 | From the 1950s through to the 1980s, Morgus the Magnificent was the horror host for the New Orleans region. Ex-radio DJ Sidney Noel (Rideau) starting playing the mad scientist Morgus on WWL-TV's House of Shock, which lasted from 1959 to 1962. Morgus (full name Momus Alexander Morgus) was wonderfully camped up by Noel, as a bumbling yet super intelligent (IQ of 300) scientist, along with his side-kick Chopsley who always had his face covered with an executioners mask. Apparently he'd had a face transplant that had gone badly wrong. Along with E.R.I.C. (Eon Research Infinity Computer) the talking skull, who would open the show Morgus Presents. ERIC didn't actually become integrated into the computer until the 1980s, but hey I that's progress for you. |
Morgus often tried to break free of his lab in an upstairs garret over the Old City Ice House in French Quarter of New Orleans, as there were attempts to syndicate the show Morgus Presents in Detroit in 1964. But Morgus always ended up back in New Orleans, returning to WWL-TV from 1965 to 1967. Moving to WDSU-TV from 1970 to 1971, before quitting the show. The show was revived briefly in the 1980's, Morgus has lived on cable-TV in the New Orleans area since 2005.
| There was also a one-off featured film made as a vehicle for the Morgus character, called The Wacky World of Dr. Morgus (1962). In the movie, Morgus invents a machine that can change people into sand and then back again. The theme song for the movie was a record entitled "Morgus the Magnificent" (1959) by Morgus and the Ghouls (a.k.a. Frankie Ford and John "Mac" Rebennack, better known around the world as Dr. John). It was the bright-lights of possible movie stardom that sent Morgus to New York, to seek his fortune. But via Detroit he ended up back in New Orleans, where he still delights old school schlock horror fans to this day. |  |
