Bill Cardille passes away at 87

[sek69]

The name may not mean much to people outside the Pittsburgh area, but for those of us who grew up here every generation knew Bill Cardille. In the 50s-60s, he was the host of the Studio Wrestling TV program that nearly everyone in town watched to follow hometown legend Bruno Sammartino. The generation after that knew him better as "Chilly Billy", the host of a show that aired schlocky horror movies with a cast of characters - kind of a tame version of Howard Stern's Wack Pack- like Terminal Stare, a zombie like silent woman who would stare menacingly into the camera while Bill talked about the upcoming movie. People of all ages knew him as the host of the local segments during the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon every Labor Day weekend. In addition to all that, he was also the weatherman for the local NBC affiliate (where the wrestling show was taped in its day as well).

 

Sadly, very little if any of the footage still remains of the Pittsburgh studio wrestling show. It was kind of the NXT of its day, as Bruno would give guys a test run in his circuit before taking them to New York. George Steele had one of his first big heel runs here, and my mother (who was hardly a wrestling fan) had fond memories of going to a big show at Forbes Field. The shows were extremely popular, and it was one of the reasons Pittsburgh was always part of the WWWF circuit and still gets semi-regular TV and PPV shows to this day.

 

Bonus trivia, Bill Cardille had a cameo in the original Night of the Living Dead movie as an easter egg to the locals since the movie was filmed in the Pittsburgh area.

[Blehschmidt]

Never saw much of him personally, but my Dad speaks fondly of him having grown up on Studio Wrestling and the horror movies living just an hour out of Pittsburgh here in Morgantown.

 

Sad to hear he has passed.

[Happ Hazzard]

Bonus trivia, Bill Cardille had a cameo in the original Night of the Living Dead movie as an easter egg to the locals since the movie was filmed in the Pittsburgh area.

His daughter Lori was the star of Day of the Dead, the third in the original trilogy.

[RCS1988]

The ORIGINAL host of WWWF Championship Wrestling. A shame, WWE doesn't have any of the Cardille episodes, however they might have the 3 episodes he did in late June early July 1976 as well as the 3 All Star Wrestling episodes in that same timeframe.