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 About Dr. San Guinary |
Classic Creature Feature | Articles Archive
Dr. San Guinary, and his cause, are not forgotten by fans. By Rainbow Rowell This week on “Creature Feature”: Years and years after a mad doctor’s death, his family and followers get together to bring the old ghoul back from the grave. Hide your eyeballs, boys and girls, because the deeply demented and dearly beloved Dr. San Guinary is alive and schticking. Igor, roll tape. * * * If anybody was ripe for an Internet resurrection, it was Dr. San Guinary. When Amanda Shannon created her “Creature Feature” fan page last year, she was surprised that he didn’t have a page already. Amanda’s been a San fan since she was a kid. She’s dressed up as Dr. San Guinary for the last 10 Halloweens … For a long time, her Facebook group had six members. But then, something happened — hundreds of people started liking the page, then thousands. They were excited to find it, and to share their own memories and photos of the horror show host. Pretty soon Amanda’s page had more than 5,500 fans. Which maybe shouldn’t have been such a surprise. If you grew up in Omaha before cable TV, you remember watching Dr. San Guinary’s “Creature Feature” on KMTV — even if you had to watch the show from between your fingers. And even if you weren’t allowed to watch “Creature Feature” — or couldn’t stay awake until “Saturday Night Live” was over — you probably still remember the more-silly-than-spooky doctor from the annual Jerry Lewis MDA telethon, or from a parade, or a neighborhood carnival … Dr. San Guinary was a local celebrity back when there really was such a thing. And people loved him. So, what do you do if you accidentally become president of a Facebook fan club with 5,500 members? And what do you do if you go on Facebook one day and find a group devoted to your dad? Under all that green San Guinary makeup was John Jones, a TV director, volunteer firefighter and father of two boys. When John died in 1988 of cancer, Jason was 18, and Josh was only 9. They’ve talked for years about doing something to honor their dad. They just weren’t sure what. Between the Facebook group and a Craigslist ad, they’ve connected with Amanda and some of their dad’s other big fans, and now they’re all hoping to channel nostalgia for Dr. San Guinary into fundraising for his favorite charity, the Muscular Dystrophy Association. They’re working together to keep John Jones’s memory — and his legacy — alive. * * * Dr. San Guinary and the MDA. After his family, these were the loves of John’s life, and according to his biographer, he came to both of them accidentally. In 1971, John’s bosses at KMTV asked for his help putting together a Saturday night horror show. “Creature Feature”-type shows were working in other markets. They offered John $50 a week to come up with a character who could host the show and introduce the cheesy horror films. (Think “Attack of the 50 Foot Woman.”) John was hoping to keep it simple. They came up with an Invisible Man-like character, and he planned to wear a stocking over his head. They thought maybe, if his mouth was covered or invisible, he could get away with reusing the same footage, and just taping new audio every week. That didn’t work. After a few episodes, Dr. San Guinary got plastic surgery. The show became so popular that it took KMTV — then the NBC affiliate — from third to first in the ratings. Around the same time, the Muscular Dystrophy Association was reaching out to local TV personalities and asking them to support the MDA’s carnival program. The idea was that the TV character would encourage kids to have a neighborhood carnival to raise money for the MDA. John really made the idea his own. He helped create Spookarama Kits for Omaha kids. How to have your haunted house. How your parents could help. How to collect money. If you threw an MDA Spookarama, Dr. San Guinary himself would visit. And if you couldn’t have a Spookarama, you could still collect money and bring it to Dr. San Guinary’s Fishbowl. During the annual Jerry Lewis Telethon, John would stand outside the station — and later, other businesses around town — with a large aquarium. It was an all-day, all-night outdoor party. And if you stopped by, you could meet the doctor and even get on TV. “You could see how excited he was every year coming up to Labor Day,” his son Josh, now 32, remembered. “Besides Halloween, Labor Day was the biggest day of the year in our house.” By the time Josh was born, John was doing parades, MDA camps and hospital and classroom appearances. “I’d stand on the toilet next to him,” Josh said, “and watch him put makeup on in the mirror. For me, that was like watching him get ready for work.” On a busy San Guinary day, John never took off the makeup. He’d mow the lawn, run the kids to school … “I’d see him sleep on the couch with that makeup on,” Josh said. “I saw him with it on as much as with it off.” “Creature Feature” was riding high in the ratings in 1975, when NBC asked its affiliates to carry a new live, comedy show called “NBC’s Saturday Night.” The show bumped “Creature Feature” to midnight, and KMTV hoped fans would follow. They did, but in smaller numbers. In 1982, the show was canceled. But John kept making appearances as Dr. San Guinary, and he kept manning the Fishbowl every year until his death. * * * Chris Palmer of Chicago, who grew up watching Dr. San Guinary in Omaha, has dressed up as the character recently at fundraisers for muscular distrophy. He is also writing a biography about the Omaha TV personality. Photo courtesy of Amanda Shannon Chris Palmer lives in Chicago now, but he grew up watching “Creature Feature” and he’s kind of obsessed with Omaha TV history. Chris started working on a Dr. San Guinary biography about a year and a half ago, when — like Amanda — he realized that there wasn’t much San Guinary stuff out there. He couldn’t even find a Spookarama kit. “You’d figure,” Chris said, “with the thousands of those things that were printed out, they’d be in every antique and junk shop in Omaha, but that is not the case.” Chris put an ad on Craigslist, asking about San Guinary memorabilia. Josh heard about the ad when somebody walked into his barbershop — San Guinary’s on 61st and L. That’s the place to go if you want to see San Guinary stuff. Josh and his older brother, Jason, are extra protective of their dad’s memory, But they took to Chris immediately. Pretty soon, they were talking about how cool it would be to publish a Dr. San Guinary scrapbook, with all the old pictures and stories, and a DVD of clips from the show. The brothers have been talking for years about a way to commemorate their dad. But Jason works a million hours a week, and Josh is allergic to the computer. When they saw how much Chris cared about the project, Josh said, they told him, “Run with it.” Chris sprinted. Chris has grand plans for Dr. San Guinary. He and Amanda and a few other longtime fans — including Fredd Gorham, who built the first San Guinary Web tribute — have formed drsanguinary.org. They’re selling San Guinary T-shirts on eBay and setting up booths at local events. The interest is already there, Chris said. People want San Guinary stuff, they want to reminisce about “Creature Feature” — why not use that excitement to raise more money for the MDA? The drsanguinary.org crew has already helped with one MDA fundraiser at Stinson Park, and they’d like to help with others. Chris is even suiting up as Dr. San Guinary for Monday’s telethon. He’ll be there for the Fishbowl at the Bag ’N Save on 90th and Maple. When you see Chris in full San Guinary gear … there’s a definite resemblance to John. Jason was reminded of his dad the first time he met Chris. They had the same sense of humor. And Josh was struck by Chris’s out-of-control San Guinary hair. “Half the time I’m with him, I want him to sit in the chair, so I can cut it.” Both brothers are happy to see Chris don the white smock. “I’d rather have somebody do it who’s a huge San Guinary fan,” Josh said. Chris hopes to take Dr. San Guinary to the Benson Zombie Walk next month, and he’s talking to a theater owner about a live “Creature Feature” event. If they make any money from any of this stuff, even the book, they plan to give it to the MDA. That’s what John would have done, Chris says. Contact the writer: 444-1149, rainbow.rowell@owh.com 11 Comments » Mary Ellen Fleming-Jones 5 September 2010 at 12:16 pm 5 September 2010 at 12:22 pm 5 September 2010 at 6:51 pm 5 September 2010 at 9:05 pm 5 September 2010 at 10:33 pm It covered everything so very well. It is all comin’ together! Chris, thanks for the phone call updates and I can not wait to hear how it goes at the Fishbowl on Monday! Tom 5 September 2010 at 11:06 pm 5 September 2010 at 11:16 pm 6 September 2010 at 6:41 pm 6 September 2010 at 8:15 pm 7 September 2010 at 9:22 am I remember that I ran into him at J. C. Penny’s at Southroads in Bellevue one day. He did not have his make-up on, but I knew in an instant. As a child, I did not understand about characters on TV. Running into him like that, I was completely star-struck! I ran to my dad and told him I saw Dr. San Guinary, and he didn’t have make-up on. My dad asked if I said hi to him. How could I? He is this big star on TV! My dad took me by the hand, and we sought him out. I never have forgotten that. I have never stopped talking about Dr. San Guinary, his show “Creature Feature”, nor all his work for MDA. I had also met him a couple of times as I got older at his “Fishbowl”. What a great man. I am so happy to see his memory is alive in soooo many people. My thanks to his kids for sharing their father to so many. commenting closed for this article
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