Based on a book by Gray Publishing, Turn Blue: The Short Life of Ghoulardi is an hour-long documentary about the infamous Cleveland late-night horror movie host. Directed by Phil Hoffman, a University of Akron professor and general manager of University of Akron’s Z-TV, it shows how Ghoulardi (Ernie Anderson) went from being a cast-out to the king of Cleveland TV during his short reign from 1963-66. It premieres at 9 tonight on Western Reserve PBS 45/49 and has subsequent airings at 2 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 28 and at 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 31. It’ll also be shown on Western Reserve Public Media’s new Fusion channel at 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 29 and at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 31. Hoffman, who hopes to have the film out on DVD by the end of the year, recently spoke about his movie.
You showed the film this past weekend at Ghoulardifest. How did that go over?
It was really crowded and that was awesome. I have no way to gauge the attendance because I’m not sure if the physical size of the facility was the same as last year’s. But I do know the place was jammed, so that was good.
That is probably your toughest audience. How did viewers react?
It’s always great to sit in the back of a theater when you produce something like this and see if people react the way you thought they would. In this case, I felt like I hit the nail on the head. At one point, they all burst out singing along with the film. Those kinds of things happen and you go, “OK. I did that right.”
This article appears in Oct 21-27, 2009.
I am glad steps are being taken to immortalize Ghoulardi. Big Chuck couldn’t fill those convoluted shoes. It was a nostalgic time for me. Only pappa hoom mou mou could take me away from my girlfriend’s face to see what was next. Ghoulardi laid the groundwork for shows like Jackass effortlessly. He struck a chord with all the Clevelanders who could think about nothing else but leaving…there has to be something better out there……..