Happy Halloween
I miss Crematia Mortem.
In my high-school years (the mid-80s), she was the local ‘horror host’ on Kansas City’s KSHB TV. Some of you are probably too young to remember the time when there were more horror hosts than just Elvira. From the 1950s until the late 80s, most good-sized cities had their own horror show on the local UHF channel (remember UHF?), which would show old horror films (the Universal monster series, the Hammer films), with host segments done by a member of the channel staff done up in ghoulish make-up.
There are still a few of the guys working out there, but they are few and far between. In the 90s, the local channels discovered that they could fill the late-night time slots that these shows occupied with infomercials, whose producers would pay for the airtime.
So, now, nearly 20 years later, Halloween brings me thoughts of Crematia, who was a fixture of my Friday nights, and helped foster my love of the horror genre. She was the Ghostess with the Mostest.
(click for sound)