Ghoulardi
Ghoulardi was a fictional character created and portrayed by voice announcer, actor and disc jockey Ernie Anderson as the horror host of Shock Theater at WJW-TV, Channel 8 (a.k.a.
Anderson, a big band and jazz and classic film enthusiast, was born in Boston on November 12, 1923, grew up in Lynn, Massachusetts, and served in the U.S. Navy during World War II.
Ghoulardi's costume was a long lab coat covered with "slogan" buttons, horn-rimmed sunglasses with a missing lens, a fake Van Dyke beard and moustache, and various messy, awkwardly-perched wigs.
Anderson was later assisted by teenage intern Ron Sweed, who had boarded a bus to try to meet his idol at a live appearance at Euclid Beach Park, clad in a gorilla suit.
He played novelty and offbeat or instrumental rock and roll tunes, plus jazz and rhythm and blues songs under his live performance, frequently "The Desert Rat", flip side of "Boss Guitar" by Duane Eddy.
Schodowski wrote that Ghoulardi usually adapted well to the changing scenes, as Anderson could only view a monitor with a reversed image of the broadcast and his "drop-ins" were live.
Anderson organized the "Ghoulardi All-Stars" softball, football and basketball teams, which played as many as 100 charity contests a year, attracting thousands of fans.
Ghoulardi had a camera shoot a card printed with the program director's home phone number, which he televised, and asked the broadcast audience to complain.
Ghoulardi often made fun of targets he considered "unhip", including bandleader Lawrence Welk, Mayor of Cleveland Ralph Locher, and Cleveland local television personalities such as singer/local talk show host Mike Douglas, children's hosts Barnaby and Captain Penny, local newscaster Bill Jorgensen, and news analyst and commentator Dorothy Fuldheim (whom he called "Dorothy Baby").
Ghoulardi unmercifully jeered Parma for what he considered its conservative, ethnic, working-class "white socks" sensibility, making fun of such local customs as listening to polka music and decorating front lawns with pink plastic flamingoes and yard globe ornaments.
Anderson was also reprimanded for riding his motorcycle through the program director's office, and for staying at a close, late-running Friday night Cleveland Browns game long after his show's 11:30 p.m. start time.
Induced by greater career promise and show business contacts of Tim Conway, who had already left town and found success as an actor in Los Angeles, Anderson abruptly retired Ghoulardi and stopped performing live in September 1966.
Anderson subsequently made a successful career in prestigious voice-over work, most prominently as the main voice of the ABC TV network during the 1970s and 1980s.
In the mid-1960s, Ghoulardi's irreverence overtook the rarefied Severance Hall, where an Italian Cleveland Orchestra guest conductor introduced himself and said that he was from Parma (in northern Italy).
David Thomas, of art rock band Pere Ubu, said that the Cramps were "so thoroughly co-optive of the Ghoulardi persona that when they first appeared in the 1970s, Clevelanders of the generation were fairly dismissive."
[4][5] Pretenders founder Chrissie Hynde, an Akron native, referred to Ghoulardi as a local "guru": "He had his own language and we idolized him, the Beat version of a ghoul.
"[6] In 2002, Cleveland-area indie band Uptown Sinclair featured a Ghoulardi-derived basketball referee in the slapstick music video for their song "Girlfriend."
[7] Director Jim Jarmusch, who grew up in the Cleveland area and watched Ghoulardi as a child, has also said that he was influenced by the character's anti-authoritarian attitude and selection of "weird" music.
Over 50 years after Ghoulardi signed off, many Clevelanders still associate polka music, white socks, and pink plastic flamingo and yard globe lawn ornaments with Parma, Ohio.
