Virginia Creepers: The Horror Host Tradition of the Old Dominion

As far as we know, Geri Chronowit (now Geri Roberts) was the first female horror movie host in the state for Richmond's Shock! Theater on Channel 12, which then went by WRVA. Shock was showing double features but had not put a host on screen until June, when Chronowit first donned her gown and make up as Ghoulda in May of 1958.

She had an invisible husband named Darling, a werewolf Uncle David, a dead son named Lucifer and eventually a black cat. She was very popular and it was a real Shock! so to speak when the show announced that she had suddenly left to get married, changing her name to Roberts.

For three weeks, the show was left with "Destiny," and then for a few weeks it had no hosts until Anna Inge took over as Hazel Witch.

The show, which had reasonably good production values, was done in a corner of the studio live. Chronowit said she developed Ghoulda to be glamorous at first, but the WRVA brass wanted her to look ugly, they gradually piled on make up that took hours to apply and longer to remove. She is unsure exactly how the station chose her to play this role but she believes it may have been someone overhearing a cackling, maniacal laugh she says she played around with in her theater work.

Bryant Sharron provided this great rare photo.

While there were a number of off-screen and unseen characters, there was one recurring figure in the dark abode of Ghoulda--a black cat. The first cat, Empress, was the pet of the director and Geri would pick her up each Friday afternoon and return her to her home on Sunday, which the cat was not fond of. In fact, on one occasion the stress was too much to bear and Empress expressed her anxiety in Geri's car in a most unpleasant way.

A few months after the show started, however, Empress had a black kitten who became a part of the show and played right along on camera. This cat, Vampris, was named in a contest and Geri recalled at one point, while looking through the want ads in the paper for a "House to Haunt," Vampris decided she should help and came over and read the paper with her.

Part of Ghoulda's shtick was to mock the headlines and the pop culture of the day and in many ways worked very hard to make sure her themes were consistent with the themes of the movie. This made her very popular as a host and she got plenty of fan mail including a special Valentine card with a heart . . . that is the organ . . . on the front and the letter she reads in the audio clip that accompanies this page (file courtesy of Richard Webb, world's #1 Ghoulda fan.)

She was also very popular with kids and awarded various badges for them. She found out just how crazy the kids were about her at a Halloween promotion where she made a public appearance and the little monsters literally began mauling her and tearing her clothes.

It was her last public appearance.

Feed your Need . . .

Why should you have to go one more weekend without your favorite ghoul? You don't live in Communist China! (And if you do, then all the more reason to get the film!)

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FAN CONTRIBUTIONS

We have spoken to Geri and will have her voice . . . both then and now . . . in the film. Until then, below is a letter from Richard S. Webb who tipped us off to Ghoulda:

A bit of background to go w/ enclosures: Shock! came to WRVA ch12, on Feb 1, 1958, w/ usual showing of Dracula and Frankenstein. They double-billed movies each Saturday night until almost the end of that year, then went into single showings. In Oct 59, while continuing the Sat night shows, they introduced a second version of Shock! running for an hour at 1pm Sat afternoons. Don't remember how long this lasted, and can't confirm because my research of the Richmond Times Dispatch listings has so far only carried me up through Feb60, but am pretty sure it went well into 61, as memory serves, possibly longer than its late night counterpart.

Anyway, getting to Ghoulda: She must have appeared during late-summer or early fall 58. I suspect the News Leader will tell us exactly when, as, unlike the Times Dispatch, the NL greensheet TV listings for the week carried the titles of that Saturday’s movies along with Ghoulda's picture. My first audio taping of her was Oct 11, hosting Dracula's Daughter and Invisible Man. Also have tape of her Nov 29, for She Wolf of London and Mummy's Ghost, and the following week, Dec 6, for House of Frankenstein and Mummy's Curse. Horror Island (Dec 20) once followed, but the tape was lost. The last I have of her is for an unknown date (I suspect it's June 20 or 27, 1959.) showing The Devil Commands.

Anyway, shortly thereafter, as I told you, the newsman came on at 11, and said that Ghoulda would not be on again, as she had gotten married, gave her name (which I promptly forgot), and said that she was a graduate student in theater at RPI, and that the show would that night be in the hands of "Destiny," who was quite underwhelming and equally recognizable under the makeup as the host of the ch12 equivalent of American Bandstand.

Anyway, the material I'm sending here is what my sister and I got from Ghoulda in Dec 58. What the SPEVA Badge represents or what those letters stood for, I can't recall, but seem to remember that it had something to do with the Society to Preserve Vampires, or something of the sort. By the way, when I was growing up, I used the nickname Shep, from my middle name, Shepherd. So Ghoulda's not referring to our family dog, but me. Also, since this represents the possible end to a fifty year search for this woman, I would really appreciate it if you would fill me in on whatever info you now have about her, like her name, which I missed when you told me yesterday at the library.