Film & TV / Press & broadcasting
Lawson Deming
1913–2007 · actor, television horror host
Cleveland-born actor who, as the cackling vampire Sir Graves Ghastly, hosted Saturday horror movies on Detroit's WJBK-TV 2 for fifteen seasons, from 1967 to 1982.
- Born
Cleveland, Ohio- Died
- Birth name
- Lawson J. Deming
- Also known as
- Sir Graves Ghastly
- Detroit years
- 1967–1982
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Lawson J. Deming was born in Cleveland in 1913 and worked for years as a stage and broadcast actor before creating the character that made him a Detroit legend. On WJBK, Channel 2 in Detroit, he became Sir Graves Ghastly, a caped, comically creaky vampire who rose from his coffin every Saturday afternoon to present back-to-back horror films, broken up with short sketch-comedy bits. The show, first called Sir Graves' Big Show, ran for fifteen seasons, from 1967 to 1982, the longest stretch of its life. His exaggerated laugh, a drawn-out 'Nnnnyeah-ha-ha-ha-haaaaah!', became a playground ritual for a generation of metro Detroit kids. In the 1970s Deming syndicated the program to Cleveland and Washington, D.C., where it also did well, but it never matched the devotion of its Detroit audience. He died in 2007.
Highlights
- Hosted Sir Graves Ghastly on WJBK-TV 2 Detroit (1967–1982)
- Fifteen seasons of Saturday afternoon horror double features
- Signature laugh: 'Nnnnyeah-ha-ha-ha-haaaaah!'
- Show also syndicated to Cleveland and Washington, D.C.
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Worked here · 1967–1982
WJBK-TV (Channel 2)
The Detroit station (today FOX 2) that aired Sir Graves Ghastly on Saturday afternoons for fifteen seasons.