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ASHLEY GHASTLY – Cyrus Newitt played the phantom Ashley Ghastly, host of the Bad Movie Show Scream Theatre from 1977 or 1978 to 1982. The program aired on Saturday nights/ Sunday mornings at 12:30am on WCSC in Charleston, SC.
Ashley’s name came from West Ashley, the area of Charleston where the WCSC studios were. And that part of the city was named for the nearby Ashley River. Each episode of Scream Theatre began with black & white footage of an actual graveyard while howls and screams were heard. At length the show’s title would appear in dripping blood-red letters.
Then, viewers would be greeted by Ashley Ghastly, who spoke with a British accent that sounded a lot like Tim Curry’s Dr. Frank N. Furter from The Rocky Horror Picture Show. As usual, a witty host or hostess showing bad old movies became a hit and Ashley soon had a Phantom “Phan” Club his devotees could join.
Despite some confusion online, Ashley Ghastly wasn’t a vampire, but rather a phantom who could even teleport via camera trickery. Ashley’s “Supporting Fiend” and Cue Card holder was retired Colonel Flash Ghastley (not Ghastly). The Colonel was off the night of the only surviving episode of Scream Theatre and as of this writing no fans remember what the character’s schtick was.
At any rate, the Colonel was gone by 1980 and Ghastly’s new on-air sidekick was the Swamp Woman (left), played by Carol Phillips, one of the program’s talent coordinators (along with “Debbie the Wiz”). Swamp Woman was a tough Aussie explorer. One of her bits was to “capture” whatever stuffed animal that Ashley would drop-kick early in each episode.
Ashley Ghastly also had a puppet sidekick called Reginald the Bat, who would sometimes wear a top hat like his phantom master. Reginald was built and operated by Dave Frederick, who also built and operated Ashley’s much more elaborate puppet sidekick – a giant purple spider called Disco. Merrick M. once played Ashley’s cousin Shalob.
Scream Theatre‘s Executive Producers were Eve and Cy Newitt (the host). Eve is now Eve Olasov per her correspondence with Horror Host scholar E-Gor. She also stated she wrote a lot of the show and would dig out “Dad” jokes from Reader’s Digest for the Joke of the Week.
Though some sources list 1978 as the year that this program started, if you pause the closing credits in the surviving episode it credits Eddie Jenkins and lists 1977 as the year of origin.
Taping for Scream Theatre was done on Tuesdays for the following Saturday’s show. Halloween night of 1978 was a Tuesday and Ashley Ghastly did location shooting at a Charleston disco called Stonehenge.
It’s fun watching Cy/ Ashley interact with his adoring public and he seems to be having a great time schmoozing with everybody and dancing the night away. He even announces the winner and runners-up for the place’s Halloween Costume Contest that night.
The footage from Stonehenge was incorporated into the Saturday, November 4th episode. The night’s movie was Tales of Terror, a Roger Corman flick starring Vincent Price, Basil Rathbone and Peter Lorre. Other schlockers shown on Scream Theatre included Day of the Triffids and Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
For a few years, the show presented special Halloween Marathons of the original Universal Studios films like Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolf Man and The Mummy.
“I love it!” was one of Ashley Ghastly’s catch-phrases as reflected in Scream Theatre‘s ads and the Phantom Phan Club cards.
Ultimately, Cy Newitt left Charleston to pursue acting in New York. Eve remained in South Carolina and left WCSC in 1988 to become a real estate dealer.
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