“From Shock Theatre to Svengoolie” Book is Back!!!

I mentioned this a while back, but with the book finally back out, and available on Amazon and at our favorite horror collectibles store, Horrorbles (on Roosevelt Road in Berwyn- yes, Berwyn!- and online at horrorbles.com )- I wanted to again let you know that the best book about Chicago’s TV history of horror film programs is once again ready to inform fans about the Windy City’s roster of monster movie hosts through the years. “Chicago TV Horror Movie Shows: from Shock Theatre to Svengoolie”, well-written by Ted Okuda and Mark Yurkiw, is now available as both a downloadable book and, finally, as a honest-to-gosh actual paper and ink book from Lake Claremont Press. Since it first came out in 2007, and went through a couple printings, and then, subsequently, went out of print-countless Sven viewers have asked where they could get a copy- and, unfortunately, unless you could find one in a used book store (which, knowing the nature of most fans, wasn’t that likely-most of us don’t get rid of our books unless we’re flat broke and in desperate need of some cash!)- you were out of luck. As I’ve said before, when someone would bring their copy to one of my appearances for a signature, other fans who saw it wanted to buy copy- and now they can. The book gives the history of both hosted and unhosted shows that ran horror films- and lists many titles that ran on the shows. It is especially relevant when it comes to the facts and history about the hosted programs- and undoubtedly the best source of information of these “creatures of the video night”(or, daytime, depending on the timeslot!) Now that we’re seen around the country, and we get so many questions about our show, this is the perfect way for our new fans to catch up on the histories of both the original Sven, Jerry G. Bishop, and myself- as well as Chicago’s first horror host, Marvin (some say there was an earlier host, some “Swami”, but he did mostly thrillers, and didn’t fall under the umbrella of original horror hosts spawned by Universal’s release of its “Shock” package of films to TV stations, which included so many of the Universal classic monsters.) You can read more about this book at : http://terrordaves.com/2012/10/02/from-shock-theatre-to-svengoolie-returns/ Now, let us return to our month of “Halloween Horrors of the Day”! Today’s horror is one who is actually listed in the above book’s appendix of “100 Monster Movies”( a cross section of titles that ran on Chicago TV)- he is the “Amazing Colossal Man”! Somewhat similar to the case of Marvel’s Bruce Banner, the incredible Hulk- Army Lt. Col. Glenn Manning is caught in a nuclear explosion- and burned over 90% of his body. However, instead of passing away, as authorities expected- he begins to heal- and grow- and grow- and grow! His uncontrollable growth has a serious side effect- it affects his mind, and he begins to go mad- and, at a height of about sixty feet, goes on a rampage, trashing Las Vegas! This 1957 sci-fi film is pretty typical of the 50s “blame it on radiation” trend- and spawned a sequel, “War of the Colossal Beast”- in which Manning resurfaces, still huge, but disfigured (the disfigurement was a tactic used to disguise the fact that a different actor was playing Manning in the sequel!) and still dangerous. No matter who’s playing the big guy- the Amazing Colossal Man is a memorable mammoth menace, and worthy of being today’s “Halloween Horror of the Day”!