When I was growing up we had a local tv program here in Syracuse, NY called The Baron and His Buddies, which aired from 1963 until 1967. It starred Mike Price as a vampire named Baron Daemon and his fans were nicknamed his “Bloody Buddies”. The Baron originated as a Saturday night horror movie host but the character proved to be so popular with children that the Baron was given a daily program so parents didn’t have to let their kids stay up late to see him. The show featured the Baron and his sidekicks Very Hairy (Dennis Calkins) and Boris (the late Bill Eadie)….in between comedy bits there would be cartoons or a serial such as Flash Gordon.
The above photo is an example of a typical studio audience for the show….quite often the audience would be comprised of kids from various groups, such as Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and, on one occasion, my Brownie troop. I remember this set very much and, as I recall, if you were a member of the audience and turned to your right you would see this….the Baron’s “space ship”. (This was the mid-60s, after all.)
About the only other thing that I remember from my visit to the show was that we all were given goodie bags that contained candy and a photo of Baron Daemon. My photo disappeared long ago but thanks to the internet, I believe that this was what we received:
Now for the treat. Somebody at WNYS decided that the Baron should record a novelty song, The Transylvania Twist, which featured local recording artists Sam and the Twisters and the Bigtree sisters. (Both acts were collectively billed as “The Vampires” for the record.) A wonderful piece about how the record came to be can be found here.
And now, from a tv special about the Baron, here is The Transylvania Twist:
Wallace World 