Ron Sweed

Sweed was born on January 23, 1949, in Euclid, Ohio. His mother is Irene Barnard. After Anderson left Cleveland for Los Angeles in 1966, Sweed left for Bowling Green State University, but continued to help with the production of the Hoolihan and Big Chuck show, which was Ghoulardi's replacement on WJW. ==The Ghoul Show==

In 1970, Sweed approached Ernie Anderson with a proposal to revive Anderson's "Ghoulardi" character. Anderson was not interested, but gave Sweed his blessing to revive the character on his own. With that blessing, Sweed took "The Ghoul" to Cleveland's Kaiser Broadcasting station WKBF-TV (channel 61) in 1971. Though it started as a tribute to Ghoulardi, Sweed soon developed his own eye-catching gags and energetic style. Known for his zany, early-adolescent humor (particularly surrounding his abuse of a rubber frog named "Froggy," his well-known penchant for blowing up model ships and aircraft with firecrackers, and his habitual smearing of Cheez Whiz over everything in sight), late night monster movies were a unique experience for Cleveland viewers in the 1970s. Catch phrases included "zingy-zingy," "Overdey!" and "stay sick, turn blue". The Ghoul frequently inserted horror audio clips from novelty records, George Carlin, Firesign Theater and rock albums of the '60s and early '70s. Additionally, The Ghoul would insert sound effects such as belching sounds at moments a character took a drink of something on-screen. "Shooting from no-budget studio sets, the Ghoul inserted his own dialogue and sound effects over insufferably bad B movies, blew up food, model cars and figurines with firecrackers, and produced strangely compelling, culturally relevant skits and parodies. The show was destructive and childish enough for little kids, subversive and timely enough for young adults." Later in the 1970s, Kaiser Broadcasting syndicated The Ghoul Show to Detroit, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Los Angeles. and enjoyed varying degrees of success in the other markets. Despite the show's popularity, Kaiser eventually canceled it in 1975 amid complaints from parents about the content of some of Sweed's skits, as well as the permanent closure of WKBF by Kaiser itself. But The Ghoul Show resurfaced on independent Detroit station WXON (channel 20) from 1977 to 1979, followed by a brief stint at WGPR-TV (channel 62) for several months in 1979. WKBF-TV's successor station WCLQ-TV (channel 61) revived the show from 1982 until the spring of 1984; this iteration of the show was also syndicated to WXON. Sweed was on and off the air in Cleveland and Detroit for over three decades, at times even branching out into radio and the internet. The Ghoul returned to Cleveland TV in 1998 on WBNX-TV (channel 55) where he remained for the next six years airing on Friday, then later Sunday nights. He also did a Saturday night request show on classic rock station WNCX (98.5 FM) during the same time period. Said Robert St Mary, a Detroit journalist and author of The Orbit Magazine Anthology: Re-Entry: "Ron understood that times had changed from the beatnik version of Ernie. It was spectacle. It was blowing stuff up. He was using the crazy hip lingo that Ernie had, and tweaking it a bit more." ==Influence==

The Ghoul was well known enough in the Cleveland and Detroit markets that some of his catch phrases ("Overdey!", "Hey group!", "Plunk your magic twanger, Froggy!", "Holy Parma", "Amrap" (Parma spelled backwards) and Froggy's "Hiya gang, hiya hiya hiya!") are still widely recognized among the children of the 1970s, as well as various portions of his show's signoff: "Stay sick, turn blue, scratch glass, climb walls, but most importantly of all, do it while you can, but don't get caught!". An interesting side element is that the aforementioned rubber toy referred to simply as "Froggy" (and much abused by the Ghoul) was a toy dating from 1948 by a company named Rempel and featured often in comedic skits on the 1955 television show ''Andy's Gang'' where he was named Froggy the Gremlin. The Ghoul's oft-uttered catch phrases "Hiya, gang. Hiya, hiya, hiya" and "Plunk your magic twanger, Froggy" originate from that earlier show. ==Awards and honors==

On March 5, 2016, Sweed was presented with a Certificate of Recognition by Cleveland mayor Frank G. Jackson to commemorate the 45th anniversary of his debut on Cleveland TV, and to honor his continuing popularity in the city. In 2020, he was inducted into the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards' Monster Kid Hall of Fame. At (41.3893267, -81.5110244) on I271 Northbound side is a blue sign {ADOPT A HIGHWAY, LITTER CONTROL, IN MEMORY OF, RON, “THE GHOUL" SWEED} ==Lawsuit==

Sweed sued Keven Scarpino, a.k.a. the Son of Ghoul, in 1987 for infringing upon The Ghoul's character, but eventually lost the case. The judge ruled that no infringement occurred, as most horror show hosts portrayed the same basic character - a ghoulish individual who pranced about in costume, performed comedy routines, and showed horror movies. ==Personal life and death==

Sweed met his first wife, Barbara J. King, when she was 17, and he was 18. They were married for 14 years, and remained friends after divorcing. and married her around 1993; they were married for 26 years. Sweed died on April 1, 2019, five months after suffering a massive heart attack. He had undergone triple bypass surgery on November 7, 2018. ==References==