SPOOKS HOTEL

JOAN CORDT (nee JOAN KELLEY)
- "ANGIE LABANSHEE"
- "MRS SPOOKS"
RON LARSON - "MASTER CHEF PIERRE O'BRIEN"
WENDELL BINSON (ANNOUNCER) ? - "ELMER, THE BELLBOY"
KATYE SKEMP - "FIFI, THE MAID"
LARRY PIETERS - "H.B." (HONEST BOB)
KEVIN KELLEY - "OLD MAN DAN"
? - "BRIDGET THE MAID"
? - "HUGH EGO"

"Spooks Hotel" was a hosted horror movie show, with Joan Kelley as host "Angie Labanshee", who manages the hotel; with the first show being in October 1985. The show screened on Channel 22 in Iowa Valley, at 10:30pm on Friday nights. Angie is assisted by master chef "Pierre O'Brien" from Germany, whose specialty dish is pizza; "Elmer" the bellboy; Katye Skemp as "Fifi", the maid, from the south of France; Larry Pieters as H.B. (Honest Bob); and Kevin Kelley as the voice of "Old Man Dan", which is basically a brown paper bag with some eyes and hair. Owners of the hotel were Mr Spooks & Mrs Spooks who are separated. 20 years early Mr Spooks, who is a mad scientist, had purchased the hotel; and then disappeared, never to be seen again. Mrs Spooks lives in Florida; and needs lots of spending money, she likes to travel, so the Hotel makes money for her. ANGIE LABANSHEE & MRS SPOOKS The show initially ran from 1985 until 1986 or so. The show had a revival around 1992, with Joan Cordt (married Joe Cordt on 21 February 1986), now hosting the show as "Mrs Spooks". In 1999 Joan and Kevin decided to revive the show again, leading up to 2000. And finally, the show again was revived for a one off 20th anniversary special. Below is an interview with Angie Labanshee on "On Camera" in 1985. Her brother Kevin, said the following on the 20 Anniversary show; about the origins of the series: Well, I remember coming up with the show "Spooks Hotel" in my living room with my sister Joan. She had just moved back from San Francisco and she really wanted to do a project. So I thought, well, what could we do? And we started to reminisce a little bit about when we were kids and we watched an old television show on Saturday nights. It was called "Gravesend Manor". It is out of WOI-TV, Channel 5, Ames. And they show, you know, monster movies. And then they had like skits in between. And it was supposed to be this mansion with these deranged people that lived in their mansion and they would host the show. So we thought, well, we can do that. So we shot a pilot and I think it was we were framing it that it was a Halloween thing and we were going to show scary movies. And so my sister got dressed up in this character, Angie Labanshee. Our grandmother's name was Angie. So it was in, I guess, in her honour. And we built a little set out of cardboard and she hosted the first show. So we did this little pilot and then I brought it into the conference room after we shot it and brought in the director of continuing ed and the assistant director and all these people and showed it to them and told them what we were doing. And they looked at my sister and they said, wow, who's that? And I said, well, that's my sister. And the director said, OK, well, you can do the show. Well, then after we got approval to do the show, we put together a cast of characters to go with Angie's character. So she'd have somebody, you know, people to play off of. And we had a chef who had a hat, a chef's hat that was like, I don't know, like 15 feet tall or something. I mean, the guy himself was only three feet tall. So the hat looked enormous. And we just thought that was hilarious. We had a handyman who was one of the janitors out of the community college. He was great. He was like a psychotic Robert Mitchum kind of guy. Then we had the bellboy, who was my production assistant, who would wrap his head in toilet paper to look like a mummy. I don't know why we just use toilet paper because we're so cheap. And then I was this puppet character that was made out of a paper bag. So we didn't have a whole lot of money, but the show had a lot of charm. Another great thing about doing this kind of a show was that it was just it was a fun process. We would just get together like on a Wednesday night, come up with an idea. And we knew we had to put something together and tape it that night before Friday when we play it on the channel. And sometimes I'd get there and I'd think, well, we're not going to be able to think of anything. But we always seemed to come up with something. And it was a very creative bunch. And I had a lot of fun doing it. And I think everybody else did, too. JOAN CORDT (nee JOAN KELLEY) Joan Ellen Kelley was born in Des Moines, Iowa, USA on 28 October 1949 and passed away in Marshalltown, Iowa, USA on 6 November 2011. Joan was the daughter of John "Jack" B. and Rose (O'Brien) Kelley. She attended school at St. Joseph's Academy in Des Moines, graduating in 1967. Joan then attended DMACC, Iowa State University, Buena Vista, and finished her studies at San Francisco State University with emphases in Art, Business and Gerontology. On 21 February 1986, Joan married to Joe Cordt, living their married lives in Marshalltown. Joan worked as a television talk show host with KDAO, hosting "Marshalltown Today" as well as hosting a "Gravesend Manor" style show called "Spooks Hotel". She also worked as the executive director for Big Brothers and Big Sisters. For the last 15 years of her life, Joan owned and operated Joan's Tailoring. Joan was a very creative person. She was a talented artist and a beautiful singer. She loved arts and crafts, and was a skilled seamstress. She was also a magnificent cook. Joan was a dog lover and presently owned 2 poodles. Below is the 20th anniversay show:

LINKS

Internet Movie Data Base "Spooks Hotel"	YouTube "MJP3210"	Mitchell Family Funeral Home "Joan Cordt"
Marshalltown TV "Spooks Hotel"	Internet Movie Data Base "Joan Cordt"	Legacy "Joan Cordt"

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