SCIENCE FICTION MOVIE PARTY (1962-1965) was also called simply SCIENCE FICTION MOVIE and PAT’S SCIENCE FICTION MOVIE in the tantalizingly few surviving pieces of information available about this cult Movie Hostess show. SFMP aired Saturday nights at 10:30 (one ad says 10:20) on KMTV in Omaha, Nebraska from September 1962 to the end of summer 1965.
From 1962-1964 the program was hosted by “Science Fiction Pat” real name Pat Jones and from Summer 1964-Summer 1965 by Ronnie Bounds and her Siamese cat Yatchie. I’ll examine each hostess momentarily, but for the full context of what made Science Fiction Movie Party stand out it’s important to credit the contribution of KMTV’s Program Director Lou Jeffery.
Mr. Jeffery assumed that position in 1961 and by September of 1962 he had carefully assembled campy and low-budget science fiction films that weren’t exclusive to any of the nationwide syndication packages of the time. Lou’s work in securing such a custom package of flicks would have been a big advantage for Science Fiction Movie Party from the show’s outset.
SCIENCE FICTION PAT – Patricia Jones was a multi-talented woman enrolled at the University of Nebraska. On the side she played guitar, sang and recited beat poetry in Omaha coffee houses of the period. On SFMP Pat wrote her own material and designed various mostly black outfits for herself to wear during her Host Segments.
Guitar in hand, Jones would engage in the time-honored tradition of Bad Movie Shows by sarcastically commenting on the bizarre and low-budget nature of the So Bad They’re Good films shown on SFMP. Her sense of humor was versatile enough that she even composed and performed occasional beatnik poems about the schlockers she presented, including Robot Monster (1953), that staple of Bad Movie Shows for decades. Continue reading
WOLFMAN MAC – This werewolf Movie Host was played by Mac Kelly, who took the obvious Wolfman Jack reference and ran with it! And good for him! Why not? Kelly had grown up watching Michigan Movie Hosts like the Ghoul and 
Retitled Wolfman Mac’s Chiller Drive-In, the show, the happy go lucky lycanthrope and his supporting cast debuted April 25th, 2009 on Detroit’s WMYD as well as MyNetworkTV affiliate stations in Florida. Devil Doll (1964) was the movie presented on that date. Continuing as virtual co-host was Boney Bob (Aaron Helferich) a wisecracking skeleton puppet in the spirit of 
CYN RENTERIA aka ORIGINAL CYN aka CYNTHIA RENTERIA hosted Cynful Movies from 2019-2022. That show was another movie hosting production from Joel Stephens, whose programs
Best of all, from 2019-2022 Cyn was simultaneously the starring hostess of Cynful Movies, on which series she got to present movies outside of just horror flicks. Original Cyn served up Psychotronic classics from additional genres, including peplums, sci-fi, mysteries and spaghetti westerns. Cynful Movies boasted at least as much of a variety of B-Movies as 
RONALD THE GHOUL, real name Jerry Sandford, hosted the WVEC Norfolk and Hampton, Virginia version of Shock Theater on Friday nights at 11:30. 
Jerry Sandford’s Shock Theater had its own Maurice the Cool Ghoul (Frank Van), who was a beatnik ghoul and wore a monster mask in the show’s early years but then donned a beret and a goatee to enhance his beatnik image. Completing Ronald’s supporting cast was Vicki McKee as the beauty to Ronald and Maurice’s beasts. 
ANGIE LABANSHEE (Joan Kelley-Cordt) hosted the B-Movie show Spooks Hotel Friday nights at 10:30 in Marshalltown, Iowa. The program was initially aired on the local college’s Iowa Valley TV station – Channel 22. Then Spooks Hotel was on KDAO TV, Channel 39, then back to Iowa Valley TV after that. 
Among the supporting characters they came up with to appear alongside Angie LaBanshee were Elmer the Mummy, who was the Bellboy; multi-ethnic Master Chef Pierre O’Brien, expert pizza maker from Germany; French Maid Fifi; and Kevin himself as the voice of the cheap, ugly puppet Old Man Dan, Elmer’s father. Somehow. 
The program’s success let Joan simultaneously host the station’s Monday through Friday show Marshalltown Today during 1987 and 1988. In 1991 Joan Kelley-Cordt began playing a new character Mrs. Spooks, who at last returned from her world travels with her hubby, mad scientist Dr. Spooks (Steve Scheiding). 
SHOCK ARMSTRONG, THE ALL-AMERICAN GHOUL bore a name that was a play on the old radio series Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy. Even in 1964 that was an obscure reference, so it’s possible that many fans of this Bad Movie Host were oblivious to the connection. At any rate, from 1964 to 1968 Shock Armstrong hosted Double-Features on Shock Theatre Friday nights at 11:30pm on WTVT out of Tampa Bay and St. Petersburg, Florida. 
Reynolds donned a quasi-Frankenstein Monster mask worked up by the station’s art department and an old University of Tampa Spartans football jersey sporting the number 13. Paul was already in his 30s by 1964 and remembered the old Jack Armstrong radio show, so that inspired his character’s name. 
VAMPIRA SHOCK THEATRE was hosted by Margaret “Marty” McGuire as Hawaii’s very own Vampira, no relation to Maila Nurmi’s original Los Angeles version from 1954-1955. McGuire’s program aired LIVE on Honolulu’s KTRG-TV Saturday nights at 8:30pm from November 3rd, 1962 until June 6th, 1964. 
FRANK & DRAC (1987-1988) – Frank & Drac was this Movie Host show’s title, and Frank & Drac were the stars. Frankenstein’s Monster was played by Allen Christopher while Dracula was played by Robert Kokai. This show aired on WOIO in Cleveland, Ohio from October 1987 to June 1988. Kokai and Allen had the potential to be among the biggest Movie Hosts ever but clashes with station management over budget issues ended with their show getting shut down. 
Elvira’s syndicated show Movie Macabre had technically aired its final episode in November of 1986 but several channels across the U.S. continued airing reruns for years. During 1987 the ratings for the Elvira reruns were bottoming out in Cleveland, so WOIO decided to give its own home-grown Movie Host show a try in Movie Macabre’s former time slot on Saturday nights. 
And comedy was one of the strong suits of Frank & Drac. The other was the show’s conceit that the hosts were the actual Frankenstein Monster and Dracula, airing “biographical” movies about themselves and other Universal Studios monsters. 
SATEENA, THE DEVIL’S DAUGHTER hosted horror and sci-fi movies on Shock Show, which aired on Atlanta’s WSB-TV from January 2nd to December 18th, 1958. This devilishly mischievous hostess was played by Joanne Good aka Joanne Goode aka Joanne Gould. Unlike the usual Movie Hostesses whose characters were vampires or witches, Sateena was the impish daughter of Satan himself. 
MACABRA – This hostess of Omaha’s Theatre of the Macabre (1982-1985) has accomplished the seemingly impossible – she has managed to keep her real name a secret all these decades! She was an Omaha businesswoman who beat out over 150 other applicants for the position of WOWT’s Movie Hostess for their new Friday night at 10:30pm Bad Movie show. 
On top of that, Macabra rejected the over-the-top humor that characterized Elvira and her cash-in imitators in favor of a wry, understated approach that put me in mind of a combination of Movie Host legends like Moona Lisa and Fritz the Nite Owl. For an airing of Attack of the Mushroom People (1963) this hostess munched on mushrooms completely deadpan rather than hit the viewers over the head with the joke. 
