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Chiller Theatre was a Saturday night television series broadcast by Channel 11 WPIX New York City that showed classic horror movies.
Chiller Theater was initiated by WPIX during 1961. Beginning 1963 its host was John Zacherle ("The Cool Ghoul"), who quit during 1965. Each episode of the show began with the "Classic Montage Opening" that used a montage of brief segments of film from various 1950s fantasy and science fiction movies. [1] This montage began with a scene from the movie Plan 9 from Outer Space with Vampira coming out of a forest, followed by a clip from the movie The Cyclops, showing actress Gloria Talbott just inside a cave looking at the Cyclops. Various other clips continued throughout the montage, concluding with one of from Attack of the 50 Foot Woman , with a "goof" showing a giant alien from outer space picking up a car and then throwing a different type of car into a ditch. The entire montage was permeated by an eerie library music track ("Horror Upon Horror" by veteran British composer Wilfred Josephs).
The montage opening served until the late 1960s when another introduction was substituted, featuring the word "Chiller" rendered in white paint on a black board, then lifted up, the gooey white paint slowly running down the board like blood while creepy chamber music played in the background. The bumper to this version simply showed the painted "Chiller" as a title card. The montage opening was discontinued in favor of this version perhaps because by the late 1960s movie studios began to charge television stations royalties for film clips.[ citation needed ]
By 1971, the painted title card sequence was replaced with the clay animation (claymation) of a six-fingered hand, [2] produced by WPIX in-house with possible assistance from a technician for Rankin Bass (the same production company that produced the 1964 claymation television movie Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer. [3] The "xix-fingered hand" sequence features a minimalistic/surreal scene of a swamp with a river of blood in the foreground extending back to the horizon, a dead tree in the background, and a six-fingered humanoid hand that rises from the swamp. The soundtrack consists of a reverberant whistling and ghostly sound elements that decrease in pitch as the sequence progresses. As the hand rises, the word "Chiller" simultaneously emerges from the ground. The hand passes over each growing letter, then snatches them one by one before returning to the swamp, and a voice is heard groaning the word "Chillllller ..." in an eerie, robotic voice.[ citation needed ] [4]
The "six-fingered hand" opening was used throughout the remainder of the show's run through the early 1980s. The program was usually broadcast at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday nights, but for a time in 1974, it was broadcast at 11:30 p.m. The series was cancelled at the end of 1978 and was resumed in early 1980 at 2:00 a.m. Sunday late-night. [5]
Chiller Theatre was cancelled again in 1982.
After a 26-year absence on WPIX, Chiller Theatre was revived on saturday, October 25, 2008, at 8 p.m. for one night, featuring the movie Tarantula . The show began with the classic black and white original montage opening, followed during commercial breaks by shots of the famous six-fingered claymation hand.
On August 13, 2009, WPIX announced another broadcast of the show as a Halloween special. It was revealed in October that Chiller Theatre would air the Hammer movie The Evil of Frankenstein with Elvira, Mistress of the Night as hostess, replacing Zacherley, the Cool Ghoul. The fan response was positive, and WPIX allowed Elvira more broadcast time to deliver her one-liner jokes. Despite some criticism, the show did well against the World Series that night, and WPIX has begun marketing Chiller Theatre memorabilia at its website.
In 2010, WPIX Channel 11 announced that Chiller Theatre would be broadcast again during Halloween weekend with four movies: White Zombie, Bride of the Monster, Dolls and Child's Play.
In 2011, WPIX announced that they would broadcast Chiller Theatre again on October 29, 2011. The two movies featured for 2011 were the 1960 version of The Little Shop of Horrors followed by Night of the Living Dead. 2011's presentation was hosted by several people from WPIX's morning newscast. While the 2011 presentation did include brief showings of the six figure claymation hand, there were no showings of the original opening. WPIX has not broadcast another Chiller Theatre Halloween special since.
Since 1990, New Jersey has been the host of the Chiller Theater Convention, which has become one of the largest horror conventions in the eastern United States.
Horror movie host John Zacherle, nicknamed "The Cool Ghoul", died on October 27, 2016, in Manhattan, New York City. He was 98 years old. Zacherle was known best for presenting horror movies for local TV stations in New York and Philadelphia during the 1950s and 1960s. In 1959 he began hosting a series named "Zacherley At Large" and changed the name of his character to Zacherley. He later join WPIX in New York and served as host for "Chiller Theatre" from 1963 to 1965. [6]
John Zacherle was an American television host, radio personality, singer, and voice actor. He was best known for his long career as a television horror host, often broadcasting horror films in Philadelphia and New York City in the 1950s and 1960s. Best known for his character of "Roland/Zacherley", he also did voice work for films, and recorded the top ten novelty rock and roll song "Dinner With Drac" in 1958. He also edited two collections of horror stories, Zacherley's Vulture Stew and Zacherley's Midnight Snacks.
The term midnight movie is rooted in the practice that emerged in the 1950s of local television stations around the United States airing low-budget genre films as late-night programming, often with a host delivering ironic asides. As a cinematic phenomenon, the midnight screening of offbeat movies began in the early 1970s in a few urban centers, particularly in New York City with screenings of El Topo at the Elgin Theater, eventually spreading across the country. The screening of non-mainstream pictures at midnight was aimed at building a cult film audience, encouraging repeat viewing and social interaction in what was originally a countercultural setting.
Sammy Terry is a television horror host based in Indianapolis, Indiana. The role was originated by Robert "Bob" Carter in 1962, and Carter's son Mark Carter took over the role from his father in 2010. Bob Carter (1929–2013) was a television personality who appeared mostly on Indianapolis local television station WTTV, regularly during the 1960s and 1970s, and sporadically through the late 1980s. The format of Carter’s show as Sammy Terry, Nightmare Theater, usually involved the showing of two films. During the commercial breaks, Carter, in character as Sammy Terry, would engage in camp banter with the audience and his floating rubber spider, "George". This banter often included some commentary on the films being shown, which included classic films as well as many less-than-stellar productions common to the horror film era of the 1930s through the early 1960s. Carter died on June 30, 2013.
Count Floyd is a fictional character featured in television and played by comic actor Joe Flaherty. He is a fictional horror host in the tradition of TV movie hosts on local television in both the United States and Canada.
A horror host is a person who acts as the host or presenter of a program where horror films and low-budget B movies are shown on television or the Internet. Usually the host assumes a horror-themed persona, often a campy or humorous one. Generally there are breaks in the film where the host comments on various aspects of the movie. Many horror host shows also include skits involving the hosts themselves, sometimes with a sidekick or other supporting characters.
Francis Fitzgerald "Larry" Vincent was an American television horror host, famed for his character Seymour, who presented—and heckled—low-budget horror and science fiction movies on Fright Night on KHJ-TV and Seymour's Monster Rally on KTLA, both local stations in Los Angeles between 1969 and 1974. He was noted for his style of criticizing the movies he presented in an offbeat and funny manner, usually appearing in a small window which would pop up in the corner, tossing a quip, then vanishing again. Sometimes he would, using blue-screen, appear in the middle of the movie, apparently interacting with the characters in the movie.
Fright Night was the name of two science fiction and horror film programs. One ran from 1970 to 1981, and the other ran from 1973 to 1987. Both programs were broadcast by KHJ-TV Los Angeles, and its sister-station WOR-TV New York City.
Creature Features is a generic title for a genre of horror TV format shows broadcast on local American television stations throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. The movies broadcast on these shows were generally classic and cult horror movies of the 1930s to 1950s, the horror and science-fiction films of the 1950s, British horror films of the 1960s, and the Japanese kaiju "giant monster" movies of the 1950s to 1970s.
Dr. Gangrene is a television horror host based in the Middle Tennessee area, played by actor/writer/producer Larry Underwood.
Barry Lee Hobart was a local television personality widely known to fans as Dr. Creep. He was a horror movie host on WKEF Television in Dayton, Ohio.
Deadly Earnest was a late-night horror host active on Australian television between 1959 and 1978. Originated as a live host of a horror film package for Perth's TVW-7 by 1959, the character was most active between 1966 and 1972 when adopted by the 0-10 Network. Broadcast weekly, Deadly Earnest's Aweful Movies featured mainly B-grade horror movies introduced by local actors with a tongue-in-cheek characterization. The program was renowned for screening low-budget B-grade supernaturally themed cinema, even going so far as to present the Worst Movie of the Year on at least one occasion.
Nightmare Theatre was one of the more prominent late-night horror programs of the 1960s and 1970s. During its fourteen-year run, this show introduced several generations of television viewers to the horror films of yesteryear, across the Pacific Northwest. Produced by Seattle-based KIRO-TV, and utilizing much of the same cast and crew as the similarly popular The J.P. Patches Show, Nightmare Theatre reached an audience that stretched as far north as Alaska, as far east as Idaho, and south into Oregon, as well as Canada. Its residential horror host, The Count, has accrued a cult following over the years, much in the same vein as his make-up laden peers Maila Nurmi ("Vampira"), John Zacherle ("Zacherley"), and Cassandra Peterson ("Elvira").
John Joseph McCarthy was an announcer and host at WPIX, Channel 11 in New York City. He is best known for hosting the broadcast of the New York City St. Patrick's Day parade for 41 years, and as "Cap'n Jack" for hosting WPIX's block of Popeye cartoons in the sixties and early seventies.
Creature Features a classic horror film show broadcast in the New York Metropolitan Area, on WNEW, Channel 5. It was hosted by Lou Steele, who became familiar to Channel 5 viewers for starting off the 10 o'clock News by asking: "It's 10 p.m.; do you know where your children are?"
Shock Theater is a package of 52 pre-1948 classic horror films from Universal Studios released for television syndication in October 1957 by Screen Gems, the television subsidiary of Columbia Pictures. The Shock Theater package included Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Invisible Man and The Wolf Man as well as a few non-horror spy and mystery films. A second package, Son of Shock, was released for television by Screen Gems in 1958, with 20 horror films from both Universal and Columbia.
Chiller Theatre, or Chiller Theater, was a late-night horror and science fiction movie program on WIIC/WPXI, Channel 11, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It aired from September 14, 1963 to January 1, 1984. It was hosted by Bill Cardille, known to fans as "Chilly Billy". It was a Saturday night tradition for two generations of Pittsburghers. Two films were shown, one starting at 11:30 p.m. and the second starting at about 1:00 a.m. In between films, and at random times during the films, breaks were taken for skits such as reports from the "PSS"; in these skits, Bill Cardille would go into another part of the WIIC studios and pretend he was broadcasting from the (nonexistent) Pittsburgh Subway System. Other characters included Captain Bad, Maurice the Matchmaker, and Mr. Magnificent. Cardille and WIIC publicist Robert Willis wrote the skits, followed by staff director/producer Michael Styer and sometimes Channel 11 staffers were enlisted to play bit parts. At the end of the show, Cardille would sit on a stool and banter with the studio crew.
Wolfman Mac's Chiller Drive-In is a "horror host" series hosted by "Wolfman" Mac Kelly, which aired Saturday nights at 10 pm from March 14, 2008 to October 29, 2011, on various local television stations in Detroit and on the Retro Television Network nationally. The show typically features vintage sci-fi and horror films like Nosferatu, Teenage Zombies and Night of the Living Dead, enhanced with retro commercials, nostalgic clips, and skits. Each episode is recorded at Erebus Haunted Attraction in Pontiac, MI.
Nitehawk Cinema is a dine-in independent movie theater in Brooklyn, New York City. It operates two locations, in the neighborhoods of Williamsburg and Park Slope. The theater, which offers a menu of food and drinks that can be ordered and consumed while patrons view films, was the first liquor licensed movie theater in the state of New York, and the first movie theater in New York City to offer table service.
The Joyo Theater is a historic theater in Lincoln, Nebraska. It is a single-screen movie theater adapted to also host acts on stage such as musicians and movies with a stage-show component. Constructed in 1926 as the New Lyric Theatre, the marquee and ticket booth date from the 1930s.
