Childhood is a frightening time. You’re smaller and less powerful than everything in your world, you have no say about what happens in your life, and then there are people (or creatures of the night) like Sammy Terry. Sammy, aka Bob Carter, appeared on WTTV channel 4’s Nightmare Theatre every Friday night, bringing classic b-grade horror flicks to the Indianapolis metropolitan area during the 1960s and 70s and I largely blame him for my being afraid of the dark for most of my prepubescent life. It was Sammy who introduced me to the classics: Frankenstein, the Wolf Man, Dracula, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, and the Phantom of the Opera. He taught me the ocean is filled with giant mutant creatures that crave human flesh, that the vacuum of space is peopled by insectoid alien horrors with unspeakable plans for humanity, and that the house at the end of the block actually is haunted. Life would have seemed a lot safer without Sammy’s dark theatre of nightmare, but then it would have been a lot more boring too.
Thank you for introducing me to the dark side of things, Sammy. Without you, I might not have become a writer. You taught me fright both as high art and cheap thrill. I’ll miss you, but then you’ll be with me every time a cloud passes over the moon or whenever I hear the sound of thunder in the night.
Do you have memories to share about Sammy Terry? Drop me a comment, I'll put them on the air.
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