Benign Svengoolie

"It's comiiiiiing!" Svengoolie seems to be saying to the cameraman in 2012. Photo by Brett Homenick.

Ever since my return to the U.S., I've been catching up with Svengoolie on MeTV. I'd never seen the show prior to my return, though I'd seen clips here and there. Overall, I'd say it's fun stuff. It's also refreshing to see that Svengoolie refrains from making overly cynical comments about the movies he shows, which you can't always say about the various horror hosts out there.

The line waiting to meet Svengoolie. Photo by Brett Homenick.

In case you're wondering what the title of this blog post might mean, there is an explanation. Although it doesn't seem to be available online (in any form that I can access, anyway), it refers to a line spoken in the Ed Wood documentary Flying Saucers Over Hollywood: The 'Plan 9' Companion (1992).  

Svengoolie poses with a fan. Photo by Brett Homenick.

In the documentary, written by the late Mark Carducci, the narrator describes Wood as being a "benign Svengali" to his stock company of actors, such as Conrad Brooks. I thought that was a rather interesting expression, but also figured that a documentary featuring Forrest J Ackerman among its participants might want to make things even more monsterrific by likening Wood to a "benign Svengoolie."

Svengoolie signs autographs. Photo by Brett Homenick.

Well, I thought it was amusing, anyway. But all this did remind me of the (very brief) time I met Svengoolie. It all happened in July 2012 at a convention in the Chicagoland area. Svengoolie was not an official part of this particular show, but he had a table set up there from which he signed autographs and posed for photos. I knew very little about "Sven" at the time but was rather impressed by the crowd he drew. (See the picture elsewhere in this blog post.) 

I did get Svengoolie to pose for the photo at the top of the post, even though I wasn't even waiting in line. I thought that was quite cool of him, and, while it may seem like a small gesture, you'd be surprised how many convention guests won't even give you the time of day unless you put a fifty-dollar bill on their table.

While I can't say that I'll post a review of every Svengoolie show (that seems like a task more suitable for Agent X7), I certainly plan to watch as many shows of his as I can. I look forward to it!