The Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia

Front of John Zacherle Fan Club Card
WCAU-TV
1958

This is the front of the John Zacherle Fan Club card. It shows Broadcast Pioneers member John Zacherle as Roland on the left and as he appeared in real life on the right. The card dates from 1958.

Back of John Zacherle Fan Club Card
WCAU-TV
1958

Zacherle hosted Shock Theater with his sidekicks Igor and My Dear and reigned supreme on Philadelphia late night television in 1957 and 1958. He also recorded on the Philadelphia based Cameo label. He had a Top Ten hit with "Dinner with Drac." The followup song "Lunch with Mother Goose" was less successful.

An interesting footnote to the Dinner with Drac recording was that the 1st presses had it flipped with a song called "Igor." However, Dick Clark, who owned part of the Cameo label, thought that the original version of "Dinner with Drac" was too violent for his "American Bandstand" show,which went network just about the same time as Zacherele started SHOCK THEATER. An alternate version was recorded and played on Bandstand. Problem was everyone wanted the Bandstand version. So Cameo had to quickly re-press the song with the original version on one side and the Bandstand version on the other. They were entitled, "Dinner with Drac, Parts 1 & 2."

The e-mail address of the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia is pioneers@broadcastpioneers.com