'Chilly Billy' grateful for fans' love as he battles cancer
He won the collective hearts of Pittsburghers with the tongue-in-cheek manner in which he surrounded himself with fictitious monsters, beasts and other oddities as the host of the long-running “Chiller Theater” on WIIC-Channel 11 (now WPXI).
Now television and radio icon Bill Cardille, who embraced the moniker of “Chilly Billy” — bestowed on him by the son of a co-worker — is taking on real-life demons.
The McCandless resident, 87, retired in 2015 after more than 60 years in the industry and recently was diagnosed with liver cancer. He knows he may be in for the fight of his life.
Whatever the future holds, Cardille says, he is at peace, so much so that he has made it a priority to try to gather again July 9 with the fans who have grown up with him through the decades.
He is scheduled to visit the International Classic Monster Movie Conference and Film Festival (popularly known as Monster Bash) at the DoubleTree Hotel in Cranberry. It's expected to be his last public appearance of its kind for a while.
“I thought Bill would be the perfect ‘regular' to appear at Monster Bash, our local star, and he has been here for 19 years running,” says founder Ron Adams of Ligonier. “It feels like a live version of that ‘Chiller Theater' family fun. We talk movies, broadcasting and families. He quickly became a tradition in Pittsburgh because he made TV fun. Bill is a people person and because of that, we, the people of Pittsburgh, love him.”
In addition to “Chiller Theater,” which aired Saturdays from 1964 to 1983, Cardille hosted the popular live “Studio Wrestling” Saturday nights on Channel 11 starting in 1961. He also was involved with cult-classic film director George Romero's Pittsburgh movies, including portraying a newsman in the original “Night of the Living Dead” as well as the 1990 remake. Daughter Lori Cardille starred in Romero's “Day of the Dead” and son Billy Cardille was a zombie roaming Monroeville Mall in “Dawn of the Dead.”
Last weekend, Romero stopped at Cardille's home for an almost four-hour visit.
“It was so appreciated by dad. At the premiere of ‘Land of the Dead,' George singled my dad out for inspiring his career,” Lori Cardille posted on Facebook along with a picture from the visit.
Touched by fans
Bill Cardille says attending the Monster Bash, even with his health challenge, is important to him, because “of the pleasure of the fans. They come from all over the Northeastern quadrant. Folks are very, very nice to me. That's why I go. And Ron Adams and his wife have been so nice.”
Cardille has been receiving a fresh reminder of the love and respect he has earned in his career since his daughter posted a message June 25 on her Facebook page telling fans about his cancer diagnosis and asking them to send him cards.
“I thought it would be nice for dad to know how you enjoyed him during your childhood years, or any years for that matter. I want him to feel the love that he so freely gave during his lifetime,” she said in the post.
By July 6, several thousand cards, two sacks of mail a day, were arriving from throughout the world.
“I can't tell you how much all the cards and prayers mean to him,” Lori Cardille says. “He sits and reads the cards, sometimes with a tear in his eye. He is filled with gratitude.”
It is very rewarding to know that he has touched so many lives, Bill Cardille says, “and made some folks' lives better. I had a terrific time doing it.”
Bill Cardille says it is a combination of his religious faith and his appreciation for family that keeps him optimistic.
“I'm one of nine children. I have had great life. I have a great family. We really have gotten along very well over the years,” he says. ”I'm fortunate enough to be in a town with great medical people. I've had a couple of open-heart surgeries, I lost three-fourths of my colon, I've had an aneurism in my aorta and several other operations but, as I've said before, they always put Humpty Dumpty back together again.”
Positive outlook
Lori Cardille is impressed by her father's positive outlook on life.
“He is now fatigued and has some pain, but he is such a trouper,” she says. “Dad is always the optimist. He has an incredible joy for life.”
As he spoke from his home July 5, Cardille acknowledged that he was not feeling too good, “It's been a long day.” But he seemed to be energized as he talked about his career and his many fans.
He's proudest, he says, of “having an opportunity to do it. There are so many exit doors, and I worked under a lot of general managers. I held fast, had my own show, my own ideas, wherever we went, even in the beginning.”
The Sharon native was a talented dancer who won many amateur contests. He also appeared in minstrel shows with his father, William, an amateur entertainer.
“I tried to entertain people in my career. Dad told me when I was young, ‘Just remember, any comedian can get a laugh with a dirty joke. It takes a good comedian to get a laugh with clean material.' That was a proverb for me the rest of life. I did straight stuff and sang songs,” Cardille says.
His advice to young people just entering his field:
“Do what you want to do, keep it clean, enjoy it and write for the people. I learned that when I was younger. A program director, after reading a letter with a suggestion from a viewer, would say, ‘Why don't you change it.' I replied, ‘I'm not writing for that one person. I'm writing for all of them.' ”
He believes people related to him because, “I was just being myself.”
He hosted his first live radio show while a student at what is now Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where he played basketball and tennis. The lure of the new field of television led him to quit school in 1952 against his parents' advice and begin working at WICU in Erie, as an announcer-director. He later returned to radio as a DJ on Pittsburgh stations, while also doing television, concluding his career with WJAS in 2015 when the station was sold.
“(On TV in Erie) We did it all. We built sets, we set up the studio, we did live shows, live commercials,” he said in a 2007 interview with the Tribune-Review. “I did all the shows too, the weather, the late movie, wrestling, Cleveland Indians baseball games,” he adds today.
He began hosting a daily children's program in Erie as Uncle Billy and his weather forecasts were delivered as “the Atlantic Weatherman.”
It was in Erie where he met his wife, Louise. They have been married for 63 years. “She's a very understanding wife,” Cardille says with a warm chuckle.
‘I always took chances'
Cardille was in television when there were only stations in three Pennsylvania cities: Pittsburgh, Erie and Philadelphia. He was hired as one of the six original announcers at WIIC-Channel 11, which went on the air in 1957.
“Channel 11 gave me lot of freedom, writing and producing,” he says. “I did every show you can imagine: early and late news, weather, a dance party. ... I definitely consider myself a pioneer.”
He served as the Pittsburgh-area host for the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon for 43 years. “I tried to make the kids, some of whom were terminal, smile,” he says.
For “Chiller Theater,” he introduced two double features nightly, ranging from horror to fantasy to science-fiction. “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” and “Frankenstein” were two of his favorites. He also added brief commentary and skits during breaks with a cast of characters he brought to life for the occasion, including Terminal Stare, Sister Susie, Georgette the Fudgemaker, Norman the Castle Keeper, Stefan the Castle Prankster and Norman the Matchmaker.
“I always took chances, but I always did it as a professional. I tried to entertain. I sometimes did things that weren't thought of (such as an early skit in which he imagined Pittsburgh having a subway),” Cardille says.
On the way to the studio, he would stop at Isaly's and pick up dry ice to produce a smoky fog when he feigned taking a sip from a beaker during the show. “I did 40 different bits, so they weren't the same every year,” he says.
In the 1960s, guests included stars who were in town for NBC network promotions, such as Johnny Carson, Barbara Feldon and the cast of “Bonanza.”
Cardille once recalled the day he was at a Knights of Columbus function to greet then-Bishop John Wright of the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh.
The bishop saw Cardille in the room and walked toward him. A Roman Catholic, Cardille was about to kneel and kiss the bishop's ring in the traditional sign of respect when Wright, according to Cardille, said, “Never mind that, what about that movie last night?”
Early public figures admitting they were “Chiller” fans ranged from Pittsburgh Pirates broadcaster Bob Prince to an Allegheny County judge who told Cardille he watched because, after a difficult week in court listening to people's problems, he found the horror films entertaining “and they have a conclusion.”
“It's escapist relaxation,” Cardille says of the appeal of the films. “(Some) people like to be frightened knowing they are in the safety of their home.”
“I've had a charmed life. I didn't expect too much and got a lot,” Cardille says. “People in Pittsburgh accepted me. It has been a great run and career. I can rest and relax. I did everything I wanted to do, and I did it forever. I enjoyed it, and, from the cards I am getting, people enjoyed it, too.”
Rex Rutkoski is a Tribune-Revew contributing writer.
