A True New Orleans Icon
An icon of horror in one of the most storied, supernatural cities in the world, Morgus the Magnificent has lived for years in New Orleans' collective consciousness.
One of the definitive figures in the tradition of late-night horror hosts, Morgus spent decades on the airwaves to deliver a distinctly local spin on horror and B-films. With the Halloween season as well as the 65th anniversary of the first Morgus the Magnificent broadcasts in 1959 coming up next year, it's harder to think of a better time to celebrate with a lookback on the Crescent City's most famed scientist, mad or not.
History of the Mad Scientist
Created by Sid Noel, who got his start in New Orleans radio with Loyola in the 1950s, Morgus the Magnificent was a New Orleanian answer to the early horror host phenomenon. Broadcast live from the universally-nondescript location of "behind the old city icehouse," Morgus would take to the airwaves to share the cutting-edge of (mad) science. Morgus' assistants, the silent executioner-hooded, Chopsley, and the reanimated skull-computer, Eric, would assist the professor's unique experiments in a series of scenes to accompany the breaks between the longer-format feature that would play late at night.
Each program would feature Morgus taking a crack at a different experiment, his own on-display genius often less of a hazard than his miscommunications with Chopsley or other rambunctious denizens of the city. Episodes would range from Morgus attempting to use the scientific method to identify and rehabilitate vampires, to building a machine that can diagnose any illness and uncovering secret technology taken from the Egyptian pyramids. Oftentimes, the experiments would link up with the corresponding B-movies that the segments were interspersed around. Audiences around New Orleans would be watching the program for two endings: the movie itself and, more importantly, what happens to Morgus' experiment and how it would all go sideways. Described by Noel as a sort of "Don Quixote in a lab coat," Morgus' unshakable drive to test the limits of science became something of a symbol of the city's resilience itself.
While Noel was careful in calculating the fantastical world-building of Morgus, he was conscious of creating a project that intersected authentically with the zeitgeist of its New Orleans setting. As Chuck Brillowsky, operator of Morgus' official website and Facebook page recounts: "He would comment about locations, streets, and buildings that we knew, the current mayor or president's name was spoken, and he'd pick fights with local celebrities with humorous results. When he'd look out that slanted window in the back of the lab, he would be looking down and mentioning the names of nearby cities and neighborhoods that were actually there." The location of the "old city icehouse" the show was filmed in, though, was up for debate.
After a period in which the show was broadcast in Detroit, Morgus again returned to New Orleans, broadcasting new iterations of the program in 1965 and 1987. These updated segments often reused certain experiment scenarios, updating them with color and more specific editing techniques worthy of modern television.
Legacy of the Magnificent
Morgus's mark in New Orleans was hardly solely tied to late-night, though. Morgus, Chopsley, and Eric regularly appeared at local events for venues such as Pontchartrain Beach, and, in later incarnations of the show, he was featured providing comedic input on local weather reports. In more recent years, the program was paid direct homage in "Friends of Science," the opening track of the legendary New Orleans jam band Galactic's 2010 album Ya-Ka-May, even using audio excerpts from Morgus as samples within the recording.
Episodes of the program have been collected on limited-run DVDs and the feature film, The Wacky World of Dr. Morgus has yet to receive an HD rerelease despite being the first ever transition of a TV horror host into a full-length feature film (26 years ahead of Elvira's 1988 feature Mistress of the Dark). However, clips were broadcast on a Halloween stream by the Historic New Orleans Collection in 2021, and local New Orleans television station WYES has recently started airing clips of the show close to Halloween in 2022. For this year, WYES Chief Operating Officer Dominic Massa has confirmed that Morgus will be coming back with not just a broadcast of select episodes on Halloween night, but an in-person event, "Morgus Madness," at their studio space in Lakeview on Saturday, October 28.
In a place that has so many connotations of the macabre and the fantastical, Morgus is a character that persists in New Orleans's memory. He's a figure who, if you were to ask anyone over a certain age around the city, there's a very good chance they would not only know of Morgus but have a specific story and memory to tell about how relatable the experience of tuning in on Saturday nights to watch the program could be. The city's friends of science will make sure that such incredible experiments and the genius of their creator, are going to be remembered for years to come.
Event to Celebrate Morgus
On Saturday, October 28, WYES will present Morgus Madness: a Celebration of Dr. Momus Alexander Morgus with food, fun, and live music. The event will be from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the WYES Studios in Mid-City. Come in your favorite Halloween costume and celebrate all things Morgus.
