My 1000th post - Reflecting back over the past 15 years

Today is a bit of a milestone as this post is the 1000th of this blog. I started this blog October 26th, 2006. At that time I was actually restarting it, as I'd started a blog earlier that year and grown disenchanted with it and cancelled it. This was the second go-around, and this time it stuck.

Today is also an anniversary for me, as the premiere of my very first show, CHILLER CINEMA, made its debut on July 1, 1999! With that in mind, I'm feeling a bit nostalgic, so let's look back a bit at the past 15 years, shall we?

Many late night shoots followed that first fateful shoot. The first episode aired on Hendersonville, TN cable Access Channel 3, and then later on Nashville Access CH19.

From there it was a snowball effect - other access stations began reaching out to us, asking for content, and we eventually moved the show onto our local UPN station and then switched again to the WB, where we enjoyed a long run.

I was always amazed at the success of the show - not that I didn't work hard. In fact, I worked my butt off, spending thousands of hours writing, shooting, and editing the show. But it always made me chuckle a bit that this little show filmed in a shed behind my house was garnering such heaps of praise.




And it did - we went on to appear in USA Today, on Spike TV, to be named of the 20 Best Cable Access shows in the country by GEAR Magazine, to win 2 Rondo Awards, to be interviewed multiple times in the Tennessean Newspaper, to appear in Scary Monsters, Rue Morgue, Mondo Cult, Outre, and Horror Hound Magazines - to win a Best of Nashville Award from The Nashville Scene Magazine and appear on the cover years later.



We even were given a special award from the Governor of Tennessee, an official proclamation recognizing Dr. Gangrene and company for years of hard work...




Just last year I was approached by a group of super talented folks who made a Dr. Gangrene comic book. I was honored to be asked to be the host of that book, it turned out amazing!

I've had fans make action figures and Mego figures of Dr. Gangrene...





and even made an appearance in the official Dick Tracy comic strip!




It's been an amazing run, and I've had the privilege of working with some talented folks over the years, especially Chuck Angell and Cameron McCasland, without whom the show wouldn't have been possible, and Jeano Roid who provided me with a welcome boost in a time of need, and became a great friend and frequent collaborator/partner on the Horror Hootenanny shows.

I also have to thank Mike Hook, Program Director at WNAB for the opportunity to host movies on the WB - Ken Beck from the Tennessean for all the great coverage over the years - Jim Ridley at the Nashville Scene - Dan Johnson for all the writing talent - Brian Hickman for technical assistance, camera work, and musical genius - Keith Smith for the editing expertise - Steve Kaplan at Alpha Video - Dave Conover and the folks at Wonderfest - Ron Adams and the folks at Monster Bash - Dennis Druktennis at Scary Monsters Magazine - Scott Essman at Universal - Mike Curtis for the opportunity to appear in Dic Tracy, an amazing event I never could have forseen - Sam Thompson for the encouragement and technical assistance starting out - Trish Crist and the Nashville Cable Access Station - J. Sorrels, my drive-in partner in crime, for all the help on the live shows and being such a great friend - Derek Koch, who has been a true friend in times of need - Robert Taylor and Sara Waugh, my fellow Vincent Price fanatics - my horror host brothers in arms - all the many talented musicians who donated music and videos for the shows, especially The Creeping Cruds, The Exotic Ones, The Reverbians, Impaler, Ben Kaboom, Ghoultown, The 3D Invisibles - Jason and Stephanie Carmen - Mark Greenbaum for the help on the show and with Spookhand - Joe Badon for putting together the Dr. Gangrene Comic Book! - Bob Horne, for crafting the awesome Mego figures - all the talented artists and animators who donated work - the many cast and crew members who helped over the years, you all have contributed to the success of the show and I thank you all, Brandon Lunday, Linda Wylie, Ethen Black, and Paul Browning especially, as you all put in many late hours.

To all the interviewees and guests, and indy filmmakers we've featured, my thanks! You guys were all amazing, and it's been a treat to host this show the past 15 years. Over that time I've had my ups and downs, personally, and the show has reflected that. But through it all my friends supported me, and the show continues.

I know I am leaving off many deserving folks, as there are too many to thank, it's impossible to name them all. If I didn't mention you, just know I appreciate your support.

Thank you all - Here's to the future, whatever it may hold.
Stay Mad - Dr. Gangrene

Horror Hound Weekend Report

My son Luke and I went to the Horror Hound convention in Cincinnati this past weekend. I’d never been to Horror Hound before, so I was interested in checking it out. I contacted convention organizer Jason Hignite beforehand and he asked if I would speak at the Horror Host Hall of Fame induction ceremony. I of course agreed, and he told me the ceremony was planned for Saturday afternoon, which worked well for me, since I’d be arriving on Saturday morning..

We hit the road Friday afternoon after work and drove to my friend J Sorrells house where we stayed for the weekend. Sat morning we got up and drove to the convention, getting there around 10am. There was a huge line outside, which was just the first of many we’d encounter. I found out they were lined up to see Doug Bradley, so we made our way inside and quickly found Jason. He informed me that the Horror Host ceremony had been bumped up to 9am that morning, so I missed it! Jason apologized and said enjoy the show anyway, so we got wristbands and headed in.

Who were the guests there you ask? Doesn’t really matter, we couldn’t even get near them - they were all sequestered in a separate room with a hoard of people standing outside. AND, to make matters worse, you had to pass this room to get to the room where the panels were being held at the end of a hallway. We could not honestly make our way near that room either. Just too many people. So we said forget it, and just headed for the dealer’s room. (We were also told you had to have a VIP pass to get into the panels. Don’t know if that’s true, but I assumed it was. Very disappointing, as I was looking forward to a couple of these panels).

The dealer’s room was nice. Big room with tons of great booths and I caught up with a lot of friends of mine who had tables, which was good. One thing I really liked was the music piped into the dealer’s room – they played mostly music from the bands that were playing later in the evening (more on that in a bit). Good stuff. There were a handful of horror hosts at the show but they were separated from the rest of the dealer’s room in a side room, sort of an overflow room. Except for the Ghooligans, who were in the main room. Not sure why they had a table in the main room, but they’re one of the groups that had a panel, so maybe that was it. The Ghooligans are hosts that have elaborate makeups and are pretty visually striking. I’ve never seen their show but I hear good things about it.  

 

Count Gore DeVol was there celebrating his 40^th anniversary as a horror host. 40 Years!! Quite an achievement! Another classic host was there also – Fritz the Night Owl. He looked great and was a funny and friendly guy. A. Ghastlee Ghoul was there, as was Halloween Jack, both friends of mine from way back. There were a half dozen or so other hosts there as well, newer hosts who all seemed to be enjoying themselves. I carried my labcoat in a backpack and planned to quick-change into character for the induction ceremony. Instead I only broke it out for a group shot with Gore and Halloween Jack. Otherwise I was really there to just enjoy the show.

We roamed the dealer’s room, making a few purchases and talking with a lot of people. The original CHRISTINE car from the Stephen King movie was at the show, which was really cool.

 

Around 5 we left for dinner. We walked to the hotel across the street but the service was so lousy we actually got up and left after being ignored at our table for over 10 minutes. We drove to a great barbecue place called Jim Dandy's just down the road, and have to admit this sign drew us in:

 

 

The food was great, btw, as was the service. Gotta love a bbq place that has their own catering ambulance! Afterwards I got directions to a nearby Starbucks. Caffeinated and full, all was happy again!

Back at the hotel it was time for the evening entertainment – bands!! This was the part of the show we were most interested in. They had 5 bands playing – THE BIG BAD, DEAD DICK HAMMER & THE TBA BAND, HARLEY POE, THE STELLAR CORPSES, & THE KOFFIN KATS. They were all really terrific. The lighting and sound was really top notch and the room was nice and big – unlike the convention there was plenty of room to accommodate the crowd. Afterwards I congratulated the sound guy on a terrific job.

SO – my overall thoughts on Horror Hound are this… They need a bigger venue. A place with halls and rooms off it is NOT conducive to that size crowd. They need to rent a larger space or at least a different portion of the convention center, and arrange it so you DON’T have to wade through the autograph lines to get to the panels. KEEP bringing in great musical guests. I came up pretty much only because the Koffin Kats, Stellar Corpses and Dead Dick Hammer were playing. I mentioned this to Ken Daniels, organizer of the Fright Night Convention (who also had a booth there) and he got a chuckle out of that, but it’s true! My son had been dying to see the Koffin Kats for a couple of years, but since there are no real all-ages places in Nashville any more this was his first opportunity to see them. They are SO GOOD! Definitely keep the bands and night time activities – although the acts between bands went waaay too long. Need to speed up the between band activities. But the bands were a good time and something more conventions need to do.

JOEL ROBINSON HORROR HOST POSTER

Artist Joel Robinson has painted this poster of a plethora of horror hosts - this poster will be on sale at the Horror Hound convention in a couple of weeks. Proceeds from the sale of this poster go to charity, so if you're at Horror Hound (I, alas, cannot make it) pick up a copy and get it signed by the hosts on the poster. Most of them, if not all, on the poster will be there, so that will make a fun momento of the weekend and fund a good cause at the same time!

For every poster sold, Sons Of Witches MC2 contributes to the Shriner’s Hospital for Burns in Cincinnati, Ohio. The posters will be at the Horror Hound convention March 22-24 held in Columbus, Ohio.

Horrorhound Horrorhost article

I've been meaning to mention this here on the blog for a week or so, but never got around to it... so let me remedy that right now! The Jan/Feb 2010 edition of Horrorhound magazine features a really cool horror host article in it.

This article is a retrospective look at horror hosts through the ages, from the first (Vampira and Elvira) to the modern crop of hosts.

There is a double-page spread of horror hosts arranged chronically that is a really visually interesting layout of horror hosting through the decades. You will see quite a variety of appearances in hosts - many differences and some similarities. Very cool - they even feature yours gruely in the article, the only entry from 1999.

Very nicely done. The article was written by Michael Monohan, better known as horror host Dr. Ghoulfinger. I've known Michael for a number of years - he's a really good guy and really knows his stuff when it comes to horror hosts. He also has one of the largest collections of horror host memorabilia and videos in existence. Check out the latest issue of Horrorhound. Good stuff!!