Kiddie Shows and Horror Hosts


Dick Bennick was a jack-of-all-trades that worked a number of years for WGHP in High Point, NC. The station had signed on, as an ABC affiliate, in 1963 (I saw the launch, a slow dissolve from snow to opening broadcast that was a Woody Woodpecker Show). Dick did seemingly every hosting gig in the building, from weather reports to kid-show barking, local ads for car dealerships, the works. And then he stumbled into the late-night horror movie spot, and that’s where Dick achieved immortality. His first step was tentative, replacing a colleague who’d been suiting up Friday nights as "Count Shockula," an inexpressive mask  concealing both his face and personality. Bennick endured this for a while, even parlayed Count Shockula into occasional spook show hosting for the Carolina Theatre in Winston-Salem, NC, but Dick knew Shockula was a dead end. His more genial alter ego served as master-of-ceremonies for their Saturday morning kiddie shows. When I recently spoke to former Carolina manager Dan Austell, in his hale-and-hearty nineties, he recalled that Dick got no pay for those appearances, but was permitted to tie-in as many merchants as he could, and keep whatever coin he could generate (products would be displayed on stage during Dick’s M.C. spots). Plenty in the well from which to sup. Film rentals were cheap. Austell told me they never spent more than $25 for a booking. Dick would whip kids into a frenzy with a live rock and roll combo, plus prize giveaways with Bingo games. Girls were invited to come up and dance with the band, much as they'd see it performed on TV's Shindig and Hullabaloo. I got to know one of those "Go-Go Girls" years later --- she recalled gyrating on the stage for a half-hour or so, then settling back to watch a Hammer film, or an AIP Poe thriller, plus a serial chapter, each week at the Carolina. I used to look at Saturday newspaper ads and dream of attending those things. What delight they must have been.


Anyway, back to Dick Bennick. He came up with a new character to host Shock Theatre on Friday nights. Dr. Paul Bearer was the name (get it?), and Dick wrote material every week for his new creation. The passing of the torch was solemnized when Bearer invaded Count Shockula’s lair and drove a stake through his heart during the broadcast (they must have used a stand-in for Shockula that night, since Dick had played both). From that moment, Dr. Paul Bearer's success was assured. The movies Channel 8 used for Shock Theatre were a mixed bag, but pearls lay within the oyster, for it was here that I first saw Doctor X, The Walking Dead, and the Val Lewton chillers for RKO. After a few more years with Channel 8, Dick beat it for another station in Florida, where he again was a sensation as Dr. Paul Bearer. Bennick died in 1995. I deliberately left Elvis and Spinout in the ad shown here for the sake of context. It was Thanksgiving weekend of 1966, by the way. The Nonagenarian manager who so kindly recalled those halcyon days told me that his "First Annual" Mess America Pageant was also the last. I guess when you’ve seen one of those pageants, you’ve seen them all, but what a thrill it would have been to catch all that action on stage, plus The Skull on screen, and all for only a dollar.