Roland 1957

When I was around 12 years old and my brother was around 10, on Friday nights beginning in October of 1957, we would beg beg beg our parents to let us stay up past our bedrime so we could watch Roland and the scary movie show. The theme music was Monster Mash, a number one hit at the time. The movies weren't all that scary, most of them were black and white movies such as Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, or Lon Cheyney in The Wolfman. Also there was Bella Lugosi as Dracula.

It is funny how such as brief period, the show only lasted from October 1957 to September 1958 could make such an impression but it was absolutely scintillating to me! I had such intense desire to see that show. What an impression it made on me. All these years later and I can still remember sitting on the carpet in the parlor raptly watching Roland and waiting for the movie of the night.

For most of my life since that time, at Halloween, I would watch those old movies again in a fright film festival using video tapes, then dvd's. For the past couple of Halloweens, though, I watched the whole series of Harry Potter films. It isn't the same, but it can never be the same because nothing is as intense as anything from that age - the desire for a specific toy, the impression of a particular film, your first albums, that you played over and over again on your first record player, and the emotions evoked! I guess that is one of the things we mourn and feel nostalgia for as we get old, that feeling of anticipation. Roland was portrayed by John Zacharle. It was a pioneering show! Do you remember it?

Happy Trails wrightj45@yahoo.com "The Shock Theatre" was a hosted horror movie show with John Zacherle as "Roland" presenting movies on WCAU-TV Channel 10, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; from 7 October 1957 to 13 September 1958.