Count Gore de Vol

Count Gore De Vol is a television horror host who originally appeared on Washington, DC's WDCA from 1973 to 1987. Originally named M. T. Graves and played by announcer Dick Dyszel, the character first appeared on the WDCA version of the Bozo the Clown program. When the character got a positive reaction, he was given his own program called Creature Feature. The choice of Gore De Vol as the character's name was either a pun involving the name of acerbic author Gore Vidal or the name of a prominent Washington D.C. funeral home, "De Vol." Gore De Vol became the Washington/Baltimore area's longest running horror host, broadcast every Saturday night on WDCA from March 1973 to May 1987. He returned to the DC airwaves for a one-time special, Countdown with the Count, on New Year's Eve 1999/2000.

Count Gore De Vol's contribution to the American horror host tradition is significant in a number of ways. As Washington D.C.'s horror host throughout most of the 1970s and 1980s, Gore used the platform to satirize national politics from a local perspective. In the era of Watergate and Iran-Contra, Count Gore took frequent shots at the political folly with an ad lib, shoot-from-the-hip style that led local audiences to feel they were part of an Inside the Beltway private joke even when the subject was high profile.

Count Gore's Creature Feature also embraced the sexual revolution of the 1970s, and his guests for the show included several Penthouse pets. Though he never had an official sidekick, he frequently employed the talents of writer and actress Eleanor Herman in the role of Countess von Stauffenberger. The two played off each other with a series of romantic near misses and sexual innuendos that made the show a success even when many horror hosts were losing their shows in the wake of the original Saturday Night Live.

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