Ronald, The Ghoul

Back on Friday night, November 13 1959, "Ronald" first rose from a coffin at 11:30 bringing Shock Theater to the Tidewater area of Virginia.  In fact, Shock Theater debuted the night WVEC . . . Channel 13  . . . first aired on that frequency.  Since the debut of Channel 13 was on Friday the 13th, it seemed a natural thing to take advantage of their package of vintage horror classics with a horror hosted show.

After a little thought, creator and main ghoul Jerry Sandford, felt "Ronald" might be a nice southern counterpart to Philly's Roland.  The show was an immediate success and each week in the first year, Ronald would rise from the dead live . . . which is to say the show was live . . . and each episode began with the same opening.  After slowly lifting himself from his pine box Ronald would rasp out in a slow, ghostly voice, "Good evening friends.  Thus with a strange mix of eeriness and southern hospitality, Ronald would invite his audience to join him for a little bed time story.  This was a recipe for success with a devoted audience, especially kids, who were very happy to be just a little creeped out from 1959 to 1964 when the show ended.

Ronald was originally a solo act, but like many shows, his popularity inspired expansion.  Early on his assistant, Igor (seen in the mask in the picture to the right), was a fixture.  So was the book seen in the picture.  At the beginning of each episode, Ronald would open the book to find the story to tell . . . about a count who fed on the blood of the living in a far off land, or a man who turned into a wolf when the wolfbane bloomed.  He also used his bumps to tie in the details of the previous or preceding segment of the film.  This approach was a natural outgrowth of Sandford's position as film editor for the station, since he always knew exactly what was coming in each segment.  There was a sense of seriousness to this, but at the same time the show never took itself too seriously.

In addition to Igor, WVEC's Shock Theater,  featured a few regular guests including a character known as "The Cool Ghoul," a bereted, goateed, undead hip cat with a beatnik sensibility.  Unfortunately, no known pictures exist of the character.  Also appearing was the lovely woman seen to the right, but sadly, no one remembers her name . . . .  After all, it was 50 years ago!

Another feature of the show was Ronald's coffin, which essentially had a life of its own.  Among various adventures, the coffin was once stolen before a few hours before the show.  The studio had the floors cleaned in the afternoon and everything had been moved outside.  When the coffin was missing, Jerry--in full Ronald makeup--began going door to door in the neighborhood asking, "Have you seen my coffin?"  Even funnier perhaps is where it was found . . . in a shopping center across the street where three teenagers had put it up and were charging the princely sum of a quarter a piece for people to sit in Ronald's coffin for a minute.  Apparently, they had a line down the block!

Ronald's final appearance was actually in a 1968 Halloween special, but unfortunately, the footage from this event as well as all other shows has been lost to time.  However, Ronald lives on for many people who watched him as youngsters and local viewers need to keep a close eye out for a rebirth of Shock Theater.  More on that as things take shape . . .

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