MOVIE HOSTESS MACABRA (1982-1985)

MACABRA – This hostess of Omaha’s Theatre of the Macabre (1982-1985) has accomplished the seemingly impossible – she has managed to keep her real name a secret all these decades! She was an Omaha businesswoman who beat out over 150 other applicants for the position of WOWT’s Movie Hostess for their new Friday night at 10:30pm Bad Movie show.

WOWT was one of the many television stations across America which were trying to launch their own hometown phenomenon after Elvira’s Movie Macabre had become a syndicated hit in 1981. Ironically, Macabra may have won her market, but she was pretty much the antithesis of Elvira.

This mystery woman redefined “leggy” but her outfits were comparatively modest by Movie Hostess standards. As she pointed out in a 1984 interview “After all, I knew my mother would be watching.”

On top of that, Macabra rejected the over-the-top humor that characterized Elvira and her cash-in imitators in favor of a wry, understated approach that put me in mind of a combination of Movie Host legends like Moona Lisa and Fritz the Nite Owl. For an airing of Attack of the Mushroom People (1963) this hostess munched on mushrooms completely deadpan rather than hit the viewers over the head with the joke. 

Occasionally, Macabra would share the screen with guest figures like the cat hand-puppet she used for her showing of The Black Cat (1934) starring Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi.   

Macabra’s alter ego zealously maintained her “secret identity” for obvious reasons – overly amorous or downright creepy fans. “I’m divorced and have a small son,” she once said. “It would take just one nut …”

As it was, this hostess’s sultry voice sometimes gave her away out in public anyway. She had acted and sang onstage and while hosting Theatre of the Macabre she also sang in her church choir. And speaking frankly, it’s a miracle that her striking face wasn’t immediately recognizable out in the real world, where she worked for Mutual of Omaha.

At any rate, Macabra didn’t confine herself to wearing just one outfit, preferring to don apparel fitting the night’s film when possible. Her rotating wardrobe included a Cleopatra-inspired getup for when she hosted Mummy flicks like The Mummy’s Ghost (1944), starring Lon Chaney, Jr. plus John Carradine and George Zucco.

The above-mentioned 1984 interview with the World-Herald is the nearest we have to the type of detailed examinations of so many other Movie Hosts. Sunday afternoons would find Macabra at WOWT performing her Host Segments for the next Friday’s show, including voice-over jokes for while the movie played.

The interview noted that on that particular Sunday she was performing her self-written material for the 1944 schlocker Weird Woman. Macabra would have already prepared her schtick and trivia notes for the episode days earlier after a screening of the upcoming film.

Again per the World-Herald: “In one bit, she watered a potted plant which, to audiences, will be seen to grow six inches within seconds. In contrast, a wilted tree plant stood behind the Victorian love seat from which the hostess usually delivers her lines.”

Our mystery woman stated she auditioned for the hosting role on a dare from friends because she thought it sounded like fun. She was right about that, and after some initial nervousness she grew to embrace her Macabra persona.

“I feel very much at home in the role. I enjoy it. It’s a joy to turn into somebody completely different.”

Over time, Macabra’s seriousness about maintaining her privacy has been so effective that we’ve sadly been left with just over 6 surviving minutes of footage from her days as a Movie Hostess. I respect her caution but can’t help but wish at least a few more minutes of her program remained available.

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