Last year at this time I was sitting up at the
newspaper office at UNO with my friend Ed Stastny working on an
article for our once published fanzine END PROCESS. It was an article
about Dr. San Guinary and as i sat tapping out the words, I looked
over to see what Ed was working on. He had been working on a website
for a client at the time and as he continued to build it...adding
text here, graphics there... an idea began to form in my mind. I
wanted Ed to build a Dr. San Guinary website. I told him about the
idea of the site, and he smiled.
"Why don't you do it yourself??"
he said to me.
"Because i don't know how to build
websites" I smirked as I chomped down on a convienence
store burrito.
"Well...you could learn how to."
he said, still staring into the monitor.
That was when a lot of things
started for me. I did start to learn html markup and my first project
was this website. It was a natural progression, actually, because
over the years that I have had CREATURE FEATURE memorabilia, I have
wanted to share it with other fans.
The site itsself has undergone a few changes,
a lot of which were cosmetic. It was my first site, after all, and
it really did show. I have just completed the SPOOK-A-RAMA section
so give that a look. As for the video equipment I have to work with
to do the video stuff with won't play my tapes of San Guinary stuff.
They *will* get added, so keep checking from time to time.
Over the years, I have tried my best to save
my San Guinary memorabilia for posterity and gather other bits with
little success. My first attempt to save stuff for posterity was
when I had recieved my Spook-A-Rama kit I had my father take it
to work to photocopy it so that i could have a copy of it incase
I lost the original. Unfortunately, my Spook-A-Rama kit didn't fit
properly onto the photocopier so Dad decided to cut it apart so
that it DID fit...which is why my kit is so decrepid these days,
thanks to the massive tape job I performed to save the outer cover.
Another attempt at sharing my personal collection
with everyone was in junior high when I wrote a book about Dr. San
Guinary and horror movies. It was an ambitious attempt; in all I
wrote over fifty handwritten pages of the book, complete with photos
(courtesy of those photocopies Dad made and several TV GUIDES),
illustrations explaining set design for CF and ads depicting San,
but the actual publishing of said project never really happened.
I kept the book for years until it became a victim of water damage
during one of my moves. One of my current surviving San Guinary
Postcards was used for the cover of this book (and was remarklably
saved from the aqua).
Of all of my attempts to collect and preserve Dr.
San Guinary memorabilia the most extensive of these is my audio
tape collection. Within a 4-5 year time period, i managed to collect
around 20 audio recordings of CREATURE FEATURE links and another
10 San Guinary related recordings. This may seem strange but to
me it was a treat. By the time I had made the first of these recordings,
I had moved from Council Bluffs to the wilds of Iowa (specifically
Earlham, Iowa) where we couldn't get CREATURE FEATURE on the airwaves.
At the time, my parents had purchased a tape recorder for me and
I was a recording fool... I STILL have tapes of t.v. shows of the
timeperiod laying around in boxes of mine, and at one time, i could
picture EVERY scene in my head when ever I listened to those television
tapes. I got the idea of recording the links and part of the movies
on CREATURE FEATURE on one of my visits to my grandmother's house
as a way of experienceing CF at home whenever I wanted to. Over
the years, those tapes have stayed with me and just a few months
ago, I transfered them all to quality audio tape for posterity.
A small portion of those audio tracks can be found here on the site,
but there is so much still to share.
Sometimes I completely forget how long ago it was that CREATURE
FEATURE aired on television. The last episode with John Jones aired
sometime in 1981-2 (i believe; correct me if I am wrong) and the
final episode of CREATURE FEATURE aired in 1983, making the newest
episode about 13 years old. John continued to play San Guinary for
the MD Labor Day telethon up till the time of his death in 1988,
so I do run into a few younger fans here and there, but the majority
of the fans are in their later thirties early forties. Man, time
marches on.
In the past year, the Weblab has become a very popular site here
in Omaha and abroad. While most fans of the Doctor live here in
the big "O", a lot of horror host fans check into the
site from time to time to see what San Guinary was all about. They
have memories of their favorite horror hosts from their hometowns
which they share with me, and they have been very instrumental in
my continued upgrading of the site. Many fans are like myself; we
remember how at one time local affiliate t.v. stations actually
used to be able to distinguish themselves from each other by creating
original local programing. What ever happened to shows like CREATURE
FEATURE? Why do most local affiliates just not do these types of
programs? Yeah, some of it is the pressure of cable television,
but that hasn't stopped them from trying to ape CNN or HEADLINE
NEWS by putting all of thier attention into their news broadcasts.
It was a sad day when local affiliates gave in so quickly. Over
the past year I have had the honor of speaking with members of John's
family via e-mail, all of whom have enjoyed the site. I am very
happy with this mainly because I wasn't sure how they would take
it or if they would even see it (remember folks, MOST people have
not even seen the internet). I had no direct contact with the Jones
family OR KMTV, so I had to just take a chance and do it. Fortunately,
a friend of the family saw the site and gave them a tour, of whih
they enjoyed. I have had the pleasure of exchanging e-mail with
all kinds of people who knew John personally, from his older sister
Mary, to crew members who worked on the show and even one of the
crewmembers who played "Igor".
The best thing the site has done for me is allow
me to say thanks to the Jones family and maybe...just maybe, John
himself. Thanks for all those years of green makeup, laughter and
a philosophy of helping others.
Thanks, man.
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