Anderson’s old beatnik attitude lost something in translation during the rock ‘n’ roll era.Īnd then, Sweed hauled out the firecrackers. So Sweed appropriated Ghoulardi’s costume and became the Ghoul in 1971. … (But) if you want to do it, you have my permission.' He said knock “ardi” off. Call yourself the Ghoul or whatever daffy thing you want to call it, and give it a shot.’ " I don't have any desire to do that again’ I wanted to be his gopher again, producer, production assistant. “I said, ‘Wouldn't it be fun if you came back once a month, did four shows, wrap them out real quick in one day, go back to the West Coast and continue to be a multimillionaire?’ Well, I presented him with the idea that evening at dinner. The two went out to dinner when Anderson returned home one weekend. When Anderson eventually departed for Hollywood to work as an announcer - he was the guy who announced “The luuuuvvv Boat” on ABC-TV’s “The Love Boat" - Ghoulardi disappeared from the Cleveland airwaves as Anderson made his fortune in Los Angeles.īut Sweed was intent on somehow bringing his hero back to Ohio, even on a temporary basis. He went to work part-time for Anderson while still in high school. That dive into the orchestra pit would prove to be a turning point in Sweed’s life. So once again I stumbled upon the stage and did the rest of the show.” ‘Hey, you OK, baby? Come on back up there.’ OK. I’m on my back, like an armadillo, my warms waving. The stage is about 5 foot high and I backed right off the stage. "And Ghoulardi said: ‘Ghoulardi’s not afraid of no gorilla.’ And he hit me in the chest. Come on up here baby.’ And so I went around, lumbered on stage and back. The first show he did, he all of a sudden stopped in the middle of it and he said: ‘Do you believe that? There’s a gorilla in the middle of the audience. And so Ghoulardi did two shows that afternoon. “I had this gorilla suit, which I had pilfered a week before. When Anderson made an appearance at a local amusement park, the adoring 13-year-old Sweed showed up.
There was no bigger fan than young Ron Sweed. They all loved Ghoulardi,” recalled Sweed in a 2017 interview with "The Detroit History Podcast." Ghoulardi had a beatnik-like, wise-cracking attitude, a fright wig, a disheveled appearance and an intense following.
GORILLA FILM PRODUCTION MICHIGAN TV
Ghoulardi was played by Ernie Anderson, who was the hottest thing going on Cleveland TV in the 1960s. Sweed grew up in Cleveland, and would parlay his admiration for Ghoulardi, a popular Cleveland television personality, into a lifetime career. Blowing up stuff with fireworks - we weren’t supposed to do that. It was true revolution for the hell of it. He was everybody’s introduction to anarchy. “You didn’t have to be an adult to know he wasn’t playing by the rules. Thompson of trash,” said Jerry Vile, the Detroit artist, media maker and creator of The Dirty Show. The census of things he destroyed with his omnipresent firecrackers on Channel 50 (WKBD-TV) was legendary: Mickey Mouse puppets, toilets, model airplanes and pierogi, among other things. Ron Sweed, the horror host who became a hit on early 1970s Detroit TV in a haze of firecrackers, absurdist humor and the never-ending torture of his sidekick Froggy, has died in Cleveland at the age of 70.įriends say he had suffered a heart attack in November, and never fully recovered. Sweed died Monday, according to multiple family friends and a Facebook post by his ex-wife, Barbara J.