Kroger Babb's roadshow: how a long-running movie walked the thin line between exploitation and education

Reason, Nov, 2003 by Joe Bob Briggs

Joe Bob Briggs is a columnist for UPI and the author of Profoundly Disturbing: The Shocking movies that Changed Cinema (Universe), from which this article is adapted.

John Bloom gave birth to JOE BOB BRIGGS in 1982. Working as a film critic for The Dallas Times Herald, Bloom realized he hated Hollywood. Preferring such classics as Zombie Holocaust and Graveyard Tramps, Bloom created a persona to review "the stuff your mom doesn't want you to watch." After an editor rejected several pseudonyms as "too ethnic," Bloom settled on the whitest name he could come up with: Joe Bob Briggs. Briggs went on to pen innumerable articles, write five books, and host two television shows: Toe Bob's Drive-In Theater and Monster-Vision. His sixth book, Profoundly Disturbing: Shocking Movies That Changed History! (Universe) was published this year. In "Kroger Babb's Roadshow" (page 30), Briggs celebrates a forgotten B movie pioneer.