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.” Continue reading
ZERO TO SIXTY (1978) – Want to see Darren McGavin of all people bare his butt for the camera in two separate scenes? Want to see Darren McGavin getting his bare butt spanked by the Hudson Brothers in one of those scenes? Want to see Darren McGavin in sex scenes with Joan Collins at her smoking hot best? 
SIR GRAVES GHASTLY – Lawson J. Deming portrayed this vampire character whose eponymous movie show ran from January 1967 to November 1982 in Detroit – a longer run than most other classic Movie Hosts. His Saturday afternoon at 1:00pm program was even syndicated in Cleveland and Washington, DC for a year or two during the 1970s. 
At the start of each episode Sir Graves would emerge from a coffin and make with his signature laugh – “”Nyeeea-aaaa-haa-haaaaa.” At show’s end he would climb back into the coffin and pull down the lid. 
PLAYGIRL KILLER (1967) – Oh, Canada! With the passing of Neil Sedaka I no longer had an excuse to put off reviewing this Canadian-made “horror” film which was Sedaka’s first, last and only thespian effort. 
Bill and his lovely lady pull up at a rock overlooking the lake and he starts trying to sketch her since he’s an artist. She’s not in the mood to sit still, though, and starts laughing at how bizarrely angry Bill gets about it. 
WAVELENGTH (1983) – This is an unjustly neglected science fiction film that stars Robert Carradine, Cherie Currie and Keenan Wynn in a very unconventional love triangle: both Carradine and Currie are fighting over Wynn. (I’m kidding!) 
DAIGORO VS GOLIATH (1972) – This neglected kaiju (giant monster) film from Japan is one of the most obscure of them all in America. That’s odd since the movie was a joint project between the creators of Godzilla AND the creators of Ultraman, two very popular characters here in the west.
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