Joe Karston

Joe Karston (also spelled Joe Carston or Joe Karsten) was an American stage illusionist, booking agent, and promoter who specialized in midnight ghost shows. Among the ghost show campaigns developed and produced by Karston were Dr. Macabre's Frightmare of Movie Monsters, Dr. Satan's Shrieks in the Night, and Dr. Jekyl [sic] and His Weird Show.

A competitor of fellow magician and ghost show host (or "ghostmaster") Jack Baker, Karston promoted and managed a roster of stage magicians that included John "Johnny" Cates, Wayne Harris, Kirk Kirkham, Harry Wise, and John Daniel.

Karston was an associate of David L. Hewitt, who had performed in Karston's Dr. Jekyl and His Weird Show. Karston screened the Hewitt-directed short film Monsters Crash the Pajama Party (1965) as part of a ghost show campaign; the short features an interval in which costumed actors would appear to exit the film and venture out into the audience, where they would abduct a planted "victim" from the audience and appear to bring them back into the film. Karston also served as a producer on the Hewitt-directed feature The Wizard of Mars.

In the late 1960s, Karston re-released films by director Ray Dennis Steckler, including the 1964 films The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies (released by Karston as The Teenage Psycho Meets Bloody Mary) and The Thrill Killers (as The Maniacs are Loose), as well as 1965's The Lemon Grove Kids. Under Karston's management, all three films were screened with involvement from costumed actors that interacted with the viewing audience.