HALLOWEEN 2014!
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Cartoonist/voices: Donnie Pitchford
Audio credits:
Our 2021 announcer is Dr. Joe Oliver!
Your Ghostly Host: Professor Newton Figley!
Sivad (recorded in 1964): Watson Davis!!
Music by Marc Ridgeway!
Click to listen!
The character who identifies himself as Sivad is a tribute (as explained above) to my favorite Monster of Ceremonies who was a star on Memphis television from 1962 to 1972. Watson Davis portrayed Sivad and introduced all kinds of spooky movies on his programs Fantastic Features and Fantastic Double Features on the weekends! For the audio production above, I borrowed an actual recording of Sivad from a WHBQ Channel 13 promo film which is available on YouTube! See it below! It opens with the original introduction to his program:
Here is part two:
An interview with Watson Davis in his retired years:
In 2015, I was accepted as a full member of the National Cartoonists Society, something I consider a great honor. For the 2016 Reubens Awards Banquet which was held in Memphis, I submitted this drawing of Sivad with Lum and Abner:
When the Halloween 2014 Lum and Abner comic strip was published, Laura and I were in Norman, Oklahoma where I was guest at the annual OAFCON convention. Next door to my booth was Oklahoma’s answer to Sivad – Count Gregore, known in real life as John Ferguson! We hit it off immediately and had a ball chatting about his career in television which dates back to the early 1950s! Now in his 90s, Count Gregore is still busy performing! He kindly posed for some photos which I only wish I could have done back in Memphis with good ol’ Sivad!
Lum and Abner Comic Strip 