Zacherle

Dennis Elsas with Zacherle

Dressed as an undertaker, John Zacherle became known as “The Cool Ghoul”, hosting horror movies on television in the late 1950’s and early 60’s. Known just as Zacherle, his outrageous presentation and unforgettable laugh were far more entertaining and memorable than most of the films he showed.

He even had a national top ten hit single with the great novelty song “Dinner with Drac” in 1958.

In the mid to late 60’s he hosted Disc-O- Teen, a TV dance show on a small UHF station in New Jersey. He joined WNEW-FM in 1967 as a truly unorthodox radio morning man, before switching to late nights. In 1971 he joined WPLJ and became a fixture of NY rock radio over the next ten years.

On Halloween night, 1997 I was lucky enough to have him as my special guest on WNEW-FM.