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The memory of Dr. Paul Bearer is still alive

Staff file photo (1974)

Dr. Paul Bearer, aka Dick Bennick, haunted local airwaves for 24 years.

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By WALT BELCHER

wbelcher@tampatrib.com

Published: October 30, 2009

Every Halloween, we pause a moment to remember the late, great Dr. Paul Bearer, who was the longest-running horror movie TV host in Florida.

From 1971 until his death after heart surgery in 1995, Dick Bennick played the ghoulish comedic undertaker on WTOG, Channel 44.

His Saturday "Creature Feature" is part of Tampa television history, and several generations remember his catchphrase: "I'll be lurking for you."

Bennick, a radio sales executive, was a good friend who joked that because he had a glass eye he really could "keep an eye out for you."

Go ahead, you can groan in his honor. Puns, good and bad, were his forte. Several times, I was a guest on his show to judge his invisible woman bikini contest ("the best looking woman you never saw").

Dr. Paul introduced "horrible" old horror movies from his "castle" at the WTOG studios, where he had a treasure chest of gag props, including a copy of "The Tampa Tri-Bone."

Halloween was Bennick's favorite time of year. He would fire up his old hearse and make numerous public appearances.

His departure left a void that hasn't been filled and probably won't be. Local horror movie hosts belong to a bygone era in television.

However, thanks to the Internet, Dr. Paul's memory is being kept alive.

You can find Fans of Dr. Paul Bearer on Facebook, where you can chat with Erma Broombeck, the "witch" who sometimes appeared with him.

The crazedfanboy.com site also has a tribute to Dr. Paul as well as a good interview with Bennick.

Another interesting site, www.horrorhostgraveyard.com, also has a good tribute to Dr. Paul.

And several clips of Dr. Paul can be found on YouTube, including one in which he does "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park," and another that is a compilation of his gag products such as "Blisterine," "Mold Duck Wine" "Boo Berry Pie with Ghoul Whip" and takeout from "Red Blobster."

LOCAL CASE: TV journalist Paula Zahn, formerly of ABC, CBS, Fox News and CNN, is having success now on the Investigation Discovery Network.

Her new series, "On the Case With Paula Zahn," which began Oct. 18, profiles real crime stories. The next episode, at 10 p.m. Sunday, is the Pinellas County case of Timothy Humphrey, a bodybuilder who manipulated his wife into killing a woman who wanted to press charges against him.

Humphrey is serving a life sentence. Ashley Humphrey, who gunned down Sandra Rozzo in 2003, is serving a 25-year sentence. Zahn interviews Ashley Humphrey and key witnesses in the case.

CHANNEL-FLIPPING: Coming up at 9 p.m. Sunday on PBS' "Masterpiece Contemporary" is a thriller with a surprise ending. Juliet Stevenson stars as a TV journalist who reopens the unsolved 1963 disappearance of a 13-year-old girl in "Place of Execution," adapted from a novel by Val McDermid ("Wire in the Blood").

Fox's "Dollhouse" is gone from Fridays. In its place tonight is a "House" rerun.

"Halloween on Ice" at 8 tonight on Hallmark Channel features Nancy Kerrigan, Todd Eldredge and Elvis Stojko.

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