Rich Koz aka Son of Svengoolie, aka just plain Svengoolie is, in my opinion, the one man whose work would go into a time capsule if I had to pick just one example of the American folk-art form of movie hosting. I know he wasn’t around before Vampira or Zacherle but his work is pretty much the Gold Standard when it comes to those wonderful old local and/or syndicated movie host shows of the past.
As Son of Svengoolie, Rich Koz was the official “inheritor” of Jerry Bishop’s original Svengoolie, the Hippie Vampire, who starred on Chicago’s Screaming Yellow Theater in the very early 70’s. With Bishop’s blessing, (and Bishop even did the very first voice-over introduction for his succesor’s new show) Koz debuted as “Son Of Svengoolie” in the Windy City in 1979. The show won multiple Continue reading
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