4/26/2007

Since I got a chance to vent yesterday and clarify the misconception that some correspondents have about me- it’s only fair that, today, I delve into the mailbag and answer some of the other questions that are sent to me. Gwen (not Stefani, right?!) says that she has enjoyed the recent movies featuring Boris Karloff, and wants to know if we will have any other Boris films in the future…well, Gwen, we most definitely will- from his portrayals of the Monster in “Frankenstein” and “Bride of Frankenstein” to the mummy Imhotep in –what else? “The Mummy!” I wonder if you might’ve caught Boris in a couple movies that ran early on in our WCIU stint- “Voodoo Island” and “the Black Sleep.” We no longer have rights to those, but they do prove that Boris has been a part of our program here at “the U” from right at the beginning! And-for all you Karloff fans, here’s a bonus - a commercial featuring Boris, courtesy of Me-TV! Just click here! Jim has asked if it might be possible to have a “Svengoolie history page” here on our website, so newer viewers can learn about the history of the original Sven, Jerry G. Bishop, right up through how I became Son of Svengoolie and eventually arrived at my home here at “the U.” Jim, there’s definitely a chance that could happen in the future, along with a whole Svengoolie page with all sorts of goodies. In the meantime, you can find out a lot about that backstory in these blogs- I’ve told the story in the past- plus, earlier in the week, I mentioned the latest issue of “Scary Monsters” magazine, which has a lot of that info in there. Also, due out in a month or so is the new book from Ted Okuta, along with Mark Yurkiw, entitled “Chicago TV’s Horror Movie Shows: from Shock Theater to Svengoolie.” This book will include the story of how Jerry G. became Svengoolie- and how I was passed the torch. When the book comes out, I will definitely write more about it here, and give you guys fair warning that it’s available. It’s a book that Chicago horror fans will definitely enjoy! Bill read in one of my blogs that we will only be able to run “Dracula” once (it’s coming up really soon- don’t miss it!) because Universal has so decreed- and wants to know if there’s anything that fans can do to change Universal’s mind. Bill, I appreciate your offer of help, but- the reason we can only run it once, is because it was previously contracted to others, most likely cable, at all other times, and there was only a very short “window” of time that the rights were available to us. We opted to get the movie during the extremely short amount of time it was available- so you guys could at least get to see it once on the Sven show. Since the other contracts are, of course, legal commitments previously set up- all the letters you would send couldn’t change the circumstances…but, I appreciate that you’d go to “bat” for us (get it- bat? Dracula?) Okay, after the typical bad joke like that, even though I’m out of space for today- I owe it to you to pick up with more of your feedback in tomorrow’s blog…