Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - 179. Rich Koz aka Svengoolie

Episode Date: October 30, 2017

Gilbert and Frank usher in Halloween 2017 with one of the last remaining TV horror hosts, Rich Koz, AKA "Svengoolie," who remembers some of his famous predecessors (Ghoulardi, Zacherle, Chilly Billy) and praises the stylishness and symbolism of the original Universal horror classics. Also, Fritz Feld gets hitched, Eddie Munster goes wild, Vampira takes Elvira to court and Mister Rogers meets the Wicked Witch of the West. PLUS: Count Floyd! "The Mummy's Curse"! Bela Lugosi gets hypnotized! Gilbert chokes the chicken! And the (arguably) craziest horror film ever made! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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So deposits and withdrawals happen when you're ready. Go all in on fun with DraftKings Casino. Head to the app store to download. Explore a full suite of games and find your favorites today. DraftKings Casino, the crown is yours. Gambling problem? Call Connex Ontario. 1-866-531-2600. 19 and over and physically present in Ontario. Eligibility restrictions apply. See casino.draftkings.com for details. Please play responsibly. Hi, this is Gilbert Gottfried, and this is Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast with my co-host, Frank Santopadre.

And once again, we're recording at Nutmeg with our engineer, Frank Furtarosa. Our guest this week is an actor, writer, broadcaster, film historian, and celebrated and award-winning TV host. he submitted his original comedy material to his favorite local horror program and was soon invited to appear on this show, eventually leading to the creation of the character Son of Svenguli. Years later, he would assume the Svenguli role himself, winning numerous local Emmys, while winning over millions of horror and sci-fi fans with the show's variety of prestigious Silver Circle by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. nationally on syndicated station MeTV, attracting an all-new fan base, including yours truly, as well as movie icons Mark Hamill and Robert England, as well as our former podcast guests guests Dana Gould, Penn Jillette, and Frank Conniff. Please welcome to the show a fellow monster kid and a man who once revealed that Una O'Connor gets on his nerves. A man who once presented Regis with a giant donut.

Rich Coase, a.k.a. Sven Gulli. That's probably the nicest intro I've ever had, Gilbert. Yes. And he wrote it himself. And it's very dramatic, too. Yeah. The only part missing is found dead in his Chicago apartment. Dressed in a lady's skirt.

Yeah, that would be it. Sure. You just said Regis. Was it Regis Philbin or Regis Toomey that he gave the giant donut to? Actually, it was Regis Philbin. He was guest here on the show. giant donut to. Actually, it was Regis Philbin.

He was the guest here on the show. And they said, well, we want somebody that's really identified with our stations to come in and present him with this giant donut. So I brought it in and he was a little confused as to what I was, I think. And when I gave it to him, I told him, notice that at the bottom it says not to be used as a flotation device. But he was real nice. He was a lot of fun. Yeah, Regis.

You've worked with Regis, haven't you, Gil? Yeah. Yeah. But the last couple of times, he didn't want me on. Yeah. Really? Yeah. Okay.

What did you do? You didn't give him a donut. He used to be kind of a fan of mine, Regis. Where is he now? He's around. Oh. He's around Upper West Side somewhere. And you also did uh

i've i've done sven ghouli a few times i've been on the show i i was very thrilled to have you on i remember after the first time you visited with us we were kind of breaking down the set and you noticed the door and you said can i be the hand at the door yes we would have loved to have you do it then but you know the crew had already gone on because they had a sports show they had to do next. So we promised you the next time you came in, you could do it, and indeed you did. Yes. So I'm like the new Frank Nastassi. Exactly. Now, would you try going like this? Don't kiss. Yeah, I always freely admit that I stole the door gag thing from Soupy Sales.

I always loved him when I was watching him as a kid. And I thought we'd kind of adapt that for my show. Well, steal for the best. Yeah. If you're going to steal. Which films did you promote on the show? Do you remember? Oh, God. Well, I don't know if I was there for any particular films. I think I just kept it open talking about horror films and whatever they found a place for, they sprinkled it in there. And basically, was it because when you came in, we weren't sure what show we were

going to put the clips into, I believe. So we just had you talk about the various movies, some of the ones that we both like, some of the ones we found kind of absurd, and our favorites like, as you mentioned, Una O'Connor. Oh, yes. Yes, there was an Una O'Connor discussion. That's where I got that little bit of trivia. Yeah said she annoys me oh my god she she starts screaming constantly that's enough already yeah i when when i found out that uh oh christ now i can't even remember

the frankenstein direct james Whale. James Whale. When I found out that he was gay, I thought, well, this kind of explains Una O'Connor. It might explain Ernest Thessinger, too. Oh, absolutely. That's what I was just going to say. There's a connection there, certainly. And Ernest Thessinger in Bride of Frankenstein is described as a queer-algent. Oh, what grief. I always like the way he kind of strikes a pose near the end of the movie when he says,

The Bride of Frankenstein. Oh, yes. And he's got his arms out with the fingers. It's pretty funny. When you're a kid, you think it's just another Frankenstein movie and a pretty good one. Yes. A damn good one,

in fact. And then as you get older, you realize all the camp in that movie and how much comedy they're going for. Sure. The tiny little people

in the bottles and that kind of stuff. It's disturbing. It's like, what is this? And she was married to Charles Lawton, so they had a Henry VIII in a jar.

Right, so that's like an in-joke. Yeah. And there was a lot of religious symbolism, like statues and a crucifix over the monster. over the monster. Right, at the one point where the monster's laying down and the blind hermit is giving his speech about finally having a friend and the great luck, as it fades to black, the crucifix on the wall is the only thing

that still is kind of hiding. It's invisible. And to get down to the underground lair, he knocks over some big religious statue. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It reminds me of your old bit about the lever that destroys the castle. Oh, yes. Yeah. Do you know this, Rich?

The lever? Gilbert had a bit in his act. No, no. I didn't know this. Hey, is this the lever that blows up the castle? And it's like, yeah, I had a lever put in to blow up the castle. They said they could put it in for the same price. And so you might as well have it.

I just have to be careful that I don't accidentally throw my coat over it. Hilarious. That was one of those things, the lever that they would have and i go well what would be their reason to blow up their own house exactly and we used to laugh one of the film editors back when tv stations used to have film editors we used to work on my show back when i was in a different station he he'd always say, you know, why are they the Lever? Isn't it Lever? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we thought, yes, it's the Lever brothers.

We put it in for you. Rich, wasn't there something with your show and the Universal Classics that they were unavailable to you for a while and then became available? Do I have this right? For a long time, they didn't really have them available to broadcast television and i think that before we started showing them it must have been at least in some areas a decade or two that they hadn't aired on over-the-air broadcast tv interesting and we we we had them for a locally, and then we couldn't get them,

and we went through a whole group of other things, some of the Sony Columbia ones, the William Castle movies. We had some incredibly awful, I think they must have been direct-to-video movies. And then when we were heading back onto the network, we made a deal to have these Universal movies, and I think that was one of the reasons why we caught on so well, because we finally had, you know, these classics that hadn't been available to a lot of people. You know, because, sure, you could get DVDs of them at times and things like that,

but as far as over-the-air broadcast and easy to just pick up on your TV, they weren't available. And yeah, because I remember I grew up on those early Universal Monster movies. Sure. And also the Monogram were fun too. We grew up at the right time because all that stuff was available on free TV

at that time. Yeah, there was the gangster films were on one channel, Monsters on the other. Chiller Theater. The Sherlock Holmes movies. Oh, yes. And Trotty Chan movies. The Bowery Boys movies.

And A&C. And Blondie. Oh, yes. Yeah, Blondie. With Arthur Lake. Penny Singleton. Yeah. Which was, do you know the guy that played Dagwood?

He just said it, Arthur Lake. Oh, Arthur Lake. Okay. I always thought if they bring back, if they want to make new Dagwood movies, that William H. Macy could be Dagwood because that's who that actor reminded. That's funny. When I saw William H. Macy the first time, I said, he looks like that guy that played Dagwood.

That would be great. He'd have to learn how to do that. Yes. Reaction to things. Hey, since we're talking about the Universal Classics, share with Rich your theory of the individual monsters that we talked about with Rupert Holmes, because it's fascinating and I'd love his take. I probably I wonder if I ever mentioned this on your show or or or felt like I don't want to waste it on his show. Just save the skeleton nags material.

Save the skeleton nags material for the next episode. Well, the kids like the skeleton nags. I always thought his name was like a Jeopardy answer. Yes. You know, because you say, what did Red do to his stagehands? Skeleton nags. Funny. Well, it's kind of like Dracula is who every guy aspires to be and envies and wants to be. He's the lady's fall to his prey.

Everyone's under his control. He's very confident and cool. Frankenstein is a baby, and it just wants to be loved, and he doesn't understand why he doesn't. Yeah, it's like a little kid who wants to find favor with everybody. And the wolf man is like adolescence. Your body is changing, and you don't know why. So it's sort of three stages of life, a baby, an adolescent, and a mature adult. Yes.

And then the mummy is old age. Oh, my God. We didn't have that one. Oh, listen to this. Yeah. Rich, you're making news. Yeah, by about 2,000 years old, he's old age. Alex Trebek is trying to sell him that insurance that he won't be turned down oh god where does the invisible man fit into your to your uh your theory gilbert

oh can you fit him in oh well he could be the uh the silent majority there you go I don't know. It's a future episode, Rich. And I see the fact that Frankenstein's a baby is what really annoys me when I watch Frankenstein and he gets the abnormal brain. I thought it didn't need that. That's true. You know, I've heard other people say that, too, that, you know, oh, it's a killer's brain. But in reality, the only time he really gets violent is when he's attacked. Yeah, that's true. So he's supposed to be a kid.

He's not a killer. He doesn't have an abnormal brain. He just has a kid's brain. Yeah, his reaction is the same as anybody else's. If you're going to be attacked, you're going to fight back. Yeah, or me, roll up in a ball and let them kick the shit out of me. You'd be a very different kind of monster. What would the creature from the Black Lagoon be? Oh, God. He's the Gill Man, right?

Yeah. The Gill Man. General fish food. You know Rico Browning is still alive, Rich? Is he still alive? We get him on here. Godzilla died. Yeah, just recently. I saw that.

And the lady from The Black Lagoon, it was just her birthday recently. Oh, Julie Adams? Yeah, Julie Adams. Yeah. And she's really nice. I met her once. She was just so sweet. We should get her a Rico Browning.

I mean, that's like ties to the classic films. There aren't many left at all. That'd be great. I think Elena Verdugo was in The Wolfman and she just died. Yeah. A couple of months ago.

That was such a missed opportunity. I'm not sure how alert or well she was, but yeah. Well, you know, I mean, she was only like 110. At least.

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This is Joyce Van Patten, and you're listening to Gilbert Gottfried's amazing... Colossal... Colossal... Podcast. Is that okay? I can't work with her. Well, to hell with you.

Kill and Frank Kill and Frank Everyone's afraid of Kill and Frank Making their podcasts from hell. The earliest monster movie I remember seeing was The Indestructible Man. Oh, okay.

Yeah. Is that Lon Chaney? Yeah, Lon Chaney Jr. and Robert Shane, who was the inspector from Superman. Right. And Joe Flynn from McHale's Nathan. That's right. You haven't had that one on, the Indestructible Man? No, we have not had that one.

I would love to, though, because, I mean, it's ready for me to just jump on all that. McHale, what's this guy doing? Captain Binghamton. And I think he may have even gone under his original name, Max Showalter. Oh, really? When, yeah, he may have. I'm not positive. Casey Adams is in it, too?

Yeah, yeah. Oh, he's in The Indestructible Man. Yeah. I've never seen it. And The Indestructible Man, he comes across like, you know, the worst B actor. And then he really, you discover he was a really good comic actor. A Chaney Jr. film that I did see on Rich's show was The Mummy's Tomb. Oh, yes.

Which I'd never seen. With your buddy, George Zucco. Oh, yes. I love George Zucco. Is that the one with Turhan Bey as well? I get it confused with The Mummy's Ghost, which I guess was the sequel. And there was the Mummy's Tomb, Mummy's Curse. Yeah, I get them confused.

Yeah, Hand was with Tom Tyler. Tom Tyler, right. Right, yes. Chaney's not in that one. And the three Chaney ones are the other ones. And he supposedly hated the makeup so much, he made him eventually just create almost like a face mask that he could put on. Oh, yes.

And then I heard at one point they would even just like, you know, wrap his arm in bandages and show that. And then in the next one, you know know from the waist up have it and then because i mean that's horrible horrible makeup and back then it was even worse you know those are okay but they don't strike fear in you the way karloff's mummy does that or that original film i don't know what it is i there's something about is the performance the way it's shot yeah those old films where they they don't really have ambient sound. Yes.

So there's that eerie kind of silence. And you hear the crackling edge to it. Oh, sure. It's terrifying. And he just was so much more threatening, I thought, too. And it was Carl Freund who I think he directed The Mummy. He did. And he used the same thing he used on Lugosi.

He used on Karloff where the eyes light up. Yep. Right. The little pinhole lights into the eyes. That's such an eerie technique, too. And later in his career became the director of photography on I Love Lucy. Yes. How about that? And he used those same pinhole lights on Lucy to frighten people.

Yes, he did, on Vivian Vance. And Jack Pierce, the greatest makeup artist with Frankenstein, the Wolfman, everything he did back then. All those incredible makeup jobs that he did. And, you know, think of the time it took to put those on in those days when, you know, they didn't have any of the shortcuts that they have today. Have you met Bob Burns, Rich? Have you been out to L.A.?

No, I've communicated with him via email, but I've never met Bob. The monster kid like us, but he knew Pierce. He knew a lot of those guys. Wow. And Jack Pierce wound up being a makeup monster kid like us but he knew he knew pierce he knew a lot of those guys wow and jack pierce wound up being a makeup artist on mr ed oh yes well you gotta work because well the westmores came in and they found out how to make the makeup a lot quicker yeah Yeah, exactly. They could do it faster and probably cheaper. So that immediately got them in well. Rich, let's talk a little bit about your background. We

talked on the phone and I find it fascinating that horror films scared the hell out of you as a kid. They really did. They were easily scared. I was afraid of everything when I was a kid. I was afraid of the dark. Just from, I think, my exposure to movies and TV and cartoons, I was afraid of skeletons. I don't know why. And I don't mean to nag. And the first horror movie I saw, there's two that I considered, the first one. One was the original King Kong. Yes. And the other was The Wizard of Oz because The Wicked Witch scared the hell out of me as a kid. You consider that a horror film, huh?

I really did. As a child, I was frightened. Everybody talks about, oh, the flying monkeys are so awful. That witch was, I would literally, you know, hide my face in the couch cushion. And I think part of it was just that voice. Yes. The palace guards are pretty frightening, too. And the trees are scary.

Oh, yeah. Did you wait until a certain age before showing the kids The Wizard of Oz? Did you and Dara think it was too intense for them? I don't know if they ever saw the original Wizard of Oz. Really? Not yet, huh? Yeah. Because some parents, they think it's too intense. There are moments that are really intense.

Sure. I mean, right at the beginning, you're killing off a witch. Come on. Right. And I think I never, I remember seeing Margaret Hamilton be a guest on Mr. Rogers. Oh, right.

Yes. To show children that they shouldn't be afraid that she was just acting. Yeah. A lovely woman from what they say. I'm interested to know about how you felt about playing that wicked witch in The Wizard of Oz. Well, I really was very thrilled to.

I had done it very often. Not that one, but a witch when I was a little girl on Halloween. That was the thing that I always wanted to dress up as. It's like lots of children would rather be a witch than almost anything else. There are lots of other things you can pick out. But that's the one I loved, and so when I had the chance to do this, I was very, very happy about it. Well, girls and boys like to play witches, don't they? Yes, they do. Yes, they certainly do.

And when you feel as if you'd like to play something a little bit scary, a witch is a fine thing to play. Yes, she has lots of things about her. I've always felt that sometimes the children feel that she's a very mean witch, and I expect she does seem that way. But I always think that there are two things about her. She does enjoy everything that she does, whether it's good or bad. She enjoys it.

She worked with W.C. Fields, right? Yes. She was around a long time. And she was in one of those William Castle movies, too. She was like the maid or something or a housekeeper in one of them. I can't remember. Well, she was peddling coffee in the 70s. Oh, that's right.

That's right. Yeah, from, was it Maxwellwell house or something i think it was maxwell yeah beloved woman i think everybody loved speaking of coffee uh salespeople what's was this actress rula lenska really big in England. I mean. Rulalenska. What a reference. Yeah. In the coffee commercial. I remember. Yeah, yeah. She'd say, I'm Rulalenska, and I was showing some American friends around London. She's like the non-celebrity.

Yes. Kind of like Pia Zadora. Yeah, when I first started as subtle swingooly we used to probably make a joke about her every week on the show oh you did this is kismet and somebody even contemplated you know having us start a rulalenska fan club i don't think we ever did oh hilarious i see i think they they said, well, you know, how many people really are traveling to England? So they said, well, we'll say she's a big star in England. Who's going to know?

That's hilarious. We've got a movie coming up, one of the mummy ones. And it also has another coffee saleswoman in it. Because she's like the princess who comes out of the actress that played Mrs. Olsen? Yes, exactly. She comes out of the mud of the bayou there and cleans up rather nicely. She was a very attractive woman at that time. What the hell was her name? Something Christine? Okay. Does that sound right?

I don't remember. Well, again, she was a character. I didn't really know that she was any kind of notable actress. But we've got that coming up, I think, during December. And we definitely bring up the fact that she was Mrs. Olsen because it was the richest kind of car. Oh, that's right. Kind of. Oh, that's right. And I heard like Cheney, because he used to be, you know, he'd get thirsty, we'll say. Oh, he bent the elbow. Oh, yes. Yes.

And in that scene where he's carrying her up the stairs and he's in full mummy outfit and he's carrying the girl up the stairs they had her harnessed to him so he could get a firmer grip on her and he was bombed of course and he wound up

falling down the stairs with the girl oh my god which mummy movie? I think this was Mummy's Ghost. Good Lord. Is that the one where he's going up like some sort of thing with almost railroad tracks going up to a little shack? Oh, yes, yes. Oh, my executive producer, Jim Roach, has told me the name of that actress is Virginia Christine.

Wow. And if I remember correctly, she was married to, I think, Fritz Feld. No shit. Wow. That's esoteric. I think so. Fritz Feld. Wow.

I love it. I mentioned Fritz Feld in a documentary about me called Gilly Bird. Over the closing credits, right? Yes. You do a whole fritzfeld thing and i try i can't do that popping sound that he used to do that's not easy it's not easy to do but it's it's funny fritzfeld found that one thing that he could do and he worked like crazy he was the hotel maitre d' or whatever.

Sure, yeah, yeah. That was his gimmick. And just because he could make that popping noise. Yeah, he was terrific. So you grew up in Chicago, Rich. You're terrified of horror movies. You're terrified of The Wizard of Oz. And I don't know if a lot of our listeners know your background.

I mean, you grew up in Chicago. How did you make the jump to Monster Host? We had a little bit of it in your intro. Yeah, well, basically, I did kind of get over my fear of everything, and I sort of love horror movies. They would show them on one of the local channels, like at midnight on Sunday nights when I was in high school. And then, you know, I really enjoyed that.

And then we had two different horror movie shows on WGN here, a very popular station in Chicago. They had creature features and they ran most of the Universal stuff. And on WFLD, a UHF station, one of my favorite local personalities, Jerry G. Bishop, who was on the radio and did TV, just happened to be the voiceover guy on the Friday Night Horror movies. And he started, you know, fooling around. He's a funny guy, and he started making up things

and making jokes while doing the intros going back into the segments and eventually turned it into a character. And, you know, they tried to figure out a name for it and finally came up with Sven Gulli. And at first it was just like a slide up on the screen, and he'd be making the jokes and using sound effects and stuff,

and it eventually became a full-fledged on-video TV show doing the raps around the movie. And I was a fan of his from his radio stuff and everything else, and people were sending him jokes. And I started to send him jokes and ideas for skits. And he found out that by then I was a freshman at Northwestern University. And he said, oh, what are you studying? And I said, well, radio and TV. He said, oh, that's cool. And he started to give me specific requests for things to write. Like there's a commercial out now for, you know, some sort of real estate.

Can you make a joke about that? Write a bit about it. So I'd write parodies of that kind of stuff and song parodies for him. And eventually he said, well, why don't you come in and watch us tape sometime? Which was great. I was thrilled. How cool. Went in and he knew that I could do voices.

So he said, here, why don't you do this like off-camera voice for me? And eventually I was working with him on the show all the time. And he knew that I could do voices. So he said, here, why don't you do this off-camera voice for me? And eventually, I was working with him on the show all the time. And it was like a dream come true because this was one of the guys that was one of my local TV idols. What a cool thing. What was Screaming Yellow Theater, by the way? That was it. That was the name of the show that he did.

Okay. He was kind of a hippie character. I mean, I saw pictures of him online. What he looked like was a sort of hippie with long green hair. Yeah. He looks like a vampiric Arlo Guthrie. Kind of, yes, exactly. And he had the dark circles. His makeup was similar to the facial makeup that I use.

Except, again, the hair was all green and he wore a sweatshirt. See, one thing I didn't know way back then was when he was in Cleveland previous to coming to Chicago, he was on TV opposite Ernie Anderson doing the Goularty stuff. Ah, Goularty. I was going to ask you that. And he kind of took the idea, well, okay, he was kind of like, you know, a beatnik sort of type guy, and he said, you know, maybe I should be a hippie.

And so that was his character. And you were son of Sven Gulli for a while. And then when Jerry left, moved on to other things, then you became... Well, no, actually, I wasn't son of Sven Gulli until long after Jerry was out of the show. Oh, I see. He got canceled.

That's something that you get used to in TV. I worked with him in radio for a while, but then he ended up going out to San Diego. And I had also at the same time been working with Dick Orkin, who does very funny commercials. Did the Chicken Man character and the Tooth Fairy. And I was working with him, and then he went off to the East Coast, West Coast. I'm directionally challenged. And so Jerry said, well, what are you going to do? You know, what do you feel like you're going to do now? And I said, well, maybe I'll pitch a local station. I may be doing a TV show. And previously, somebody at a local station wanted Jerry to just for the summer do Svengoolie

again. But Jerry said he didn't really feel like doing it. One of the reasons was, honestly, he thought someday he might want to run for local office. Oh, interesting. And he didn't want that to be brought up as his background. Oh, that's hilarious. But at the time, he said, you can be the character. And, you know, that was very flattering to me that he felt, you know, he had enough faith in me that I could do it. And so now you're officially Sven Gulli as of that moment.

Yeah, I was son of Sven Gulli from 1979 on through, you know, the 80s. And when I finally was going to be on our local station here with the company I work for now, WCIU, Jerry came into town to visit. And we were visiting. And I said, you know, I'm going to be doing this show. And I said, maybe I should change the name, because even by the end of my original run in, like, 1986, people were asking, you know, well, your son is Svengoolie, but who's Svengoolie? They didn't really know him, because it was several years before that. And I said, you know, maybe I'll shorten it or something. And he said, I tell you what, you're all grown up.

Just be Sven Gulli. Isn't this cool? Gillette started with him writing fan mail and sending sketches to the guy, and he assumes the throne. Is the old Sven Gulli now a respected senator or something? No. Actually, he went out to San Diego and did radio and TV there and actually had a couple of restaurants.

Oh, wow. And he passed away a few years ago. Jerry Bishop. But he was just, you know, what a generous guy to just kind of, you know, turn the keys to the thing over to me. Yeah, it's a great story. And what I find weird, the times that I've done Sven Gulli, it's like then afterwards, you know, you wash your face and put on a regular pair of pants and shirt, and I'm always like, ah, who is that guy?

Yeah, it's like. Yeah, I get to be a normal person. That's true. You know what that reminds me of? Zombo on the Munsters. Oh, my God, yes. Louis Nye. Remember that?

Eddie sees him out of his makeup, and he says, Hi, Eddie, I'm Zombo. And Eddie freaks out. Doesn't he end up, like, destroying the set? He destroys the set. He goes insane because Zombo isn't Zombo. Tell me, Eddie, is there anything you want to say to all your friends and fiends in television. Yeah. Yeah. I'd like to tell everybody that Zombo's nothing but a big fake. Give one for Grandpa.

It bites him in the neck. Stop! Stop! Stop! That rotten kid! I'll kill the kid! Due to technical difficulties beyond our control, the Zombo show will not be seen this afternoon.

Or ever. It's funny. Years ago, I mean, now you're about the only TV host, practically. Years ago, there were so many TV hosts, and they don't have their own local TV hosts. Sure, yeah, that was it. And it always seemed like it kind of went in waves, you know, because there'd be a lot of them all over the place. Then it would just die out, but then it would come back again in a few years.

And one thing we've noticed is since we've been on and we've done pretty well nationally, there are now some local stations that have again decided, you know, well, let's try this. And they started with their own hosts. So it's coming back. That's kind of cool. Yeah. Maybe I've started a new flood of these strange creatures on TV. In New York, we had Captain Jack McCarthy.

We had Chuck McCann. Chuck McCann and Officer Joe Bolton. Sandy Becker. Right. You must have had your own in Chicago. You must have had the guy that presented the cartoons and the guy that presented the Stooges. Sure. We had a lot of people.

We had Ray Rayner, who did all sorts of TV. And then we had Bill Jackson, a terrific guy. He did BJ and the Dirty Dragon and Giggle Snort Hotel, which I think went national. Giggle Snort Hotel. He had all these great characters, and he could draw things. He was a great artist. And we had Fraser Thomas, who did the Garfield Goose Show, which was very popular. And, of course, for years and years, Bozo was very big.

Oh, yeah, of course. Oh, yes. Larry Harmon, right? Well, here they had him first played by... Oh, I can't think of the guy's name. The original Bozo. Well, Willard Scott was Bozo from the Today Show. Well, see, it was another syndicated type thing

where there were different Bozos in all sorts of... There were a bunch. Bob Bell. Bob Bell was the Chicago Bozo. Bob Bell, that's right. I was trying to remember Willard Scott's name. Yeah, well, maybe he wasn't Bozo. Maybe Bell was the Chicago. Bob Bell, that's right. I was trying to remember Willard Scott's name. Yeah, well, maybe he wasn't Bozeman. Maybe he was Ronald McDonald.

But Willard Scott used to do like, and so-and-so turns 100. Yeah, he used to do the birthdays. With a name like Smuckers, you've got to be that old. Yes, that's right. And he once announced my grandmother. Oh, he announced your grandmother's birthday? Yeah, my grandmother. Oh, he announced your grandmother's birthday? Yeah. That's cool.

My grandmother turned 100. And I remember he said, well, we need some stuff she did. We like to announce stuff she was a fan of or things she liked to do. And I asked my mother. And my mother said, well, she used to like to cook and did some sewing. And she likes to go outside. And so he and Willard Scott announces it, and he goes, and happy 100th birthday, Minnie Zimmerman, who likes cooking, sewing, and the great outdoors.

Hilarious. Was she thrilled? Oh, yes. And it made her sound like she went mountain climbing. I think he was Ronald McDonald. Spearfishing or something. Yeah, spearfishing. You know, and Gilbert, you were a host of a wraparound show, of a movie wraparound show.

USA Up All Night. I wrote for Commander USA's Groovy Movies. Oh my God. Isn't that cool? We all have a connection to those wraparound shows. I grew up watching Zachary. John Zachary. I never met him, but

he did know of my work, I guess, and approved of it because he a couple of times had sent me little messages saying that, you know, I should keep doing what I was doing and that he he'd called me Grand Old Sven Gulli. The cool ghoul. the host of USA up all night. I mean, our movies were for the most part like teen comedies with the tits and ass cut out. So you could concentrate on the dialogue and story. Which was gripping, of course. Yes. I wonder if Commander USA was on the same network. John Lalos was your producer.

He was the original producer. And also my producer on Commander USA. That wasless was your producer. He was the original producer. And also my producer on Commander USA. That was USA too, yeah. Yeah, I think they recycled the same movies. And then John Lawless called me up years later so I could be part of a documentary he was making on Theodore Burkell. Oh my god. I love that. Wow. And we should have had Theodore Burkell. Oh, my God. I love that. Wow. And we should have had Theodore Burkell on this show. And Zachary, who passed at 98.

98 he lived to. Let's talk about some of the horror hosts, too. Since we're bringing up Zachary, let's talk a little bit about Goularty, who you touched on. Right. Very, very popular in the Cleveland area. And, again, Ernie Anderson, who at first, the only way I knew about him was because Carol Burnett would introduce him every week from the audience.

And because he was the ABC announcer who said, the love boat. MacGyver. Oh, wow. That was Ernie Anderson. And it was only years later now with the internet and everything else that I found out about Goularty and how that probably was an influence on Jerry G. Bishop doing his Svengoolie character. Yeah, probably. Because there's similarities. Definitely so. Tim Conway was one of the cast members on Goularty.

Did you know that? Oh, gee, no. Yeah. Well, they both had a beatnik thing, Goularty and Jerry. Well, Jerry's became a hippie more or less. A hippie. Yeah. Well, they both had a beatnik thing, Goularty and Jerry. Well, Jerry's became a hippie more or less. A hippie. Yeah. But we had our own horror host in Chicago in the 50s that I only saw a couple of times because I was really young and we'd only see it like if we stayed at some relative's house too long. But it was the original Shock Theater package.

And he was a sort of beat nicknamed Marvin. He was played by Terry Bennett and he was the first horror host in Chicago, I think, and was very, very popular. I did some research on these other guys. There was a guy named Morgus the Magnificent down south in New Orleans. Did you ever hear of him, Gilbert?

No. Another horror host. Chili Billy out of Pittsburgh. Oh, him. He was just a normal guy, and he has a part in Night of the Living Dead. He's the reporter they're talking to near the end of it. Wow. That's so cool.

The one that the guy says to him about, yeah, they're zombies. They're real messed up. Yeah. That was such a great line. Yeah. Our listeners. You set fire to them. they go up pretty quick. Chili Billy, I believe, because Joe Flaherty grew up in the Pittsburgh area, was an inspiration for Count Floyd.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. And then, of course, Vampyra. Vampyra, sure. And Dana Gould, I was surprised to find out that he was like one of her caretakers in her last years there. Wow. Yeah, Dana told us that. It's amazing to me.

I'd like to ask him more about that because, you know, to have that connection to her. And, of course, the whole story of how she sued Elvira. Oh, yes. Patterson. What was her name again? Cassandra Peterson. Peterson. Yeah.

I don't think she actually won. No, she lost. Peterson. Peterson. Yeah. I don't think she actually won. No, she lost. She lost big. Yeah. Yeah. She was an interesting woman too, but she was married to the screenwriter of Dirty Harry and Charlie Varick. Oh, wow. A guy named Dean Reisner. Oh, with Walter Matthew.

Yeah, he also wrote Play Misty for me. Oh. Yeah, she had an interesting life. She was friends with James Dean. Oh, wow. Myla Normie. Yeah. Is that how she pronounced it?

You got me. She worked with Mae West. Wow. According to my research. Yeah, I believe she sued Elvira and got cleaned out. Oh, God. Yeah, that's a shame. But it's a dying art, you know,

and now you're saying it's starting to crawl back. Well, yeah, because for a while, people were saying to me, well, you know, you're kind of a dinosaur, more or less, because, you know, nobody else is doing this anymore. And quite honestly, I'm very fortunate to be at the station and network that I am because when my boss, Neil Saban, first got the job here at WCIU, which before that was all

brokered time ethnic broadcasting, and he convinced the bosses that he could make it like a regular old, you know, independent station like we all grew up with. And they went with it, and he made that a success and eventually created MeTV. And he has a real appreciation for that type of TV that we all grew up with, with the hosted shows. And I'm just fortunate, you know, that I'm here with him. I remember watching Sandy Becker teach you how to comb your hair. And so for a while, I was combing my hair exactly the way they taught it on Sandy Becker.

I wonder how many of our listeners remember Sandy Becker. He was a Sonny Fox contemporary. Yeah, he would do Norton Nork. Yeah. Yeah, Sonny Fox we had on. We had Sonny Fox. He was terrific. Wow, yeah.

Was that in Chicago, Wonderama? No, that was not here. That was not available here. And Sonny Fox, when we had him on, I was expecting stories of kids say the darndest things. But he was, you know, held prisoner by the Nazis. Oh, my God. He had some stories to tell. Yeah, that was a fascinating interview.

Oh, man. Yeah. So when the original Svengoolie passed the torch, Rich, I mean, how much of the original show, the original conceit and the premises did you keep? Did you say, okay, now I have an opportunity to make this my own and I'm going to go in a different direction? I kind of used a lot of the ideas that he had, you say, okay, now I have an opportunity to make this my own, and I'm going to go in a different direction? I kind of used a lot of the ideas that he had, you know, as far as using the sound effects coming in, that sort of thing,

and doing the parodies of commercials and songs. But then, you know, there were things I could do. Jerry really didn't do many impressions or anything, and I could play other characters. There were things I could do. Jerry really didn't do many impressions or anything. And I could play other characters. And with the technology we had, you know, we could prerecord things so I could be two characters in the same shot and everything. And so I think it just became more elaborate as we went along.

And it got to the point where right when I first started and was doing the Son of Svenguli, I really could just, you know, I just used it to do any kind of bits I wanted. It didn't necessarily have anything to do with the movie. Whereas now I think I tried to do things more tied in with the movie. You tried to tie them in, yeah. Yeah, to make it all, you know, one complete thing. And Zachary, and it was a lot trickier back then in early TV to figure out timing and how you would do it. He used to like interject himself into the movie. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. That was a lot harder to do back then and took a lot of planning.

And we've done stuff like that here, too. But it's so much easier because you just, you know, use the chroma key system and you can, you know, pre-count the timings and everything and make sure that everything fits. But I think a lot of the time he was doing that stuff live. Yeah. Which is just unbelievable. So the timing had to be exact. And like there'd be a scene with like a crowd of angry villagers and all of a sudden he'd be there. Right.

Yeah. We had one. I don't remember what movie it was um maybe it was uh the raven oh yeah bella lugosi and at one point there's a big big shot of the audience and the woman is dancing wearing a raven mask and it's really pretty awful oh god and we had me superimposed sitting in one of the seats just kind of falling asleep yeah that that play that they're watching with her ah god damn it someone should always tell me to shut off my phone and they never do that's okay who do i know from newark new jersey now i can't help you yeah that part where she's dancing around uh to someone reciting the raven and it was it was pretty embarrassing that's a nutty movie though that and the black

cat boy the two of them the black cat is totally out off the fucking wall yes both of them we have that one coming up too before the end of the year where uh you know boris has the haircut that looks like he's part of a flock of seagulls great yeah he looks like a later day rock star. Definitely so. Yeah. And, you know, that must have been before the motion picture code. Oh, my. Because there's a few things in there that you're like, really? They got away with that back then? They hint away at incest.

Yeah. And. They say nothing of being skinned alive. Oh, yes. On camera. And the Satan worship angle of it of course and and that is keeping his dead wife there which is uh questionable to say the least and sleeping with bella's daughter too yes it's a wild movie and there's a it's it's the idea that most movies back then were in like basically a haunted house.

Right, yeah. And this was like Art Deco. Yeah, very expressionist. Oh, yeah. You know, the house of the future. Yeah. As Norton would say. Is there a character on your show?

I know the answer to this, but I'm going to have you tell me. Zalman Tombstone? Yes. Zalman Tombstone? Yes. Zalman Tombstone. And who, pray tell, is he based on? He is based on Billy Saluga's Raymond J. Johnson. Oh, my God. When we first used to have him on, he had a big mustache and a big plastic cigar,

which we had to get rid of because it would always bounce out of his mouth. But he'd start the whole thing. Whoa, you can call me to me. Oh, you can call me. And we had a whole litany that he did just like the Billy Saluga character. And now we still have him on. But, you know, he doesn't do that whole thing anymore. He's just like a wisecracking skull.

And we're actually having him rebuilt because he was sold. It was the original one that i used when i started in 1979 and the thing was falling apart and we've got a special effects guy who's actually working on making a new version of him that we'll be able to use i bring it up rich because in a couple of weeks we have on this show mr billy saluga oh wow how cool is that yeah And talk about taking one thing. There you go. It's Fritz Feld again. Fritz Feld with a cigar. He probably became a multimillionaire

popping up on every show in the 70s. And every commercial. Yes. You can call me Ray. But you doesn't have to call me Johnson. And you go, that was it? When you look back on it, you go, oh, well, it must have been more than I remember. No, that was it.

And we have an hour coming up with him. Yes. Well, you can call him Ray, or you can call him Jay. Never mind. You should have him on the show and do a thing with Zalman. Zalman meets his inspiration. You wear a lot of hats on the show, don't you, Rich? You host, you write, you do the research as well?

Yeah, I do the research. I screen the movie to begin with, and I take real copious notes on it and break it down into the segments. If we need to cut it for time, I figure out where to make the cuts. And we really are real careful about it because I've always used to get really mad when I'd watch local movies where they just chop a whole scene and toss it. Oh, yeah. So we at times literally we're taking out 10 seconds here and 10 seconds there. The main thing to me is not, you know, taking out anything that's really essential to the plot.

So I do that and help with the post-production and, yeah. And you blog on the website, too? Yeah. I write the blogs every week and I do the social media stuff. My God. Yeah, I write blogs every week and I do the social media stuff. My God. And it's always fun when you name like the smallest character actors in there and like early serials that they did and everything.

Well, I've always been fascinated by that. And I think, you know, I'm just like a lot of the people at home. You see somebody on the screen and you're going, I know this guy, but I don't know what he, I know him from. Yes. And that was one of the reasons why I decided to do this. And it's funny because a lot of times, you know, we'll do the little biography thing and then somebody will email and say, you forgot to mention that he played the third man on the left in the movie I Live Three Lives. I love that you're doing the comic book guy in The Simpsons.

That's the voice I hear a lot of times with some of the letters that I get. But, yeah, it's like I have to explain to them we can't list their entire resume. We don't have the time to do that. Yeah, I mean, I'm telling you on the phone. I mean, I learned so much watching your show. I mean, I feel like I'm a guy that knows a fair amount. But I learned so much from iconic films that I thought I knew everything about. And you dive deep. Well, I'm sure not an expert.

And I learned everything just because I have to do, you know, the research on these movies. People say, oh, you're an expert on this. And like, no, I am hardly an expert. And now most of the horror actors, you were too young to have met. But which ones did you meet? i don't think i've met any of them quite honestly the closest i've come is is like meeting uh julie adams now later in life okay meeting uh vincent price's daughter victoria we had her on she's great yeah she's got so many great stories but yeah i never the chance. But going back to somebody we mentioned earlier, I did get to meet Louis Nye once. Oh, my God.

That counts. I was in a radio commercial with him for Admiral TVs. And he was Admiral, Admiral, and I was one of the shipmate guys. Oh, he was hysterical. Did you know Louis Nye, Gil? I never met Louis Nye. Oh, too bad. I met Howie Morris.

That's cool. Oh, wow bad. I met Howie Morris. That's cool. Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah, because I was just attending some autograph convention. I think you took me to it. Oh, it was the one at the Beverly Garland. Yes. In the Valley.

Yeah. Yeah. This guy honks his horn, goes, Gilbert. And to me, I had worked with Frank, I think, about 12 times. I had no idea who I was. Didn't know who he was, but he said, you want to get in the car, we're going to an autographs. I said, okay.

He got in the car with a guy that was a total stranger to him. Yeah. Because I said Norman Fell is going to be at this event that's the magic word he got in the car it was like one step away from i'm looking for my puppy can you climb the van i've got some candy here would you like some and when i was walking around i was walking around by myself at one point and someone screams out it's that loud mouth fucking jew and i freeze and i turn around it's howard mars dressed as ernest t best i might add yes I might add. Yes.

And I got to talk to Norman Feller. Pat Harrington Jr. was there. Oh, yeah. Adam West was there. That was quite a day. Oh, and the two women from Disney. Yeah, but I was walking him around, and I said, come on, Gil. We'll meet Adam West. We'll meet Pat Harrington Jr.

All you wanted to talk to was Priscilla Barnes from Three's Company. Oh, yes. Yes. You spent about 40 minutes at her table. That was a good choice. Yeah, that's the real Gilbert. Let me throw in a question from one of our listeners here, Rich. We do this thing called Grill the Guest on Patreon,

and Paul Ekstrom wants to know, did you meet Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, and did any hanky-panky happen between you? Well, actually, I did meet her, and she's really sweet. She's calling Gilbert now. Don't talk about that. Is that Elvira?

But yeah, we were doing one of the flashback weekend conventions here. I was doing the costume contest on stage, and they arranged for her to come up and interrupt. I didn't even expect it. And she came up and joined us on stage for a little while. And later on, I was talking to her, and she said, well, it's great to finally meet you after hearing about you for all these years. And I was like, you know about me? Oh, that's flattering.

And now I've heard her on radio shows and stuff and she she always says nice things about me which is great and she she's terrific very very funny here's one more from luke ski i loved watching the co-zone as on the syndicated chicago lineup uh sketches like captain dustpan was yeah here's a real fan of yours was stan Stan Freeberg a big influence? Yes, definitely. I loved his stuff and still do. The Cozone was when I was working at Fox, and at first it was a late night show because it was like the anniversary of me being fired, and one of the local columnists had written something about it. And they, I guess they felt guilty. So they said, well, we want you to do something, another late night thing. We want you to be like the Phantom of Fox and you're showing movies.

And I said, well, at that time, I said, there's somebody on the country music station who's doing the same thing, the Phantom of the Opry. And I said, here's what I'd like to do. Recently in Chicago, this really happened. Somebody had broken into the signal on a couple stations. And it was a guy in like a Max Headroom mask. And he paddled somebody's behind and all this stuff. It was really odd. But it actually happened. Two different stations. And I said, how about if I'm a former disgruntled employee and I'm breaking into the signal every week to do a show? And they were like, well, okay. So we did that. That's a clever idea.

Elaborate thing. And we did commercials where they started out as like a commercial for the Phil Donahue show. There'd be static. And then they'd show me in the background working on this equipment. And there was a sign that said the time of the show. And then by the end, it would fade out and go back to the regular commercial. So people thought somebody was really breaking into the show. And then by the end, it would fade out and go back to the regular commercial. So people thought somebody was really breaking into the signal. And in fact, somebody from the FCC called our chief engineer and said, all right, you want us to send out a truck and check who's

doing that? And when he said, no, it's just a publicity stunt, they were not very happy. Hilarious. We did that on Friday nights for a while. And then after a while, Fox decided they had to have a line of kids shows. And in every city they wanted to have a host. And my boss said, well, you know, how about you do that? And I said, well, I don't know if I want to be a kids show host. I'd like to just keep doing the nighttime show. And he said, well, the nighttime show might not be there anymore. So it's like, OK, well, I guess I'm going to be a kid's host. And we did the Cozone.

Again, I loved it because I got to play all sorts of different characters I'd create. Captain Dustpan was an ecological superhero. He was the fighter of filth. So I'd throw in, like, you know, stuff about, you know, conservation and things like that. But it was basically, I was doing the Cliff Clavin voice and I wore a dustpan for a mask with eye holes cut in it. We did little episodes of that. And then I did other characters.

There was like an old man who misunderstood everything. There was a Phil Silvers character, Mr. Bilker. A Phil Silvers character. Tried to sell people things. Yes, indeed. Oh, you'd look lovely if you bought this new harness that you could wear when you're in the car. Oh, it's really lovely. I just, I did schtick.

And the whole thing was they wanted to be educational, but I found ways to, you know, fit it in with just the comedy schtick. You got to charm life, Rich. You're a man who makes a living by putting a dustpan mask on his face. Doing Phil Silvers. Can make that claim. Thank you. Gilbert, were you ever approached or considered to do a kid show host? To do anything like that since you've done so many

kid shows? No. So many voices? I think they'd be scared now. Now? It's too late, of course. Like Mario had Steam Pipe Alley in the 80s and yeah that which was a very strange very subversive i'm wondering because because you became known for a while as a guy who did kids show oh yeah excuse me kids movie voices that anybody ever broached that idea but no no never did yeah that would that would have been surreal. Yeah, definitely. Let's just talk about some of the movies.

Sure. And by the way, I enjoyed Gilbert in the casket with having the chickens thrown. Oh, yes. At him on the show. And one thing that they managed to cut out each time is usually I'll grab one of the chickens and start choking it. Oh, I see. Gilbert choking his chicken. I see.

But I have to say, Gilbert, really, you've been very restrained when you've done this stuff with us. You know, there were certainly people who were going like, are you going to even have anything you'll be able to show on the program? And I said, no, don't worry. He'll make it good. And you have. And I really appreciate that. Here's some things I learned.

Gilbert will know this, of course. Did you know that Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein started out as a Broadway show? No. Or at least that was the intention. Do I have that right, Rich? Yeah, exactly. Because at the time, again, this was kind of like when their TV stuff had not started yet, and their movies were kind of losing steam. And they thought, well, we'll go back on stage. This

will be fun. And they thought about doing something. It was going to be Abbott and Costello meet the monsters. And it would have all the different, you you know famous monsters that were were in the uh in the universal movies and the original script was i think called uh the brain of frankenstein yeah that was the original script for the for the movie too yeah but it was going to be a stage show yeah they adapted that to where the brain that they were going to get for Frankenstein was going to be Costello's. And, you know, the Broadway show never happened, but the movie obviously didn't. It was a big boost to their career and also a little more vitalization for the monsters, which had not been in the public favor in a long time.

And nice of Karloff to do promotion for the movie, even after he turned the part down. Oh, yeah. That's also rather strange. The photos of him standing pointing at the posters and stuff. Sure. And the funny thing, though, and I know he didn't want to ever play the monster again, but it would have been nice, the idea of Cheney, Lugosi, and Karloff in one movie. It would have been.

That would have been outstanding. I wonder, though, if he was physically up to it by that time. Oh, that's true. We're talking about 46, 48? Yeah, around that time. And, you know, at the time, you saw that even Glenn Strange had problems and hurt his ankle there. Oh, yes.

You knew that, right? That Cheney puts on the... Yeah. Oh, sure. Yeah. Cheney puts on the full... In that scene where the monster throws the girl out the window, that's Cheney. Yeah, because Glenn Strange had tripped over a cable or something and hurt his ankle and wouldn't have been able to pick her up.

So we've got that movie coming up again i'm like plugging the hell out of this but we've got that coming up next month too i also didn't know the walter lance thing that did walter lance design the uh the opening credits oh wow the animation and also the transitions from uh bat to dracula oh those those were done by his animation. Isn't that cool? Wow. The stuff I learned watching Svengoolie. But they have their blunders there, like Dracula in the mirror.

Right, he goes in to bite, what is it, Lenore Albert or whatever her name is. And you see him reflected there, and it's like, wait a minute. Yeah. But the same thing happens in Son of Dracula, because he flies into the hallway, and Lon Chaney turns into, you know, the full man, and again, he's caught in part of a mirror in the hallway. Oh, wow.

Yeah, that's near the beginning of the film. Interesting. Here's another thing, speaking of the black cat. And I think I learned this on your show. The director, Edgar Ulmer, dubs a line. Yes, he does. He dubs the line for Karloff. They're playing a game of chess for which someone's life is in the balance.

And when he loses, his line is, you lose, Vetus. But it wasn't Karloff. It was Edgar Ulmer. How interesting. Wow. How interesting. Yeah, because I remember when they're leading, he goes, we'll play a little game. A game of death, if you like.

Exactly. As you do. You play chess. Oh, yes. For each other's lives. Well, they were going to play Monopoly. They're going to play Mousetrap. And there's

in getting back once again to the Black Cat, there is no rhyme or reason for anything that takes place in the movie. None. It's like some weird dream you're watching. I think it's a comedy. I mean, that scene where

Lugosi throws the scissors off screen at the cat. And it's like Mel Brooks doing the cat noise in Young Frankenstein. And when he backs into that big glass whatever it is, meter or whatever and breaks it.

What is that stuff? I guess it was supposed to be like a former fortress with armaments and things like that. But there's no explanation for some of the stuff that's in there. I'd like to do some deep research on that movie because it's a fever dream. I don't know if Omer was hallucinating or what. It just doesn't make it. He could have been getting stoned.

It's crazy from start to finish. It's crazy from start to finish. And Lugosi's death is like he's helping her out of the rope. And the other guy sees and he thinks she's being attacked. So he shoots Lugosi, which is like, oh, come on. And Lugosi goes, you poor fool. I was only trying to help her. And then dies.

In one of your Svengoolie episodes, Gilbert, you also wanted to know where Lawrence Talbot in The Wolfman gets the tailored suits. Yes. That always got me. I mean, he's a guy wandering around in the woods, and he turns into a werewolf and is running wild. And so he would always be dressed perfectly. Perfectly tailored suits, a suit and tie, everything pressed. At the beginning of House of Dracula, he's wearing what almost looks like, you know, what would be a mobster suit in a gangster movie.

Yes. He's got the black shirt, the pinstripes and the tie, and he's grown that little cookie duster mustache there. That was so fucking stupid. He turns into a werewolf. So what? He wants to display more hair on his face? Maybe it was a shortcut.

He wouldn't have to do as much. What's the one where Lugosi is supposedly really hypnotized? Oh, yes. Where he's in the closet. Yes, yes, yes. And we showed that, too. What the hell's the name of that one? Black Friday. Oh, yes. Black Friday. Yeah, and he plays a gangster, of, yes. And we showed that, too. What the hell's the name of that one? Black Friday.

Oh, yes. Black Friday. Yeah, and he plays a gangster, of all things. Yes, which doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. No, no. He's like, and in the closet, he's going, let me out. Let me out. I can't breathe.

Let me out, I can't breathe. And you're going, if he was really hypnotized and his native tongue, and the one that he spoke much better than English was Hungarian, wouldn't he be panicking in Hungarian? That would make perfect sense. The money is in the oven. Go get it. Rich, was there an SNL sketch about Svengoolie that didn't make it to air? Yeah, I was very surprised by this.

And there does exist one still picture on the weekend update set. Two guys who were fans of my show, I didn't even know about this, it was during election time, and they were going to have on the weekend update someone dressed exactly like me, supposedly Sven Gulli, who was going to be a political commentator

talking about the election, but he was going to keep doing, you know, really awful puns like I do. And they made it all the way to dress rehearsal and it got cut so it never hit the air. Oh, maybe we could get you some information on that. Get our hands on a script or something for you. That's intriguing. It was. And again, wow, how flattering. I'm always amazed that people know who I am now and know the character.

Were you ever at the Zachar Mansion? No, I never was, and I never even got to meet him, unfortunately. Zachar Mansion. The nudist. Yeah. That's the scariest thing. Our friend Drew Friedman, the cartoonist illustrator, claims that Fari Ackerman was a nudist. He's not going to be drawing that, is he?

I would love to see that. Here's a horror host reference. In an episode of The Odd Couple, were you an Odd Couple fan, Rich? Sure, yeah. Oscar's running for city council, and the only airtime he can get to do a commercial for his campaign is during the igor show does this does this mean anything to you igor it's a zacherly knockoff played by of all people guy marks oh wow marks wow yes i always remember him didn't he play an indian on F Troop? He played an Indian a lot.

I think he had an Indian character in his act. Yeah. Didn't he? Yes, I think that's right. And he's saying, your red scarf matches your eyes. This sounds right. You remember that song? Yeah.

It was like a sort of 1930s radio type song. Your red scarf matches your eyes. You closed your cover before striking. Father had the ship-fitter blues. Loving you has made me bananas. I love it. Oh my gosh. Let's see. What else do we have here?

Tell me about the mail you get because you and I were talking and you said that when you run a comedy, and you're a Marx Brothers guy like us, and bless your heart, you ran both Horse Feathers and Duck Soup on your show. And you said you got some a little bit of angry mail. Yeah, because, again, we get the letters and here comes the voice again. You know, you're supposed to be showing scary movies and yet you are showing this comedy.

It is not scary. And I wish you would stop it right now. I will never watch again. Yes. Send me your autograph. and I wish you would stop it right now. I will never watch again. P.S. Send me your autograph. And that's really like a real-life Count Floyd situation. It is. Yeah, they show like Pretty Woman.

Oh, it's very scary. Who booked this movie? But, you know, I love Marx Brothers and I love that. And even when we show Ghost and Mr. Chicken. Yeah, didn't you have that recently? One of the most popular movies we show. Yeah, it's good.

And, of course, Abbott and Costello meet Frankstein. I still don't get this. We get people complaining, oh, you show these Abbott and Costello movies. That is not the type of thing. You're supposed to be scary. And lately, what we've been getting as well is, you know, they moved my time slot earlier. And there were people like, this is totally wrong because these movies should be watched after dark.

So I told them, well, wait a month. It'll be dark by the time it's on. I'm going to ask you real quick before we run out of here, Rich, to talk about some of the movies that we've had, some of the horror films that Gilbert has recommended on the Amazing Colossal podcast, like Freaks. Freaks, that is an amazing movie to me. Every time I've seen that, I'm just stunned by the fact that they used actual, you know, politically incorrect. Now, Freaks in the movie. used actual, you know, politically incorrect now freaks in the movie. And another thing, though, that really always makes me laugh is the whole thing at the table with Goobo Gobbo, one of us.

Oh, yes. It's kind of like it's so funny. And yet at the same time, it's just so bizarre. And I yeah, I that was one of the movies I presented on Turner Classic Movies with Robert Osborne. And one part that they cut out of Freaks, she's turned into a chicken. Right. But in the original one, the strong man is singing soprano at the end. Oh, yes. Oh, my God.

Which I thought, you know, now I have no sympathy for the freaks. I'll let them turn her into a chicken. But, you know, chopping a guy's balls off is... That's where the line is crossed for you? Yeah, yeah. How about Island of Lost Souls, Rich? That's another one we talked about. Oh, my gosh, yeah. The original.

Charles Lawton is so hammy, of course. Oh, yeah. But the makeup is just very disturbing, I thought, in that. And again, you've got, you know, these rather lustful animal men, you know, looking at the blonde. And then, you know, the very hot panther woman there, too. Oh, my God, yeah. I mean, there's so much sexuality involved in that. And, again, but tremendous.

And, again, you really feel threatened. And the ending of that one, too, is just, you know, for the time, I'm sure people were just with their jaws dropping like, oh, my God. That was so. Wild movie for its time. Yeah, they throw Charles Lawton on the surgery table, and you see the hands grabbing for scalpels and scissors and knives. And you just hear him screaming. Yeah.

Yeah, creepy. And then they try, well, obviously, we won't even like the Brando version, which is... Well, there's a Burt Lancaster one from the 70s. It's also off the wall and not very good. Yeah. Is that with Barbara Carrera? Yeah, Michael York.

Yes. And with the Burt Lancaster one, I remember they advertised it showing like full color pictures of every single monster character. So there were no surprises. Yeah, exactly. And the Brando one just has to be seen to be believed. Yeah. Yeah, that's a jaw drop of the Brando one.

Rich, what do you got coming up? Plugs? What's happening? You doing live appearances? People show up dressed as you? Yeah, it's funny. Something that happened recently is somebody posted something from, oh, I was at this convention.

I want to thank you for taking a picture with me. I wasn't there. Somebody dressed as me, who obviously, you know, was trying to pass himself off as me. But, yeah, we do a lot of appearances all through the year. Of course, the Halloween season is the busy season for me. Coming up, we do Christmas ones where I'm Sventa Claus. Sventa Claus. I have a nice red suit and a sort of Santa hat with a black fur trim. And we got a lot of fun movies coming up.

The Deadly Mantis is coming up. Oh, yeah. Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein, of course. And The Invisible Woman near the end of the year, too. Isn't that a comedy, The Invisible Woman? Yeah. I'll be getting the letters, yes. The Invisible Woman is not frightening.

Gilbert and I are going to send you letters, too, now. Okay, I'll be waiting for them. But remember to do them in that voice. We're going to send you letters of complaints. And Gilbert's going to be a chiller fest too aren't you gil oh yes yeah yeah yeah and and uh i'm sure i'll be stopping by like zany's in chicago sometime uh in the next couple of months so i'll try to stop by on svengoolie well yeah you you know you've got an open invitation anytime you're in town to come in

and do something with us. Isn't that nice? Do you ever get this way, Rich? Do you ever do any cons here in New York? I haven't in a long time. You know, I had some heart problems and the doctor really didn't want me to fly for quite a while and I'd have to touch base with him again. But we've been getting a lot of feelers from these different conventions all over the country now. And it's kind of like we've got to first find out if I'm OK to do it. But secondly, figure out how we'll do it, because a lot of times here in the area when I do the stuff, I get paid a flat fee. And then I like sign for free and pose for pictures for free for about two hours. And I know some of the conventions don't work that way.

So we'll have to figure out how to make all this stuff work. Well, I hope so. I'd like to meet you one of these days. Oh, same here. I promise not to complain about the comedies on the show. You might complain about Gilbert's appearances. We'll save you the parts that we cut out that we couldn't show on the air. Okay, so now we'll start wrapping up. I'm Gilbert Gottfried, and this has been Gilbert Gottfried's amazing, colossal podcast

with my co-host, Frank Santopadre, and we've been talking to... Rich Coase. Rich Coase. I forgot your first name for a second. Sven. Sven. All the listeners at home are now going, so, you guys ran out of good guests?

Yeah. You were the perfect Halloween guest, Rich. Yes. Rich Coase. Better known as Sven Gulli. Do a little Karloff as you sign out for it, because it's our Halloween episode. What do you think?

And this has been Gilbert Gottfried's amazing Colossal Podcast. And our guest today was Rich Stone. Better known as Sven Gulli.

Pretty good. Pretty good. Rich, this was a perfect Halloween episode. Thanks for coming on your busy season. Thank you so much. It's really an honor for you guys to have me on. I appreciate it. Is there anything you want to say about Skelton Nags before you sign off?

Yes, I saw him in a Sherlock Holmes movie and it scared the hell out of me. Oh my god. There you go. Do you know anything about him personally? No. Either fortunately or unfortunately, I don't. Yeah, I think fortunately. Collected Hummel figurines.

Yes. Give our best to Freddie Boom Boom Cannon, Rich. I will. Thank you. We love him. And happy Halloween. Same to you guys.

Thank you so much. Thanks. Hey, what I say? I said, hey, Spangoolie. I said, hey, Spangoolie. When the moon is full, the zombies drop. Now everybody's doing the Spangoolie stuff. They get to stop. Spangoolie stuff. They get to stop.

Spangoolie stuff. When the moon is full, the mummies drop. Now everybody's doing the Spangoolie stuff. The Mummy's Wrong Now everybody's doing the Strangoli stuff. They did the stuff. Andrea Simmons. Web and social media is handled by Mike McPadden, Greg Pair, Nancy Chinchar, and John Bradley Seals. Special audio contributions by John Beach. Special thanks to John Murray, John Fodiatis, and Nutmeg Creative. Especially Sam Giovonco and Daniel Farrell for their assistance. Hi there, I'm Jackie the Joke Man Marling,

and I've had the exquisite pleasure of once again being on Gilbert Gottfried's amazing, colossal podcast with the wonderful Gilbert Gottfried and the equally amazing Frank Santopadre.