Strange things are afoot at the House of Jitters!  We have unearthed Audio Recordings of the Acri Creature Feature in its earliest days, 1971 and 1972, specifically, and we unearthed them from the back of my closet, to be even more specific.

Uploaded to Archive.org for preservation of its early TV history, the audio (only) recordings are most likely the largest collections of its kind.  Young super fan Dave Epland taped the program on his tape player and saved them over the years.  A few fellow fans had them professionally transferred in the early 2000s. I've notated below the audio track listings as they appear on Archive.org. Click to hear the  Acri Creature Feature Audio Recordings on Archive!

Click above link to visit!  The following is the contents of the tracks at the link, including elusive titles and dates of the movies played on The Acri Creature Feature!

Acri Creature Feature Audio tracks and titles as uploaded to Archive.org:

Track #1 – The Inn on Dartmoor

Track #2 – August 1^st, 1971 – Curse of the Undead (16’18” creeps Mike Baker and brother)

Track #3 – August 14^th, 1971 – Abbott & Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (Naming of fiend “woof”man character, that was eventually named Beauregard.)

Track #4 ___? Missed intro; September 4^th, 1971 – The Beast with 5 Fingers!

Track #5 – September 11^th, 1971 – Dr. X; at 13’:55” = September 18^th, 1971 – Dracula vs. Billy the Kid

Track #6 – September 25^th, 1971 – Tarantula (Bertie appearance at 4:55, “Mr. A” “Acri coffee”)

Track #7, ___? My Son, the Vampire. 

At 17:35, November 27^th, 1971 – Corridors of Blood (“Horror”) Thanksgiving show.

Track #8 – December 4^th, 1971 – Hercules Against the Moon Men (By golly! “Beauregard and Vincent playing checkers…just lost.” 5’15’ “Presenting Vincent Hedges and his performing fleas!” 9’00” – “Beauregard is here!” and the Monster Club of Bettendorf, Iowa – Jim Martins, Curt Just, John Simko, Scott Szyczewski);

December 11^th, 1971 – Revenge of the Creature (27’00” – creeps Les Littlefield, Dave Marty, Dave Bullock, Dave Ronk for their film w/ Vincent and Beauregard)

Track #9 – December 18^th, 1971 – (movie? Revenge/Creature?) (“400 letters” 11’00” Beauregard, creep Kenny Williams

14’05” – January 1^st, 1972 – Abbott & Costello Meet the Killer (24’44” – “You’re the fellow Link we’ve heard so much about!” – “Happy New Year, Bertie!”

Track #10 – January 8^th, 1972 – The Leech Woman (10’10” – Bill Keebler?)

At 15’48” – January 15, 1972 – Fiend Without a Face (“What do you give the doctor who has everything?  A Nurse, who can caddy!”)

Track #11 – ___Fiend? – “Bertie, get well!” 3’00” – (Svengoolie clip) (creeps John Weiss, Brian Boderson)

January 27^th, 1972 – The Creature Walks Among Us;

at 23’08” – February 5^th, 1972 – The Skull;

23’:35” – February 13^th, 1972 – The Man They Couldn’t Hang

Track #12 – February 19^th, 1972 – Colossus of New York; (creeps Tim Williamson and Jeremy Hurner?)

March 4^th, 1972 – Behind the Mask (in Moline) and Creature of the Walking Dead (in Peoria, WEEK-TV) March 11^th, 1972 – Monster on the Campus (in Moline) and The Crawling Hand (in Peoria)

Track #13 – March 18^th, 1972 – Honeymoon of Horror (“radio DJ mention of Vincent Hedges; “Irish coffee here, I think it’s just about put me away.” St. Patricks’ Day/night show.

March 25^th, 1972 – Slaughter of the Vampires (in Moline) and Killers from Space (in Peoria). (creep Abraham Hantz)

April 8^th, 1972 – Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors (in Moline) and Man Beast (in Peoria). (“next week Monolith Monsters.”)

Track #14 – April 15^th, 1972 – The Monolith Monsters (Svengoolie scaremail from 04/14 at 2’30”) (creep was Marvin Wise).

April 22^nd, 1972 – The Creature with the Atom Brain (28’40” good poem by creep Tim Potter.)

Track #15 – April 29^th, 1972 – Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb (in Moline) and Phantom from Space (in Peoria) (Peoria and Moline show together “one happy family;” 9’30” “Ghastly Gourmet” skit from “old Vincent and Emmit rerun” – as noted on tape by Dave Epland.

May 6^th, 1972 – The Black Room (in Moline) and Robot Monster (in Peoria) (Epland comments, “old Vincent and Emmit rerun”)

May 13^th, 1972 – 4-D Man (in Moline) and The Vampire Bat (in Peoria) (“Sunday is Mother’s Day”)

Track #16 – at 8’56” - May 20^th, 1972 – Return of Dr. X (in Moline) and Untamed Women (in Peoria) (creep John Jester/Jesper made a diorama with Phantom, mummy, forgotten prisoner)

(Missing June 26^th, but they played The Snow Creature and Cry of the Werewolf)

June 3^rd, 1972 – The Electronic Monster (another host fills in for Chuck Acri, 25’00” Where’s Chuck Acri? Says Creature Feature summer vacation, next week no commercials, the Best of Creature Feature.

Track #17 – July 10^th, 1972 – Cult of the Cobra (14’14” – w/ Froggy Gremlin twanger section) (creep was Dave Bell of Fairfield, Iowa).

May 1^st, 1972 – The Mummy (visit by TKEs and Creature creators Don Raymond and Bill Flannery; drunk!)

Track #18 – (May 13^th intro?) – Son of Dracula (11’10” Froggy G.; 13’20” – June 12^th, 1972 – (w/ Froggy, Don & Bill)

Chuck Acri, Rest in Peace

I return to this journal to mark the passing of Chuck Acri, host of The Acri Creature Feature.

 Charles "Chuck" Acri,  March 4th, 1939 - June 9th, 2018

Chuck passed away June 9^th, 2018, after a brief stay in hospice.  Moline's WQAD reports the details here.  His obituary has been posted here at the Van Hoe Funeral Home pages.

I watched Peoria’s WEEK-TV signal of the show in the small town of La Rose, Illinois; population at that time was 200.  Life was sweet living there as a kid still in my single digits.  One of my favorite memories from that time was anxiously waiting for the next Creature Feature on Friday nights and the gathering of my dad and me to watch the scary movies and the fun characters that introduced them.

Chuck Acri had a warm, homey manner in his welcoming greeting and introduction to the night’s entertainment.  Casual and relaxed, and only occasionally awkward, Chuck would plow right into a segue about how your windows could be weatherized or your energy bill reduced if you bought one of the Acri Company’s storm doors.  Not so scary!  Filmed segments ran with Chuck interacting with Ken Gibson’s “Vincent Hedges” vampire character and others in bits shot around the area.

Acri’s Creature Feature was broadcast throughout the Peoria area, Moline, and Davenport, Iowa and as far south as Springfield, Illinois for a short period of time. 

I wonder why he and Creature Feature mean so much to me – his amusement about it all, the films, the spooky fun – and I think it’s the shared experience with the local television community, and with my dear dad, that makes it special to this day.  Many other kids now well into their fifties and sixties will fondly remember Chuck Acri, and his game sponsorship of our local Creature Feature, for a long time to come. 

For more information on Chuck Acri's career, please visit  www.houseofjitters.com/acri.htm

Rest in peace, Chuck.

Back after four years?!

My last post was about four years ago when I felt like I had to say something about Farrah Fawcett's passing (quickly overshadowed by M. Jackson's ).

Later that year, in November of 2009, my dear old dad passed away.  Much has happened since, of course, but I wasn't interested in keeping this blog up.  Maybe today is different.  We shall see.  Things have been up and down, with spirit and challenges and glorious wonders; there has also come peace and a widening perspective.  I'll write more about my father later on.

I'd like to keep this blog fairly casual, but also write more formally about movies, directors and just being a human being -- try as we will.

Farewell, Farrah.

I need to note the passing today of my first big crush, my first major obsession, Farrah Fawcett. During the heyday of Charlie's Angels I was totally taken with her. I had three scrap books of pictures I cut out and taped to its pages. I wrote her a letter, bought her poster and dreamed of meeting her one day, but that wasn't to happen. I recall reading back then that she was into art, sculpting in particular. I also recall there was talk that in her famous poster the letters S-E-X were spelled out in her hair. Why bother spelling it in the curls of her hair when it was so obvious in the curves of her body? At any rate, it's sad that she didn't have a happier life. I couldn't believe that she got a nose job in her later years. One of the most beautiful smiles on one of the most beautiful faces I still have ever seen. Goodbye, Farrah.

My first girlfriend

There's a great picture my dad took that I'll have to dig up. It's of my four-year-old self hugging my first girlfriend.

She was 17 1/2 feet tall and weighed 450 pounds.


We used to drive by her each morning where she stood on the side of the road at 1800 SW Washington in Peoria, Illinois. She caught my eye and kept my interest. She seemed to me a monolithic monument to womanhood and feminine wiles. At that point in my life though, I just thought she was beautiful.


Vanna Whitewall

I remember the morning my dad took that picture. I was happy that I finally got to touch her, not caring at all that the people driving past that morning watched me as I stood there and publicly displayed my affection for her. I wrapped my arms around her ankle and smiled.

Vanna Whitewall

What is the House of Jitters?

The House of Jitters wears many wigs. It's the name of our cobweb site, our cobweb show (coming soonish) and it's where Nurse Titters and Dr. Jitters live. It will one day be the name of our other various experiments, such as a web radio show, live performances and the like. Our first mission was to memorialize the TV heroes we grew up with in central Illinois. Check out the history of the Acri Creature Feature and The Captain Jinks show below.

Click image to visit our cobweb site. Use your browser's back button to return.

Welcome!

Thanks for looking in! Keep an eye on this space for some posts about my favorite "bad" directors -- such moguls as Dwain Esper, Ed Wood, Ray Dennis Steckler and David "The Rock" Nelson among many others.

Dr. Jitters