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Can't Escape 'Terror In The Night' by Nick Clooney

A couple of weeks ago I made an appearance at Johnny's Toys in Northern Kentucky. Many children and their parents showed up, of course, but there were also many adults there unaccompanied by children, because there was a spectacular model train show underway.

One well-dressed man early in his middle years came over to say hello and asked, ''Do you remember "Terror in the Night' ''? I did, but just barely. I hadn't thought about it much in a quarter century or so.

''Terror in the Night'' was a once-a-week late-night feature I dreamed up in the 1960s when I was working at Channel 27 in Lexington. The station had leased a film ''package'' that had some great movies which we wanted and a ton of bad, low-budget horror films which we didn't want at all but had to take to get the good ones.

Trying to make a virtue out of necessity, I put together a character who would be seen as a disembodied head to act as host, then I cut the movies myself, looking carefully for some hokey line or lame cliche', at which point my monster host would come in and poke fun at the film, making smart-aleck remarks in a Boris Karloff voice before throwing it to a commercial.

It was all very low-tech. We had only two cameras, the new ''image-orthicon,'' which had good resolution, and the old ''vidicon,'' which had no resolution, ''smeared'' when you moved it, distorting everything shot with it.

I used the old camera, reversed the polarity so that black was white and vice-versa, hung my chin over a music stand draped in black, put a single spot under my face so that only the chin, nose, cheeks and brow were highlighted, and went to work.

The result was more shocking than any of our movies. The ratings quadrupled.

''Terror in the Night'' was the most-watched late-night show in Lexington for a year or so. But all of this was nearly 40 years ago, so it was a surprise to hear someone tell me how much he had enjoyed it and had never forgotten it.

About a week later, I made an appearance at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center. A woman stopped by to say, ''We just moved here from Lexington and I'm so glad I have a chance to thank you in person for ''Terror in the Night.'' I was in fourth grade and we girls used to get together to watch you and those movies. You scared us to death. It was great.''

Odd, I thought. Two in two weeks. It would get odder.

Less than a week later, last Thursday, I spoke to the Lexington Rotary Club. Two men came up to the head table separately to make specific comments about ''Terror in the Night,'' one with a question on how we made the title burst into flames. More low-tech make-do, actually. My friend Jerry Hellard wrote the title on our concrete studio floor, using a tube of glue. He then turned off everything but a pin spot, which he angled so the glue - and the title - would glisten. Then, as the camera dollied in, the theme music started and I said, ''Welcome,'' he simply lit the glue with a match.

It's a wonder we didn't burn the station down, but it was effective.

The question is, why are so many people recalling that smeary monster face and how did they know I was the monster? One man in Lexington thought he had the answer. ''Nick, now you look pretty much like that floating face did back then. I'd know you anywhere.'' Thanks.

Maybe I should resurrect that show. Think of all the money I could save on make-up and special effects.

Nick Clooney on his days at WKYT