John Zacherle

John Zacherle ( ; sometimes credited as John Zacherley; September 26, 1918 – October 27, 2016) was an American television host, radio personality, singer, and voice actor. He had a long career as a television horror host, broadcasting horror films in Philadelphia and New York City in the 1950s and 1960s. He also edited two collections of horror stories, Zacherley's Vulture Stew and Zacherley's Midnight Snacks.

Biography Zacherle was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

In 1954, he gained his first television role at WCAU-TV in Philadelphia, where he was hired as an actor playing several roles (one was an undertaker) in Action in the Afternoon, a Western produced by the station and aired in the New York City market.

He was a close colleague of Philadelphia broadcaster Dick Clark, and sometimes filled in for Clark on road touring shows of Clark's American Bandstand in the 1960s. Clark reportedly gave Zacherle his nickname of "The Cool Ghoul".

The comic book anthology, Zacherley's Midnite Terrors (created by Joseph M. Monks, and featuring top artists like Basil Gogos, Ken Kelly, William Stout and Mike Koneful), was created solely as a tribute to "Zach". Three issues were published, and Zacherley acted in a commercial to promote them.

Zacherle continued to make occasional on-air appearances, usually around Halloween, including a two-hour show at WCBS-FM with Ron Parker on October 31, 2007. (By this point, the 89-year-old was one of the very few people left in radio that was older than the medium itself.) Zacherley and Chiller Theatre returned to the WPIX airwaves on October 25, 2008, for a special showing of the 1955 Universal Pictures science fiction classic Tarantula!.

The Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia inducted Zacherle into their Hall of Fame in 2010.

He died on October 27, 2016, at his home in Manhattan at the age of 98.

Legacy He was the uncle of My Little Pony creator Bonnie Zacherle.

Partial Zacherley at Large episode guide Channel 9's resident film historian Chris Steinbrunner compiled a listing of all Zacherley's shows from their start to New Year's 1960:

These shows were later syndicated to KHJ-TV, the RKO General station in Los Angeles.

Short story collections Zacherle edited two short story collections for Ballantine Books in 1960. Listed here are their contents.

Zacherley's Vulture Stew L. Ron Hubbard, "He Didn't Like Cats" Mindret Lord, "Dr. Jacobus Meliflore's Last Patient" Manly Wade Wellman, "The Devil Is Not Mocked" Donald A. Wollheim, "Bones" Charles R. Tanner, "Out of the Jar" A. E. van Vogt, "The Witch" Anthony Boucher, "They Bite" E. Everett Evans, "The Shed" James Blish, "There Shall Be No Darkness" Zacherley's Midnight Snacks Richard Matheson, "Sorry, Right Number" Jerome Bixby and Joe Dean, "Share Alike" Theodore Sturgeon, "Talent" Wallace West, "Listen, Children, Listen" William F. Temple, "The Whispering Gallery" Robert Moore Williams, "The Piping Death" A. E. Van Vogt, "The Ghost" Philip James, "Carillon of Skulls" Henry Kuttner, "Pile of Trouble"

Discography

Albums Spook Along with Zacherley (Elektra: EKL-190) 1960 Monster Mash (12 songs) (Parkway LP P-7018) 1962 Scary Tales (Parkway LP P-7023) 1963 Monster Mash (10 songs; partial re-issue of Parkway album) (Wyncote LP W-9050) 1964

Singles "Igor"/"Dinner with Drac" (Cameo 130-1) "Dinner with Drac Pt.1"/"Pt.2" (Cameo 130-2) "Eighty-Two Tombstones"/"Lunch with Mother Goose" (Cameo 139) "Hurry Burry Baby"/"Dinner With Drac" (Parkway 853) "I Was a Teenage Cave Man"/"Dummy Doll" (Cameo 145) "Surfboard 109"/"Clementine" (Parkway 885) "Scary Tales from Mother Goose"/"Monster Monkey" (Parkway 888)

CDs Twist Collection (OOZ 617) 2001 Monster Mash/Scary Tales (ACE CDCHD 1294) 2010 Monster Mash Party (Transylvania 4-5709) Dinner With Zach (Transylvania 6-5000) Spook Along with Zacherley (Collector's Choice Music)