- LEROY
- (Roy Bishop)
- Tales from the Tomb
- Friday at 11:00 or 11:30
- WSBA, UHF Channel 43 (York, Pennsylvania)
- Late 50's - early 60's ("a few years")
- Tales from the Tomb
- One show Saturday afternoon, a different one late-night Saturday
- WHP-TV, Channel 21 (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania)
- Early 60's
- NOTES:
- E-gorespondent Jeff Clinton initiated this entry:
LEROY is missing from your list.
There was a horror movie show on WSBA Channel 43. the local UHF station out
of York, Pennsylvania.
I think it was during the late fifties and aired on Friday nights, at 11:00 or 11:30.
The old Universal classics were shown,
Frankenstein, Dracula, Wolf Man, Invisible Man, etc.
The show was called Tales from the Tomb, and was hosted by a guy named
"Leroy."
He was not scary at all.
He was a short, plump-looking guy who wore thick dark glasses and baggy pants with suspenders.
I believe he also wore a derby.
There was a co-host named "Vampira" who wore a black slinky gown.
On the set was a coffin and during the show a voice would speak from the box telling Leroy it was time to feed the monster.
Leroy would empty (gurgle, gurgle) a quart of Piels beer (the sponsor was possibly a local distributor?) into the coffin.
I believe "Vampira" was played by the weather girl for the station.
I can not remember Leroy's real name though.
I am surprised that no York-area people have notified you of this one.
The show was on a few years.
Maybe some other visitor to your site will recall the hosts' real names.
- Chet Williamson provided more details:
With Halloween around the corner I was getting nostalgic for "Leroy,"
who was a horror host during the early 1960s for WHP-TV, Channel 21 in Harrisburg, Pa.
I couldn't find him on your listing and had no luck googling him either, so he may be forgotten.
He had two shows, one late Saturday afternoon, and another late night Saturday.
The daytime show played the schlockier, less scary movies,
while the late show played the good old Universal horrors, the ones I wasn't allowed to stay up to see.
Leroy (it might have been "Leeroy," I'm not sure)
was funny rather than scary,
and I actually audiotaped a few of his antics,
one of which was a song parody of "The Sheik of Araby," which went:
I'm the ghoul from WHP,
Your blood belongs to me.
At night on your TV,
Inside your homes I'll be.
The bats that fly on high
Will get you by and by.
You'll die like Drac and me,
I'm the ghoul from WHP -- Harrisburg, Transylvania...
Anyway, there's a little info on Leroy -- wish I knew more about him.
- In mid-March 2007, some definitive information about this host arrived from a guy who worked with him on the show! :
The postings by Jeff Clinton and Chet Williamson really brought back the memories of the late 50’s to early 60’s.
I used to work at WHP-TV as a stage manager while in high school and had the opportunity to work with Roy.
We used Iron City beer for the live 11 pm news commercials.
I used to pour the beer into Pilsner glasses, and Roy and other visitors doing live commercials with him would all get tuned up.
Roy was the director of the news and other programs and called the camera shots.
I can’t remember Roy’s last name, but I thought that when he left WHP he went to the Philadelphia area to do his show.
We had a great time doing the show and I would occasionally crawl into the coffin with a can of rose dust to make it look like Dracula was smoking.
We used a large blue plastic screen behind Roy to project images behind him.
I remember one day when we used lighter fluid in a pie pan on a wooden desk in front of Roy,
to make it look like he was in a fire scene, and the desk caught fire.
Many years have passed and I’m sure that all who participated are either gone or retired.
Live TV shows were the best because you never knew what would happen during them.
I later became a film editor and news photographer at WHP.
I enjoyed your site.
Regards,
Bob Andrews
Now in Coatesville, PA
Bob Andrews wrote again with more pieces of the LEROY puzzle! :
The star of Tales from the Tomb on WHP TV in Harrisburg was Roy Bishop.
Roy came from a station Philadelphia.
I'll see what I can find in the way of a photo -- I have nothing here at home.
I know that doing a search on Google, using Roy's name,
that there is a picture of him at a TV studio in Philadelphia
that was taken way back before he went to Harrisburg.
Roy was a fun person to work with.
Bob
If anybody can help us find out what happened to Roy Bishop since this show ended,
or provide a picture of him as "Leroy,"
please
e-mail E-gor!
|
