal as I watched wonderfully terrible tales hosted by my Guardian Ghouls in Cincinnati: Hy Ullner (the Bargain City Kid) and Willie Thall of Shock Theater in the early 60s and the inimitable Dick Von Hoehne (the Cool Ghoul) of Scream-in in the late 60s and early 70s, who, I must admit, should have been included among the hosts featured.

I was delighted with the quality of the this book. I am a true fan of the hosted horror films, and this book has all of the history of how the whole genre came to be, as well as very interesting information on pretty much every significant horror film host from most markets in the USA. It is these detailed stories that make this book such a page-turner. Not a cheap book, but worth every penny!

I had purchased this book from McFarland years ago when it first came out and I still have it in mint condition so it was great to see a kindle version so that I could transform it to a PDFs copy.

Good book, teriffic overview of horror movie hosts.

During the late 1950's, and early 1960's, television was still in it's infancy. (Some people still think that it still hasn't grown up!) Through the magic of television, the major movie studios particularly Universal Studios, found a new life for their old movies, and a way to recycle them to the new generations that never had the opportunity to see them. Universal Studios packaged a large percentage of their pre-1948 horror films, and distributed this bundle as Shock Theatre. Along with this package, they encouraged the local television stations to have a macabre host in hopes that they would expand viewership, and increase their ratings. Movie hosting, which was once popular on radio, initially crossed over to television, (Remember "The Twilight Zone", and "Alfred Hitchcock Presents?" You do? Then you're old!) Some of these movies were good, some were bad, some were just plain awful, but they were very inexpensive, and they made for great padding on those hard to fill time slots particularly, late Friday and Saturday nights. The mating of movie, and host proved to be a huge success, with the host achieving local star status. This was all long before video games, VCR's, and all of the things we have clamoring for our attention span today. As a kid growing up in Los Angeles, I lived for those Friday, and Saturday evenings when the likes of "Jeepers Creepers", "Seymour," and later "Elvira," creeped me out, as they cracked me up. This same thing was happening all over the country to the local television stations that had this horror movie package, and the ones that didn't, soon did, when they saw the popularity that their rivals were achieving. Often imitated, always unique, and different, these local weird hosts provided a special place for many of us growing up in that era. Elena M. Watson, in her book, "Television Horror Movie Hosts," has chronicled a piece of television history, that may seem trivial on the surface, but has proven itself unforgettable to those of us who were a witness to it, and in thinking about it, you realize the long term influence that these hosts has had on television, and it's generations of viewers since then.