ONE LAST HAPPY HALLOWEEN WITH DRACULA........

In the 1950's and 1960's, John Zacherle served as the host on TV stations in Philadelphia and New York City when they would run horror movies.  His program was called Shock Theatre.  He developed a spooky persona, and delivered this song in the spoken word style he used on television.  The song finds Zacherle having dinner with the famous vampire Count Dracula, where he finds out that Dracula plans to eat him.
Zacherle had a recording deal with the Philadelphia record label Cameo.  On this track he was backed by Cameo's house band, Dave Appell and the Applejacks.
Dick Clark played this on his American Bandstand TV show, but made Zacherle record a less violent version.  When audiences demanded the Bandstand version, Cameo released the single with the original listed as "Dinner With Drac, Part 1" and the toned-down alternate version as "Part 2".
Zacherle never had another hit.  His follow-up song was "Lunch with Mother Goose," and it laid a huge egg.
The actual recording date was 1958, and his friendship with Dick Clark lasted for years.  Be sure to click on the arrow to hear this great old halloween classic - TURN UP THE SOUND!!

The following poster and still from the 1931 film still haunts us to this day, as Bela Lugosi still remains one of the most frightening persona of the silver screen!!!!
Happy Halloween 2012....
Be safe and keep an eye on your children....
....and finally check out the other halloween post I did around the beginning of October then com back...CLICK HERE http://hotrodsandjalopies.blogspot.ca/2012/10/happy-halloweenwhat-we-saw-at-intercity.html

Happy Halloween.......Intercity Drive-In Theatre 1960's...

I know it's a bit early for a Halloween post but I have been working on this for awhile and thought what the.....    I might as well post it now, and uh...Happy Thanksgiving Day to all....we are so blessed for what we have! 

......Have a great long weekend and I hope you enjoy this off the wall post!!

 

Do you remember "Dragula" from the Munsters??
...Here is an old newspaper ad from our own Intercity Drive-In Theatre which was noticeably directly across Oliver Road from the Port Arthur Golf and Country Club, fairly close to where the Oliver Road entrance to the Regional Hospital is.

Below is actually a fantasy sign that might have appeared near the road entrance to the Drive-In and this next photo is a very rare shot of the Oliver Road side of our Intercity Drive-In looking a bit run down and probably taken near the end of its days. 
It was great fun to take your honey out to the drive in especially for the horror movies, to scare the daylights out of her and to nearly have her sitting in your lap in fear......:-)

This is also a neat little fantasy poster from our drive-in

saying that it is the last showing for 1954, and being

December that heaters would be supplied.  Some theatres

would have speakers with actual electric heaters in them.

Not too efficient though.





 

Films such as "Black Friday" and "The Blob" were a couple of my favourites during the 50's and 60's.  I actually didn't attend a drive-in myself until at least 1960 when I finally got my driver's license.  I had my license before most of my friends did, so we did the pile in the trunk thing in my 1949 Chevy, to get us all into the theatre and only paid for a couple of tickets for myself as the driver and one buddy riding shotgun.  Honestly we only did that a couple of times, but never got caught.  Your license plate number would be posted and you would never get back into the theatre if you did get caught.

Another great film was that of the famous War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells.  The actual radio broadcast was a disaster because many people  believed that it actually happened!

INTERMISSION

 

 

 

The King Kong poster shown below to the right is another very cool little fantasy poster saying that is is being shown at the new Odeon Theatre in Fort William. 

Just a note here...be sure to click on all the photos to see them enlarged!

Here are a couple of fantasy photos .....well uh...maybe not a fantasy if you were lucky :-).....If the films were bad, you could snuggle up and smooch a bit, but many Drive-In's had a NO - NO approach to that.  Signs would be posted at some stating that it was a movie theatre and if you engaged in any Hanky Panky that you would have to leave.....I can't remember what the local policy was regarding that!!

 

Here are some great comedy "horror" films that we might have seen at the Drive-in.  Well, actually most of these so called "Horror" films were pretty much comedies anyway.  Remember Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall and all the Bowery Boys films at the Drive-In and also at the Royal Theatre in downtown Fort William.  Some of my favourite films in the 1950's were the ones that basically starred Francis the talking mule.  Donald O'Connor who initially starred with Francis in a number of comedy films actually left for other endeavours because the mule always took top billing.  This next "Horror" film was with Francis and none other than Mickey Rooney as the side-kick after Donald O'Connor called it quits.

There were many "B" Horror films made with the then very popular comedy team of Abbott & Costello as you can see from the posters shown here and above.

Charlie Chan films were another favourite....well lets say I just enjoyed going to the movies and the Drive-In as a kid.
Surely those were the days my friends...I thought they'd never end........

BE SURE TO REPLACE YOUR SPEAKERS ON THE SPEAKER RACK WHEN YOU LEAVE!!
Thanks to "John's Forbidden Planet" for most of the wonderful posters.