Dick Dyszel
| Richard E. Dyszel | |
|---|---|
| Born |
March 20, 1947 Chicago |
| Nationality | American |
| Other names | Dick Dyszel |
Richard E. Dyszel (born March 20, 1947), known professionally as Dick Dyszel, is an American television personality, known for his television alter-egos Count Gore De Vol and Captain 20.
The Chicago native attended Southern Illinois University and graduated with a degree in radio-TV. He became the local Bozo the Clown at WDXR-TV in Paducah, Kentucky, before moving on to WDCA in Washington in 1972. He was a jack of all trades at WDCA, functioning as the station's announcer, as kids' show host Captain 20 as well as Washington's second Bozo, after Willard Scott had originated the local version of the character. The horror host character of Count Gore De Vol (whose name was either a play on author Gore Vidal or the name of a prominent Washington D.C. funeral home, "De Vol.") originated as a character called M.T. Graves on Bozo. He stayed on as the Count until 1987 when the station ceased local production.
Dyszel then started the DC area's first all-CD mobile DJ company and worked briefly as a promotion producer for WBFF-TV in Baltimore. In 1988 he became a producer-director-writer for the Fairfax County Virginia Public Library Cable Channel (FCPL-44) while expanding the DJ service into sound and music production for the area's fashion industry. In 1995 he moved to Chicago where he restarted the DJ company.
In 1998, Dyszel became the first horror host to present a weekly show on the Internet at Count Gore.com, featuring Count Gore hosting streaming video of movies and shorts as well as celebrity interviews. In 2005 he returned to the DC area, built a high-definition studio and expanded the role of Count Gore De Vol to include live-hosted horror movies at the AFI Silver Theatre in Silver Spring, Maryland. This series started on February 3, 2013, with the 40th anniversary celebration of his hosted horror movie on WDCA-TV—House of Frankenstein!.
He still owns and operates Sounds Fabulous Entertainment, providing a virtual DJ system named George that he developed for small-venue parties. As Count Gore De Vol, he is a guest at 6 to 10 conventions a year and is closely associated with the Spooky Movie Film Festival, an annual week-long celebration of horror feature films and shorts, which celebrated its tenth year in 2015.
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