I was in sixth grade in the spring of 1975 and television was becoming important. This was when we could only get three channels and everyone was watching the same programs. If you weren’t watching the same programs that everyone else did, you weren’t able to participate in the discussions of the “cool” programs. It would be seventh grade and fall before everyone was talking about “Starsky and Hutch” and everyone needed Adidas sneakers. Or at least the knock-offs. That was when television became really important but spring of 1975 was giving us a test run. ABC had a series called the “Movie of the Week”. This was a 2 hour slot where they promised original movies made for TV. Most of the time, they ran pilots for series they had no intention of picking up. An original film didn’t happen that often. March 4 was one of those nights when they were going to show an original film called “Trilogy of Terror.”
The Twilight Zone was in syndication when I was very young. By the time I started watching it, I paid more was old enough to remember episodes of shows. Because it was in syndication, I was likely to see the same episodes over and over even though there was a total of 156 shows. The channel I saw them on aired them at 9:30 every night of the week, right before the news. Wednesday night was a bonus night because they started at 9 and would show two episodes. I started getting ready for bed at 10 so this show was perfect material for giving me bad dreams.
Most of my earliest memories of watch TV relate to being scared. Continuing with my October theme of scary TV shows and movies, I am reminded of a television show called Fantastic Features which aired on WHBQ-TV from Memphis. I was born in 1962 and so was this show. It was a showcase for horror and science fiction films. It was hosted by a character named Sivad. Sivad is best described as a ghoul. He wore a top hat and cape. He had make-up that made him appear very pale and fangs that made him slightly difficult but not impossible to understand. Sivad was portrayed by a man named Watson Davis who worked as an advertising director for the Malco theater chain in Memphis. The name Sivad is Davis spelled backwards.
My father says that I would beg him to watch Sivad with me and I would just hide behind a chair during the show. The opening credits of the show featured Sivad riding on a hearse, creeping around in fog and opening a casket. I remember this being the scariest part of the program. I do remember hiding behind the chair during this part of the show. I don’t remember being as scared of the segments that were done in the studio. I also don’t remember being that scared of any of the movies but I’m sure this depended if they were showing something like Frankenstein or sci-fi schlock like Queen of Outer Space. I remember one of my cousins was lucky enough to have gotten to meet Sivad at one of his personal appearances. He had an autographed photo of Sivad that seemed just as scary as the opening of the show. We would take the photo to a dimly lit room, look at it and run as quickly as we could to anywhere with more light.
Fantastic Features lasted for 10 years and I watched it off and on for any of that time that I can remember. By the time I was able to really remember any of the films, they were showing more 1950’s B-movie selections than anything considered classic horror. These are the kind of movies I love to watch today. I would like to think that Sivad helped me develop my taste for these films. Even to this day, I find the opening sequence to Fantastic Features to be at least a little scary.
Since its October, I’ve decided to devote some of this month’s posts to things that have really scared me. My first thoughts went to television programs and movies. And I decided to start with one of my earliest memories of something scaring me. And that is Dick Van Dyke.
Maybe it’s not him. Doesn’t everyone love Dick Van Dyke? He always played lovable characters. Mary Poppins came out when I was 2 but was in theaters regularly when I was young. Who couldn’t love him as Bert? I was 6 when Chitty Chitty Bang Bang came out and his face was familiar to me from Mary Poppins and The Dick Van Dyke Show. And who couldn’t love his TV show? Singing the theme song to the show and stumbling over living room furniture was a favorite past time at the Wheeler home. I was probably too young to remember the airing of any of the original episodes but some of my earliest memories of watching anything on TV were seeing these re-runs in syndication. I would have had fond memories of this show if it wasn’t for one episode that scared me.
Here are 10 fond memories I have of my mom in honor of her birthday on September 18:
She cooked all moisture and most nutrients out of all of the food she cooked.
She was my first music teacher. She taught me a little about how to play piano and a lot about how to play ukulele.
She laughed out loud when she watched the Peter Sellers movie The Party. She also laughed out loud when she read the book “The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N” by Lenard Q. Ross.
She smoked Belair cigarettes and she wouldn’t smoke in front of her parents.
She liked to tickle her grandkids’ backs with her long fingernails.
She woke up before everyone else in the morning, sat at the kitchen table and drank instant coffee.
She wore contact lenses.
She loved growing flowers.
She loved decorating our house for Halloween and Christmas. Especially Christmas. In addition to the decorations for Christmas, she would bring out her extensive collection of Christmas sheet music to play during the holiday season.
She loved her dogs as much as she loved her husband, children and grandchildren.
I have very vivid memories of the morning of September 11, 2001. I was supposed to fly out of Jackson, Tennessee through St. Louis to Indianapolis that morning. When I got out of the shower, my wife came into our bathroom and told me that she was watching Good Morning America and they had reported a fire at the World Trade Center. By the time I made it into our bedroom where the television was on, they had confirmed that a plane had crashed into the building although they thought it was a small commuter plane. When they mentioned that it was a plane, I told my wife, “I bet I have a hard time making it through the airport today.”
It has been almost two weeks since my latest visit to Graceland and less than a week since I posted the essay for this year’s trip. Earlier this week, I was going through the channel guide on my television and saw that the movie “This is Elvis” was on. This documentary was released in 1981. I remember going to see it in the theater. I remember seeing people crying in the parking lot after the movie. I also remember it being one of the first movies I ever saw on HBO. Back in 1981, I didn’t have any Elvis records and I felt like I needed some. I purchased the soundtrack album to this film because it had most of the songs I really cared to have.
A few days before my yearly trip to Graceland for the Candlelight Vigil, I ran into a friend who had read some of my posts about visiting Graceland. He told me that he was one of the few people ever kicked out of Graceland. Earlier in his life, he was involved in a comedy club in Memphis and went with one of the performers to visit Graceland. During their visit, the performer left a wreath of bacon at the gravesite. This was not appreciated. They were taken to one of the buses and seated at the back to be taken off of the property. He said before they left, the bus filled with a Brownie scout troop. He said it was embarrassing. He said that he took other performers after that without incident and developed a good relationship with the people at Graceland. They were the ones that told him he was one of the few people that had been kicked out.
It appears that in one way my friend had come to know some of the insiders at Graceland. There are other types of insiders at Graceland. The Elvis Insiders Club is a group you can join to get discounts on tours and Elvis swag both at Graceland and on-line. Last year, my friend Tina went for her first Candlelight Vigil. She returned this year. Since last year, she has joined the Elvis Insiders Club. This would be a great year to get treated like a real Insider. To get the VIP treatment for the first time since I started coming to Elvis Week in 2002. To finally complete the process of blending in with the Elvis faithful. Would this be as much fun as in years past? Would I be able to experience Elvis Week with the same vision I had 12 years ago? How far away am I from growing sideburns and dyeing my hair black every August?
Last week, my youngest child got her driver’s license. This is reason enough for me to reflect on the differences in driver’s licenses today at back in 1978 when I got mine. At that time, getting a learner’s permit consisted of filling out forms and paying money. You didn’t have to take any test. The main thing that you had to do was to bring in evidence that you were 15. I don’t remember getting a copy of the Tennessee Drivers Handbook until I have been driving for a while. I only got it then so I could study for the questions on the test. There was no need to know the rules before you learned the skill. What good was it knowing the laws if you didn’t know how to drive already?
Everyone has a story to tell about the day they got their driver’s license and here is mine. The names that I mention below are not the real names of the people that I encountered. One, I don’t wish to expose anyone’s wrongdoing and second, I don’t remember the names.
I live in West Tennessee and I also grew up here. Most of the television stations that we watched were from Memphis. The most popular radio stations that we listened to were also from Memphis. I would love to be able to say that I know a lot about Memphis music because I listened to it all when I was a kid but this is absolutely not true. My knowledge of Memphis music was relatively limited especially when it came to soul music. For me, Memphis soul music was Al Green and later Isaac Hayes. And the only Isaac Hayes music I knew was the Theme from Shaft. Even if I had heard any of the other great music from Stax Records, I had little or no idea that it was related to this Memphis institution. My knowledge of Memphis soul music was limited to what they would tell me on the top 40 stations that catered mainly to white pre-teens and teenagers. Only the occasional soul hit would make it on these stations at the time the Stax Records was making a name for themselves and I was young enough that I wasn’t paying attention.
