Ron Sweed

Education

Bowling Green State University.

Career

In 1963, 13-year-old Sweed wore a gorilla suit to a live appearance by Ghoulardi, a popular Cleveland television personality played by Ernie Anderson on WJW-television Ghoulardi took note of the costume and brought Sweed on stage, and over the next few weeks, Sweed became Anderson"s production assistant. After Anderson left Cleveland for Los Angeles in 1966, Sweed left for Bowling Green State University, but continued to help with the production of the Hoolihan and Big Chuck show, which was Ghoulardi"s replacement on WJW. Sweed took "" to Kaiser Broadcasting station WKBD-television in 1971. Though it started as a tribute to Ghoulardi, Sweed soon developed his own eye-catching gags and energetic style.

Known for his zany, early-adolescent humor (particularly surrounding his abuse of a rubber frog named "Froggy," his well-known penchant for blowing up model ships and aircraft with firecrackers, and his habitual smearing of Cheez Whiz over everything in sight), late night monster movies were a unique experience for Cleveland viewers in the 1970s. would typically take an unbelievably bad horror movie and dump in sound bites at appropriate moments, using audio clips from novelty records, George Carlin, Firesign Theater and rock albums of the 60"s and early 70"son

And whenever a character took a drink of something on-screen, would supply a good, loud belch. Kaiser Broadcasting soon syndicated Show to Detroit, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Los Los Angeles

lieutenant bombed in Chicago (where Sweed had the thankless task of replacing the popular Svengoolie) and in Boston, but was huge in Detroit at WKBD television-50, and enjoyed varying degrees of success in the other markets. Despite the show"s popularity, Kaiser eventually canceled it in 1975 amid complaints from parents about the content of some of Sweed"s skits, as well as the permanent closure of WKBF by Kaiser itself.

But resurfaced in 1976 on independent Detroit station WXON television-20, and on WKBF"s successor station, WCLQ television-61.

Sweed has since been on and off the air in Cleveland and Detroit for over three decades, at times even branching out into radio. returned to Cleveland television in 1998 on WBNX-television Channel 55 (the then World Bank affiliate—now CW) where he remained for the next six years airing on Friday, then later Sunday nights. He also did a Saturday night request show on classic rock station WNCX FM 98.5 during the same time period. The same year, Sweed co-authored (with Mike Olszewski) (South)crapbook (), a book collecting memories, on-set photographs, transcripts, correspondence, and memos from his years on the air.

On March 5, 2016, Sweed was presented with a Certificate of Recognition by Cleveland mayor Frank G. Sweed sued Keven Scarpino, a.k.a. the Son of Ghoul, in 1987 for infringing upon "s character, but eventually lost the case.

The judge ruled that no infringement occurred, as most horror show hosts portrayed the same basic character, a ghoulish individual who pranced about in costume, performed comedy routines, and showed horror movies.

Achievements

• On March 5, 2016, Sweed was presented with a Certificate of Recognition by Cleveland mayor Frank G. Jackson to commemorate the 45th anniversary of his debut on Cleveland television, and to honor his continuing popularity in the city.