- Ghoulardi
Ghoulardi was a
fictional character invented and portrayed bydisc jockey , voiceannouncer , andactor Ernie Anderson (November 22 ,1923 -February 6 ,1997 ), as thehorror host of late night "Shock Theater" at WJW-TV, Channel 8, inCleveland, Ohio fromJanuary 13 ,1963 throughDecember 16 ,1966 . cite book
last =Watson
first =Elena M.
authorlink =
coauthors =
title =Television Horror Movie Hosts: 68 Vampires, Mad Scientists and Other Denizens of the Late Night Airwaves Examined and Interviewed
publisher =McFarland & Company
date =2000
location =Jefferson, North Carolina, United States
pages =
url =http://www.mcfarlandpub.com/book-2.php?id=978-0-7864-0940-2
doi =
id =
isbn =0786409401]"Shock Theater" featured grade-“B”
science fiction film s andhorror film s. "Shock Theater" was aired in a Friday late-night time slot, but at the peak of Ghoulardi's popularity, Anderson also hosted the Saturday afternoon "Masterpiece Theater", and the weekday children's program "Laurel, Ghoulardi and Hardy".Biography
Ernie Anderson was a
big band andjazz enthusiast, and WWII U.S. Navy veteran born inLynn, Massachusetts , onNovember 22 ,1923 .This irreverent and influential movie host was a
hipster , unlike the horror character prototype. Ghoulardi’scostume was a long lab coat covered with “slogan” buttons, horn-rimmedsunglasses with a missing lens, fake Van Dykebeard andmoustache , and various messy, awkwardly-perched wigs. Ghoulardi'sstage name was devised by Cleveland restaurateur Ralph Gulko, who was making apun of the word "ghoul ," and his own similar last name, tagged with a generic "ethnic" ending.During the breaks from the movies, Anderson addressed the camera live in a part-Beat, part-ethnic accented commentary, peppered with: “Hey, group!,” “Stay sick, knif” (“fink”), “Cool it,” “Turn blue” and “Ova deh.” Anderson improvised because of his difficulty memorizing lines. He played novelty and offbeat
rock and roll tunes, plus jazz andrhythm and blues songs, under his live performance. He frequently played the Rivingtons' "Papa-Ooo-Mow-Mow" over a clip of a toothless old man gumming some food. On movies with chase scenes, he often had his image superimposed on the screen running ahead of the chaser."Shock Theater" drew both a black and white cult audience, who loved Ghoulardi's
beatnik costume, the music, and his hip talk, which was a nod to black jazz and R&B artists. More mainstream viewers enjoyed his broad, unpretentious ethnic humor.Ghoulardi spared no unhip targets: the bedroom communities
Parma, Ohio , ("Par-ma?!") which he often called "Amrap" (Parma backwards) andOxnard, California , ("Remember...Oxnard!"), bandleaderLawrence Welk andpolka music, Cleveland television personalitiesMike Douglas andDorothy Fuldheim ("Dorothy Baby"), plus other public figures. In particular, Ghoulardi unmercifully jeered Parma, for its ethnic, working-class, “white socks” sensibility, creating a series of taped skits called "Parma Place". He adopted acrow and named him “Oxnard.”He also mocked the poor quality films he was hosting: "If you want to watch a movie, don't watch this one," or "This movie is so bad, you should just go to bed." He had his crew absurdly insert stock film clips or his own image at climactic moments.
Ghoulardi used friends and members of his talented Channel 8 crew as supporting cast: cameraman “Big Chuck” Schodowski, film editor Bob Soinski and writer
Tim Conway (later of "The Carol Burnett Show " and “Dorf” fame). He was further assisted by teenageintern Ron Sweed . Sweed had boarded a cross-town bus to try to meet his idol at a live appearance, clad in agorilla suit . Anderson invited Sweed onstage; to the crowd’s delight, Sweed stumbled offstage into the audience. This, plus some unanounced gorilla-suited visits to the Channel 8 studios sealed his place as Anderson’s right-hand man.Channel 8, then owned by
Storer Broadcasting , capitalized on Ghoulardi’s wide audience with a comprehensivemerchandising program, giving Anderson a percentage as Storer also owned the "Ghoulardi" name. Anderson also formed “Ghoulardi All-Stars” sports teams, which played as many as 100 charity contests a year, which, reflecting his popularity, frequently attracted thousands of fans.Anderson openly battled Channel 8 management. Schodowski was quoted as saying: " [S] tation management lived in daily fear as to what he might say or do on the air, because he was live." In spite of his solid ratings and profitablilty, they worried that Ghoulardi was testing too many television boundaries too quickly, and tried to rein in the character. Anderson responded by, among other things, detonating
plastic action figures and plastic model cars with firecrackers and small explosives sent in by viewers, on air, once nearly setting the studio on fire. (“Cool it with the boom-booms.”)Induced by Tim Conway, who had already left town, and greater career promise, Anderson retired Ghoulardi in 1966 and moved to
Los Angeles, California . His plan was to act in film and television. Instead, he made a successful career invoice-over work, most prominently as the main voice for the ABC TV network ("the Lu-u-uhv Boat") during the 1970s and 1980s.Anderson died of cancer on
February 6 ,1997 .Influence of Ghoulardi
More than 40 years after Ghoulardi signed off, his legacy endures: Clevelanders still associate polka music, white socks, and pink
plastic flamingo andyard globe lawn ornament s with Parma, Ohio.In the mid-1960s, Ghoulardi's irreverance overtook the rarefied
Severance Hall .Cleveland Orchestra conductorGeorge Szell introduced one of his musicians as being from Parma, Ohio. According to Tim Conway, the concertgoing audience replied: "Par-ma?!"As a tribute, jazz organist
Jimmy McGriff wrote, recorded and released his song "Turn Blue."In 1971 Sweed appeared on WKBF-TV, borrowing the "Ghoulardi" character traits and costume with Anderson’s blessing, but changed the movie host's name to “The Ghoul,” to avoid misappropriating the "Ghoulardi" name.
Channel 8’s Bob Wells (“Hoolihan the Weatherman”) and “Big Chuck” Schodowski took over Ghoulardi’s Friday night movie time slot as “
Hoolihan and Big Chuck ,” becoming Anderson’s tamer but familiar successors. Schodowski's show continued on WJW, with co-host "Li'l John" Rinaldi from 1979 onward, until July 2007.Cleveland native
Drew Carey has paid tribute to Ghoulardi in his televisionsitcom (Carey can often be seen wearing a GhoulardiT-shirt ). In his endorsement of the biography, "Ghoulardi: Inside Cleveland TV’s Wildest Ride", cited below, Carey was quoted as saying "Absolutely, big time, Ghoulardi was an influence on me."The punk-a-billy band
The Cramps named their 1990 album "Stay Sick!" David Thomas, ofart rock band Pere Ubu, said that the Cramps were "so thoroughly co-optive of the Ghoulardi persona that when they first appeared [in the 1970s] , Clevelanders of the generation were fairly dismissive." Thomas credits Ghoulardi for influencing the "other ness" of the Cleveland/Akron bands of the mid-1970s and early-1980s, including the Electric Eels, and The Mirrors, the Cramps, and Thomas's own groups, Pere Ubu andRocket From The Tombs , declaring: "We were the Ghoulardi kids." (Akron'sDevo aren't included on Thomas' list, but they were formed in the same era as the other groups and shared a similar aesthetic.)The most obvious "Ghoulardi kid," Anderson's son, film director
Paul Thomas Anderson , named his production entity "The Ghoulardi Film Company."In 2002, Cleveland-area indie band Uptown Sinclair featured a Ghoulardi-derived
basketball referee in the slapstickmusic video for their song "Girlfriend."References
*cite book | last=Feran | first=Tom | coauthors=R.D. Heldenfels | title=Ghoulardi: Inside Cleveland TV’s Wildest Ride | year=1997 | publisher=Gray and Company | location=Cleveland | id=ISBN 1-886228-18-3
*cite paper | author=Thomas, David | title=Ghoulardi: Lessons in Mayhem from the First Age of Punk | Booktitle=2005 Pop Conference | publisher=2005Pop Conference ,Experience Music Project | date=2005 | version=Working Draft | url=http://www.emplive.org/visit/education/popConfPapers/Thomas_David.pdf
*"The Big Chuck and Li'l John Show," WJW-TV, broadcast ca., 1998, viewable at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e52cXCrmauc (as of 12/19/06).External links
* [http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/5035/ Ghoulardi Archive] fan site
* [http://ghoulardi.tripod.com/ Screen captures]
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20041103095748/www.ptanderson.com/eaghoulardi/main.htm Archived page on Ernie Anderson and Ghoulardi] from thePaul Thomas Anderson fan site Cigarettes & Coffee
* [http://www.horrorhosts.com/ HorrorHosts.com]
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