EDDIE L. DRISCOLL played several different Movie Host characters during his THIRTY-THREE years working at the same television station – WLBZ Channel 2 in Bangor, Maine. That Maine location made Driscoll’s characters the Movie Hosts that a certain horror author had watched in his youth (see below). Eddie’s shows aired throughout Maine and into Canada’s Maritime Provinces.
I’ll dive into the hosts played by Driscoll in a moment, but first I want to emphasize how the man embodied the kind of local television station figures who just don’t exist anymore. Eddie started work for Channel 2 the day that the station began broadcasting in 1954.
Over the years, he worked there as a cameraman, weather man, kiddie show host and much more. He retired from WLBZ in 1987. His Movie Host characters:
MOLDY – This figure was a one-eyed hunchback who hosted Shock Theatre from a moldy old crypt on Saturday nights at Midnight. As Moldy, Driscoll presented the original Shock! package of horror movies from Fall 1962 until some point in 1963.
UNCLE GORY – From 1964 to 1967 Eddie hosted his new Saturday night at Midnight show titled Weird. On this Bad Movie Show he played Uncle Gory, a Dungeon Master in a fur vest and a mop-top wig. Uncle Gory hosted from his dungeon with a human skull displayed on a slab near him. He presented each week’s movie like it was a story coming to life from a book he was reading aloud.
Weird was firmly in the So Bad They’re Good school of Movie Hosting. Driscoll got to show off his sarcasm on Golden Turkeys from the 30s, 40s and 50s. Sci-Fi schlockers like Not of This Earth were also shown on Weird and on those nights Eddie’s versatility let him host those flicks as Krandal the Martian, a three-eyed alien from the Red Planet.
Krandal had antennae on his head, wielded a ray-gun, wore a black uniform and hosted from his spaceship. This Martian character had his own supporting cast, too, including a pair of honeymooners from Venus and a little eye-headed creature called Re-Creation. One source says that Re-Creation was the being in the logo for Weird.
Eddie Driscoll thrived on ad-libbing the in-show commercials live, persevering through the set lights getting knocked out and other predicaments with his wry wit and seasoned professionalism. Several minutes of footage featuring Driscoll as Uncle Gory can be found around the internet but I couldn’t find any material with him as Moldy the Hunchback.
For some of his Host Segments on Weird, our man would play other characters like Detective Pete Moss, who investigated haunted castles and the like.
Apparently, Uncle Gory’s least favorite movies to host were the Mexican horror and masked wrestler films that were hitting American television at the time thanks to Pychotronic legend Gerry Warren’s syndicated package. The schlockiness of those flicks seemed to exasperate Driscoll.
The most notorious Host Segment that Driscoll did on Weird involved men from the Air National Guard stationed at Dow Field. They helped him present a fake “battle” complete with fake ammunition.
As indicated above, a young Stephen King was a fan of Eddie’s Movie Host output during the 1960s and he would even show up at Driscoll’s retirement party in 1987 to do a tribute to him (see below). Another program that Eddie hosted on WLBZ was Dialing for Dollars, which gets a shoutout in Salem’s Lot and other King works.
DR. LAMAR DRAGO – In 1982 and 1983, with Elvira’s Movie Macabre a ratings hit, the station aired Weird II, another Bad Movie Show at the Midnight hour. This time Driscoll hosted as mad scientist Dr. Lamar Drago, who had a grunting hunchback lab assistant named Lump as far as I can tell from the surviving footage. (The sound is almost as bad as the video, as seen above left.)
The hunchback communicated through honks from a horn, like Harpo Marx.
The mad doctor’s Host Segments focused on comedy sketches involving experiments gone wrong, like bringing to life his own Frankenstein Monster. Another sketch featured him and the hunchback trying to turn a “beautiful woman” (clearly a big, beefy man in a dress) into a statue.
Finally, from 1983 to 1984 Eddie hosted Double Features of one-hour Outer Limits episodes from Midnight to 2:00am. Sources differ on whether or not Driscoll was still playing Dr. Drago for this period or was just hosting as himself.
Our subject continued working at WLBZ until 1987, when he retired. Stephen King made an appearance at the retirement party and reminisced about watching Eddie on Shock Theatre and Weird in his youth.
Among his tongue-in-cheek remarks to Driscoll – “You warped my childhood, you destroyed my adolescence, and now, you’re going to leave me like this.”
Sadly, Eddie L. Driscoll was stricken with Alzheimers and passed away on September 23rd, 2006 at age 81.
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