MISSISSIPPI VALLEY COLLECTION
UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS LIBRARIES
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MISSISSIPPI VALLEY COLLECTION
UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS LIBRARIES
I discovered Sivad and his show, Fantastic Features, in 1966 when I had first moved to Memphis. He became the centerpiece of my special weekend ritual where my parents would allow me to stay up as late as I liked to watch really bad horror and science fiction movies on the show he hosted on channel 13.
In the years from 1966 to 1972 I watched the Fantastic Features show change with the times. In the later years Sivad had a number of "assistants" from Memphis State University who added a wacky and strange element to the show. There were many jokes the cast seemed to be enjoying that went right over my head. In retrospect, there were quite a few counter-culture references mentioned on the show; it was the late 60s/early 70s after all. I remember one gag involving one of Sivad's assistants and an imaginary "sky hook" that was either the result of drugs, insanity, or sleep depravation. While Sivad didn't necessarily participate in these skits, he seemed to tolerate the youthful exuberance of his assistants.
Sivad on DVD? Yes, I know it sounds insane, but it's true. Here's the deal: My friend Marcus often goes to the flea market at the Memphis fairgrounds. He recently ran across this guy selling Sivad DVDs and bought one for me. They aren't long-lost Fantastic Features episodes, but rather a rip of promotional films/tapes that WHBQ-TV sent out to advertisers to encourage them to place ads during Fantastic Features. Sivad talks about the how great the audience for FF is, then they cut to a cheesy movie. Afterwards Sivad wraps things up.
Oh Lord, I had forgotten how truly terrible and corny Sivad's jokes were! Priceless! Not to mention the movies!!! The one DVD I have features Goliath and the Giants. Peee-yew! So bad it's funny. (Update, July 18, 2005: I have acquired Fortress of the Dead, Vulcan Son of Jupiter, Murder in the Museum, and Horrors of the Black Museum - sadly, the Sivad footage is virtually identical on each of the DVDs.)
Anyway, for your viewing pleasure, I have ripped the FF title and one typically bad joke from the DVD. Enjoy!
 Fantastic Features Intro (QuickTime 3.5 Mb) |
 Sivad Jokes (QuickTime 1.2 Mb) |
Yikes! I never imagined that once I put up information about the Sivad DVD people would start begging me for copies. Spurred by the amazing demand, I have managed to hunt down the supplier of Sivad DVDs. Get your Sivad goodness from:
Allen Herr
Video Boneyard
(812) 897-0917
If you live in, near, or under the city of Memphis, I would suggest you check the date of the next Big flea market at the Fairgrounds and look for the guy selling hundreds of old, bad horror, sci-fi, and mystery DVDs.
In 2001 I was perusing an old horror movies book belonging to my friend Stephan and out fell the following article from a 1978 Commercial Appeal:
Effort To Resuscitate Ghoulish Sivad Fails
Sivad's June, 1963, Performance At FairgroundsBy Joseph Shapiro
October 29, 1978From a mobile home to Clarendon, Ark., came the cryptic message: "Sivad is gone forever."
And with that hopes were shattered to stage some downtown Halloween nostalgia.
Sivad, in tails, tap hat and fangs, was "monster of ceremonies" of WHBQ's "Fantastic Features" in the 1960s. And on Halloween nights he reigned over Ghoularama - an evening of horror features at the Orpheum when it was a Malco movie theater.
The Memphis Development Foundation, the private nonprofit redevelopment group which now owns the old movie palace, had hoped to lure Sivad out of retirement and dig up the dormant Halloween tradition. Two shows, now canceled, had been scheduled with a showing of the underground cult film, "Night of the Living Dead."
First, development foundation sleuths had to truck down the Transylvanian-style baron who, they reported, now lives in Monroe County, Ark., with his son in a mobile home.
Sivad and his son run an automobile repair shop where the horror king goes by the name W. Watson Davis. (Davis is Sivad spelled backwards.)
"We were looking for a nostalgia angle," explained Orpheum project manager Lee Wright, who still remembers the verses to "Sivad buries rock and roll" and carries his "Monster Club" membership card.
Sivad was "thrilled to death, he was so tickled people still were interested in him," Wright said. "He had some really good ideas from the old Ghoularama days.
But Sivad, who played his monster role for 10 years, decided he preferred to remain in retirement.
At one time to his career, on June 17, 1963, at the Mid-South Fairgrounds, Sivad attracted an overflow crowd of 30,000 young fans.
I did eventually get to see Sivad in person. He appeared at the Bristol Theatre in Memphis in the late 60s. Never have I seen a monster so loved as Sivad.
I am greatly saddened to report that Watson Davis died recently. From the Commercial Appeal:
Actor carved local legend
'Sivad' spooked generation of kids as Mid-South's 'Monster of Ceremonies'
Watson Davis donned a costume to become Sivad for
"Fantastic Features." (Fred Griffith/The Commercial Appeal)By Bill Dries
March 25, 2005Every Saturday night for more than a decade on Memphis television, Watson Davis frightened and charmed legions of children and young adults with his fanged and pale-faced alter ego.
Davis donned a cape, cane, top hat and false vampire teeth in the early 1960s to become Sivad -- the "Monster of Ceremonies" for "Fantastic Features," WHBQ-TV's weekly showing of an old horror movie.
Mr. Davis, an actor and an advertising director for Malco Theaters, died Wednesday of cancer in Stuttgart, Ark. He was 92 and still had his costume close by, according to his nephew, Buddy Davis of Memphis.
The Saturday evening tradition began with the ominous dirge of classical music and a film of Sivad driving a horse-drawn hearse in a foggy Overton Park, pulling a coffin from the back and opening it.
In the studio, he would begin with a suitably ghoulish "A goooooood evening." He hosted commercial breaks in the horror movies with routines that were more slapstick than frightening.
"He had no idea how big it would become. He just decided to put on the hat and cape and teeth and turned his name around," his nephew said.
Mr. Davis had shown a fondness for costumes, including Sivad's, when promoting movies at what is now the Orpheum. He began working for Malco as an usher when he was 13. The origin of the stage name was simple, he explained years later. "That's my name backwards. I just made that up thinking in terms of something like Houdini. You know, one word." An early indication of the character's popularity was a June 1963 appearance at the Fairgrounds that drew 30,000 people. Buddy Davis said his uncle was offered a flat fee of $500 or a percentage of the dollar-a-head admission, and to his later regret, took the $500.
He made several novelty records including "Sivad Buries Rock and Roll" that have since become collectors' items. Mr. Davis soon hired an agent.
At home, he took calls from neighborhood children delighted to hear him answer the phone with his famous opening line. And the Davis home was a mandatory stop on Halloween. By 1971, Sivad had so many appearances booked in Memphis and the Mid-South that Mr. Davis left his job with Malco.
His fame continued long after WHBQ discontinued the horror movies in the mid-1970s and network programming ran into the later evening hours.
Mr. Davis and his son opened an auto repair shop and despite requests over the years, Mr. Davis always insisted, "Sivad is gone forever."
Mr. Davis, the husband of Mable Bullock Davis, also leaves three daughters, Robin Lavell Inman, Debbie Maier and Beverly Ideker, all of Stuttgart; a son, Billy Davis of Clarendon, Ark.; 12 grandchildren, 15 great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren.
Graveside services will be Saturday at 2 p.m. at Shady Grove Cemetery in Clarendon. Bob Neal & Sons Funeral Home of Clarendon has charge.
Many thanks to those who emailed me with the news. My deepest condolences to Watson's family. He will truly be missed by us all. If you were a fan of Sivad, then send a note about your memories of him to his family:
Mabel Davis
1002 North College
Stuttgart AR 72160
These MP3s were stolen from somebody's website who stole them from an mysterious old man who stole them from a strange child with glowing eyes who stole them from a giant stop-motion mutant lizard who stole them from etc & etc.
Sivad Buries Rock and Roll
Dickey Drakeller
I have shamelessly taken many of my Sivad images from other web sites. If you are interested in Sivad then please check them out:
ChillerCinema's Sivad page.
Egor's Chamber of TV Horror Hosts has eerily good Sivad stuff, Sivad memories by Harris Lentz and Mike Curtis, a list of all the movies shown, and even a Sivad mask!
Scary Monsters Magazine has an issue where Sivad is mentioned.
Memphis Magazine has a concise farewell to Sivad.
A handful of other references on the web.
Contact: - (c)opyleft 1995-2009 Matthew Lewis Carroll Smith - Creative Commons Licensed
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