Found My Local Childhood Horror Host

[Scott]

For years I've been trying to find any info on Saturday afternoon horror show called MONSTER MOVIE MATINEE that played on our cable system in the 70's. The name of the host was Dr. E. Nick Witty and his assistant Epal. It was a great show with erie music, a model castle with fog, and a host you could only hear and only see his hand which had a big ring on it and his assistant with a patch over his eye. They would talk to the audience and lead you into the weeks tale of terror. Found out that the show originated from Syracuse, New York and I lived in a town just southwest of there called Horseheads, New York. There are no images of the show on the internet. I'm hoping that someone can find some and put them online one day. Here are more details of this wonderful show.

DR. E. NICK WITTY and EPAL *
(Alan Milair and "Bill Everett" [real name = Willard Lape, Jr.; died September 19, 2004])
Monster Movie Matinee
Saturday afternoon at 1:00
WSYR (now WSTM-TV), Channel 3 (Syracuse, New York)
1964 - 1980
Chamber 13 - Tales of Horror
Day? Time?
Cable Channel 13 (Syracuse, New York)
1980 - 1985
Elena Watson's Television Horror Movie Hosts reference:
mentioned in Ch. 25, "Son of Invasion of the Ghost Hosts," pp. 180-181.
NOTES:
Show fan Scott Walker sent his memories of several New York state hosts, including these:
I grew up in Syracuse Ny and I recall Monster Movie Matinee ran Saturday afternoons from 1 pm to 2:30 or 3pm on WSYR Channel 3 (now WSTM-3). The movies would often be trimmed to an hour or an hour and 15 minutes to make room for the opening, closing and several other scenes with Dr. Witty and Epal.
The entire thing was very creepy with eerie organ music and one of the Main themes to Creature from the Black Lagoon for the open/close themes. It opened with a cool, well-detailed haunted mansion model on a hill with dry ice fog, cemetary moat, etc.
Dr. Witty was never shown totally, usually just his hand with sharp black fingernails and highlighted veins on his hand with a large ruby ring. He wore what looked like a velvet smoking jacket.
Epal was a hunchback type assistant with an eyepatch, well-made scars on his face and forehead, and a silver-mesh glove as a supposedly metal hand.
The entire thing was done seriously, with no reference to the movie except from Dr. Witty to his "Dear Guests" that he would now resume his "tale of terror," "narrative of the unknown," stuff like that.
The Dr. Witty excerpts would follow a continuous story line for several weeks, such as Dr. Witty's latest experiment to restore his facial features (supposedly he was disfigured too terribly for his "Dear Guests" as he referred to his audience to see). Another was Epal's disembodied head on a table hooked up to an oscilloscope, tubing, chemistry stuff with colored fluids as Dr. Witty made a new body for him.
The show moved to Cable channel 13 on Syracuse cable. The format remained pretty much the same. They showed the Universal monster movies, some japanese monsters, Gorgo, Invasion of the Saucermen, etc.
Alan Wood sent sad but revealing news in late September, 2004:
Sad news this week that Dr. E Nick Witty's assistant, Epal, passed away. Epal's stage name was Bill Everett. His given name was Willard Lape, Jr. Now we know where "Epal" came from! If you're curious, here's his obit:
Willard E. Lape Jr. â€" September 19, 2004
Willard E. Lape Jr., 74, of Syracuse, died Sunday, September 19, 2004, after a prolonged illness. Mr. Lape worked at WSYR (Radio and TV) for many years before retiring. As "Salty Sam" he was well known for his children's shows and charity work. He was also known as radio and TV personality "Bill Everett", "Epal" from Monster Movie Matinee, and from his role in the cable show "Snuckleby and Friends". In later years he performed as a storyteller at schools, libraries, and local events and did voice characterizations for author Bruce Coville's audio books. Mr. Lape was a graduate of Syracuse University with a BS in Speech and Dramatic Arts and an MS in Broadcasting. Mr. Lape served with the USAF during the Korean war. Surviving: his wife of 48 years, Rosemary Longmire Lape of Syracuse; a daughter and son-in-law, Melanie and Donald Pitts of Fabius; a son and daughter-in-law, Willard III and Celine Lape of PA; a sister and brother-in-law, Beverly and Charles Carson of FL; and three grandchildren, Megan and Davis Pitts of Fabius, and Rosemary Lape of PA. Services will be held at University United Methodist Church in Syracuse, Wednesday at 2 p.m. Donations may be made to the University United Methodist Church or to the Muscular Dystrophy Assoc. of CNY. Arrangements being handled by the Fairchild & Meech Syracuse Chapel.
(The above obituary, reprinted from Syracuse.com, was originally published in the Syracuse Post-Standard on September 21, 2004 â€" E-gor)

Found this information at E-Gor's Chamber of TV Horror Host

[peter johnson]

Bowman Body ain't out there . . .
peter johnson/denny crane