Virginia Creepers: The Horror Host Tradition of the Old Dominion

WELCOME TO THE
VIRGINIA CREEPERS
NEWS ARCHIVE

Current Status (02/10): SEE THE FILM! Virginia Creepers will play twice in March and include public appearances from your favorite creeps! 3/21/10--JAMES RIVER FILM FESTIVAL Richmond, VA, 1 PM at the Byrd Theater Includes a Q & A and appearances by BILL BOWMAN (Bowman Body) MARK BARTHOLOMEW & MATT PAK (Dr. Gruesome & Skeeter) JOHN DIMES (Dr. Sarcofiguy) JERRY MOORE (Karlos Borloff) and we are working on more . . .		Check out the Mini-doc! For the music video/trailer and other clips, go to the clips page.




3/26/10--HORRORHOUND WEEKEND / DARK CARNIVAL FILM FESTIVAL Virginia Creepers will screen at 5 pm Friday, March 26 in Indianapolis, Indiana as part of the Vampira Horror Host Tribute at the Marriot East! Dozens of hosts (from Virginia and beyond) will be there and the weekend includes a number of horror host documentaries. Check it out!

Current Status (10/09):

In October, after a number of insane technical and scheduling issues we finally wrapped the film and prepared it for release on DVD and a tour of the convention and festival circuit. We also got our groovy poster from George Chastain and premiered the film at MonsterFest 6 in Chesapeake, VA. The rest is history . . .

(07/09):

The film is reaching the end of taping and should have everything ready for post-production by May.

Having said that . . . we have twice moved the completion schedule to accomodate new discoveries and in the last 3 weeks rumors of another show have emerged as well as newly discovered "lost" footage.

Well . . . ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

At this point, we expect to show the film publicly at a few conventions and perhaps have a big theater event in Richmond around Halloween . . . stay tuned.

FEBRUARY 24, 2009: In the last two weeks, we have been lining up interviews and tracing out the last mysteries of the states haunted airwaves. We have been able to confirm the existence of three shows from the past and become aware that Jebediah Buzzard--while he originated in Arkansas--now does his show out of Northern Virginia and he is cool! We are planning a trip to Tennesee in mid March to speak with Howard Meagle of Slime Theater fame and couple of days up in NOVA for our final interviews.

PLEASE contact us with story info, content, photos, memories and the like at info@horsearcherproductions.com

Oh yeah, we changed the whole website too.

FEBRUARY 10, 2009: Created a new fan page for this film at Facebook. You can search for Virginia Creepers or try this link.

FEBRUARY 7, 2009: Posted this clip from the film of Bill Bowman, the Bowman Body and his ukulele. Over the last 10 months, I have learned how to spell ukulele correctly! It's youtube quality, but it gives you an idea of what to expect.

January 21, 2009: A trip to Tidewater to get a fan's perspective. Richard Webb was the one who alerted us to Ghoulda (aka Geri Chronowit Roberts). We taped for about an hour, discussing the finer points of 1950 scare fare.

Thanks to Richard we have some original audio recordings from the show. Hopefully, we will be able to add a sample to the Ghoulda page very soon.

JANUARY 5, 2008: We are contacted by Thom Brewer of Roanoke who sent us this ad and says that in the waning days of the original channel 27 in Roanoke (late 74- early 75), there was a show hosted by The Count and the Invisible Man. This is of great interest to us, so if you have info, please let us know. In the meantime, we are working on it too.

JANUARY 4, 2008: "Creepers of the Night," a song that will be in the film, was submitted

JANUARY 1, 2009: An interview with the directors, producers and crew appeared in issue # 69 thanks to the talents of writers Paul Knight and Deborah Painter. At the time, we thought we were nearly done . . . and then, we discovered Ghoulda.

DECEMBER 1, 2008: Interview with Anna Inge Jump, otherwise known as Hazel Witch, who took over Shock Theater a few months after after Ghoulda departed. Anna entrusted lots of source material to us including several photos, holiday title cards and even some old scripts. You can read more about Hazel here.

OCTOBER 4, 2008: Director/producer Sean Kotz appeared in Chesapeake to get info, interviews and promote the film. It was a great time and in addition to catching up with some of our hosts, we also discovered the woman who appears to have been the first host in the Commonwealth: Ghoulda. Thanks go to Richard Webb of Chesapeake for this tip.

OCTOBER 1, 2008: The first clip from the movie is posted on YouTube! Here Jerry Sandford (Ronald) and friend Don Sherouse explain what happened when the Shock Theater coffin disappeared just hours before a live show.

JULY 15, 2008: Our story has expanded!

For various reasons, we have decided to take more time with this production. There were exciting developments this summer and we feel we need to tell the whole story--which may require traveling to Tennessee, North Carolina and even California. Additionally, there are some events we want to cover and we are investigating the possibility of preview showings of the film before release. Unfortunately, that means delaying the release, but we would rather have this done right.

Virginia Creepers will be released sometime in 2009. We are investigating some showings at film festivals and horror cons in early 2009 with the most likely DVD release date sometime in August or September.

Sorry folks, but we want a quality film and there is more to the story than we first anticipated.

May 31: Whew . . . what a month of May!

Where to begin? Well, in the month of May, we finished most of the interviews we have planned for the film. Here is a list of what we did, kiddies:

May 13: RICHMOND: More with Bowman Body; fan interview with Michael Joyner; fan interview with Herb Tate (who sat in on Witch Hazel's show in 1959)

May 14: PORTSMOUTH, VA--Fan Interview with Monster Fest organizer, Rob Floyd;

NORFOLK, VA: The Madblood Gang--nearly 4 hours of taping, keeping these folks late into the night (sorry guys

Dr. Madblood Horror Host Interview

Group interview with Craig T. Adams (left), Jerry Harrell (center), and Mike Arlo (right), the three longest running cast members from Dr. Madblood's Movie

May 15: NORFOLK, VA--Interviews with Scary Monsters Magazine writers Deborah Painter, David Hawk, and Paul Knight; Interview with fan, Woody Anderson

May 16: HERNDON: a good 3 hour interview with Count Gore De Vol in his dungeon;

CENTERVILLE: Karlos Borloff of Monster Madhouse inside his monster-making studio . . . and beyond.

May 17: CHESAPEAKE BEACH, MD: Dr. Sarcofiguy reveals all;

FAIRFAX, VA: Pat Bauley, aka Dr. Sludge from Slime Theater

Karlos Borloff, host of Monster Madhouse.

Also in May, we obtained an old 2 inch quad tape of some surviving footage from Slime Theater. This is stuff no one has seen for 30 years!
May 1: Witch Hazel? Yes . . . and we found her.

Well, if you have been an avid reader . . . and of course you have . . . you know we have been talking about Ronald the Ghoul's Shock Theater in Norfolk in 1959 as Virginia's first horror host show. Alas, this is wrong!

Richmond's channel 12 actually had a host called Witch Hazel (played by Anna Inge) in early 1958 and her version of Shock Theater played in 1958 and 1959, and perhaps into 1960 (we are checking). More interesting than that, we have located Anna in California and are trying to put together an expedition to the west coast. Photos do exist so hang tight and you will see something unwitnessed by the public for 50 years!

April 26: Interviews with Jerry Sandford (aka Ronald the Ghoul) and more with Rick Clark

We got a great interview with horror host pioneer, Jerry Sandford (in red shirt) who played Ronald the Ghoul on Shock Theater on WVEC starting in 1959, where it was a big hit for five years. You can learn more about Ronald here.

Rick Clark, who played "The Keeper" more than 20 years later on the same channel stopped by to discuss the way their careers on TV mirrored one another--both were film editors, both had horror movie shows, both had clown shows and both ended with big Halloween specials.

April 25: Interviews with Dr. Gruesome and Skeeter and Eric Miller, Director of Mark of the Damned

We were graciously invited into the dungeon home of Dr. Gruesome (Mark Bartholomew--left in photo) and Skeeter (Matt Pak--right in photo). This show, which ran in various forms for over a decade, had a great following in the Richmond area and will be seeing a revival of sorts this summer.

We also spoke with Eric Miller, director of the incredible Mark of the Damned, which features Bowman Body; and of the forthcoming film, Taste the Blood of Frankenstein, a cinematic epic featuring none other than Mr. Lobo. We got Eric's reflections on these hosts and the culture of the midnight movie.

April 21: www.scifidig.com Interview

Aaron Macom of Scifidig.com conducted an extensive interview today with director/producer, Sean Kotz, on the film and the shape of local and national TV past and present. The interview will be posted as a podcast. Check back and we will have the link.

April 19: Interviews with Bill Bowman, the Bowman Body, and Michael D. Moore, Reed Woliver, and Tom Blalock (Shock Theater/Cobweb Theater)

Saturday afternoon, we arrived at Bill Bowman's house to discuss the various incarnations of the Bowman Body show--Shock Theater, Cobweb Theater and Monsterpiece Theater--as well as his long career in broadcasting. (For more on the various Bowman Body shows, click here.) Besides being a horror hosting legend, Bill was recognized by the Virginia Associated Press for Excellence and by the state legislature whit a state resolution to honor his work bringing public affairs TV to the air as well as being in the Virginia Broadcasting Hall of Fame.

We talked with Bill about the way TV used to be and what life was like as a local celebrity and got a listen to the famous . . . or perhaps infamous . . . Bowman Body theme song. Later, we put together a reunion of Bill's TV pals, with Reed Woliver, who worked with Bill on the original show and Tom Blalock, who played "The Mummy" in Cobweb and Monsterpiece Theaters. And the whole thing was hosted by producer, Michael D. Moore, who is literally the first person in the world to sell mail order videos.

April 18: Filming begins at Fantasmo's all night schlockathon in Chesapeake with "The Keeper," Rick Clark.

We were joined this evening by Rick Clark, who played the Keeper of Chamber Theater on WVEC 13 in Norfolk from 1982-1986. We got there before the crowd showed up and interviewed Rick. We talked about the development of the character, fan involvement, makeup and much more, including the 4 hour long Halloween finale filmed in a real graveyard complete with drifting fog.

We also talked to two people who worked on the show with him during this period. Kris Curling (below in blue) played several bit parts, but most notably played the Chamber Maid, a squawking, Pythonesque pepper-pot who, like the Keeper, never revealed her name. Janine Harris appeared on the show a few times, but is most remembered for being hoisted over the Keeper's shoulder and dragged half way up the stair case before pandemonium broke loose.

We are in the process of securing footage from this show and fans should be able to get a nice taste of lizard gizzards, the Keeper's favorite, in Virginia Creepers.

APRIL 18: At Fantasmo Cult Film Event--Chesapeake Public Library. 5:00 pm until . . . .

We expect to be filming both Rick Clark (aka "The Keeper" of Chamber Theater" and Jerry Sandford (aka, Virginia's first host, "Ronald the Ghoul.") But THIS IS ALSO A FAN EVENT. If you have memories of any Virginia host, we would like to talk to you. You can check out the Fantasmo blog site at http://www.fantasmocinema.blogspot.com/

April 5: Director/Producer interviewed on Cult Radio A Go Go.

We had the pleasure of speaking with Terry and Tiffany DuFoe who run www.cultradioagogo.com, a recent recipient of the Rondo Award and certified horror host fans, with several horror hosted radio programs each weekend. If you want to hear the interview, you can use the following link to down load an mp3 of the program:

File Name: CRAGG LIVE - HORROR HOST DOCUMENTARY.mp3
Size: 37MB | Download Link: http://www.sendspace.com/file/nekojg

MARCH 12: The Project is announced.