THE BEARD aka THE WEIRD BEARD – This veteran of television and radio – real name Bob Lowrie – first gained the nickname “the Beard” from his time as a rock ‘n’ roll DJ. It is not known if the “Weird Beard” variant nickname started during his radio career or if it was coined to distinguish his Movie Host character from his DJ persona.
The Beard’s Weird Movie aired on Hawaii’s KONA-TV on Friday nights at 10:00 from May 10th, 1963 to September 18th, 1965, with a change to Saturday nights at 10 on April 25th, 1964. The Beard/ Weird Beard presented the kind of So Bad They’re Good flicks that we all love about Movie Host shows to this day.
Assisting the droll host was the beautiful Sugar, played by Letitia McKee, a former Miss Teen Hawaii and Miss Bikini. (She’s shoveling Hawaii’s famed sugar at right.) The program produced 126 episodes.
Sadly, no footage of The Beard’s Weird Movie has survived, just print advertisements and some promotional pieces. The Beard/ Weird Beard sometimes wore different hats or opened his eyes wide into a creepy stare to play into the horror angle of many of the movies he hosted. Continue reading
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