#TriviaTuesday - What Fresh-Faced Middie Grew Up to be a Real Creep?

Don’t let his innocent looks fool you.

The 1959 Middletown High School grad named Barry Hobart appears to be a nice guy in his senior photo.

But as the years passed he turned into a real creep.

And the world loved him for it.

To many Baby Boomers and others Barry Hobart was and forever will be the quirky, campy, late-night host of local horror show TV, “Dr. Creep.”

Indeed, Saturdays in the 1970s and early 1980s weren’t complete without a dose of Creep on “Shock Theater,” produced by Dayton TV station WKEF. His ghostly white face, crumpled top hat, blood-red lips above a full beard -- not to mention the corny ad-libs -- were the pièce de ré·sis·tance of the entire weekend.

But when the doctor felt like getting out in the sunshine he could often be found at a local charity event, raising money for a worthy cause, particularly those benefiting children.

His alter-ego, Barry Hobart, a Middletown native who graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 1963 with a degree in broadcasting always went along for the ride.

Like Dr. Creep, Hobart enjoyed performing before an audience. His Middie classmates may remember him in the school’s production of “Annie Get Your Gun,” “I Remember Mama,” and his participation in the Glee Club, Mixed Chorus, the National Forensic League and National Thespians. Hobart was also in the Science Club.

A career in television seemed to be his -- their -- destiny.

When both men died in 2011 in their late 60s Middletown and the entire Dayton area mourned.

They had lost a good man and a comical Creep, both with the same big heart.

Sources :

1959 Middletown High School yearbook, The Optimist, available for reading in the MidPointe Library Middletown Ohio Room or online at www.midpointelibrary.org > eLibrary > Digital Archives > The Optimist Middletown City School District High School Yearbooks.

Wikipedia : “Dr. Creep”

Photo of Dr. Creep from : “Shock Theatre” http://www.mediaprof.org/shock/