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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. Continue reading
HOUSEBOAT HORROR (1989) – “Mullets ahoy!” would make a good alternate title for this Shot on Video disaster from Down Under. Star Alan Dale of Neighbors fame leads a cast of untalented actors and barely adequate musicians who get chopped up by a disfigured slasher.
Text onscreen tells us it is October, which in Australia should be Spring, but the Aussie filmmakers for some reason have the characters keep saying it’s Winter. Guess they forgot what month they claimed it was. 
MADD FRANK – This ghoulish character was played by Kent Kamron, whose real name is Delray K. Dvoracek (but everyone knew him as Nancy). He hosted Madd Frank Presents on KVRR in Fargo, North Dakota from May 1985 to an unknown date in 1995. 
DR. SCAR – This Movie Host was played by Jack Jacobson and hosted TWO shows at once on KGUN-TV Channel 9 in Tucson, Arizona. He hosted Big 9 Chiller on Saturday nights at 10:30 pm from 1962-1977 and Science Fiction Theater on Sunday nights at 9 or 10pm from 1965-1980. 
As Halloween Month rolls along, I will take a movie-by-movie look at the opening season of Elvira’s show Movie Macabre (1981-1986). Her massive success kicked off an even greater proliferation of Movie Hosts and Hostesses in the 1980s. I covered 
GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE (1972) – Psychotronic icons Michael Pataki and William Smith starred in this twisted flick about a vampire (Pataki) who rapes a woman (Lyn Peters) who subsequently gives birth to an abnormal infant. The baby will drink only blood and grows up to be James Eastman (Smith). James goes on a quest to kill his father for the pain he brought into his mother’s life. Ultimately he does, but becomes a full vampire himself. (Just go with it.) Aired Sep 26th, 1981.
October 1st kicks off Balladeer’s Blog’s usual mixing of horror items in with my usual topics. I review horror films from the silent movie era onward as well as 
MISTY BREW – Faye Fisher (later Faye Fisher-Ward) played Misty Brew, the witch hostess of Creature Feature. The program aired Friday nights on Green Bay, Wisconsin’s WLRE from October 29th, 1982 – September 9th, 1983. For the most part, this show started at Midnight but was moved up to 10:30pm start times on nights when Misty presented double or even triple features. 
TV’s DRACULA aka Jake Esau, hosted his Bad Movie shows in the old-school “vampire with a campy Bela Lugosi as Dracula accent” manner. His schtick involved the well-worn plays on words to emphasize anything that came close to “scary” or “bloody” during his Host Segments or his in-character gigs doing television commercials. 
SALLY THE ZOMBIE CHEERLEADER – This horror hostess is portrayed by Nicole Galeano aka Nicole M. King aka Nicole M. Brooks. The Zombie Cheerleader started appearing on Public Access Cable around 2001, and in 2005 the undead pom-pom girl launched one of her best-known Movie Hostess programs – The Zombie Cheerleader’s School of Horror. 
The Zombie Cheerleader’s School of Horror lasted into 2007 and the supporting cast consisted of her daughter Genevieve Brooks as Zombette, an underclass and undead cheerleader who assisted the star, as did the monstrous Mr. Hairyhands, played by Daniel Brooks. 
