Zacherley, the Cool Ghoul -- The Music of Universal Horror and Drama Films

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 09:46:39 01/04/13 Fri
Author: Tim
Subject: Zacherley, the Cool Ghoul

John Zacherle was born in 1918 in Philadelphia. He gained fame in the 1950s and 1960s as the horror host Zacherley.

He debuted as a horror host on October 7, 1957 on "Shock Theater" on WCAU in Philadelphia. His character was called "Roland". By 1959 he was working as the horror host "Zacherley" on WABC in New York City.

He recorded the novelty hit song "Dinner with Drac."

John Zacherle is 94 years old.

Zacherley on The Mike Douglas Show (1975)

Uploaded on June 10, 2008
Running Time 5 Mintues, 41 Seconds
28,777 Views

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xb5J7qB5w-0

American Scary - Zacherley section preview
A clip from the 2006 documentary American Scary

Uploaded on January 21, 2009
Running Time 4 Minutes, 14 Seconds
6,835 Views

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2FD0uCzOdU

American Scary - John Zacherle (Zacherley) extended interview
An extra feature from the DVD release of American Scary (2006)

Uploaded on December 23, 2008
Running Time 4 Minutes, 24 Seconds
7,188 Views

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9k3P-AQkJpE

Tim

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

[> Re: Zacherley, the Cool Ghoul -- Tim, 11:20:28 01/04/13 Fri [1]

Zacherley without makeup
From the television program What's My Line (October 1960)

Uploaded on March 8, 2009
Running Time 3 Minutes, 27 Seconds
8,609 Views

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrmvmzXRWN0

Tim

[ Post a Reply to This Message ]
[ Edit | View ]

[> [> Re: Zacherley, the Cool Ghoul -- DAN, 13:49:09 01/05/13 Sat [1]

Thanks Tim, Zacherley is the "Coolest" Ghoul.

When the Shock package arrived in NYC in Oct 1957, Zacherley was over in Philadelphia as Roland, pronounced
Roe Land. I didn't know of Zacherley until a year later when he came to NYC on Shock Theaeter on WABC ch 7.

From Thur Oct 3 1957 to Sat March 29, 1958 the program was called "The Night Show." (Without a host).
The same movie aired for three nights, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 11:15 PM.

Then on Monday March 31, 1958 the name was changed to "Shock Theater" (Still no host) and we had two movies to watch each week. Monday's movie would be repeated on Tuesday and Wednesday. And then Thursday's, would repeat on Friday, Saturday. Sunday night's 'The Night Show" movie would be any non-horror film.

I didn't like the Monday Tuesday, Wednesday shows, because I couldn't stay up late on School nights and I had to miss any of the Horror films that were airng on those nights.

On Monday Sept 22, 1958 Zacherley arrived on Shock Theater in NYC.

The first film Zach hosted was, "The Mystery of Edwin Drood." Of course I had to miss that one because it was a school night, But I got to see him for the first time on Friday night Sept 26, and I was hooked.
Zach hosted live on Mondays and Fridays and I had to miss his Monday night show unless there was no school the next day. Oh for a VCR back then.

Monday-Wednesday, March 23-25 1959 was the last time "Shock Theater" aired on these nights. WABC went back to "The Night Show" and on Friday and Saturday, now no longer called "Shock Theater," it was clled "Zacherley at Large." He appeared live on those two nights airing a different horror film each night.
This worked out better for me because now I didn't have to miss anymore of his skits.

Zach's last show on WABC was on Sat June 20, 1959.
He was supposed to come back in the fall on WABC, but for some reason WABC TV dropped him and it looked like there would be no Zacherley in the fall. But WOR TV came to the rescue and on Friday Oct 9, 1959, "Zombies on Broadway" was the first film shown on his new show called "Zacherley at Midnight"

It was good to have Zacherley back, but unfortunately WABC still had the exclusive rights to air the Universal films in NYC until Dec 1960.

So we were stuck seeing low budget mysteries from various studios most of the time. The only horror films that Zach could air were from RKO and later Columbia.

Besides RKO's, "Zombies on Broadway," I also remember seeing "Son of Kong" "Mighty Joe Young," "I walked With a Zombie," "The Cat People," "The Curse of the Cat People," "The Leopard Man," and "The Body Snatcher."
No "King Kong." I guess KK was reserved for WOR's "Million Dollar Movie."

And later on I saw a couple of horror films from "Columbia,"
"Return of the Vampire," and "Cry of the Werewolf"

After Zacherley left WOR he hosted WPIX's Chiller Theater in 1963-64. Then he went to NJ in 1965 to host a sort of wilder version of "American Bandstand," called "Disc-O-Teen" After that show ended in 1967, Zacherley would show up here and there as a guest on someones show, or he would do a one time host spot for some horror film.

I remember when he hosted the 3D premiere of "Gorilla at Large" back in 1982. And the last time I saw him was when he hosted a showing of "Tarantula" around Halloween 2008 at 90 yrs old. God Bless him.

Man those were great days. I sure wished I had a VCR back then and could have recorded all of Zacherley's shows.

But anyway, I'm glad we still have some of Zach's material on Kinescope.

[ Post a Reply to This Message ]
[ Edit | View ]

[> [> [> Re: Zacherley, the Cool Ghoul -- Tim, 17:39:14 01/05/13 Sat [1]

Thanks for all the superb information, Dan! It's always great to hear about it from someone who was actually there back in those days.

Tim

[ Post a Reply to This Message ]
[ Edit | View ]