I am an ex-Memphian, and I remember Saturdays with my brother, watching 'Fantastic Features' and Sivad. I long for those days. Your March 29 story on Watson Davis actually brought a tear to my eyes.
Joe Kilgo, El Cerrito, Cal.

Thank you very much for your article on Sivad. It was a stroll down a very beloved path. I was fortunate to see Sivad in person one time in Marked Tree, Ark. He promoted a double feature; I don't remember the movies, but I remember his special performance at intermission. He had an enormous rubber mallet that he used to bash my cousin, who was dressed up in an ape costume, over the head...
Steve Nichols, Tyronza, Ark.

The opening of 'Fantastic Features' may be, to this day, the scariest thing I ever saw on TV. (I was around 8 years old at the time...)
Will Callicott, Aiken, S.C.

You are absolutely right when you put Sivad at the head of Memphis's folk hero pantheon... No one on local television -- not Mr. Magic, Sputnik Monroe or Captain Bill -- had a more profound effect on me as a young child. He scared me to death and yet I could not take my eyes off the screen when he appeared.
G. Wayne, Memphis

I was born in 1961, so I grew up watching Sivad. I was TERRIFIED of him, and when the opening scene and the music started, I would run as fast as I could and hide behind the living room door, fingers in my ears, humming a song, eyes squinched as tight as I could get them. During breaks in the movie, when he would be in the studio, I would hold a pillow over my head and hum to drown out his voice. I was more frightened of him than the movies. Everyone from the Mid-South knows who Sivad was, and we all loved him -- even those of us who at the time were scared to death of him!
Cyndi Hogue, Munford, Tenn.

As the above excerpts show, people responded to the March 23 death of Watson Davis on a surprisingly intimate and personal level. They reacted as if Davis were a member of their family, a beloved grandfather or uncle they hadn't seen in ages instead of a sometimes comic, sometimes frightening -- and yet somehow reassuring -- weekend visitor.
And though he was an important part of their lives, most of them didn't even know his real name.

To Mid-South TV viewers of the 1960s and early '70s , Davis was Sivad, the vampiric "Monster of Ceremonies" who hosted Channel 13's horror movie showcase, "Fantastic Features," from 1962 to 1972.

A tribute I wrote about Davis -- who died of cancer at age 92 in Stuttgart, Ark. -- elicited more positive response than any story I can remember writing in my 24 years as a Memphis newspaper reporter.
The story attracted a steady stream of e-mails and phone calls from all over the United States, mostly from people who grew up watching "Fantastic Features," first in its prime-time Saturday slot and then late at night, preceded by such programs as "Soul Train," "The Sons of Hercules," roller derby and reruns of "The Twilight Zone."
As was the case with that other shocking Memphian, Elvis Presley, some authority figures and arbiters of public taste didn't approve of Sivad's popularity among children. At the height of the show's success, The Commercial Appeal's TV reporter, Henry Mitchell, wrote a column bemoaning his children's fascination with Sivad. " 'Fantastic Features' is the kind of thing people have to grow out of," Mitchell wrote. "Indeed, the whole point of childhood is to experience the junk of the world, and finally to reject it."
But the "Fantastic Features" generation never rejected Sivad, any more than they rejected the Beatles or the Coasters. Instead, Sivad and his fellow 1960s horror hosts -- Philadelphia's "Dr. Shock," Detroit's "Sir Graves Ghastly" -- were embraced by people who grew up to be Steven Spielberg, Stephen King and Johnny Ramone, as well as stock brokers, soccer moms, politicians and reporters.

Why do Sivad's fans treasure his memory?
Perhaps we long for the time when a corny vampire wearing dime-store fangs and ghoulish greasepaint was the scariest thing in our lives.
Or maybe we just miss the era when you could turn to a local television channel and find "Fire Maidens from Outer Space" or "House on Haunted Hill" instead of a half-hour infomercial about thigh-strengthening equipment.

E-mail your movie questions or comments to beifuss@gomemphis.com, or mail them to Ask the Critic, The Commercial Appeal, 495 Union Ave., Memphis, TN, 38103. Please include full name, phone number and city of residence so we can verify your letter.
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