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Sammy Terry to haunt park in ghoulish stage show Saturday
Robe-Ann Park in Greencastle will be the scene of a real crypt-kicking monster mash of a party Saturday night when Sammy Terry's "Rock n Roll Nightmare" stage show comes to town for a pre-Halloween haunting.
With special musical guest Redzilla, an area rock 'n roll band, playing as well, the free performance is set for the Bob Flanigan Bandshell at the park.
Spectators are invited to begin arriving at 5:30 p.m. Redzilla will perform its "straight-up rock 'n' roll" beginning between 6:15 and 6:30 p.m.
Redzilla's 45-minute set will give the crowd "a taste of KISS and '70s and '80s rock acts," band member Hank Stitzle said. "It's definitely for the music lover."
Sammy Terry, the legendary Indianapolis TV movie host now portrayed by Mark Carter (son of the late original Sammy Terry, Bob Carter), will do a one-hour show following Redzilla's performance.
While the entire show can be seen for the free, true horror movie and Sammy Terry fans will have an opportunity to go backstage and meet Cater one-on-one, get an autograph and experience other perks by purchasing VIP tickets, Stitzle said.
Only 50 such VIP tickets are being sold at $40 each. VIP tickets are available from Steve Mason at Mason Jewelers, one of the show sponsors, in Greencastle (653-5012). If any VIP tickets remain, they will be available before the show on Saturday, Stitzle said.
Stitzle emphasized that horror movie aficionados and Sammy Terry fans should realize that Carter will be soon taking his Sammy Terry act on the road and out to Hollywood.
"His schedule might not allow him to come back to Indiana any time soon," advised Stitzle, who spoke to the Greencastle Park Board recently about the show he has organized.
"And it's not happening in Terre Haute or Brazil or Indianapolis," he said proudly, "but here in Greencastle."
It will be the full Sammy Terry stage show, he said, acknowledging Carter will be rising from his coffin and all.
"He was stoked about it," Stitzle said of Carter. "He said the last time he had been here in Greencastle, his father was doing a show at the Voncastle."
That was the ornate old movie house that stood along Washington Street (where the Old National Bank parking lot now exists) until the early 1970s.
"When they tore the Voncastle down," Park Board Tim Trigg noted, "I think the bats they released that night of the show were still flying around."
While Carter won't be releasing bats into the park, he most certainly will be spooking the daylights out of his father's fans and those he has embraced and adopted as well.
"We'll be playing in front of his set (at the bandshell)," Stitzle said of Redzilla, "which is about like getting to play in front of the KISS set."
Redzilla isn't getting paid for the performance, he said, noting that the band is doing it purely for the exposure and to bring something fun and different to Greencastle.
Sammy Terry (think cem-e-tery) came to life in the early 1960s, when Bob Carter and producers at WTTV, Channel 4, developed the pale-faced cloaked ghoul as an on-air TV personality.
Rising from his coffin late on Friday nights, Sammy Terry laughed ominously while introducing usually poor-quality horror movies and providing mostly ad-libbed banter for commercial-break entertainment.
When Channel 4 renamed the program "Nightmare Theater," the show and Carter's portrayal of Sammy Terry skyrocketed in popularity, winning him a huge following in the Indianapolis area.
Bob Carter, who passed the cape down to son Mark Carter in 2010, died on June 30, 2013.