Zacherley (a.k.a. "Ro-Land") - A ghoulish East coast horror show host who first debuted on WCAU-TV in Philadelphia in the early 1950s, Zacherley was the showbiz pseudonym of actor John Zacherle born in Philadelphia in 1919. When John Zacherle was offered the part to host a series of late night horror flicks, he transformed himself into "Ro-LAND," the vampire host of channel 10's Shock Theatre. As Philadelphia's first horror show host, Zacherle presided over a cast of regulars including prehistoric protoplasm, a bean named Igor and a bunch of dolls which he zapped with an electrical prod. He later recreated his role under the name "Zacherley" for New York station WABC-TV on September 22, 1958. Creating a world of cobwebs, bubbling cauldrons, shrunken heads and other Transylvanian tidbits, Zacherley, who looked like death warmed over, became a late night favorite. Rival stations imitated this successful format. One of his West coast counterparts was a young lady who called herself Vampira. In the 1960s and 1970s John Zacherle worked as a disk jockey at WNEW-FM and WPLJ-FM. He left radio in 1979 to pursue acting again. Zacherle reprised his horror show host role in Philadelphia on Channel 10's "Return of Roland." special in October of 1985 and later on May 3, 1987, when he guest-starred with "Stella, Maneater from Manayunk" who hosted her own late night program Saturday Night Dead on Channel 3. See also "Vampira" and "Elvira, Mistress of the Dark"