Film & TV / Comedy
Ron Sweed
1949–2019 · TV horror host, comedian, disc jockey
Cleveland's 'The Ghoul', a late-night horror-movie host whose firecrackers, Cheez Whiz and rubber frog Froggy made him a cult figure for Detroit kids on WKBD Channel 50 in the 1970s.
- Born
Euclid, Ohio- Died
aged 70- Birth name
- Ronald D. Sweed
- Also known as
- The Ghoul
- Detroit years
- 1970s–1980s
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Sweed grew up in Cleveland idolizing the horror host Ghoulardi and became his assistant as a teenager. In 1971 he revived the act, with Ghoulardi's blessing, as The Ghoul on a Kaiser Broadcasting station in Cleveland, and Kaiser soon syndicated the show to its other stations, including WKBD, Channel 50, in Detroit. The Ghoul found his most devoted audience outside Cleveland in Detroit: in fright wig and fake goatee he mocked cheap monster movies, blew up model ships with firecrackers, smeared Cheez Whiz on everything and tormented a rubber frog named Froggy. After WKBD dropped the show he returned on Detroit's WXON, Channel 20, from 1977 to 1979 and briefly on WGPR-TV in 1979, and he appeared on and off in Detroit and Cleveland for three decades. Catchphrases such as 'Stay sick, turn blue' are still quoted by Detroiters who grew up in the 1970s.
Highlights
- The Ghoul Show on Detroit's WKBD-TV (Channel 50) in the 1970s
- Returned on WXON (Channel 20), 1977–1979, and briefly on WGPR-TV
- Created The Ghoul in 1971 as a tribute to Cleveland's Ghoulardi
- Sign-off: 'Stay sick, turn blue, scratch glass, climb walls'