Growing up in the '60s-'70s in the Pittsburgh, PA area, we watched Bill Cardille ("Chilly Billy") and CHILLER THEATRE every weekend. The show
was best in the late '60s, before it went color.
In the initial program, as I recall, he wore a white shirt and tie with dark slacks and jacket, short dark hair slicked back, looking very much like Rod Serling did when hosting Twilight Zone. Cardille walked down a long corridor, stopped and lit a cigarette, then walked over and sat down on a stool next to a 16mm projector. It was dark, minimalistic, and the films were great.
In later years, he had the flashy lab set, wore tacky leisure suits, and the show became a big joke. Gone was the noirish atmosphere and Rod Serling treatment, as he turned into a refugee character from some crappy low-grade grindhouse porn, complete with fuzzy chest hair, gold chains, and eccentric sidekicks.
Anyway, that's what I remember of CHILLER THEATRE and Bill Cardille. If you want to see how he looks in the early version of his show, just watch NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. Same hair and clothes, but imagine him walking down that long, starkly-lit corridor, his shoes tap...tap...tapping on the cold hard floor with a reverb on the soundtrack....and the theme was always Mancini's "Experiment in Terror" performed by Al Caiola (available on one of those "Ultra-Lounge" CDs.).
"Good night, and sleep warm..."
In the initial program, as I recall, he wore a white shirt and tie with dark slacks and jacket, short dark hair slicked back, looking very much like Rod Serling did when hosting Twilight Zone. Cardille walked down a long corridor, stopped and lit a cigarette, then walked over and sat down on a stool next to a 16mm projector. It was dark, minimalistic, and the films were great.
In later years, he had the flashy lab set, wore tacky leisure suits, and the show became a big joke. Gone was the noirish atmosphere and Rod Serling treatment, as he turned into a refugee character from some crappy low-grade grindhouse porn, complete with fuzzy chest hair, gold chains, and eccentric sidekicks.
Anyway, that's what I remember of CHILLER THEATRE and Bill Cardille. If you want to see how he looks in the early version of his show, just watch NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. Same hair and clothes, but imagine him walking down that long, starkly-lit corridor, his shoes tap...tap...tapping on the cold hard floor with a reverb on the soundtrack....and the theme was always Mancini's "Experiment in Terror" performed by Al Caiola (available on one of those "Ultra-Lounge" CDs.).
"Good night, and sleep warm..."
