If you're unfamiliar with Godzilla, the 1961 B-film knock off, Gorgo, will be like NOTHING you've ever seen before! An enormous sea monster, outraged that her precious baby is missing, stomps around a city (in this case, London), crushing buildings and terrorizing humans until she is reunited with her little one. Before the endless buffet of cable, this sort of movie was standard television fare for Saturday afternoons in most cities. As cheesy and ridiculous as the movies were, an equally ridiculous host greatly improved the ratings. A host could provide a proper introduction, an intermission re-cap with some bits of history and close the show with good natured humor in the hope you'd tune back in next week.
A horror host. Now that's a job that requires a very particular skill set; a ghoulish or mad-scientist look, a catchy label, the ability to work with unusual props including (most likely) a coffin, and the patience to sit through hundreds of verrrry low budget productions. Surprisingly, a lot of people fit the bill and attained B-fame.
Top row, left to right: Son of Svengoolie, Svengoolie, Vampira, Elvira, MorgusBottom row, left to right: Dr. Paul Bearer,Zacherley, Ghoulardi and Tom Leahy as 'The Host'
In Chicago, we had the cool ghoul host, Svengoolie.
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