S.M. Douglas

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Sir Ghastly Graves

April 11, 2018 / / 2 Comments

I’d like to give a hat tip to Sir Graves Ghastly and provide some Detroit horror history for readers of my werewolf book Apex Predator.

In the book one of my characters mentions growing up with an eerie Led Zeppelin themed TV show featuring a horror movie of the week. Readers who are not from Detroit often ask if there really was such a thing – and there was!

From 1967 to November 1982 the horror show Sir Graves Ghastly ran virtually every Saturday afternoon on WJBK Channel 2 in Detroit. By the way, the show’s host (pictured here) was none other than Sir Graves Ghastly himself! Played by actor Lawson Deming (R.I.P. 1913-2007) Sir Graves may be Detroit’s all-time favorite vampire – a man known for hamming it up like no other.

SirGravesGhastly

Though Sir Graves Ghastly also ran in Cleveland and Washington D.C. the Detroit market provided it’s strongest ratings. That is until College Football proved to be the vampire’s undoing. When the chance arose to write my novel I couldn’t resist sprinkling it with references to my favorite horror influences – including Sir Graves Ghastly.

August 12, 2014

As many of you know by now, Robin Williams died yesterday at age 63 (apparently suicide being the cause of death).

My first exposure to his work was via the TV Show Mork & Mindy. From there, and though Mrs. Doubtfire gets so much attention, three of my favorite performances of his were in Good Morning Vietnam and of all things, two of his darker roles; in the 2002 films Insomnia and One Hour Photo. In addition I would be utterly remiss to ignore the 1980 film Popeye, in which he played the titular character. The movie was in heavy rotation on HBO and was a staple of my childhood.

Rather than go into a long introspective piece on the greatness that was his particular brand of comedy I would like to show you some examples of why he was such a riveting entertainer:

 

August 4, 2014

Here’s a little something to help perk up your Monday blah’s (it will either make you laugh hysterically at what used to pass for “cool” or want to get out and strap on the old roller skates).

Either way, it’s from the 1979 movie Roller Boogie and set to Boogie Wonderland (a classic in it’s own right – in 1979 it peaked at Number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100, sold over a million copies and was certified “gold” by the RIAA). A trivia note here: many of the skaters also performed in another homage to roller skating culture: 1980’s Xanadu.

So enjoy the fashions, skating skills, music, hairstyles, and oh by the way…I wish I were still that skinny:

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