The Beast from the Beginning of Time

KARD-TV Channel 3 first signed on the air in 1955 in Wichita, Kansas. In 1958 Tom Leahy Jr., (1922-2010), became the on-air host of the horror movie program “Nightmare.” Leahy wore creepy face makeup in his role as a witty monster known only as “The Host.” His partner was another monster called “Rodney.” Lee Parsons originated the role of “Rodney.” In later incarnations of the show the character was played by Jim Herring, Jim Salem, and James D. Valdez. After the first season in 1958 “Nightmare” returned from 1960-1962, 1969-1971, and 1990-1992. During this time Tom Leahy also starred on the children’s television program “Major Astro” as a spaceman who introduced cartoons. The program aired from 1960-1973, and returned from 1985-1989.

In 1965 Tom Leahy, Jr. assembled a budget of $10,000 to make a horror movie of his own. KARD-TV supplied the production facilities and part of the budget. The picture was filmed in black and white using local television personalities as part of the cast. The movie was completed, but it was never released to theaters and fell into obscurity. Sixteen years later the film reels were rediscovered in storage and the station decided to broadcast the motion picture as a Halloween special on October 30, 1981.

This week’s movie was “The Beast from the Beginning of Time” from 1965, produced, written, and directed by Tom Leahy, Jr., (who also played the “Beast” using the pseudonym “Nelson Strong”). Foul-tempered scientist “Bernard Maury,” (Dick Welsbacher), his assistant “Creighton Randall,” (John Froome), and work foreman “Cletus Henderson,” (Webb Smith), and a pair of unnamed Mexican laborers are conducting a paleontology excavation when they make an astonishing discovery. They find a perfectly preserved Neanderthal man in rock strata sixty million years old! The body was apparently struck by lightning which caused the suspended animation. Museum director “Dr. John Crawford,” (Ralph Seeley), and his assistant “Paul Benson,” (Marc Clark), arrive to examine the excavation. Maury drives them to the site. They find Henderson dead with a shovel plunged into his chest. Randall seems to have gone insane. He claims that lightning revived the Neanderthal and that the caveman killed Henderson before returning to suspended animation. Back at the museum another storm revives the Beast, who kills both Maury and a watchmen. He then kidnaps Crawford’s sister “Elyse,” (Suzanne Farrar). Crawford is convinced that the caveman can only be killed by something from prehistoric times. He breaks a spike off the tail of a Stegosaurus skeleton and stakes the Beast through the heart. The end…or is it?

As amateur productions go this isn’t too bad. It is too talky, and we don’t actually see the Beast in action until the third act. It is passable entertainment, but not good enough for me to recommend. Like many such films the circumstances of the picture’s creation are more interesting than the actual finished film.

In 1982 station KARD-TV changed its call sign to KSNW-TV. That same year the call sign KARD-TV was taken over by a station in West Monroe, Louisiana.

The four spikes on the tail of a Stegosaurus are called “Osteoderms.” In 1982 cartoonist Gary Larson referred to the assembly as a “Thagomizer” in “The Far Side.” Scientists adopted the term for this unique tail structure. Who said scientists don’t have a sense of humor?