The World Series pales in comparison to what's at GhoulardiFest, Oct. 28-30

Event preview by Charles Cassady, Jr.

Every October for the last several years, local impresario Ron Garstek and like-minded fans of old Cleveland TV have put on GhoulardiFest, a nostalgia convention, talent reunion and tribute to old-timey horror and fantasy flicks as promoted by legendary Cleveland TV personality Ernie Anderson, on WJW-TV's late-night "Shock Theatre."

From 1963 to 1966 Anderson would don a garishly phony goatee and Fu Manchu mustache and spice up B-grade horror and sci-fi flicks for insomniac viewers in beatnik-comic fashion. The silver-tongued announcer, unrecognizable in his fright-wig disguise, would do blackout comedy bits (some including a young sidekick named Tim Conway), sound effects, songs and the catchphrases. "Turn blue!" "Stay sick!" "Ovaday!" "Dorrrothy..."

Ernie Anderson left Cleveland to find national renown in Los Angeles as an ABC-TV announcer (he also put out a series of classic audio comedy LPs with Tim Conway, and one of his sons out west would mature into world-class filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson). But he left a secret stash of himself behind in Cleveland that, like a ticking time capsule or Dr. Phibes, rises again in 2016 to haunt this Halloween weekend Ghoulardifest.

GhoulardiFest revives memories of Cleveland television past, October 30, 31 and November 1

Event preview by Charles Cassady, Jr.

Hurricane Patricia was poised to smite North America several days ago, remember, with some of the strongest winds ever measured? So what happened to that alleged "storm of the century?" Now meteorologists finally have an answer; when Patricia got close to the eastern seaboard, all the fatal shootings in Cleveland these days spooked her off, and she dissipated in the mid-Atlantic. So give our community a gold star there.

Still, if one wants to celebrate the Halloween season this year in the inner-ring suburb with the fewest chalk-body outlines, the place to be is Ghoulardifest this weekend in Parma.

Taking place at the LaVilla Party Center at 11500 Brookpark Road, the festival is three days of special guests, local TV and media nostalgia, and the Ghoulardi-grade brand of science-fiction, comedy, fantasy and horror cinema.

It's virtually impossible to imagine North Coast culture
without Anderson, who, as host of WJW-TV's "Shock Theatre," put on a garishly phony goatee and Fu Manchu mustache and spiced up B-grade horror and sci-fi flicks for insomniac viewers in beatnik-comic fashion for a few brilliant years there in the mid-1960s. The silver-tongued announcer, unrecognizable now, would do blackout comedy bits (some including a young sidekick named Tim Conway), sound effects, songs and the catchphrases. "Turn Blue!" "Ovaday!" "Dorrrothy..."