Halloween | Eddie & Jeff

November 3, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Eddie Munster and Jeffrey Hickey | Halloween Interview [11:15m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Special Guests Butch Patrick (Eddie Munster) and Jeffrey Hickey joined us this week for our Halloween episode. Jeffrey is known for his spooky stories for children (Bats and Bones), and for his most recent novel, released this week as an unabridged audio book on 9 CDs.

They discuss what Halloween means to them, and how the Munsters used to celebrate! Find out what Eddie Munster did on Halloween this year! His new biography is now available in a limited edition from www.bloomingtwigbooks.com/shop

Find out more about Butch Patrick at his book’s website: www.themunsters.tv, and find out more about Jeffrey Hickey at his website: www.jeffreyhickey.com

And Happy Halloween!

Posted by admin | Filed Under Halloween, Entertainment, Hollywood, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, PODCAST

John Stanley | Horror Host

November 3, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Interview with Halloween Horror Host John Stanley [14:12m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

It was our pleasure this week to host John Stanley, everyone’s favorite television Horror Host. His new book is called “I Was a Television Horror Host” and is chock full of fascinating details about a side to Hollywood that we seldom discover in the mainstream media! Listen in to hear him talk about Ray Bradbury and other characters he ran into on his show in California.

From the author’s website:

Never before has a TV horror host described in print what it was like to be part of that cult movement of the 20th Century, in which packages of science-fiction, horror and fantasy movies were introduced by colorful characters who often emulated supernatural beings. These media entitities, garbed as vampires, werewolves, ghouls and other grotesqueries inspired by the cinema, espoused graveyard humor in a spoofery of the very movie material being presented. Generations grew up on these new-fanged beings, and thousands of young viewers were shaped and changed forever by the humor and tomfoolery of the hosts who came into their living rooms or bedrooms on Saturday night, often after the Witching Hour. In my case I never wore a costume or assumed the guise of a fictional being - rather, I was my ordinary self, often dressed mundanely in suit and tie, describing the movies from my perspective as a “human” and interviewing those who did choose to wear a costume, or who were part of the 20th Century world of genre entertainment.

For six years (1979-84) I hosted “Creature Features” at KTVU, Channel 2, in Oakland, CA, and it is those fascinating times I have tried to resurrect in I WAS A TV HORROR HOST. I was preceded by Bob Wilkins, one of the most popular TV personalities in the San Francisco-Bay Area from 1971-78, and his story is told along with mine.

But more importantly, I WAS A TV HORROR HOST offers my exclusive interviews with the best of the genre stars and those who rose up in the ranks to become icons: Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner and Gene Roddenberry of “Star Trek” fame. Read about the betrayal of Roddenberry behind the scenes, and how Nimoy almost walked out on me the day of a two-hour TV special that highlighted all the important aspects of his career. Christopher Lee, star of the “Dracula” films from Britain’s Hammer Studios. He also started to walk out on me but paused at the last moment and reconsidered, and lived not to regret it.

Vincent Price, the star of the Edgar Allan Poe series from American-International. He tried to deny his heritage of horror, but finally came around when spooning with his wife Coral Browne prevailed.

Roger Corman, the man who helped to raise the low-budget movie into cult status, and who helped to make Vincent Price a horror star, and who gave a boost to the career of Francis Ford Coppola. Always open and friendly to me.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, from a time early in his career when he vowed “I’ll be back,” prophesizing the coming of “Conan the Barbarian.” And read about the curvaceous cocktail waitress who couldn’t come to his hotel room, and why . . . and what Arnie suggested to solve the problem.

I also present profiles on four other TV horror hosts, all of whom I consider major contributors to the dark “art form.” Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, who brought sophisticated voluptuousness and a certain soft-fleshed and shapely intellectualism to the art form at a TV station in Los Angeles . . . Ghoulardi, the one-time horror king of Cleveland, Ohio, who went on to become network TV’s greatest voice, especially when it came to opening each episode of “The Love Boat” . . . Zacherley, one of the very first during the 1950s to shape and refine the very essence of what a good monstrous horror host consisted of . . . and Joe Bob Briggs, the Drive-In Movie Critic who has brought a new level of respect to the low-budget movies of the past with such deep-felt and well-written books as “Profoundly Disturbing.”

He also describes meetings with Lucille Ball (I Love Lucy), Ray Bradbury, Robert Bloch, William Castle, and more! It’s an intriguing read, and this was a fun interview!

Happy Halloween!

For more about John Stanley and all of his books and work, visit his website at: www.stanleybooks.net

Posted by admin | Filed Under Halloween, Entertainment, Hollywood, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, PODCAST

Eddie & Jeff Transcript

November 3, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Dr. Kent Gustavson: Hello and welcome to Sound Authors radio. It’s November 2nd, a couple days after Halloween, but because I’m still in the spirit, this is the Halloween show. We’ve got Jeff Hickey on the line. Jeff, are you there?

Jeffrey Hickey: Yes, you do.

Kent: What did you do for Halloween?

Jeffrey: Actually, carved a few pumpkins, set them out. It was actually kind of a let‑down, because we didn’t get many trick‑or‑treaters this year, but we live in a part of the world where there’s not that many children. We live in a pretty remote area.

So it seems like the trick‑or‑treating mostly went on elsewhere this year. It used to be a huge tradition, though, at our house, where we would carve about 50 jack‑o‑lanterns and I would have spooky music pumping out through speakers outside. People would come from miles around to see the sort of stuff we did.

It used to be something. Also, I used to do lots and lots of reader’s theater shows ‑ like as many as about 25 in 14 or 15 days, around that time ‑ doing spooky readings.

Kent: You carved 50 pumpkins?

Jeffrey: Yes, I’m a master. I’m not shy about it. I’m pretty rudimentary at the carvings, but I am a master at cleaning them and preparing them for carving. I’ve got the proper tools. I could clean a pumpkin in about a minute and have it ready for you to carve.

Kent: Do you use the pumpkin?

Jeffrey: .. For compost, [laughter] eventually. Yeah, you know, we do use the pumpkin seeds, some of them at least, but most of them just go right into the compost and end up in our garden. So in that sense, they do get used.

Kent: So I sat in front of my house with a pumpkin on my lap, carving it, pulling out all the insides. In my family we always cut all the pumpkin out of the inside and we saved that too ‑ cooked it down. But it takes hours to cook that stuff.

Jeffrey: Well, it does.

Kent: And hours.

Jeffrey: And it all depends on how much you can stomach the smell of squash. Personally, I’ve only got a couple of hours in me for a year. I’m not a huge squash man.

Kent: Butch? Are you a squash man?

Eddie Munster: Not much, no.

Kent: We got Butch Patrick on the line now; we had a little technical difficulty. Butch, this is Jeff Hickey.

Jeffrey: Hey, Butch, what’s up man?

Eddie: Oh, not too much. Right now, I’m just kind of relaxing, having had a hectic last few weeks.

Jeffrey: You and me both, buddy.

Eddie: Yeah, I can appreciate that.

Jeffrey: I’m pounding down my morning cup of coffee here.

Posted by admin | Filed Under Halloween, TRANSCRIPTS, Fiction, Entertainment, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, Hollywood, PODCAST

John Stanley Transcript

November 2, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Kent Gustavson: Welcome back to Sound Authors Radio. This is Dr. Kent chatting with you, and on the line I have John Stanley. Are you there, John?

John Stanley: I’m sure here, Doc. Go right ahead.

Kent: And your newest book is called “I Was a Television Horror Host”. Is that right?

John: That’s absolutely correct.

Kent: When did that come out?

John: It’s only been out for a couple of months now. I was a horror host in the San Francisco Bay area for eight years. The program actually ran for a total of 14 years, and it’s still one of the most popularly remembered shows in the entire history of Bay area television. I have to give credit to my predecessor. His name was Bob Wilkins.

Unlike other horror hosts who always dressed up in costumes or played ghoulish kind of characters, Bob was a one‑time advertising executive who wore suits and ties. That’s how he presented himself on television talking about these old horror films and often reading from a copy of TV Guide so watchers would have a choice to turn to another channel. He approached it with a totally tongue in cheek attitude and he was actually the leading program in the ratings. He beat out NBC’s Saturday Night at the Movies back in the 1970’s.

Kent: How did you look on TV?

John: I looked pretty much the way he did, but I didn’t have as good a wardrobe of suits as he had. I didn’t wear the Gucci shoes. I went more for a collegiate look with a lot of sweaters and slacks and so on. My main emphasis was not only talking about the film I was going to show, and I always was knowledgeable about the background of most of these films. I wanted to present the very best guests that I could find, people like Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner, Robert Block, Lucille Ball, people who came from the top echelons of showbiz.

I was able to get them on the show primarily because I had also been a newspaper man at the San Francisco Chronicle, so I had good contacts to blend together my guests and the spirit of keeping these old horror films alive, talking about them and providing background about them.

Kent: Can you give us a few salacious details about the stars that you chatted with?

Posted by admin | Filed Under Halloween, TRANSCRIPTS, Entertainment, Hollywood, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, PODCAST

Eddie Munster | Child Star

October 20, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Interview with Butch Patrick (Eddie Munster) and Helen Darras [12:24m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The inaugural episode of Sound Authors kicked off live with an interview of Butch Patrick (Eddie Munster) and the author of his first ever biography, Helen Darras, of New York.

They chat about Butch Patrick’s time as Eddie Munster on The Munsters in the early 1960s, as well as his tenure on other shows, such as Mr. Ed, Bonanza, and many more!

Butch Patrick and Helen Darras are in the middle of a nationwide tour after the release of the hardcover edition of their book, published by Blooming Twig Books in New York. The audio book, read by Butch Patrick himself, will also be released very soon, and will be available on itunes late this year.

To find out more about Butch Patrick, Helen Darras, and The Munsters, please visit their website at: www.themunsters.tv

To purchase a copy of the book, please visit our store here, or go to www.bloomingtwigbooks.com/shop directly.

Posted by admin | Filed Under Entertainment, Hollywood, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, PODCAST

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