My fellow movie host geeks and I need to seriously scour the world to find some better photographs of this lady. Moona Lisa (Lisa Clark in real life) was an active movie host for twelve years beginning in 1963. Though Moona Lisa is most often associated with San Diego’s Science Fiction Theater, her longest-lasting show, she also hosted Moona’s Midnight Madness in St Louis for over a year and for eighteen months had even stepped in to replace one of the legends of the Movie Host world, Seymour AKA Sinister Seymour AKA Larry Vincent as the host of Los Angeles’ iconic b-movie show Fright Night.
The slinky Moona Lisa hosted her programs from her personal Moon Base, often with the Earth seen in the lunar sky through a window, as in the above photo. When the Apollo astronauts landed on the moon in 1969 (yes, moon- hoaxers and 9-11 truthers, it REALLY happened) Lisa Clark employed a gimmick pioneered by the legendary movie host Zacherley and inserted her Moona Lisa character into the footage, presenting her greeting the arriving astronauts.
Other bits of Moona Lisa schtick included her greeting “Hello, Earthlings” and her farewell “Happy hallucinations, honeys” in every episode. During the show Lisa would offer commentary on the atrocious films being shown while sitting in various seductive poses on “moon stone” furniture, sometimes with a snake wrapped around her body. The movies our heroine showed were the usual bad movie show staples: things like The Hideous Sun Demon, The Day The Earth Caught Fire, The Giant Behemoth, etc. Like her sister movie host Karen Scioli AKA Stella, Lisa Clark wrote her own material. One memorable bit aired during the British Invasion of the 1960’s when Moona Lisa added recurring sketches featuring the Roaches, who were a Beatles spoof.
Moona Lisa had a twin sister named Cosmosina, with both roles being played by Clark herself, but if she had ever needed anyone to pinch-hit she had her very own real-life twin sister Laura Elliot. For a time Lisa and Laura did a stint as the Doublemint Twins, giving them a secondary claim to Pop Icon status to rival Ghoulardi’s later stint introducing us to “the Loooooove Boat.”
FOR MORE MOVIE HOST ENTRIES CLICK HERE: https://glitternight.com/category/movie-hosts/
Balladeer's Blog 
That bit at the end was a surprise. Doublemint twins.
Yeah, I love all the little bits of trivia that pop up in the world of movie hosts. Moona Lisa as a Doublemint Twin, the fact that all of us used to hear Ghoulardi in his later years saying “Stay tuned for the Loooooove Boat”, the fact that Bill O’Reilly of all people used to write for the movie host show called Uncle Ted and Nefu Ned, etc.
Her name is hysterical. Don’t you think?
Yes! I also love the names of movie hosts like Dr Paul Bearer, Sammy Terry, Dr San Guinary and among the new crowd my favorite name is the woman who goes by Penny Dreadful.
My personal favourite host – Maila Nurmi
I see you go for the classic movie host model!
Oh yeah – I go for anything classic really. Vincent Price was another favourite – I get goosebumps just thinking of his voice. It was my favourite part of Thriller as well. 🙂 I am soooooooooo twisted.
ooh ooh Jo, Have you then heard Vincent Price doing the intro story for the black widow? Song: devils food, welcome to my nightmare tour. Alice Cooper.
I know it word for word, Its kind of a thing with me.
Well now I am just gonna have to go find that – no wonder I go over my broadband limit every month – you guys are a bad influence…hehehe. 🙂
Okay, sexy, you never mentioned this hostess back in the old days. She’s not even in your book. You better not have a crush on her! LOL
Ha! No crush, it’s just that you know I love the out of the way stuff. Besides, given the time period she was on the air she’s probably about thirty years older than I am so I don’t imagine we have much in common.
My parents always told me about this woman and her show. MST3K looks like such a ripoff the more and more shows like this I find out about.
Thanks for stopping by! I’ll be covering dozens of those movie host shows as time goes by.
Moona Lisa is my grandmother! Love this article:)..
Very glad you enjoyed it! I hope she did, too!
That is too cool, I grew up watch your grandmother on Channel 10 in San Diego. Great memories!
Glad to hear it! THanks for commenting!
Really nice read! These old horror hosts are beginning to grow on me the more and more of them you feature.
Thanks! They deserve as much attention as they can get!
Wonderful read! I have a lower and lower opinion of creeps like Mike Nelson and Mary Jo Pehl the more I read about all the shows like this that were around long before their show was.
Thanks for stopping by! I appreciate you commenting!
Where is Moona now?
Living out in California from what I understand.
I was stationed at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in 1967 training to be a radio operator. She was smoking hot and took my mind off the war for a couple of hours every Saturday. A guy in our class said she was Regis Philbin’s ex-wife.
Terrific! I love hearing from people who got to actually see these hosts in action. Regis Philbin? Talk about an Odd Couple.
I did some checking and she is not Regis Philbin’s ex-wife.They both worked at KOGO-TV.His ex-wife was Catherine Faylin daughter of Frank Faylin who played Dobie Gillis father on the old Dobie Gillis tv show. He was the cab driver in It’s a Wonderful Life. Check out the book Creatures of the Night We Loved so Well, it is a history of horror hosts of southern California.There is nice section on Moona Lisa.
Thanks! I love books on movie hosts! I will definitely get it!
Gary L. Myers
I first saw this wonderful and totally sexy lady Moona Lisa when she
took over the Host spot at KHJ-tv Fright Night show in the mid 70’s.
Moona Lisa was totally Hot! Sexy! and so entertaining…Hey Elyse,
Your Grandmother touched all of our hearts from San Diego, to LA.
to St. Luis…If you ever see her tell her Hi and that she had made a
difference
That is great! Thanks for commenting!
John L
Read that you want some better pictures of Moona Lisa. A friend and I visited her at the KOGO station in San Diego around 1970-71. I still have a couple promotional postcards she gave us as well as a couple of photos we took with her. You’re welcome to copies if you like.
Hello! That is very nice of you and that would be terrific. You can send them to Thtcom15@aol.com if you like. Thanks!
Pictures are on the way! They brought back memories of some great times when people like Lisa Clark / Moona Lisa gave us a fun break from whatever we were dealing with and could escape into her world for an hour or two.
Great! Thanks! They are up now!
Pingback: MOONA LISA PICTURES COURTESY OF JOHN L. | Balladeer's Blog
Logged.
Some genuinely excellent articles on this website, appreciate it for contribution. “We are always in search of the redeeming formula, the crystallizing thought.” by Etty Hillesum.
Does anyone know if she is still alive? I saw that her husband died in 2010.I was on another web site and an cna that cared for her in a nursing home she was losing her battle with dementia. She was born in 1922 so she would be 92 .
I’m afraid I don’t know. Maybe someone will weigh in with some info.
New footage of Moona Lisa discovered: https://www.ebay.com/itm/382538404910
Fantastic! Thanks for the heads-up!
Interesting that her show lasted longer than Elviras and Vampiras put together.
I certainly agree with you on that.
She was the longest lasting of the ladies!
That is true!
Moona Lisa is better than the unbearable Mary Jo Pehl.
I understand.
She seems better than Elvira!
I understand.
She really rocked!
Yes she did!