A Sad Day For The Bad Movie Guy!

Ordinarily, I don't get too emotional when I hear that someone I really didn't know has passed away, but there's always the exception that proves the rule and the exception is in full effect this morning! Sir Graves Ghastly has died!



Born Lawson J. Deming in Cleveland in 1913, he was, and always will be, Sir Graves to me. Now, some of you might be wondering who Sir Graves Ghastly is, well, in Detroit, in the late 60s and early 70s, he was out horror host. The local equivalent to a Vampira or a Zacherle, but he was the guy who introduced me to all the movies, and the genre, that I love the most...HORROR!

It was every Saturday morning, the coffin would open, and Sir Graves would bring us Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, The Creature From The Black Lagoon, The Mummy and other, lesser known horror movies, and I would sit in front of the TV and take them all in. I can clearly remember my dad yelling at me to 'go outside and play' because it was 'a beautiful day', but I wouldn't have it at all, I was waiting for my weekly horror fix with Sir Graves. Even at that early age, I was addicted to the bad movies and Sir Graves was my pusher.

As I got older, my love of Sir Graves never waned, I was probably the only teenager in the neighborhood who had to stop everything on Saturdays, grab a snack and be ready for Sir Graves, and, while that might sound a little sad to you, it was the highlight of my week.

By the time Sir Graves left the air in 1982, he had become syndicated and was often show in prime-time or in the evenings. But by that time, I had graduated high school and had a car of my own and was off to the drive-in on the weekends to see the movies that, if he were on today, he would surely be showing. It wasn't until years later that I realized that, sitting there in front of the TV was the beginning of my love of B movies, which is really the equivalent of today's independent cinema, that I still have today.

In fact, my plan for today was one thing, but I think I'll head over to the theatre and see an indie movie in honor of Sir Graves and the love of this stuff that he instilled in me!

So, for those of you who remember Sir Graves and remember him let me just say thanks for the years of entertainment, both provided and inspired and let me remind you that the best movies are bad movies and as Sir Graves himself would say:

NEEYAAAAAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!