A memory from late sixties Saturday nights on channel 13 in Memphis.
Anyone who remembers Memphis television of the era 1966-1971 will remember Sivad, a Memphis movie publicity man named Davis who discovered fame but not fortune as the host of the Saturday night horror movie on Channel 13, Fantastic Features.
The internet has a startling amount of information about Sivad. You can read a Memphis Magazine piece on Sivad, a fan page (which reprints a where-are-they-now piece from the Commercial Appeal and has an mp3 of–shudder!–Sivad’s single “Sivad Buries Rock and Roll,” along with other Sivad ephemera), and– here’s a startling tribute to the resourcefulness of obsessed fans– a log of the movies shown on every single Fantastic Features. I actually looked through that one to get the titles of some B-horror I remember from childhood.
And that’s not all that’s out there on the 38,000 pages Google produces for Sivad.
I am a lurker here, but I just had to comment on the Sivad piece. You have just made my day! I wondered if that opening segment could be found anywhere. Wasn’t that filmed in Overton Park? I have fond (if that’s the right word) memories of watching Fantastic Features every Saturday night with my sisters and my mother and getting scared to death by those scary movies, a few that come to mind are The Haunting (the B/W version with Julie Harris), Black Sabbath and Suspiria. For some reason, we turned out the lights while watching The Haunting, and didn’t sleep for a week without the lights on, my mother included. One episode I distinctly remember was when Sivad’s fake teeth fell out while he was talking. I still get the giggles when I think about that sight. Thanks for providing those links and bringing back some good memories from my childhood.
Thanks for posting, NMC. There was a similar character in the Baton Rouge market in the mid-60s, Count Macabre, who had an afternoon show. (I lived in Natchez, and we would pick up WBRZ, Channel 2.) Anyway, it was a similar format, but I don’t remember the production values being very high, certainly not as good as Sivad’s in his introduction there.
There are 30,800 Google hits for Morgus the Magnificent, a fixture for more than 40 years on New Orleans late night Saturday TV. A latter day sample: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-tPQhbz5l4
I’m told that late night line up with Morgus the Magnificent included Mission Imposable and the Rat Patrol along with Perry Mason.
I do recall Gun smoke the Wild wild west and all in the family though.
that scene was shot in Overton Park vd, and I too have very fond memories of watching Sivad. I remember the show running on late afternoons on Saturday as well. One I think I remember was “D-Day on Mars”, as well as several of the 30′s era horror movies. I wish we could get DVDs of the show and movies. Anyone?
Who could forget Sivad? I forgot all the forgettable movies he emceed, but one can’t forget Sivad.
WHAT does it say about our current society that the memories of those of us who were small — I was 10 in ’67 — when Sivad was on are memories of being frightened and scared and sleeping with the lights on but today’s 10-year-old would find neither Sivad or any of his movies scary in any degree. When the theme music would start I’d go hide, it frightened me so. I think a lot of things were better in the old days.
Down here in Jackson, we had “Scartisha” and the Saturday Night Horror Movie. Good times.
Observer, last year I got my seventeen year old son to watch a few episodes of “The Twilight Zone”. He loved it. It helped that a couple of days later “The Family Guy” made a refence to one of the episodes we had watched. My son was proud of himself by getting this (obscure for 17 yo) reference to an old TV show. I was proud to have given my son an exposure to high culture. Next week, its “Hogan’s Heroes”.
WTBAL, last year I got Poltergeist on DVD and watched it with my then 16-year-old son, who’d heard of the movie but didn’t have a clue about it. The clown under the bed scene really got him (he’s always been scared of clowns, which is apparently a fairly common phobia). It was fun watching a movie from 1982 give him the heebie jeebies. More recently we got The Exorcist, which he also thought was pretty intense. You’ve got to get movies like that on DVD and watch then uncut and uninterrupted by commercials. Last year, just so he’d have a clue, I got some Laurel & Hardy videos for my other son to watch. His only prior knowledge of Laurel & Hardy was from Blazin’ Saddles (“… a laurel and hardy handshake …”). It’s a lot of fun sharing that kind of stuff with your kids.
I was so happy to come across your post and the comments. I was also a big fan of Sivad as I grew up in Memphis and West Memphis. His shows were the highlight of our week. I was told he lived in our neighborhood in West Memphis and I had a chance to trick or treat at his home. However, I was too afraid to go up to the door.