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The Cool Ghoul
During the early 1970s, The Cool Ghoul hosted his own Saturday night horror movie show, Scream-In (the name was taken from Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In). The Cool Ghoul's campy but loveable sense of humor endeared him to fans both young and old. The Cool Ghoul had visitors on his show often, including Larry Smith's Hattie the Witch.
Von Hoene could do an uncanny vocal impersonation of horror icon Boris Karloff (Dracula), and so he was also the off-screen voice announcer for the show. Longtime WXIX announcer Greg Eversull claims Von Hoene's Karloff impression was so good, it even fooled a lady who was the real Karloff's private secretary for 30 years.
In 1971, Von Hoene released The Cool Ghoul's Phantasmagorical Funky Fonograf Record, featuring a parody of the 1920s standard "Has Anybody Seen My Gal?" called "Ten Foot Two, Eyes Of Glue (Has Anybody Seen My Ghoul)".
Scream-In ran only three and a half years, but the Cool Ghoul had become so popular that he continued to make numerous public appearances for years, including occasional commercials and annual TV appearances almost every Halloween. As The Cool Ghoul, Von Hoene also took part in various fundraisers in and around Cincinnati with local sports teams. The Cincinnati Reds gave The Cool Ghoul a jersey with the "number zero".
In the early 1980s, Von Hoene took The Cool Ghoul to WCTI-TV in New Bern, North Carolina, earning a new generation of fans in the process.
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