I would see Zacherley whenever I went to Chiller Theater. He was quite a character. I have pictures of him with Johnny Ramone of The Ramones. And a couple of pictures of him reuniting with fellow WPIX alumni Chuck McCann.
John Zacherley (or Zacherle) was quite a guy, in addition to hosting horror movie shows, he was the emcee at many rock & roll concerts. I remember seeing Mr. Zacherley at a concert, where he introduced the Canadian rock band, Lighthouse. He also graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and served as a US Army officer in North Africa and Europe during World War II. And, like DS’s own Ezra Braithwaite, Mr. Zacherley lived to the
ripe old age of 98.
Chuck McCann was another great NYC tv host on Channel 11. Mr. McCann hosted an afternoon show, featuring the legendary comedy team of Laurel & Hardy. Chuck McCann, being a big man physically, would often dress up like Oliver Hardy and do a great impression of him with another actor portraying Stanley Laurel. When the NYC newspapers went on strike, Mr. McCann would dress up like the little Italian boy, Dondi, detective Dick Tracy and even Little Orphan Annie and read each day’s comic strips to all the kids that were missing their favorite comic strip characters during the newspaper strike.
In addition to John Zacherley, there were many other terrific horror hosts across America. Vampira was another of the early tv horror hosts in Los Angeles during the 1950s. Vampira (actress Maila Nurmi) also appeared in the “legendary” film, “Plan 9 From Outer Space.”
I remember former Saturday Night Live performer Dennis Miller speaking of a tv horror host in the Pittsburgh area he watched as a kid on tv. Dennis Miller said this host wore one of the worst toupees he ever saw. I can’t remember the guy’s name. Maybe our DS cousin, Josette, remembers who that Pittsburgh-based tv horror host was?
Of course, there have been other excellent tv horror hosts since the 1950s/1960s, including Elvira, Mistress of the Dark on Los Angeles tv and the irrepressible Svengoolie, who started out in Chicago and is now seen
nationally on MeTV on Saturday night. I believe Svengoolie aired Grayson Hall’s “Gargoyles” not long ago.
I wonder if David Collins and Amy Jennings watched a similar tv horror host on Saturday nights at Collinwood back during the late 1960s? Although, after their own personal adventures in the great house, watching old horror and sci-fi films on tv must have seemed pretty tame.