Comments

You are, of course, referring to the one and only George Ellis. He is departed but will never be forgotten by those who loved him.

Many of us followed George and his Buddha presence from theater to the theater. First there was the Festival Theater downtown, then the Film Forum at Ansley, then a time at the Garden Hills, then a never realized attempt at the Ellis Cinema (now Variety Playhouse). Sadly, George died before the Ellis really came to realization.

George's memorial service was one of the most amazing events that I have ever had the pleasure to attend. The old theater space below the Women's Club on Peachtree (near 14th) was absolutely packed. For about 3 1/2 hours, people told George Ellis stories, laughed, hugged and generally became one with one of the most wonderful people to ever stroll the streets of this fair city. When we left, everyone was aglow.

There are tapes in existence of George doing the Bestoink Dooley character. I know someone who will know where those might be, I will try to seek him out and inquire about that.

George also had an off and on theater and film career. There may be taped footage of some of his theater performances, although they would likely be of questionable quality after all these years (the archival quality of video tape is not great). He also appeared in a few independent films in the 60's and 70's. You could google or imdb his name and find some of those. I worked on one or two and they were definitely not high points in cinematic history, and thus might be out of print (even in VHS).

Good luck with your search. I will try to get info on the Bestoink Dooley tapes.

Further.
Larry Rob

Hi mike, I remember Bestoink Dooley and the movie theater he ran the Ansley mall movie theater.
His real name was George something. I know he had a son here in Atl and I think that's who you'd
need to contact. I knew him years ago but have not seen him in years. I'll look into it and get back to

you. They were Greeks and I have some Greek friend who still live here that may no George Jr's
where abouts.

Sammy Blue

This site might have some way to link up with other fans to find some footage - it's devoted to regional horror hosts:

E-Gor's Chamber of TV Horror Hosts:
http://myweb.wvnet.edu/e-gor/tvhorrorhosts/hostsb.html

This site also links to a pix of him:
http://cinematreasures.org/theater/12110/

Horror host footage is sometimes hard to track down these days, though - regional tv didn't have the best track record of keeping materials around. The only footage outside of an Ed Wood film of Vampira is a short promotional clip made to sell a possible syndicated Vampira package - the original shows themselves seem to be lost at this point. Bestoink's film Legend of Blood Mountain might be the best source for footage of him, it was released a while back on video but I don't know that there is any DVD copies floating about:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0229528/

One of the best "gray market" places for rare film is Pimpadelic Wonderland, which might be able to track it down if they don't already have a copy:

http://pimpadelicwonderland.com/videolibraryAF.html

Hope some of this helps!

Doug Rednour

I used to watch The Big Movie Shocker on old channel 5 every weekend and enjoyed Bestoink Dooley aka George Ellis!

He also played in a B Movie filmed at Stone Mountain, I think it was called Monster of Blood Mountain.

He passed away a few years ago and his son, who ran the Film Forum with him may still be living.

I spent many a stoned weekend attending movies at his theatre. We go get a sandwich at Crops and B

and after the flick have a munchies fix at the Fruit Jungle.

PS: Does anyone have any tapes or CD's from the Booger Band, I know they did some? I heard a cassette that was floating

around in about 1970 with "Feel A Pain" on it.

Thanks,

Duane Blalock