Meet Rondo Hatton in the “House of Horrors” -Tonight!

A nearly starving artist sees light at the end of the tunnel, with someone prepared to buy one of his latest works of art- but his world begins to collapse when said customer brings along an art critic, whose acid comments change the man's mind about his purchase! The crestfallen Marcel, at the end of his rope, is ready to do himself in- when he encounters a half-drowned  stranger - and takes him home to help him recover. This odd individual  is  a misshapen man with  unusual looks- which inspire Marcel, feeling this fellow could be the subject of an incredible new artistic creation. Before long, Marcel discovers that his new "friend" has quite the past- he's a sadistic serial killer! Instead of this frightening the artist- he plans to put his new-found model to use... as an instrument of revenge against those who have made his life miserable and tried to stifle his career!

Marcel keeps his model hidden, and works on a huge realistic depiction of him. Along the way, he is visited by a pretty reporter, whose artist boyfriend has also been the target of  the same nasty critic who cost Marcel his sale. Things get worse when art critics start turning up dead- and the reporter's boyfriend is leading the list of possible suspects. And- when she finally notices what Marcel's latest project is- it leads to HER heading to the top of a different list- a hit list!

This 1946 film  brought back the "Creeper" character that Rondo first portrayed in the Sherlock Holmes film “Pearl of Death”- the character was , at the time, planned as the star of a series of films, before Rondo passed away.  We’ll reveal Rondo's real life story,thanks to the help of film-maker Fred Olen Ray; and introduce you to familiar faces in the cast-one you'll have previously seen earlier in "Super Sci Fi Saturday Night!" There's a lot of Sven segment fun, including a special feature showing how our striking Sven dungeon set was created and constructed by our own artists genius friends from the Acme Design Inc. company of Elgin, Il.

And, yes, Rondo is for whom the national horror genre awards, in his image, are named - as I've mentioned, I'm nominated for the one for "favorite horror host". You'll find the info on voting under the "appearances" tab on our site.

Also, after we recorded the biographical info about Rondo, I was told I was mispronouncing the  disease that caused his disfigurement- acromegaly- my apologies, and we've added a brief correction right after the segment.

"House of Horrors" begins tonight at 10 pm eastern/pacific, 9 central  (please check if your local station is delaying the start time an hour due to news, sports, or whatever)- as always, check your local listings if you're unsure of our start time, or go to www.metv.com . Chicago viewers can enjoy another look at the classic Claude Rains "Invisible Man" at 11 am on our sister station- WCIU, the U.

And, if you can meet Sven's alter ego, Rich Koz, and hear him talk about his career tonight at St. William's Parish's "Raising the Roof" fund-raising event. It's located on the North side of Chicago- you'll find info under the "appearances" tab here as well! (Just make sure you record tonight's program!)

A big thank you to everybody who came out to meet Sven and enjoy the food and fun at Brookfield Zoo Thursday night- yet another successful event benefiting animal preservation and protection, and a lot of fun! Plus, I got up close and personal with an absolutely beautiful horned owl and a red tailed hawk. ( I kept the rubber chicken out of their line of sight!)

We've got a  great April planned for you- starting off with Rondo!  Make sure you tune in!