I watched the Decades “Dark Shadows” segment tonight. I had forgotten exactly what they showed. It’s a pretty good summary, but I’m disappointed in some of the little bits that are shown.
In the same program they had a segment on the original “Night of the Living Dead.” It was made in this area, so there’s always been a special connection to it. Bill Cardille, who hosted our “Chiller Theater” with 2 horror films every Saturday night, and was known as “Chilly Billy,” (had also hosted Studio Wrestling, later did some news casting, hosted the Jerry Lewis Telethon) had a bit as a reporter in it. It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen it, but I think he’s the one out in the field interviewing people.
The sequels were also made here. The first, “Dawn of the Dead,” was done at a nearby suburban mall, the closest one to me and the one I’m most familiar with. There were stories on the news about them filming every night after the mall closed.
The next one, “Day of the Dead,” had Lori Cardille, who had become an actress, and is the daughter of “Chilly Billy.”
George Romero had gone to Carnegie Mellon University and did many of his films locally, but later I think it became too costly and I think he later did them in Canada.
