House of Schlock Returns With A Halloween Double Feature

Dr. Dewey’s House of Schlock is a continuation of the horror host genre pioneered by Vampira in the early 1950s and expanded by many hosts around the country like New Orleans’ own Morgus the Magnificent.

The golden age of Hollywood during the early part of the mid-20th century was defined by cinema classics starring the likes of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. Those films certainly drew people to theaters, but the concession stand was where the money was, and you had to keep people in those seats to maximize profits; giving us the double feature. The second film on the marquee was lower budget, forgoing the popular stars and well-crafted costumes for excitement and sensationalism. This is where we started to see an increase in genre films leading to the golden age of creature features and other low brow entertainment that brought us from the mid-century to the eve of the new millennium.

Starting in the 1950s, television stations couldn’t resist licensing large volumes of these low budget films to fill their airtime. To add value and increase viewership, these stations started packaging these films with a host segment framing the beginning and end of the films as well as the commercial. By building cheap sets and costumes they could enlist production assistants, weathermen, disc jockeys and even some actual actors to make the cheap films seem more exciting and valuable.

Corny jokes and movie trivia began to fill hastily built sets, delivered by the vampires, mad scientists, and other odd studio denizens tasked by their TV stations to bring a little excitement to these bargain basement features. Viewers tuning in late in the night found not only a film to excite the senses but also a friend, however odd, to guide them through the horrors that awaited them. A bad joke, a mishap in the laboratory, or just some trivia to lighten the mood and transition the viewer from the film, to a commercial, and back again — lessening both the horror on screen and the jarring juxtaposition of monsters and toothpaste commercials.