TARANTULA GHOUL (1957-1958) B-MOVIE HOSTESS

TARANTULA GHOUL – Actress Suzanne Waldron’s performance on stage in Macbeth captured the attention of the bosses at Portland, Oregon’s KPTV. They hired her to host House of Horror, their late-night B-Movie show, in a similar style to Vampira down in Los Angeles.

Waldron adopted the character Tarantula Ghoul, whose look was patterned after cartoonist Charles Addams’ Morticia in order to stand out from Vampira. Suzanne often emerged from a coffin in her hostess persona.

Tarantula Ghoul took Portland and vicinity by storm and could have been a phenomenon if not for the way KPTV made the idiotic decision to air House of Horror in the bizarre timeslot of Wednesday nights at 10:30pm (sometimes 10pm).

Most of the classic Bad Movie shows aired on Friday or Saturday nights, which were ideal for audiences to stay up late watching the movie and the host’s antics. Trapped in the mire of a late-night middle of the week timeslot, the brilliant Tarantula Ghoul’s show sadly lasted from just October 9th, 1957 to November 26th, 1958.

Still, during her brief run hosting House of Horror, the talented Suzanne Waldron managed several cultural milestones amid her schtick.

*** A TV Star Parade article about her stated “Tarantula Ghoul pokes morbid fun at everything within range of Portland’s KPTV” and referred to her “witty but acid tongue.” The article described her as a cross between “the Charles Addams woman and a road company Tallulah Bankhead.”

*** On her show, Waldron as the hostess claimed her political party was the Cemeterians, which had more dead presidents as members than any other party.

*** In another comedy bit on House of Horror, Tarantula attacked the Highway Commission for “removing the few decent death-traps left”, pretending to confuse Speed Traps with Death Traps.

*** Ms. Ghoul poked a finger at the exclusive Daughters of the American Revolution organization with her satirical Daughters of the Salem Witch Trials group, which went back even further.

*** With mock outrage she chastised the Portland Zoo for not housing any dinosaurs.

*** Tarantula held a press conference in a graveyard.

*** Instead of the Red Cross, “Taranch” (as she was nicknamed) was active with the Black Cross and practiced “Second Aid” rather than First Aid.   

And so on. Much of the time the set for Tarantula Ghoul’s show was her supposed home, a macabrely decorated place whose picture window overlooked a dilapidated cemetery. Waldron’s assistant was Milton (John Hillsbury), a former gravedigger – part hunchback and part Frankenstein Monster – who now worked as her gardener planting enigmatic “things” near her patio.

Tarantula’s on-air pets were her snake Baby and Sir Galahad, an actual tarantula. In real life, Waldron owned a Great Dane named Frankenstein. 

Suzanne’s opening bit sometimes used themes connected to the night’s movie. For mummy flicks she would emerge from a mocked-up sarcophagus or pyramid entrance and for Frankenstein films a laboratory would be used.

Some of her most elaborate Host Segments ran during her showing of King Kong, which she presented as if it was a This is Your Life episode with various cinematic monsters showing up to salute the gigantic Guest of Honor alongside his “descendant” – a chimp named Kenya.

In 1958, our lady released two rock songs as Tarantula Ghoul and her Gravediggers – Graveyard Rock and King Kong. Good God, can you imagine the impact Waldron could have had if her program had run longer than 13 months?

Even with its less than desirable timeslot, House of Horror might have continued but its run was cut short by a minor scandal surrounding Suzanne Waldron getting pregnant out of wedlock. She went on to marry KPTV’s John Petty roughly a year later.

Waldron revived her Tarantula Ghoul character for public appearances in the 1960s and was even offered another hosting gig, but preferred to focus on stage work and voice acting. She passed away from cancer in June of 1982 at age 50. (Some sources claim just short of 50.)

In 2018, Tarantula Ghoul was inducted into the Horror Host Hall of Fame.

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