Uncle Don's Terror Theater

As a kid growing up in De Kalb Illinois (1985-1989) I discovered a late night Television Shows that featured old horror movies.   Uncle Don's Terror Theater (which later became Uncle Don's Theater).  Every Saturday night my brothers I would pop microwave popcorn and turn to WQRF channel 39 in Rockford, IL at 10:30 pm.  His jingle would come on I knew I was in for a night of fun horror movies and hilarious parodies and hi-jinx from Uncle Don (Matt Swan).  

On top of great schlocky movies he did some comedy bits in between the movies and commercials which to me really was the whole draw to the show.  It was great fun all around! He would make even the worst horror films better.  He his shark sidekick (Sharkey) that would set up his jokes as Uncle Don knocked them down and he'd always read fan mail every week as his nephew "Ramsey" (also played by Matt Swan) would bring in the mail. 

Some of the movies I remembered he showed were War Of The Worlds, Food Of The Gods, The Dunwich Horror,  A Bucket of Blood,  Count Yorga, The Leach Woman,  King Kong, Mighty Joe Young, Godzilla (all of the ones from the 50s, 60s and 70s) Creature From the Black Lagoon, The Invisible Man, Dracula, Frankenstein, Wolfman, Pit And The Pendulum, The Black Cat, Murders In The Rue Morgue (pretty much most of the Universal Monster movies)....

On top of great schlocky movies he did some comedy bits in between the movies and commercials which to me really was the whole draw to the show.  It was great fun all around!

In last year the show was on it moved to Saturday afternoons and he dropped the "Terror" and just called it Uncle Don's Theater.  He had broadened the focus of the show, I remember he showed the mini-series "Shogun" which was great!

Horror movie hosts have had a bit of a resurgence with Elvira restarting her old show and Svengoolie which is currently my favorite.  But overall I've got great memories of Uncle Don!

Oddly enough Uncle Don lives in De Kalb now and is the Communication Communication Instructor at Northern Illinois University.  One of these days I'll have to get in contact with him!

Check out some of these hilarious bits from his show!

Monster Magazines

Back when I was a young kid of 6 or 7, I lived in a really old house that had a great big, creepy attic.  I used to love going up there and exploring because it was filled with long forgotten Halloween costumes , furniture, lamps, steam trunks and other odds and ends.

I vividly remember the way it smelled, a sort of odd potpourri of old wood, dust and insulation.  I remember every time I would open the door to the attic I was always greeted by Red Devil Paint cans sitting on the steps on the way up.  I'd always give the devil on the can a wary look and run past it hoping that he didn't reach out a claw and grab my leg as I ran up the stairs.  And to add to the creepiness the attic used to have bats living in it.  I always looked up in the rafters hoping to catch a glimpse of a bat hanging upside down.

One day I was digging around and in an old apple crate I found two piles of monster magazines and my life was changed forever!

Warren Publishing was known for putting out Famous Monsters Of Filmland, Creepy, Eerie, Vampirella and a whole slew of action comics back in the 50s, 60s and 70s.  I didn't fully appreciate the treasure trove that I uncovered until much later in life, and long after the magazines were gone.

I remember picking up Eerie and how the Frazetta artwork attacked me visually with images of evil wizards, shambling undead, damsels in distress (I mean come on who drew women better than Frank Frazetta), and mindless beasts attacking brawny heroes.  I made many a trip up to my creepy spider haunted abode to force-feed myself horrific images in the creepiest part of my house and later to subject myself to nightmares.  In fact my parents cut out Scooby-Doo and Doctor Who from my TV time because they thought that was the source of my nightmares.  I didn't want the magazines to disappear so I didn't mention them.

Every once in a while I'll pick up a copy of Famous Monsters, Eerie or Creepy and let the memories run back in.  The images are great inspiration to me when working on illustrations and a great read on a cold winter night!