CHILLER/CHILLER THEATER

GENE EDWARDS - "DR. IGOR"
DON MOLANDER - "PLASMA"
? - "VAMPIRA"

Gene Edwards created the character of "Dr. Igor" who hosted Chiller (also known as Chiller Theater) presenting movies at 10:30pm on WQAD-TV Channel 8, Moline, Illinois from 3 August 1963 until 9 January 1965. Edwards was assisted by Vampira and Plasma. The show ended when Edwards relocated to Denver, Colorado in 1965. Edwards recreated "Dr. Igor" and "Chiller" on KCTO-TV Channel 2, Denver, Colorado from around 1965 for a season or two. Whilst Edwards was still at WQAD, he hosted children's afternoon show as "Jungle Jay", presenting jungle adventure movies between 4:00pm to 5:00pm, Monday to Friday from 1963 to 1965. Jungle Jay was assisted by Healthcliff - the monkey and Zelda - the zebra (two stuffed toys).

Portrait of "Dr. Igor" by Bradley Beard.
"Dr. Igor" - biography (taken from Bradley's Facebook page)"

This is the reason for the need of horror host preservation. Today I present Dr. Igor, host of Chiller Theatre on WQAD-TV Channel 8 in Moline, Illinois, which he hosted during 1964. His cohorts were named Vampira and Plasma. His real name was Gene Edwards and he also portrayed another popular local character named Jungle Jay. This is the only online quote I could find about Dr. Igor, "One night the entire station went out during the monster movie and stayed out. The next night we were tuned in when Dr. Igor referred to it: 'Last night, the movie went BLOOIE!' We repeated that until our parents told us to stop". And that's about it. Sadly, this was all the information to be found on this host; what an incredible shame and a loss. The history of Dr. Igor and so many other vintage hosts like him is disappearing and as fans of this genre, we need to preserve their memories for tomorrow. An email from Randy Yaffe on 30 October 2022 said: "I like your site on the Doc. I was on the show in Colorado - Channel 2. I played a giant wasp and I was also the fan club too". A further email received from Randy on 30 October 2022 said: "I can't remember her name [Vampira]. I do wish I still had all my fan club stuff - it was a long time ago". The theme from the show "Experiment in Terror". Play Clip

The following are some press clippings from the show:

Chiller hosted by Dr. Igor from The Professor on Vimeo.