The Palm Beach Post from West Palm Beach, Florida • Page 95

II YVONNE PULTON I nothing else, TV has proved one point. You can't keep a good ghoul down Not since the days when theatre-qoers clamored into midnight movie In. enstoin fright films have the monsters, invisible men, the Draculas wetew such rejuvenated popularity. Everyone who thought that the grisley creatures portrayed by Boris Kar double dose ol Frank-nd mad scientists enjoyed tt l.i'ii Chaney, Bela Liignsi, i 111 I I .1 I Zl if Ulenn btrange and unristopner Lee naa oeen aone in wnen iney were Mihini Kjej in acia, sei ablaze, thrown into a pit of bubbling lava and plummeled to death by angry townspeople just didn't figure on the tenacity of monsters. They're back more ghoulish than ever.

The country's current horror kick began in 1957 when a film company (Si iwn Gems) releasee! a package of the old spine-tinglers to TV under the name of "Shock Theatre This was soon followed by a second release labeled "Son of Shock." In no time this midnight madness incited various and sundry horror societies, macabre recordings from studios in Transylvania (For those not familiar with the graveside kick, that's where Count Dracula's castle is located) and "Shock" fan clubs Manufacturers of gory horror masks and assorted accessories report that business is thriving. Why have the old classic thrillers caught on with TV viewers? According to certain psychologists, they claim that the supernatural, in any form, has always fascinated most people, and by being able to watch their fantasies acted out, viewers are released from everyday tensions. In other words, put the lid on the rock, doc, watch Shock and unlatch. The ressurection of the old horror movies has introduced a new kind of entertainer to video known as the "horror host" who performs all sorts of fiendish rituals during the intermissions. Perhaps the best nationally known of the horror hosts is New York's Zacherley, a mad mad mad ghoul on WABC's "Shock Theatre." This super spoof entertains his viewers with educational lectures on mummy wrappings, brain surgery and chidings about being sick sick sick to watch such sticky pictures Not long ago Zacherley met a vampire, wooed and wed her in the basement of Count Dracula's castle in Transylvania.

He's very gentle with her, feeds her live spiders and sometimes loosens the stake in her heart for a friendly game of honeymoon bridge. Irs (o(y k4 rmv. 3 r. I 1 MjJ w. -''TnilV'r-lWIMliBiiiiiilM wmmiww I I (' VW I I i sal 7l i One of Florida's more gleeful curators is a mad monster named M.T.

Graves (Pictured in lower right corner) who lives in a dungeon underneath the WCKT-TV studios (Channel 7) in Miami. According to statistics written in red ink or blood M.T. Graves was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, was given away by his parents at the age of four to an old Cossack and his wife. Later he fell in with a band of gypsies who taught him about the world of vampires, ghouls and werewolves, instructed him in magic and the art of the occult.

They told him the tales of terror that he passes on to those who will listen. He communicated with the fiends and monsters of East Europe for years until they were finally apprehended by the authorities. Graves was imprisoned in Budapest for two years. It was here that he was brutally tortured by a sadistic guard who wanted the secrets ol occult that Graves had mastered. To this day, his face and body bear testimony to the horror he encountered.

Ultimately Graves escaped from prison and made his way to America. However, his netherworld foes located him once again, and by subterfuge and cunning trapped the poor man and imprisoned him in 'The Dungeon' which had been sunk in a mammoth rock near what is now known as North Bay Village, Florida. His torturers and foes died off, one by one, as the years passed. Graves lived on in his Dungeon until some three years ago a TV company filled in the area and built a large TV station over Graves' tiny home. And there he lives, tormented by the sounds of screeching singers, clashing clients and loud loud lul commercials, tiding his time until he can escape to the calmer pastures among the ghouls, vampires and werewolves of his past.

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