I inter-library loaned this book because used copies are expensive - in a sense, I'm glad I did. It's a solid attempt to record a history of the presentation of horror films in the Chicago TV Market. I worded it like that because the book is not simply about Chicago horror hosts, but also about famous and memorable shows that featured no host (like the "Experiment In Terror" intro-ed CREATURE FEATURE).

This is a good-natured and informative book that has a few things going for it. The authors grew up experiencing the content, so it does a great job of capturing those halcyon days (including my own youth in the mid to late 1970s) when one had to actually *watch* television for the horror and monster movies you so desperately craved, when each movie was an event and needed to be committed to memory (I would sit with the new TV guide and circle every movie marked horror, science fiction, fantasy or mystery/suspense - then try to figure out how to watch them all!). A wide variety of movies could be seen, and b&w stood proudly next to color. Now, in this age of easy access, movies don't really seem to mean much to young viewers, they're just a variable commodity to be bought on dvd, downloaded, tivo-ed and erased while scanning 800 channels full of nothing. And while almost everything *seems* to be available now, it's only available at a price, or tied up on one network. Movies were better when no one cared about them, because then *you* could make them important. Now that they're just something to be exploited, you don't *need* to care because someone else cares much more, but for the wrong reasons... if that makes any sense.

Back to the book. There's nice write-ups on Marvin (the creepy beatnik wife-murdering horror host character in black turtleneck and thick glasses) which is supported by information from the actor's wife (since deceased) and promotional photos (silent Marvin footage can be found on Youtube, married to the audio track of his last appearance, in which his faceless, mute wife character finally shows herself and speaks). Svengoolie and Son of Svengoolie are also covered, along with the short stint of The Ghoul and the large impression made by Cleveland's Ghoulardi.

Some interesting tidbits are gleaned (I especially liked the original - Jerry Bishop - Svengoolie coverage because I like the host, he's a great marriage of the horror host tradition with the zeitgeist of the moment, a wise-cracking, hippie vampire) and I especially liked the mentions of other local television programming which has mostly fallen by the wayside (will the world ever see anything as odd as the described news show "Heart of the News", in which headlines were breathlessly read by an attractive lady reclining on a heart-shaped bed. Not likely!).

The truth is, the rise of UPN and the WB and Fox has killed local TV and now all your programming is fed to you by corporate monoliths and has no connection to your locality in any way, anymore. And so alienation and dislocation continue to grow... the better to control you in your era of digital freedom.

On the other hand, if I could, I'd give this book 2 and a half stars. Why? Because, honestly, it's 2/3rds of a book padded out with a needless review list of horror films, the listing of the Shock! and Son of Shock! film packages that these stations would show, contact info for horror movie fans and lists of those old 8mm reductions of classic movies you could buy from Captain Company, along with an enormous index (never thought I'd complain about an index being in a book). In truth, the amount of actual useful material/information provided here could have easily been contained in a longish article for SCARY MONSTERS or FILMFAX magazine (if that latter still exists) - or, better yet, made a very nice article for a website. The nature of the material being examined - lost and forgotten audio/visual ephemera of local programming - really makes it a topic to be exploited best by links to sources like You Tube.

So, anyway, an okay book but nothing to write home about. I have a few of these horror host books coming down the pike (could not find copies of the SIVAD SCRAPBOOK or the ZOMBOO Scrapbook to save my life) because I dearly love the topic, but I would might suggest other horror host fans simply get your local library to ship in the copy I got from the Chicago Public Library.