TV'S EPITOME OF EVIL

"Master of the Macabre, the Epitome of Evil, the most sinister man to crawl on the face of the earth!" So went the introduction to L.A.'s Fright Night, hosted by Larry "Seymour" Vincent. Although there were numerous other TV horror hosts on the local channels, Seymour and Elvira were my favorites.

Much like Elvira, Seymour was a one-man MST3K, and he was relentless in his jokes about the movies he played. The feature shown here is from The Los Angeles Staff from April 21, 1972. The Staff was formed by personnel of The Los Angeles Free Press after "The Freep" was busted by the IRS for missing a tax payment (the Feds had been after the notorious underground newspaper for years for its "subversive" political content). On an odd note, the second section of The Staff, which was its entertainment and culture section, was edited by members of the rock group, DEVO (!).

Seymour hosted L.A.'s TV airways from 1969 through 1974 until Vincent became ill and died of stomach cancer on March 9, 1975.