Real name: Bill Camfield
Years active: 1957- 1959, with occasional specials
throughout the 1960’s and 1970’s, Texas
Heading back to the musty vaults of horror, we find
ourselves needing a host to make sense of the madness that inhabits our screens.
As before I was unable to decide on a particular standard, but this year I
decided to focus on the horror hosts of the Lone Star State. And starting the
list off this year is the first host of Texas, Gorgon the Gruesome.
Bill Camfield was no stranger to television, as he was
already playing the kid show host Icky Twerp, but starting in 1957 on K-FJZ,
Ch. 11 in Dallas/Fort Worth viewers could tune in and watch Nightmare. The movies featured were
taken entirely from the Shock video package, while the non-horror stuff was
aired on Mystery Matinee, also hosted
by Camfield.
Camfield took a massive departure from other hosts at the time.
Whereas Vampira or Zacherley would snark and joke about the film, Gorgon made
it quite clear that what you were about to watch was the scariest damn thing
ever put to film. Camfield was also blessed with a fairly decent budget, as the
set changed often and there were quite a few assistants often seen mulling
about.
Gorgon’s tenure was rather lengthy. Officially Nightmare ended in 1959, yet Gorgon
would appear regularly on Dallas airwaves, usually hosting a Halloween special.
The serious host was an archetype that didn’t seem to catch on, as most hosts
following Gorgon and especially today take a more campy approach to the films
featured.
Of course, the films featured during Nightmare’s run would have been the classic black and white films
of Universal and other studios. Having a serious approach back then would have
made sense, although with such repeat viewings and parodies it is doubtful such
an approach would be accepted today. Gorgon did set the standard for Texas
hosts to follow however, and his contributions cannot be understated.
Bill Camfield passed away in 1991.
“When the night falls…when the shadows become deep and
black…the silent pall of evil falls upon the Earth”
No comments:
Post a Comment