Leonardtown, MD – Town of Leonardtown Mayor Dan Burris welcomed visitors to the first-ever Southern Maryland Film Festival in his “A Most Artistic Place” letter printed inside the festival’s program book. He noted that Leonardtown is the first and only Arts and Entertainment District in Southern Maryland.
He extended the welcome to the Festivals’ two special featured guests for the day: Maryland artists Tray Chaney—who is best known for his role as “Poot” in the HBO series The Wire; his newest career venues continue in the fields of writer, producer, and rapper—and Dick Dysel, known to fans as Bozo the Clown, Captain 20, and as the vampire host of Creature Feature, Count Gore de Vol.
The informative program book also included further welcoming remarks by The Friends of the Leonardtown Theatre President Theresa Wood, and by President of The Southern Maryland Film Society Bill Stea.
Theresa Wood’s letter noted that this very first event featured works of over thirty filmmakers from Calvert, Charles, and St. Mary’s counties plus works of those artists from New Jersey and New York, with an age span of 7 to 60-plus.
Venue locations encompassed various sites throughout town and included The College of Southern Maryland (CSM), St. Mary’s Ryken High School, Marrick Homes’ Model Home Theater Room, Big Larry’s Eatery, Heritage Printing, The Rex Restaurant, Crazy for Ewe and The Leonardtown Arts Center. Filmmakers also visited key spots in town to mingle and meet with audiences and to engage them in discussions of their works at The North End Gallery, Opal Gallery, BTB Coffee Bar, Ye Olde Towne Café, and Café des Artistes.
I attended two meet and greet sessions, viewing a total of seven films during the afternoon section of the event.
From 12:30 to 1 p.m. The North End Gallery’s meet and greet event spotlighted filmmakers Robert Gant and Keilan Ruppert (Rap Battle), Julia Kirkland (Me and Pointe), 7-year-old Joshua Owen (Slenderman’s Fog and Slender Woods), and Shelley Wilson ( Onion Days, Celebrating Mr. Boonie, and The Dinner). The gallery whimsically offered snacks such as popcorn, grapes, apple cider, and lemonade.
At 1 p.m. I walked across the street to the Café des Artistes, hoping for a chance to meet the famous Count Gore de Vol. There are really only two other celebrity counts on my hope-to-meet-someday-bucket list: Sesame Street’s Count—but I guess I can’t really count him, pardon the pun, because he is, after all, only a puppet—and of course, the count himself: Count Dracula.
I was afraid the venue would be so crowded that I wouldn’t even be able to get inside, but I was pleasantly surprised to discover just a small group of fans in attendance – very dedicated fans. The unassuming Mr. Dyszel was extremely gracious, posing for photos and signing autographs. The informal group of fans—myself, Public Relations and Event Coordinator for the Commissioners of Leonardtown Maria Fleming, a representative of the Rural Maryland Counsel, longtime Count fan Patrick Kelly, among others—joined him for iced tea and other delicious snacks. The chicken cordon bleu bites were exceptional, although I would have suggested offering Bloody Marys, as well. He regaled us with anecdotes of his Channel 20 days spent as Bozo the Clown, Captain 20, and the Count. As 2 p.m. neared, he was escorted away to his next appearance, leaving us to eagerly anticipate attending the film chronicling his TV career, “Every Other Day is Halloween” to be shown at CSM at 3 p.m.
After leaving Café des Artistes, I walked across the square to the specialty shop Crazy for Ewe. I’d been in town for an hour-and-a-half, and hadn’t yet seen a film. That was about to change. Crazy for Ewe was showcasing six short films.
I was seated next to the creator of the first film shown, artist Shelley Wilson. Her sensitive and poignant film was titled “Onion Days”—those times when you remember the sweet days of the past that can make you cry, which was set to Kate Bush’s “This Woman’s Work” (running time: 3.37 minutes). Next up was “Live Your Extraordinary Life” by Kaitlyn Callander. The filmmaker shared her positive insights into why everyone is extraordinary, including you (“If you love yourself, you’re never really alone”!!! with a running time of 3.03 minutes). This was followed by the interesting documentary “Crossing,” by Christian Jarboe, which profiled Eddie, a popular crossing guard for the D.C. transportation service and server at an upscale neighborhood market (running time: 3.44 minutes).
The fourth film was “Rural Aspirations” by Charlotte Davis. This film was created by The Rural Maryland Council with funding from the Rural Maryland Foundation and focused on a sampling of rural Maryland residents and their positive ideas and aspirations to address its challenges. It was shot across four days in November of 2014 and featured individuals displaying their own hand-lettered signs of personal wish-list suggestions (running time: 3.48 minutes).
The fifth film was “Pointe” by Julia Kirkland, an absorbing documentary about the discipline of the ballet world through a profile of one young ballerina (running time: 5.16 minutes).
The last film in this grouping was “Psychedelic Life Trip” by Dar Stellabotta, during which a banjo-playing traveler on a quest to figure out the meaning of life realizes that the ultimate meaning of life is to simply write her own story (running time: 4.33 minutes).
These six short films provided a wide variety of subject matter and style and each one was distinctive in its own particular way. Slips of paper were distributed for rating our favorites in order from one through six. This was quite a difficult task, as each short film was worthy of a number one rating in its own unique category.
Now it was time for the presentation of the Count Gore de Vol’s movie at CSM. The Count himself offered copies of his movies for sale at a table set up just outside the auditorium and enthusiastically greeted his fans before the movie started.
Mr. Dyszel welcomed the audience in Building A’s auditorium and offered brief introductory remarks which detailed his career. He has been entertaining audiences for several decades. His title at Channel 20 TV in Washington, DC was simply “staff announcer,” an umbrella term that resulted in a broad interpretation. He was initially brought to WDCA-TV Channel 20 in 1972 to impersonate “Bozo the Clown” in the Bozo Circus (one of his Bozo predecessors had included Willard Scott). The station then approached him to portray Captain 20 as a promotional. He said that he hated this role. A side note here, that’s hard to believe when you watch the movie. He certainly seems to be enjoying himself in the various clips showcasing his interactions with the children who made up his fan base. He appeared to be having just as much fun as they were. He managed to turn the Captain 20 character into a spy-type character, subsequently launching the Channel 20 Club, becoming a TV icon in the process.
It was his idea to host horror movies. February 3, 1973 saw the debut of Count Gore de Vol as the host of Creature Feature, a character who made the best out of campy movies. He trademarked this and owns it, and he has become the Washington DC area’s longest-running horror host. He kept the triumvirate of his three characters—Bozo, Captain 20 and the Count, plus he also hosted the Emmy Award-winning Kids’Break—going until 1979, and was disappointed when the station moved to drop the Count – his only adult venue. He described the rigorous schedule of taping several episodes of the kids’ shows beginning on Saturday mornings, and then segueing into getting into costume and makeup for the evening’s Creature Feature broadcast.
Alas, he was eventually fired. And then, he discovered the Internet. In 1998, the Count took on international celebrity status by becoming the first horror host on the Internet with Creature Feature, The Weekly Web Program. The date of the Southern Maryland Film Festival marked the 17-year anniversary of the airing of his first show, which was scheduled to be shown that night, the movie “Trespass.”
In 1984 – the station brought Gore back—to life, so to speak! But by 1986, the world of TV had become more competitive and the station was sold once again. With the July 11, 1998 debut of Creature Feature on the Internet, the rest, as they say, has become history. The Internet has opened Count Gore up to the entire world. Mr. Dyszel re-invented himself for this momentous occurrence. He built a dungeon in his suburban basement where a continuous stream of new material is produced, and his wife has become his videographer. Now, anyone in the world can see the Count at any time.
The Internet site boasts 850 shows, and states that this is where your vampire host (Count Gore de Vol) brings you Creature Feature—a weekly program of horror movies, stories and films about vampires, monsters, witches, ghouls, goblins, gargoyles, zombies, and horrors of all sorts.
In 1999, the new Program Manager at Channel 20 wanted to bring the Count back once again for an anniversary show, which re-united many former guests from his previous Creature Features.
He was interviewed by Channel 4’s Arch Campbell numerous times during his career. Monster Madhouse host Karlos Borloff (yes, it’s a play on the name of Boris Karloff) showcased a clip of the count on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, crediting the count as his mentor. As Count Gore de Vol, Dick is a member of the Horror Host Underground, and appears at many conventions through the country.
In 2007, C.W. Prather approached Mr. Dyszel with an idea in for a documentary he wanted to make, saying that all he would need from Dick would be some interviews (he already had the footage from the original broadcasts), with or without Dick wearing his trademark glasses. And the result was “Every Other Day is Halloween” in 2009, with a running time of 90 minutes. The film premiered at the AFI Silver Theatre in Silver Spring and then went to ComicCon in San Diego.
Mr. Dyszel himself provided a very humble and truthful description of the film, saying, “It’s your childhood come back!”
During the Question and Answer session which followed the screening, Dick entertained the rapt audience with stories of Creature Feature experiences with one of Penthouse Magazine Pets of the Year, and recounted a story of filming a short costumed as Captain 20 at the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea exhibit at Disney World.
I asked whether the brick building shown in the movie displaying the title “De Vol Funeral Home” held any significance. He demurred a bit, saying he could never really say for sure if his name was inspired by the sight of that sign (which he passed every day) or whether the inspiration came as a play on the name of author Gore Vidal. He elaborated, saying that Mr. Vidal was not amused.
At the conclusion of the Q&A session, Mr. Dyszel was presented with a plaque in honor of his visit to the Southern Maryland Film Festival, which he modestly accepted saying that he feels terribly blessed with his career.
For more information on Mr. Dyszel, or on Count Gore de Vol, you may contact the website at: www.CountGore.com or follow him on Twitter at: Follow@CountGore. You may also click on the website to subscribe to the Newsletter.
The Southern Maryland Festival concluded later that evening at Ryken High School with a Leonardtown History Short, followed by awards and acknowledgements. For more information on this event, you may contact the website at: www.smdff.org.