Lights Out
[November 28, 1933 Variety]
MIDNITE JITTERS
Chi NBC Figuring on 12M. Mystery Serial
Chicago, Nov. 27.
NBC locally discussing chances for a midnight mystery serial to catch the
attention of the listeners at the witching hour. It's an idea by Will Cooper,
NBC continuity chief.
Considered for the spot is a new script, just being turned out, labelled
'Desert Quests.'
________________________________
[January 16, 1934 Variety]
Radio Chatter / Chicago ...
Bill Cooper finally set for his midnight mysteries over at NBC here. Starts
this Friday (19) over WENR for a beginner. ...
________________________________
[February 2, 1934 Winnipeg Free Press]
"LISTEN -- if you dare!" is the enticing tag-line for radio's newest,
creepiest, hair-raisingest programme which emanates from WENR every Wednesday
night at midnight. Groans, screams, and the mysterious machinations of spirits
all blend crazily into the quarter-hour called "Midnight Mysteries." It's a
good thing the kids are in bed. Excellent presentation.
Advice for next Wednesday: listen with the lights out!
________________________________
[February 7, 1934 Winnipeg Free Press - Radio Flashes column by Cliff McNeill]
Thanks are due Bill Cooper, who is the producer of those extraordinary
Midnight Mysteries heard from WENR every Wednesday at midnight. Lights out,
everybody, for a guaranteed thrill!
________________________________
[April 7, 1934 Winnipeg Free Press]
... Lights Out! Creepy, supernatural stuff, admirably done. Only 15 minutes,
but a hair-raiser! WENR, 12 midnight. ...
________________________________
[May 9, 1934 Winnipeg Free Press]
LIGHTS OUT! -- Listen in the dark -- if you dare! -- to Bill Cooper's
supernatural drama -- Last time we mentioned it in this column, Lights Out was
scaring folks for only 15 minutes over WENR -- Now you can be scared for a
half-hour over a network of NBC stations! -- at 11 p.m.
________________________________
[May 23, 1934 Winnipeg Free Press - You Will Hear ...]
... A CHALLENGE! "Do you dare turn out the lights and listen in the dark" to
Bill Cooper's Midnight Mystery? Go ahead -- try it once! (Recommended for two-
somes). WENR and NBC network, 11 p.m.
________________________________
[June 30, 1934 Winnipeg Free Press - Radio Flashes column by Cliff McNeill]
A GOOD MANY readers of this column have become acquainted with Lights Out, the
intriguing supernatural stuff that has been emanating from WENR Wednesday
nights for several months past. If you haven't, you've been passing up one of
the most cleverly produced dramatic shows on the air today.
We tipped you off several times on when to hear Lights Out, and now we want to
warn you that the show is due for a large boost — twice a week over NBC. Bill
Cooper, an NBC writer in Chicago, whose energetic fingers have typed out
myriad horrors and weird doings for several moons, will turn out twice as much
in future.
Just got word that Lights Out will be spotted today at 6:30 p.m. over NBC.
Maybe KFYR will have it; maybe not. At any rate, the six-thirty hour is a bit
early for this stuff; instead of dousing lights, we'll have to pull down the
blinds. Or take the radio down in the coal bin.
A letter to Bill for details of Lights Out elicited the following concise
information:
"As to the show: I write them all. We use Arthur Jacobson, well-known
juvenile, in practically all of them. Bernardine Flynn, Philip Lord, Sidney
Ellstrom and Don Briggs are also pretty regularly in the show. Sid Ellstrom,
by the way, is the guy to whom most of the terrible things happen. He does a
swell job of suffering, and to date he has been skinned alive, had his tongue
torn out, his hands smashed on an anvil, his ears nailed to a wall, his teeth
smashed with sledge-hammer, been burned alive, and had his head cut off. I
have been both writing and producing the shows, but occasionally Joe Ainley,
of our production staff, does the job of producing."
________________________________
[August 25, 1934 Winnipeg Free Press - Radio Flashes column by Cliff McNeill]
ANOTHER day and back to NBC to chat with Willis Cooper, continuity editor, who
made us feel right at home by revealing his several visits to Winnipeg. On one
occasion here, Bill made a friend in Inspector A. H. L. Mellor, of the
R.C.M.P., and, incidentally, picked up some valuable material for a radio
series he was writing for CBS at that time.
Bill's present occupation resolves itself mainly into scratching off, once a
week, one of those hair-raising supernatural dramas that emanate from WENR
each Wednesday around midnight. The series, which has been running for some
months now, is known as "Lights Out!" Bill sits up all night (from midnight to
8 a.m.) when he's polishing off his typewriter keys with weird whisperings,
groans and choice bits of skullduggery. If there's a good electrical storm in
progress, so much the better, for Cooper thrives on atmospheric rumblings,
clanking chains and dark-skinned sirens and juicy murders.
________________________________
[October 14, 1934 Chicago Tribune]
... Willis Cooper, author of those horrifying "Lights Out" ghost dramas at NBC
is writing a novel. An interested publisher has induced him to begin work on a
long promised opus. ...
________________________________
[November 3, 1934 Winnipeg Free Press]
At last the the old order has been reversed. Radio plays are being adapted to
the stage. Willis Cooper, NBC central division continuity editor, is adapting
some of his "Lights Out" scripts for stage presentation. One of them will be
produced this winter by the Detroit Players club.
________________________________
[January 23, 1935 Chicago Tribune]
"Lights Out," that Wednesday midnight horror series written by Willis Cooper,
NBC continuity ace, will be restored on Jan. 30.
________________________________
[January 26, 1935 Winnipeg Free Press - Radio Flashes column]
"LIGHTS OUT" AGAIN
The crime-and-horror fans who haven't written or phoned me about Bill Cooper's
"Lights Out" feature on WENR at midnight on Wednesdays, have written direct to
WENR, with the result that "Lights Out," which broadcast its final play about
two Wednesdays ago, is immediately being resumed.
For myself I'm surprised that so many people can listen to more than one of
Cooper's hair-raisers. I sat through one, but the strain was too much. Loss of
several finger nails (which I chewed off in my anguish), loss of appetite and
sleep and the threatened loss of my hair, which wouldn't lie down for several
days afterward, forced me to steer clear of WENR on Wednesday nights, if I
valued my future peace of mind.
For those about to listen to "Lights Out" for the first time, I would
respectfully suggest that you invite about six or eight of your strongest and
most reliable friends over to listen also; friends whom you can trust. Pulling
down all the blinds in the room helps too -- it eliminates the possibility of
seeing gibbering gargoyles at the windows, if they happen to be there. I never
did get up enough courage to turn the lights out while I listened, as that
arch-fiend Bill Cooper suggests.
However, if in spite of all this you still like to hear horror stories and
supernatural dramas, and the weirdest, most heart-rending assortment of sighs,
sobs and moans, then by all means listen in to WENR at midnight next
Wednesday. The inarticulate mouthings of a disembodied spirit is something to
be remembered long after all the other folks in the house have dropped off to
sleep.
________________________________
[After the January 2, 1935 episode, judging by the Chicago Tribune's radio
listings, "Lights Out" is off the air for the rest of the month. The Trib
reports on January 23 that the series will return January 30 but doesn't
mention the program in its daily radio schedule until February 6. From then
until April 10 (the last local broadcast before switching to the network) the
paper lists some episode titles:]
02-06-1935 Lost in the Catacombs
02-13-1935 The Death Cell
02-20-1935 The Mine of Lost Skulls
02-27-1935 x
03-06-1935 After Five O'Clock
03-13-1935 Sepulzeda's Revenge
03-20-1935 The Haunted Chair
03-27-1935 Submarine
04-03-1935 x
04-10-1935 Play Without a Name
________________________________
[February 9, 1935 Chicago Tribune]
Fifty members of Evanston's Lights Out club got more than they bargained for
the other midnight when they came to NBC studios to view Bill Cooper's macabre
"Lights Out" broadcast. This week's episode concerned a honeymooning couple
lost in the Roman catacombs. Studio lights are doused during the broadcast,
only two narrow beams playing on the actors themselves. The studio sound
experts gave Evanstonians a nice case of jitters.
________________________________
[February 27, 1935 Winnipeg Free Press - You Will Hear ...]
... "The Mine of the Lost Skulls," an eerie episode dealing with a lost mine
in the southwest and the strange misadventures which befall two people who
discover it, presented during the Lights Out programme, over WENR at midnight.
The programme, written by Willis Cooper, continuity editor of the NBC Central
division, is produced for the special benefit of those stout-hearted persons
who are not afraid to turn out the lights when they tune in.
________________________________
[March 13, 1935 Chicago Tribune]
Willis Cooper, NBC continuity chief and author of those gruesome "Lights Out"
productions heard at midnight Wednesdays over WENR, has spent a most unhappy
week. Hard boiled radio listeners have been kicking about last week's playlet,
"After Five O'Clock," saying it was too mild. Some have charged him with going
soft. Other gluttons for the macabre have gone so far as to brand him a sissy.
Cooper admits that last week's opus wasn't quite up to standard -- it
concerned a guy harassed by his subconscious mind and wound up mildly with
three suicides. Cooper's plea was that he was merely trying to mix them up a
bit. [A version of this episode survives from the 1945 revival season of
"Lights Out" under the title "Man in the Middle"]
Cooper brooded for several days and then resolved to give them something they
would remember him by. Tonight he will present his masterpiece of fiendishness
which he calls "Sepulzeda's Revenge." "It will satisfy all who insist on
HORROR with capital letters," Cooper said yesterday. In this one, Cooper warms
up on a cleaver and trunk murder and tops it off with an episode in which a
husband beheads his wife. Last Wednesday night Willis didn't rest well but
tonight he will sleep like a baby. ...
________________________________
[March 20, 1935 Chicago Tribune]
"How do I die this time?" Sidney Ellstrom inquired yesterday of Willis Cooper,
author of the macabre "Lights Out" series heard Wednesday at midnight on WENR-
NBC. "A ghost strangles you in 'The Haunted Chair,'" Cooper replied. "Fine,"
said Ellstrom, returning to his business for the day.
He has been put to death in this show more than 100 times. And his endings
have all been grisly and gruesome. He's been skinned alive, boiled in oil,
devoured by a man eating jungle plant, strangled by a vampire. He has been
drowned, electrocuted, poisoned, buried alive, decapitated and dismembered.
But sometimes his work is sweet. Now and then Author Cooper turns the tables
and allows Ellstrom to get revenge on his persecutors, usually portrayed by
Art Jacobson, Don Briggs, Bernardine Flynn, Betty Lou Gerson, or Betty
Winkler, other members of the "Lights Out" cast. Once, for example, as a
Chinese madman, he was given a chance to inflict "death" through a thousand
slashes on Jacobson, usually one of his most fervid annihilators. ...
________________________________
[April 6, 1935 The Billboard review]
"Lights Out"
Reviewed Wednesday 12-12:30 a.m. Style--Melodrama. Sustaining on WEAF (NBC
network).
With as much notice as a mob might give a bank prior to holding it up, NBC
unloaded this crisp script sandwiched in between a couple of dance orchestra
sustainings at a time when no listener expects to hear anything but music.
Which made this hunk of dramatics that much more effective and must leave the
dial twister thinking about the incident and dispel all taste for the
abounding night club music in question. For instead of just another band
coming on a mug began the story of a bank robbery in the first person, tersely
stating the facts until the succeeding episode was dramatized. Subsequently
there were both narrative and dramatic sketches, action and even a moral for
the finish.
Briefly, the story concerns a gang moll who flits naturally from one gangster
to another. Thus after the bank robbery, in which some $375,000 was the haul,
her boy friend picks a fight with her just after the loot is counted up, and
the Swede member of the mob, unable to make the pal lay off, takes a shot at
him and knocks him off. The Swede and Marcella go to Europe and live a gay
life. He loses a quarter of a million dollars at Monte Carlo and it is not
long before he gets unduly suspicious of Marcella and a friend, whom he finds
together. The usual procedure of her boy friend beating her up takes place and
the newcomer is forced to knock the Swede off in order to save the gal. The
couple go to Santa Monica, Calif., to take things easy, and Marcella, in her
first bit of first person talk, tells of becoming friendly with their
physician. She is also allowed to go out on occasion with other gentlemen
friends, it seems. Her lord and master has returned from a stickup, as
indicated in reports that reach her, and since he has to lay low, he is
amenable to her going for a ride with the young doctor. In the meantime, she
gets a phone call that is surely suspicious, and he having been hitting the
bottle by way of diversion, Marcella is again in for a beating, this one
costing her her life. Her screams, however, attract the police, who may or may
not have already been on his trail.
Closing episodes find him in the death house conversing with a knowing keeper.
The killer doesn't want to die and he can't take it at all. In a sort of
reverie he "remembers a big cop taking" a shot at him, and then he woke up in
a jam for fair. And so he is dragged away to the chair or scaffold a meek,
yellow, broken-down gunman who might have been like any other man but for
certain circumstances that took him off the proverbial alley.
Technique in writing and producing this script is one of pure radio license
and can't even be compared to the flashback from the movies, since characters
dead at the close of the tale do considerable talking of their experiences.
This feat, combined with the terse, stark sock of the drama, is probably one
of the most realistic pieces radio has ever presented. Inquiry brings the info
that the author is Willis Cooper and that the program was an audition for a
potential sponsor. The right hour, sponsor and product and equally strong
scripts ought to click hands down. Program originated in Chicago NBC studios.
M. H. S.
________________________________
[April 7, 1935 Chicago Tribune - the Trib's regular radio columnist writes a
few sentences about various Chicago-based radio series:]
CHICAGO SHOWS ARE CHOSEN FOR BRIEF COMMENT
by Larry Wolters
... LIGHTS OUT--Murder at midnight. Sound effects that freeze the blood. It
may only be a head of cabbage in the studio, but it's red with gore when you
hear its dull thud on the floor, by way of the loudspeaker. ...
________________________________
[April 10, 1935 Chicago Tribune]
Willis Cooper's gristly [sic] "Lights Out" program, for many months heard
locally, on Wednesday at midnight will become a network feature next week. It
will be aired a half hour earlier locally in order to keep New Yorkers from
staying up most of the night to catch it. Tonight Cooper is presenting "Play
Without a Name." He couldn't think of a title that would do its horror
justice.
________________________________
[April 12, 1935 Syracuse Herald - Contrary to the article, "Lights Out" was
actually off the air for several weeks circa January 1935.]
Horrors for Night Owls
NBC to Bring Dramatic Chillers From Chicago to Network
"Lights Out," a series of ghost and horror dramas which has thrilled and
chilled midnight listeners for more than a year, will come to an NBC-WEAF
network Wednesday night, as a regular feature.
Broadcast at the late hour of 12:30 A. M., "Lights Out" is distinctly not a
program for the children, nor for adults who are faint of heart. Critics have
declared that it achieves the ultimate in horror, not only in radio, but in
any form of dramatic presentation.
However, the [...?] Chicago, like it. When the program was off the air for two
weeks last fall because Willis Cooper, the author, was too busy to write it,
the station presenting the feature was overwhelmed with protests. Cooper says
that no matter how macabre are the dramas he writes, listeners always want
them more so.
________________________________
[April 12, 1935 The Frederick (MD) Post; Syndicated column Radio Day by Day by
C. E. Butterfield]
New York, April 12.—Intended solely for that group described as "Hardy
Listeners" who thrill at thrillers at midnight or after, that's the prime
purpose of a new series of "Horror" and ghost dramatizations WEAF-NBC is to
bring out of Chicago starting next Wednesday night at 12:30.
Under the title of "Light's [sic] Out," the broadcasts have had nearly a
year's run on WENR, where their popularity led the chain to believe that
others might like to do some scarey [sic] tuning in. The author of the "real
radio thriller" is Willis Looper. [sic]
________________________________
[April 13, 1935 Winnipeg Free Press]
... Petitions arrived from no less than 87 fan clubs in Chicago alone. Other
letters came from groups ranging from society folk to taxi drivers who each
Wednesday convened in all-night restaurants to hear the programme. One letter
came from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police here in Winnipeg. ...
________________________________
[April 17, 1935 Winnipeg Free Press]
Willis Cooper['s] popular supernatural and horror dramas go National when his
"Lights Out!" programme goes on the NBC network a half hour earlier at 11.30
p.m.
________________________________
[April 17, 1935 The Lima News (Ohio) radio column headlined: Spooks To Branch
Out On Network Program Wednesday / "Lights Out" Series To Become Regular Eerie
Hour Feature Thru WEAF; ...]
"Lights Out," the series of ghost and horror dramas which has thrilled and
chilled midnight listeners of station WENR, Chicago, for more than a year,
will come to the WEAF network Wednesday and will be heard regularly thereafter
at 12:30 a. m. Originally planned as a spine-tickling novelty for those hardy
listeners who prefer something different in the way of late broadcasts,
"Lights Out" has proved enormously popular. It is distinctly not a program for
the children, nor for adults who are faint of heart. ...
________________________________
[April 19, 1935 Chicago Tribune]
... Mrs. Frank Bering, the former Joan Winters, is playing leading parts in
NBC's "Lights Out." She portrayed the countess in Wednesday evening's show.
[refers to the series' network premiere, which was April 17] ...
________________________________
[April 20, 1935 Newsweek]
HORROR: Bedtime Blood-Curdlers With Realistic Sound Effects
For horror dramas, radio directors usually choose late hours. Scary children
are asleep. And many adults -- sick of crooning, Harlem jazz, and political
harangues -- welcome the change. Half an hour after midnight Wednesday, the
National Broadcasting Co. aired on WEAF the first of a series of blood-
curdlers, "Lights Out." Officials call it "the ultimate in horror."
Willis Cooper, 36-year-old script author, supervises NBC continuities in the
Chicago area. "Lights Out" has run over WENR there for a year. His theory:
"I think the horror slant is good in radio. On the stage there is little
difference between the horrible and the ludicrous. Radio hits ears only.
Listeners build their own pictures."
Cooper creates his horror-illusions by raiding the larder. Maple syrup
dripping on a plate suggests the plopping of blood from a wound. To split a
man's skull Cooper drives a cleaver through a head of cabbage. To crush bones
he pounds raw spareribs.
The program has violent effects on some listeners. Last month one fan
telephoned WENR that "Lights Out" made his mother faint. A suburban woman
called a police car to her home: "I was frightened out of my wits."
But many fans cry for "more cannibalism." Cooper reaches for another cabbage
head and gives it to them.
________________________________
[April 24, 1935 Winnipeg Free Press]
"The Phantom Ship," a ghost drama of the sea done in the most realistic
"Lights Out" tradition, will be presented during the second network broadcast
of spooky stories at 11.30 p.m. (NBC, including KFYR). The story involves two
sailors, lone survivors of a ship which is torpedoed and sunk during the World
War. After drifting on the sea for a time they encounter and board a deserted
ship. Here the supernatural element enters the play, for the ship proves to be
anything but an ordinary craft.
________________________________
[April 28, 1935 Chicago Tribune]
... "Lights Out," ... which was dropped because Author Willis Cooper had too
much other work to do, was restored on WENR at the insistence of thousands of
followers. Then it was piped to New York for a test. Eastern executives
thought it was too tough for Manhattan, but after uniformly favorable
criticism by New York critics they had a change of heart and are now trying it
out across the nation. But they're starting in easy -- using ghost and spook
stories. The gory yarns are out for the present. Incidentally, Ted Sherdeman
is producing the shows and doing a slick job of it at 11:30 now Wednesday. ...
________________________________
[May 1, 1935 Winnipeg Free Press]
Willis Cooper, author of the Lights Out ghost series, has concocted a thriller
out of such a non-spooky subject as moving from one apartment to another for
the broadcast at 10.30 p.m., (NBC). In "Moving Day", however, the apartment is
haunted.
________________________________
[June 1, 1935 Winnipeg Free Press]
NBC'S GHOST DRAMA
Numerous protests have been registered to the effect that Willis Cooper's
"Lights Out" ghost dramas on NBC at 10.30 Wednesdays, have gone sort of Elsie
Dinsmore-ish since their debut on the network. Fans want them "awfuller and
awfuller." Seems like "Frankenstein" and his "Bride" and "Dracula" and the
"Werewolf of London" have sort of acclimatized listeners and left a taste for
more and more horror.
The "scene" of Cooper's latest is chronicled here below, candid fashion:
Wednesday night, 10.30 p.m. ... actors gather about a shaded floor lamp over
the microphone in studio B, NBC Chicago studios ... remainder of studio
control room and observation rooms are dark ... thirteen chimes sound, and
Lights Out, programme of ghost drama goes on the air ... Production Director
Ted Sherdeman and the engineer are in the control room ... a small desk lamp
enables them to see the script and the control panel ... Sherdeman insists
that studio be darkened in order that actors may feel they're really playing a
ghost drama ... result: members of cast frequently become as frightened as
their listeners ... no theme music ... only thirteen chimes ... scenes are
broken by sounding of a gong, which also closes broadcast ... it's one of the
few dramatic programmes without theme music ... makes production director's
task doubly difficult. ... he has to finish "on the nose" without filling in
with longer or shorter closing theme ... works with a script four minutes
short ... natural pauses for effect take up the four minutes during broadcast
... now two actors, Sidney Ellstrom and Bernardine Flynn, are at the mike,
their faces lighted by the lamp ... other members of cast sit in darkness
nearby ... Don Briggs steals up behind Bernardine and clutches her throat ...
she screams in real terror, for she's afraid of the dark ... Briggs is a ghost
... he laughs maniacally ... all a part of the script, but in the darkness it
seems real, and the actors feel it IS real ... especially the feminine actors
... they're usually Betty Winkler and Bernardine ... the programme continues,
building to a climax ... Briggs and Art Jacobson fight ... they really grapple
and finally go to the floor . . . it's all part of the realistic treatment of
the programme ... a gong sounds and the programme is off ... lights come on
... the actors relax, and laugh ... spectators in the observation room feel
safer now, too ... it's eleven; and the cast departs.
________________________________
[June 15, 1935 Winnipeg Free Press]
Here's one for Ripley: a radio press sheet recounts the story of a Chicago
police station captain who telephoned the studio following a "Lights Out"
broadcast and said that his men had been listening to it and were afraid to go
out afterwards and walk their beats. Don't that beat all.
________________________________
[July 21, 1935 Chicago Tribune photo caption]
Things look bad -- but they'll be worse. Betty Winkler is the lady in distress
and Don Briggs (right) is plotting destruction for Sidney Ellstrom (center).
They are reaching the awful climax of a Lights Out episode, heard Wednesday
nights on NBC.
________________________________
[August 10, 1935 Radio Guide]
They Must Be Scared!
Willis Cooper Knows Better Than to Give His Listeners Anything But Hair-
Raising, Blood-Curdling Thrills
By Meryl Dell
"LIGHTS OUT, Everybody." A deep voice speaks softly.
Thirteen chimes ... Evil omen.
Wind rising to a crescendo and fading ... ominous--foreboding.
GONG!
By the time this much of the Lights Out program has gone out over the air,
hundreds of thousands of listeners, literally in the four corners of the
country, are sitting in the dark, nerves taut in anticipation.
Then the play. Whatever its story, it must be gory, blood-curdling,
terrifying. It had better be, or Willis Cooper, creator and author of the
program and Western NBC continuity editor, will be deluged with letters
calling him "sissy."
Lights Out fans want their horror undiluted. And they get what they want--or
else. Which means that by letter, phone and telegram they shout long and
loudly until they do get what they want. NBC found that out when the program
was taken off the air last Winter.
The program started as a novelty--an experiment. Its immediate, overwhelming
success probably will make it Exhibit A for all those who insist that
listeners do know what they want from their radios, and will emphatically
voice their approval when given an incentive.
About a year and a half ago it occurred to Willis Cooper that a great many
listeners might welcome a dramatic show late at night as relief from the
constant song of dance bands. Being an avid reader of mystery and horror
stories, especially as relaxation after a hard day's work, he decided quite
naturally that midnight and ghastly stories would make a grand combination for
night-owl listeners.
Whereupon Mr. Cooper spent a few evenings giving himself the jitters by
writing tales of horror instead of reading them. That's no gag. With that
vivid imagination of his ... you know he has to have one to write those
chilling tales ... he sometimes scares himself so he has to stop writing in
the middle of a story, and finish it the next day. Especially is this so of
ghost stories. Bill is scared to death of ghosts; so much so that often he
refuses to listen when one of his ghost stories is being broadcast. "Just
can't take it," he admits.
He presented his scripts and suggestions for midnight dramas to NBC's program
board. Only mildly interested, the others on the board--Cooper himself is one
of them--bowed to their continuity editor's enthusiasm and decided the idea
was worth giving a trial.
Without ballyhoo of any kind, Lights Out was presented for the first time over
WENR on a Wednesday at midnight early in January, 1934.
The studio personnel, accustomed to all types of programs and therefore
generally indifferent to all, started staying up late on Wednesday nights. A
few radio editors paid tribute to something new on the air. Letters from
listeners started to come in, slowly but surely increasing in number each
week. It was evident that Lights Out was a successful experiment. But no one,
not even Willis Cooper, imagined that it was a sensation.
THAT amazing revelation came months later. As continuity editor, Bill has a
great deal of work to do. He decided he needed for his other work the time it
took to write Lights Out.
One night last January the announcer ended the program with a simple
announcement: "This is the last of the series of Lights Out programs."
Then came the deluge. From North, East, South and West came letters, phone
calls, telegrams, petitions--some signed by as many as 200 people. Radio
editors were swamped with protesting mail from their readers. The mailing room
was flooded. "Put Lights Out back on the air!" was the cry. It wasn't a plea.
It was a demand. "You can't take Lights Out away from us" was the ultimatum
laid down by the world's greatest dictator--the public.
Sweet music to an author's ears. Pleasant surprise for the network.
With such acclaim, Cooper didn't care how much extra work he had to do. What
writer would?
THREE weeks later, Lights Out was back on WENR each Wednesday night at
midnight. And shortly afterward, yielding to the demands of station managers
whose listeners were clamoring for Lights Out, the program was scheduled for
the entire network. To save Eastern listeners the necessity of staying up all
night to hear the program--blase New York had been particularly emphatic in
demanding the thriller for its supposedly sated listeners--the program is now
being broadcast half an hour earlier, at 12:30 a. m. EDT.
Watching a Lights Out broadcast is an experience in itself. As the opening
words are spoken, all studio lights are extinguished. Working in utter
darkness excepting the pin point of light that enables the actors to see their
scripts, and another in the control room so they can watch the program's
producer, everyone becomes tense. A huge studio in almost total darkness and
silence is not the most cheerful place to be, even if you know it is just a
play going on.
At a sign from the production man, the play starts. You keep reminding
yourself that this is only a radio program, try to force yourself to be cool
and unconcerned. After all, it's only a play and there are the actors in front
of you; but so realistic is the acting--the atmosphere--the sounds--that cold
chills insist upon running up and down your spine.
The program is over. Lights go on. With a sigh of relief you silently breathe
thanks that no one was around to see you jitter. It seems silly to get so
scared watching a broadcast.
BUT it isn't silly. It is a great tribute to those who are responsible for the
program--the production man, the actors, the engineer and the sound men. Under
the sensitive direction of Ted Sherdeman, the program's producer, the actors
actually live the experiences written in Cooper's lines; sound and action are
so real that one loses all sense of listening to a program; one seems actually
to be witnessing a living drama. So intensely real is the drama that it sends
shudders through thousands of people many miles away, and keeps the illusion
of reality even in the studio. Audiences are not permitted at Lights Out
broadcasts; but unlike many programs, it would spoil no listener's illusions
if they were.
Some of Chicago's finest actors and actresses take part in the Lights Out
shows. Betty Winkler and Bernardine Flynn share the feminine parts; Arthur
Jacobson, Don Briggs, Sidney Ellstrom, Phillip Lord, Ted Maxwell and Butler
Manderville are the stock group from which each week's male cast is chosen.
LIGHTS OUT mail is probably the most interesting received by any program. From
all walks of life, from nearly every state in the Union, and from half a dozen
countries, it pours in every week. So varied is its source, seemingly
encompassing every type and class of people, that one is struck by the thought
that if there is such a thing as a universal type of entertainment ... a type
to please all tastes ... Lights Out is it.
There are at least 200 Lights Out clubs, composed of from four to as many as
fifty members. They meet each Wednesday evening to play cards or dance until
time for the program's broadcast. Each of these, as well as hundreds of other
listeners, sends in a weekly comment. "And woe is me," says Bill, "if the
story has been even a little milder than usual. Those bloodthirsty fans pounce
on me like some of my characters do their victims. Gives me nightmares."
But don't take that too seriously. Actually, Bill gets a kick out of writing
his Lights Out--and a real thrill from those fan letters.
Lights Out may be heard Wednesday over an NBC-WEAF network at 12:30 a. m. EDT
(11:30 p. m. EST; 11:30 CDT; 10:30 CST; 9:30 MST; 8:30 PST).
[photo caption 1] To make sure of the chill, actors on this hour do their own
stuff as well as speak their lines. From left, Betty Winkler, Don Briggs,
Sydney Ellstrom
[photo caption 2] Willis Cooper, who writes Lights Out
[photo caption 3] Ted Sherdeman, producer of the program
________________________________
[August 24, 1935 Chicago Tribune]
Willis Cooper, who writes the macabre "Lights Out" show at NBC, will be a
special guest of the Belfry Players when they present one of his "Lights Out"
plays in the Belfry theater at Williams Bay, Wis., Monday evening. This
theater really is an old church, built by Mormons about 1850. It still
contains the original pews, oil lamps, and furnishings and is a point of
historical interest in the Lake Geneva district. ...
________________________________
[August 29, 1935 Chicago Tribune]
Willis Cooper has turned in his resignation as continuity chief at local NBC
offices to devote his time to writing "Lights Out," chill and horror show, and
"Flying Time," a juvenile thriller. With other members of the "Flying Time"
cast Cooper left yesterday for Cleveland, where the program will be aired from
the airport during the national air races. Loretta Poynton, Willard Farnum,
Ted Maxwell, and Harold Perry made the trip with him. ...
________________________________
[October 24, 1935 Chicago Tribune]
... Willis Cooper, formerly continuity editor at NBC, gave up the job to do
free lancing with the view that he would have more time for recreation. But he
is finding little time for rest -- he is writing five episodes a week of
"Flying Time," an aviation serial; five of "Betty and Bob," another serial,
and also turning out a play a week for the macabre "Lights Out" series. On top
of that he journeys to Des Moines each Sunday to produce a show there.
________________________________
[November 6, 1935 Chicago Tribune]
... Bill Cooper's goose pimpler "Lights Out," switches from WENR to WMAQ-NBC
at 11:30 tonight. Bill has turned out a spine chiller about a lady who comes
back to haunt succeeding generations of a family for tonight. Every time she
appears the youngest son dies. ...
________________________________
[November 13, 1935 Chicago Tribune - episode title:]
"Three Lights from a Match"
________________________________
[November 14, 1935 Oakland Tribune]
QUITS SEVEN SHOWS
BETTY LOU GERSON had to resign from the casts of seven shows to play First
Nighter leads. The script writer had her killed off the Girl Alone series, and
she bowed out of "Nickelodeon," "Lights Out," "Flying Time," "Kilmer Family,"
"Curtain Time" and "Princess Pat." Through a special NBC-client dispensation,
she is permitted to remain on the MARY MARLIN show heard over CBS ...
________________________________
[November 16, 1935 Winnipeg Free Press]
WILLIS COOPER, author of the NBC Flying Time and Lights Out programmes, has
been named a judge in a national contest for radio script writing conducted by
the League of American Pen-women.
________________________________
[December 13, 1935 Washington Post "On the Air Today" column by J. H. H.]
The old clock on the mantel had stopped. So I sat down at the radio, turned
the switch and waited for the first break which would indicate the hour. It
was, I figured, between 12:15 and 12:45 a. m.
In a few seconds, with the heating of the tubes, came a sudden crescendo of
agonized, screaming pleadings. "Don't keel me. I'll do anything ... but not
that ... I geeve you my money ... $2,000 in the mattress ..."
The blood-curdling dialog was doubly impressive because I had expected to find
a dance band playing at that early morning hour, whatever the station last
tuned in.
I was fascinated with the hair-raising awfulness of the script lines. Suddenly
it became apparent that the victim was protesting being dumped in a ladle of -
- liquid steel! And while I was dwelling on this gentle situation as a plot
for an air play -- the unfortunate gentleman was, in truth, thrown into the
white-hot cauldron, with his last earthly screams imposed on the throaty,
chuckling observations of his murderers.
The scene faded into a conversation between a steel-mill employe and a
visitor, in which it was explained that a man recently had lost his life in a
ladle of liquid metal -- but the process of fashioning steel rails, bridge
girders and so on had not been stopped. The jolly part of it all was (laugh,
laugh) that the victim even now was a fragmentary part (ho, ho, ha, ha) of the
finished pieces before them.
Again, a transition -- and the voices of the three slayers are heard, one week
or so later. One, named Sampson, set the plot. He was to be a victim of the
slain man through an overwhelming desire to work, to go down to the nearby
bridge under construction and work. From that point, the unfortunate mill
worker dealt out his revenge.
The manner in which the three assailants died is not appropriate for reporting
in a column that is scanned by many at the breakfast table. Let it be said
that this attempt to be baldly, deliberately revolting in details -- ghastly,
shocking in realism -- can be reported as notably successful. Finesse and
subtleness were eliminated in favor of gory, crude obviousness.
Sometimes the mass radio audience becomes a mystery to me. There can be no
doubt about it, many persons like this N.B.C. feature. It would not be
continued if it did not meet with the approval and pleasure of some listeners.
Yet -- many a bell-ringing idea, many a delightful bit of entertainment has
been refused with arched eyebrows because it was in bad taste, or too "in the
raw" or otherwise deemed offensive to the public mind. Many a capricious
alteration has been made in scripts and speeches by the same authorities who
put the stamp of approval on "Lights Out," thus putting a crimp in the
author's work and usually aiding the presentation in no way whatever.
"Lights Out," if I got a fair sample, is the most blatent [sic] evidence of
policy inconsistency coming to my attention in many a day. ...
________________________________
[December 14, 1935 Washington Post "On the Air Today" column by J. H. H.]
... Shannon Allen, production manager of N.B.C., in Washington, has risen to
the defense of "Lights Out," which I took occasion to give space to yesterday.
Mr. Allen has nothing whatever to do with the production of "Lights Out" as
the midnight hour drama originates in the Chicago studios.
But Mr. Allen is first and foremost a production man and instinctively puts up
his mitts in behalf of any show which, as he calmly and smilingly maintains,
attracts the large audience as does "Lights Out." It seems, among other
things, that in missing the opening announcement last Wednesday night, I
missed the subtle tongue-in-the-cheek foreword explaining that the half-hour
is slightly on the burlesque side, somewhat inclined to be sly hokum. Further,
it is spotted at 12:30 a.m. for the express purpose of providing a "lights
out" shocker for those who wish to be "shocked."
No one has even faintly suggested I lack imagination or am intolerant of any
entertainment simply because I do not like it personally. As an example of
showmanship, "Lights Out" is tops. I still maintain, however, that it is at
fault in dealing with plot situations and climaxes that are stomach-turning.
Mr. Allen contends that a "thriller" is not intended to be successful on
finely drawn finesses.
After all, you, as the composite radio listener, are the judge. And I guess
the mass audience likes "Lights Out." ...
________________________________
[December 25, 1935 Chicago Tribune]
... 11:30 p. m. - WMAQ - "Lights Out," a Christmas play about three men in
France. ...
________________________________
[March 28, 1936 Chicago Tribune]
... Bill Cooper, who writes "Lights Out," "Flying Time," and "Betty and Bob,"
will leave for California for the summer, May 1. He will continue his writing
while in the west. ...
________________________________
[April 18, 1936 Middletown (NY) Times Herald]
The Wandering Muse [radio column]
... LIGHTS OUT
One has to be a late stayer-upper or something, to hear the Lights Out
programs over WEAF every Wednesday, but they are certainly worth while
remaining awake an extra half-hour to hear. This is a radio drama series and
is heard at 12.30 every Wednesday night over WEAF. The sketches are timed for
half an hour and are written by one Willis Cooper of whom we have never heard.
The plays are by no means drawing room affairs. They deal with bizarre
mysteries and, unless you have a cast-iron nerve, will ruin your night's
sleep. They are splendidly acted and require some of the finest sound effects
that any radio program has offered. Some Wednesday night when you're up later
than usual and don't mind sacrificing the wave in your hair, tune in on Lights
Out.
________________________________
[April 23, 1936 Chicago Tribune]
Willis Cooper will leave for Hollywood next Tuesday to write dialog for the
movies. He will continue to write the radio serial "Betty and Bob," and the
horror series, "Lights Out," on the coast.
________________________________
[May 13, 1936 Chicago Tribune]
... Willis Cooper is still writing "Lights Out" and "Flying Time" for radio
production here, while turning out movie dialog in the west. ...
________________________________
[May 28, 1936 Chicago Tribune]
... Bill Cooper, who writes Flying Time and Lights Out, has been signed by the
20th Century-Fox pictures to write dialog. That's the same studio for which
Don Ameche is working. ...
________________________________
[June 6, 1936 Chicago Tribune]
Arch Oboler, young Chicago playwright, is the new author of "The Lights Out"
[sic] horror series on NBC succeeding Willis Cooper who has gone to Hollywood.
Oboler also writes Irene Rich's "Lady Counselor" sketches. ...
________________________________
[June 24, 1936 Chicago Tribune]
11:30--WMAQ--Lights Out--"The Dictator--the Story of Emperor Caligula," by
Arch Oboler.
________________________________
[July 15, 1936 Chicago Tribune]
Arch Oboler deserves sharp reproof for offering an opus entitled "Flame" on
the ghostly "Lights Out" dramatic series at 11:30 tonight. The flame, Mr.
Oboler explains, is a living one that snuffs out the life of the man who
created it. If Mr. Oboler feels that he must stick to such grisley matters the
least he could do would be to title the piece, "Murder Under the Midnight
Sun."
________________________________
[August 15, 1936 Chicago Tribune]
Arch Oboler, author of "Lights Out" and the Irene Rich series, was summoned
from his home here to New York by plane last week to assist in a consultation
on improving Show Boat from the dramatic standpoint. All this concern over the
NBC Thursday evening show is due to the fact that Maj. Bowes is dragging his
amateurs to a spot opposite the radio vessel on CBS on Sept. 17. ...
Oboler is dramatizing one of the stories of John Buchan, who as Lord
Tweedsmuir is governor general of Canada, for Rudy Vallee who will present it
on his program from Toronto in September when he plays there at the
exposition. ...
________________________________
[August 19, 1936 Chicago Tribune]
... Best show emanating from Chicago in his [Rudy Vallee's] opinion is the
grisly "Lights Out" series, written by Arch Oboler. Why someone doesn't
sponsor this hour is more than Rudy can understand. ...
________________________________
[August 19, 1936 Kokomo (IN) Tribune]
"Invitation to a Fly," the story of a human spider, will be the breath taking
Lights Out program to be broadcast at 10:30 o'clock this evening. The locale
is laid in a lonely Scotch inn.
________________________________
[August 26, 1936 Wisconsin State Journal]
LIGHTS OUT
A dramatization of Saint-Saens' famous composition, "Danse Macabre," will be
presented during the Lights Out program over WIBA at 10:30 tonight. In the
drama, author Arch Oboler gives his idea of the weird events which led the
Frenchman to compose the eerie music.
________________________________
[September 9, 1936 Winnipeg Free Press - You Will Hear ...]
... The author of the play himself as the leading character in the "Lights
Out" drama, when a horror play titled "The Author and the Thing" is broadcast
over NBC at 10.30 p.m. Although the writer is the central character, Author
Arch Oboler will not play the role. He'll sit safely at home and hear himself
go through a very uncomfortable evening.
________________________________
[September 11, 1936 Chicago Tribune]
"Lights Out," the midnight horror show written by Arch Oboler, put on a drama
Wednesday night in which Oboler cast himself, his mother, his brother, and a
girl friend. A monster enters his room (according to the script and Oboler's
imagination) and consumes his brother and mother and murders his girl friend.
"Oboler" summons the police, who can find no monster. So they hold "Oboler." A
sanity hearing ensues in which physicians bearing the surnames of the radio
editors of Chicago examine him. They pronounce him a lunatic. And then the
thing comes and consumes him!
At the conclusion of the broadcast your reporter made a telephone call to
Oboler's home and finding him in New York, apologized to his mother for
disturbing her at such a late hour.
"That's quite all right," she said. "Your call reassures me that I am still
alive. I heard the broadcast all alone here except for our dog!"
________________________________
[September 16, 1936 Wisconsin State Journal]
A barren island off the coast of Ireland is the locale of "The Sea," which
will be presented during the Lights Out program at 10:30 o'clock this evening.
________________________________
[October 3, 1936 Bismarck Tribune]
... [Patrick Howard] Murphy, who is starred in the NBC "Girl Alone" program
and also is heard on the "Forest Rangers" and "Lights Out" programs, has had a
brilliant radio career since his graduation from St. John's university,
Collegeville, Minn. ...
________________________________
[October 14, 1936 Kokomo (IN) Tribune]
"The Fast One," an eerie drama about an inexplalnable crime wave which
descends on a great city, the menace being a man whose mental processes are
speeded up to thirty times the normal rate, will be broadcast on the Lights
Out program at 11:30 o'clock tonight.
________________________________
[October 21, 1936 Winnipeg Free Press]
"The Thing That Crept," another spooky melodrama by Arch Oboler, will be
broadcast over WDAF at 11:30 o'clock Wednesday night. The mystery this time
concerns a new kind of monster -- a synthetic beast created by gem thieves
with vacuum cup feet -- which climbs up a forty-five story building to a
penthouse, where most of the action takes place. The characters are a gem
collector, a young girl, a reporter and the thief.
________________________________
[October 28, 1936 Chicago Tribune]
... "Lights Out" ... is putting on an opus called "Halloween Horror" ... First
rehearsed with youngsters it proved too gruesome for the kids and so adults
were substituted.
________________________________
[October 28, 1936 Wisconsin State Journal]
Harassed law enforcement officials who have more than their hands full on
Hallowe'en night are the object of Arch Oboler's sympathy in the script he has
prepared for the Lights Out program tonight at 11:30 on WIBA. It is entitled
"Hallowe'en Horror."
[The same day's Kokomo Tribune calls it "Halloween Horror" and adds that "the
program deals with a neighborhood gang of small boys who go out on a mischief
excursion the last night of October and what they encounter."]
________________________________
[November 4, 1936 Winnipeg Free Press - You Will Hear ...]
... "Death Prayer," the story of an eminent British mining engineer whose
latent cruelty is brought out by heat and hardship in the bush country of
Australia, as the subject Arch Oboler has taken for his "Lights Out"
broadcast, at 11.30 p.m. (NBC). In revenge, the bushmen begin the horrible
"prayer ceremony," the results of which follow the scientist back to England.
________________________________
[November 5, 1936 Chicago Tribune]
A few months ago when Rudy Vallee last visited here he disclosed that his
favorite program was the macabre Wednesday evening "Lights Out" show for which
Arch Oboler is responsible. Well, tonight, Vallee is putting on one of
Oboler's plays on his variety hour from New York. Oboler calls it "A Prelude
to Murder" and it was originally produced on "Lights Out" though it has been
redrafted for this presentation. Peter Lorre, the distinguished European
character actor, and Olivia de Havilland of Hollywood are to play the leads.
________________________________
[November 5, 1936 Winnipeg Free Press]
The vehicle for Peter Lorre is a radio "original" specially written for Lorre
and the Vallee Hour by Arch Oboler. It is called "Prelude to Murder" and
utilizes the technique of "thoughts spoken aside" which was revived in
"Strange Interlude" on the stage. Oboler was the author of the one act play
"Rich Kid," in which Freddy Bartholomew made such a hit on the Vallee Hour
some months ago. Since then Oboler has written several dramas for the
programme. He also authors the Wednesday night "Lights Out!" series.
________________________________
[November 11, 1936 Winnipeg Free Press]
Lester Jay, boy star of Sidney Kingsley's "Dead End," now playing an extended
engagement in Chicago, will take a leading role in "The Crime Clique of
Croesus," horror play written by Arch Oboler for the "Lights Out" programme at
11.30 p.m. (NBC). Jay appeared with Freddie Bartholomew recently in a skit,
"The Rich Kid," also authored by Oboler, which was heard on Rudy Vallee's
Royal Variety Hour. "The Crime Clique of Croesus" concerns a group of men who
join to commit perfect crimes for the thrill of it.
________________________________
[November 11, 1936 Hammond Times]
Lester Jay, juve star of Chi cast of "Dead End," stars on Lights Out tonight
at half-past midnight. Appropriate, too, because most of the Lights Out cast
are dead in the end.
________________________________
[November 18, 1936 Chicago Tribune]
"Alter Ego," a play about a woman with a dual personality.
________________________________
[November 18, 1936 Kokomo (IN) Tribune]
A woman with a dual personality, whose lifelong struggle with the negative
side in her character ends in defeat as she is lead by a strong inner force to
commit a horrible crime for which she is sentenced to be electrocuted, is the
central character in the Lights Out drama for tonight, broadcast at 11:30
o'clock.
________________________________
[November 25, 1936 Winnipeg Free Press]
A big city racketeer decides to organize the laundries of his bailiwick into a
"protective association." He also decides to include Chinese hand laundries in
his organization. And thereby hangs a tale expounded in "Tong," the Lights Out
drama at 11.30 p.m. (NBC). Cruel murders of Chinese as gangsters attempt to
shove them "into line" are avenged by the orientals in their own way, with
some particularly horrible torture reserved for the gang leader himself.
Included are some little-known torture methods, according to Arch Oboler,
author of the series.
________________________________
[December 2, 1936 Chicago Tribune]
For tonight's "Lights Out" broadcast Arch Oboler has written a drama around a
war horse getting revenge. The nag inspiring the story is Joan of Arc, 27
years old, belonging to the 122d Field Artillery lancers. Joan served in six
major world war engagements.
Don Mihan, young actor and production man at NBC, has been cast as Joan and
yesterday was tuning up his best neighs and whinnies. He also gets to trample
a man to death in the broadcast. Mihan's rôle must fill Mark Love, W-G-N
basso, with envy. He recently portrayed a cow in a Chicago opera presentation.
________________________________
[December 2, 1936 Kokomo (IN) Tribune]
A drama in which an old war horse is one of the central figures will be
presented in the Lights Out program tonight at 11:30. Entitled "War Horse,"
the play draws its inspiration from a living steed named Jeanne d'Arc,
believed to be the only survivor of a score of army horses returned to the
United States from France following the World War.
________________________________
[December 6, 1936 Kansas City Star]
Everybody Lives In Murderless "Lights Out" Story Wednesday.
"Nobody Died" -- or will die, at least -- in the "Lights Out" drama by that
name to be heard over WDAF at 11:30 o'clock Wednesday night.
The murder-less "thriller" is a tale of a young scientist in a modern European
militaristic state who discovers a way to make the old young. War comes and
the dictator forces the scientist to turn over his secret process for use in
increasing the [army?]. The climax of the play, as all "Lights Out" dramas do,
will be heard as the midnight hour nears.
________________________________
[December 16, 1936 Kokomo (IN) Tribune]
In "Poltergeist," Arch Oboler has undertaken the feat of telling a story of
events which, in his own words, "are guaranteed to put goose-pimples on a
billiard ball," for the Lights Out broadcast at 11:30 o'clock tonight. Three
young girls who live in a small New England town go on a picnic and
unintentionally dance on the graves in an old deserted cemetery. What happens
is said to be based on an authenticated case and is something that can happen
again under similar circumstances, according to Oboler.
________________________________
[December 23, 1936 Washington Post]
"Afternoon of a Faun"--Play suggested to Author Arch Obeler [sic] by Debussy's
"L'Apres Midi D'Un Faun," with musical accompaniment, in "Lights Out," WRC, at
12:30 a. m.
________________________________
[December 23, 1936 Chicago Tribune]
11:30--WMAQ--Lights Out; Arch Oboler's version of "The Afternoon of a Faun."
________________________________
[December 30, 1936 Chicago Tribune]
11:30--WMAQ--Lights Out--Arch Oboler's "Murder Below."
________________________________
[December 30, 1936 Kokomo (IN) Tribune]
Arch Oboler swings back to the middle ages for the setting of his Lights Out
drama tonight at 11:30. Entitled "Sir Rat," the story concerns the demoniac
machinations of a nobleman who entombs the beautiful ladies of his court when
he tires of them. The way in which the ghosts of his victims obtain revenge on
the nobleman provides the horror for the play.
________________________________
[January 13, 1937 Winnipeg Free Press - You Will Hear ...]
... A doctor who has discovered [a] method of grafting human limbs from one
body onto another with some particularly weird and gruesome results as the
principal character in Arch Oboler's "The Devil in White," macabre drama
written for the Lights Out broadcast at 11.30 p.m. (NBC).
________________________________
[January 20, 1937 Winnipeg Free Press]
Pain is the theme of "Beast of the Shamo," Arch Oboler's horror story for the
"Lights Out" broadcast, at 11.30 p.m. (NBC.) The monster which lives in the
mysterious vastness of Tibet, has developed an attitude toward physical pain
that leads him to inflict it on those who fall into his clutches with an
almost religious fanaticism. Some highly imaginative methods of torture are
involved.
________________________________
[January 29, 1937 Chicago Tribune - review of a 90 minute Mutual Broadcasting
System special broadcast on January 28]
... For the dramatic portion, Blair Walliser presented a versatile crew of
young actors recruited from the Broadway stage, Hollywood, and radio, in an
oriental mystery play, "Chinese Gong," by Arch Oboler, young Chicago
playwright.
This play lacked the macabre touch that some of Mr. Oboler's "Lights Out"
sketches have, but there was plenty of intrigue, mystery, evil and suspense.
Brett Morrison, young film actor, and Elizabeth Hines, formerly of the
Broadway stage, played the leads, with James Goss, Hugh Studebaker, Gene
Byron, John Goldsworthy, Clare Baum, Norman Gottschalk, and Betty Ito in
supporting rôles. Miss Ito, a Japanese, is a student at the University of
Chicago.
Her presence and the fact that the cast appeared in full costume helped to
give the production an added oriental touch so far as the studio audience was
concerned. ...
________________________________
[February 24, 1937 Chicago Tribune]
Arch Oboler, author of the macabre "Lights Out" ... and Eleanor Helfand,
University of Chicago co-ed, yesterday admitted they had been married since
last week-end. They plan to leave Chicago Friday by motor for a tour of New
England. Oboler expects to visit a few haunted houses. After their wedding
tour they will live in New York.
________________________________
[February 24, 1937 Kokomo (IN) Tribune]
"Buried 1826," the story of a young girl whose body, buried in 1826, through a
chemical freak has become a side-show exhibit in a wandering carnival ...
________________________________
[March 3, 1937 Chicago Tribune]
The other day a report reached this desk that southern preachers are having to
switch prayer meeting nights because of the popularity of Maj. Bowes on
Thursdays. And now comes word from Evanston that Northwestern co-eds are
letting Wednesday, the traditional mid-week date night, fall into disfavor
because of the popularity of Lights Out, Arch Oboler's macabre plays. The
Daily Northwestern, student newspaper, reported the other day that a campus
survey indicated that at 11:30 Wednesday lights are out at dormitories and
fraternity houses while the collegians shudder and shiver.
Mr. Oboler has a delectable dish ready for tonight. It's a tale about
Sakhalin, the Siberian Devil's Island and recounts the commandant's use of
prisoners as clay pigeons in his private shooting gallery.
________________________________
[March 3, 1937 Kokomo (IN) Tribune]
The terrible happenings during the Czarist days on the dread island of
Sakhalin, the Russian "Devil's Island," will be dramatized during Arch
Oboler's Lights Out drama tonight at 11:30 o'clock.
________________________________
[March 10, 1937 Winnipeg Free Press - You Will Hear ...]
... "Chicken Heart," a fantastical and horrible story originating from the
fact that a bit of tissue from a chicken heart at the Rockefeller Institute in
New York has for years been rapidly growing as the title and theme of Arch
Oboler's Lights Out broadcast at 11.30 p.m. (WRC). In the drama, the heart
grows at a progressively increasing rate until the very, existence of humanity
is threatened by this great throbbing mass of flesh.
________________________________
[March 17, 1937 Kokomo (IN) Tribune]
What goes on in the mind of the man who releases the trigger that drops the
trap door and sends a man hurtling to his death at the end of a twisting rope?
What thoughts seethe through the consciousness of the individual who pulls the
switch that releases the volts of electricity into the body of a man in the
electric chair? The answer to these questions will be dramatized In Arch
Oboler's "State Executioner" at 11:30.
________________________________
[March 21, 1937 Lincoln (NE) Sunday Journal and Star - syndicated column
"Behind the Mike" by Bruce Nicoll]
... Larry Holcomb, continuity director of the NBC central division, said last
week the middle west was producing most of radio's script writers. He says
"There is something about the people or the climate of the middle west which
enables the spirit of reality to be caught and retained in writing more
readily than elsewhere."
"For instance," Holcomb pointed out, "Lights Out" that NBC midnight thrill
show is written by Arch Oboler, a Chicagoan; Vic and Sade (Paul Rhymer), Girl
Alone (Fayette Krum), Today's Children (Irna Phillips), Mary Marlin (Jane
Crusinberry), Guiding Light (Irna Phillips), and Tale of Today (Gordon St.
Clair), Holcomb says 80 per cent of radio's script shows come from Chicago.
...
________________________________
[March 24, 1937 Kokomo (IN) Tribune]
The gruesome tale of three medical students who accidentally run over a
Chinese-and then try to get rid of the body, even though the man is not dead,
will be the theme of "The Thirteenth Corpse," Arch Oboler's Lights Out drama
for tonight at 11:30.
________________________________
[March 31, 1937 Chicago Tribune]
The Chicago Mummers Theater group, an outgrowth of a Crane Junior college
theatrical organization, will be featured as guest performers on the W-G-N
Fireside Theater program at 9:30 tonight in the main studio. "The Luck of Mark
Street," a mystery drama will be presented by Arch Oboler, with Al Short,
Bernice Rea, Gertrude Berman, and Sam Malen in the leading roles. Milton
Kanter will direct the performance and the musical background will be provided
by Adrian and his orchestra.
________________________________
[March 31, 1937 Kokomo (IN) Tribune]
"Homus Primus," the terrifying story of three persons of London's upper strata
who, by a weird twist of time, find themselves back in the Stone Age ...
________________________________
[April 7, 1937 Kokomo (IN) Tribune]
An authentic story of the occurrences during that horrible time in Russia when
a madman ruled will be the theme of Arch Obler's [sic] Lights Out program at
11:30 o clock tonight.
________________________________
[April 8, 1937 Chicago Tribune]
... Henry Hull (of "Tobacco Road" fame) is to appear in "The Harp," a play by
Arch Oboler, Chicago playwright, on the Vallee Varieties tonight. ...
________________________________
[April 8, 1937 Indiana Weekly Messenger]
Lights Out, a feature on KDKA has been moved from Thursday night to 7:45
Wednesday.
________________________________
[April 21, 1937 Winnipeg Free Press - You Will Hear ...]
"Ghost Party," the story of Mr. and Mrs. Sam Hinckle, who prided themselves on
their original parties, as the theme of Arch Oboler's "Lights Out" drama, at
11.30 p.m. (NBC). But one night the Hinckles staged a fake seance—and the
result, rather than amusing, was work for the coroner.
________________________________
[April 28, 1937 Wisconsin State Journal]
"The Ninth Life," story of a woman in death row ...
________________________________
[April 28, 1937 Kokomo (IN) Tribune]
"The Ninth Life," the story of a woman in the death cell will be the gruesome
subject of Arch Oboler's Lights Out dramatic program, at 10:30.
________________________________
[May 5, 1937 Wisconsin State Journal]
"I, Madman," the story of a man who, by some miracle, looks into the future
and sees his own destiny as a madman ...
________________________________
[May 12, 1937 Winnipeg Free Press - You Will Hear ...]
... The Lights Out drama, at 10.30 p.m. (NBC), based on a real house at
Mamaroneck. N.Y., reputedly haunted and formerly the home of James Fenimore
Cooper, which Author Arch Oboler recently visited and in which he promises to
spend a night within the next two weeks, just to prove to himself that there
are no such things as the ghosts he constantly writes about. The title of the
drama will be "Organ", and a background of organ music will be heard
throughout the broadcast. The story concerns a couple who get a strange
bargain in a summer home--that is, a bargain until ghosts start playing non-
existent pipe organs. Debussy's "Clair de Lune" and Wagner's "Ride of the
Valkyrie" will be among the numbers favored by the ghosts.
________________________________
[May 19, 1937 Kokomo (IN) Tribune]
"Mad World," the weird story of a mad dictator who decides that as he is aging
and must die, all mankind must die with him ...
________________________________
[June 2, 1937 San Antonio (TX) Light]
... "Snake Woman," a drama about snakes and a woman with a strange power over
them.
________________________________
[June 6, 1937 Lima News]
... The National Broadcasting Company originates 23 dramatic shows, involving
110 performances and nearly 25 hours of network time, each week from its
Chicago studios in the Merchandise Mart. ...
________________________________
[June 6, 1937 Lima News]
Chicago is the home of the "Theater of the Airlanes." In the setting of
wailing saxophones and crashing cymbals that marks Chicago, radio has
discovered and developed the new form of microphone drama. And today Chicago,
rather than New York, is the dramatic headquarters for radio.
It is there then that we discover the man of many deaths. Willard Waterman is
his name. His life in the radio theater has been a dying one ever since he
started on the ether waves two years ago. Although he has been given up for
dead many times and is killed continually, he still remains very much alive on
the "Girl Alone" program, in which you hear him as "Leo Warner."
Waterman has been dying on the air ever since his first production, in which
he was killed off in the first chapter of a radio serial. His second role was
the most important part in the first sequence of another new serial. But the
last line also proved to be the last the character he was portraying spoke. It
was a death line.
His death role was in a flashback showing a character already dead, as of the
present. Most of his dying has taken place in Arch Oboler's midnight
thrillers, "Lights Out." But out of these deaths Waterman has been able to
make a very good living. ...
________________________________
[June 10, 1937 The Indiana Weekly Messenger]
Arch Oboler ... has a dictaphone in his bedroom which he uses only at night.
He'll lie down on his bed with a package of cigarettes at hand, start the
dictaphone, and actually enact every line of his script. Sometimes he can do a
whole show in half an hour, but sometimes it takes him as long as three or
four hours. He plays the dictaphone rolls over afterwards to check on the
characterizations and effects. If they're satisfactory, Arch turns over on his
side, and goes to sleep.
In the morning, his stenographer types up the results of the previous night's
work, and there you have the finished product, another play by Arch Oboler. ...
________________________________
[June 9, 1937 Wisconsin State Journal]
"Forty-Seventh Street Precinct", a story suggested by the coming abandonment
of the famous West Forty-Seventh street police station in New York City, will
be the subject of Arch Oboler's Lights Out program, tonight ever WIBA at
10:30. The drama will concern the return of the public enemies of yesterday
who stalk through the scene of their final minutes in this world.
________________________________
[June 16, 1937 Kokomo (IN) Tribune]
"The Meteor Men," a story of the invasion of the earth by a strange breed of
supermen from interstellar spaces ...
________________________________
[June 23, 1937 Wisconsin State Journal]
At the insistence of a listener to the Lights Out program, Arch Oboler has
written a script entitled "Happy Ending," for presentation over WIBA tonight
at 10:30. The listener threatened the author with one of his own macabre
endings unless he let the heroine live to the end of the broadcast.
________________________________
[June 30, 1937 Wisconsin State Journal - "The Cave"]
The gripping, thrill-packed story of two college girls lost in the fearsome
depths of Carlsbad Caverns, fantastic cavities beneath the desert of New
Mexico, will make up the plot of Arch Oboler's "Lights Out" drama tonight over
WIBA at 10:30. Many new techniques in sound effects will be used during the
drama to reproduce weird noises of subterranean activity.
________________________________
[July 2, 1937 San Antonio (TX) Light]
Dialers who are familiar with the Carlsbad Caverns got a real thrill out of
Arch Oboler's Lights Out drama this week. . . . The sound effects of dripping
water and distressed voices ringing out underground were excellent. . . .
Announcement has been made in response to numerous inquiries, that visitors
are not allowed in the studio during the Lights Out broadcasts.
________________________________
[July 7, 1937 Wisconsin State Journal]
"Brain Wave," a strange story of a man who discovered the way to intensify
mental activity until it reached out like a living entity and influenced other
minds, will be Arch Oboler's spine-tickling Lights Out drama for tonight, over
WIBA at 10:30. The thriller is based on recent developments in brain research
which have definitely established the fact that the human brain creates
electrical impulses when in activity.
________________________________
[July 14, 1937 San Antonio (TX) Light]
Here's some advance dope on Arch Oboler's Lights Out drama for tonight
(WOAI—10:30).
"Lord Marley's Guest," the story of "the most unusual swimming party since
time began," will be the title of the thilller.
The story was inspired by a recent experience of Author Oboler while on a deep
sea fishing trip. Reactions of his characters, he says, will be merely a
reflection of his own feelings when he saw the horrible thing his hook brought
up.
________________________________
[July 11, 1937 Los Angeles Times - RADIOPINIONS column by Dale Armstrong]
... and whatever became of Shaindel Kalish, the now 22-year-old actress
featured in N.B.C.'s "Lights Out." She was the one of the most beautiful radi-
actresses whose picture ever appeared in the paper. ...
________________________________
[July 18, 1937 Los Angeles Times - RADIOPINIONS column by Dale Armstrong]
... Shaindel Kalish, who formally [sic] starred in N.B.C.'s "Lights Out," is
back in Chicago, with no definite radio plans. At Universal Pictures, she
started out as Ann Preston, then became Judith Blake for an opus called
"Parole." She's married to Charles K. Freeman. I still think she's one of the
most beautiful gals in radio. (Note that I said "one of the.") ...
________________________________
[July 23, 1937 Chicago Tribune]
Lights Out, NBC's Wednesday night horror drama, has been withdrawn -- just to
see whether listeners are still faithful to it. If you want it back, write to
WMAQ. Arch Oboler writes the sketches.
________________________________
[July 31, 1937 The Hammond Times]
Radio Short Circuits
By PAUL DAMAI
SCRATCH-PAD SKETCHES
The announcer no longer says "Lights out, Everyone!" on Wednesday nights at
11:30. In fact, the whole program has vanished from the air, partly for a
vacation and partly because NBC wants to take soundings of the public desire
for its return. Complaints have been registered with us over its absence and
we publish the fact, hoping that NBC's programmers will take the hint.
People like to be frightened. There lies a morbid fascination in watching a
ghost floating in the moonlight under your castle window, if you happen to be
so fortunate as to be supplied with a floating ghost or a castle window.
"Lights Out" was a program designed to satiate this desire in humanity. In
this region, at least, it had become a ritual to band together in collectively
geared Lights Out parties and listen to the half hour in trembling awe.
We never listened to it unless we had to, because weird themes find a soft and
clinging bed in our impressionable mind, and we don't particularly care to
invite nightmares to a command performance in our bedroom. Bats and black cats
aren't exactly comforting bedfellows even to our zoophilic nature, and we
absolutely draw the line when a dark mauve Gila monster begins speaking with a
Spanish accent in a deep bass voice.
________________________________
[September 25, 1937 Bismarck Tribune (Bismarck, North Dakota)]
'LIGHTS OUT' WILL BE BACK SEPT. 29
Scores of Petitions from Radio Fans Brings About Resumption of Ghost Program
Scores of petitions, bearing from five to 50 signatures, and hundreds of
letters from individual listeners, have resurrected the horror drama program,
"Lights Out," for the second time in its three year history.
After an absence of two months the program will return to the NBC-KFYR network
at 11:30 p.m. (CST), Wednesday, Sept. 29, and will be heard weekly thereafter.
"Lights Out," which first went on the air in 1934, was discontinued for a few
weeks in 1935, but had to be brought back because of the clamor set up by its
hardy, ghost story loving audience. And again during the past summer when it
was cancelled, listeners proved loyal as ever and vehemently demanded its
return, with the result that it is now being reinstated.
"Glacier Woman," a weird story of Russian Polar explorers, will be broadcast
Sept. 29. In this production, Author Arch Oboler uses the flashback device. As
the script opens, one of the explorers is on trial for treason; then the
action flashes back to events on a Polar glacier. Oboler heightens the
dramatic intensity by using the old "Lights Out" trick of presenting a
dramatic monologue against a background of sound effects importing the mood of
the flashbacks.
Oboler, youthful Chicago writer, is one of the best-known and one of the most
prolific of all radio authors. He has written "Lights Out" programs since June
1936, and has been author of many plays and playlets on Campana's First
Nighter, Grand Hotel and Rudy Vallee broadcasts. The Irene Rich dramatic
series, also on NBC, is from Oboler's pen.
________________________________
[October 10, 1937 Lima News]
Irene Rich will play the role of a young girl who suddenly finds the peace and
quiet of the North Woods area alive with excitement in "Fugitive," her vehicle
for Sunday, at 9:45 p. m., over WJZ radio, [...?] the only connection with the
outside world warns of an escaped prisoner in the vicinity.
A breathless and insistent young man who suddenly appears out of the night
brings events to a stirring climax. Henry Hunter will enact the young man in
the drama which was written by Arch Oboler.
________________________________
[October 20, 1937 (Uniontown, PA) Daily News Standard]
Those of you radio fans who enjoy a good ghost story, or thrilling yarn along
with your midnight cakes and coffee will have a dandy time shivering and
shaking tonight at one-half hour past midnight when NBC-WCAE present another
thrilling, super-guaranteed "Lights Out" drama. Tonight the mysteries of
mysterious Egypt will serve as a background for the horror radio sequences.
Arch Oboler, mystery author, is responsible.
________________________________
[October 29, 1937 The Hammond Times]
YDAL CLUB GIVES COSTUME PARTY
In attractive, gaudy costumes, members of the YDAL club and their guests were
a gay crowd when they arrived at the home of Miss Kathryn Dempsey in Bauer
street Wednesday evening for a Halloween party. Masks were removed after
everyone's identity had been guessed by the couples, who then enjoyed a series
of games and dances.
At 11:30 o'clock, the lights were dimmed for the "Lights Out" radio program
that was suitable entertainment for an eerie Halloween gathering.
The serving of a tempting lunch [sic] brought the party to an end.
Miss Gene Thompson of Harrison avenue will entertain the club next Wednesday.
________________________________
[November 3, 1937 Kokomo (IN) Tribune]
"Four Husbands" ... Arch Oboler's drama of a female Bluebeard ...
________________________________
[November 10, 1937 The Hammond Times]
Arch Oboler's hair-elevator tonight on Lights Out shall be "Compound Interest"
a tale of revenge.
________________________________
[November 17, 1937 Kokomo (IN) Tribune]
"Little Old Lady" will be the title of Arch Oboler's Lights Out program
tonight at 11:30. The tale of horror tells of the fantastic adventure which
overtakes two college co-eds who pay an unexpected visit to a relative of one
of the girls.
________________________________
[December 1, 1937 Appleton Post-Crescent]
"Death Pit," a drama by Arthur [sic] Oboler, will thrill listeners on the
Lights Out program over WENR at 11:30 tonight. The drama is a story of what
might have happened to a human being trapped in the La Brea tar pits in Los
Angeles 12,000 years ago.
________________________________
[December 8, 1937 Hammond Times]
Sun beings infest the earth when Arch Oboler's Lights Out takes the air
tonight ... under title, "The Flame Men."
________________________________
[December 8, 1937 Circleville (OH) Daily Herald]
"Flame Men" ... fantasy
"The Flame Men" is "Lights Out" thriller heard over NBC, Wednesday at 12:30
a. m. EST. A fantastic story of a visit to our earth by an incandescent being,
whose origin was in the torrid depths of the sun and who has entered our
atmosphere with catastrophic results to mankind, brings plenty of action to
horror-fans Wednesday evening.
________________________________
[December 8, 1937 Wisconsin State Journal]
"Studio Apartment," tale of a "Thing" brought to life.
________________________________
[December 15, 1937 Kokomo (IN) Tribune]
"Studio Apartment," an Arch Oboler thriller laid in the home of an
internationally known sculptor, will be the Lights Out drama for tonight at
11:30.
________________________________
[NBC publicity for the December 22, 1937 episode. A rebroadcast of Wyllis
Cooper's "Three Men" script aired on that date instead.]
Arch Oboler, noted melodramatist of the air waves, enters the realm of the
thought-provokers this week with a new play called "Uninhabited"... Herein Mr.
Oboler deigns to suggest what would happen if all the war-minded dictators,
munitions makers and international profiteers were congregated on a small
island in the South Pacific and allowed to work out their own profit-seeking
destinies.
________________________________
[December 29, 1937 Kokomo (IN) Tribune]
A visit into a dimension beyond our own will be taken by listeners to "The
Dark," Arch Oboler's drama for presentation on Lights Out at 11:30 o'clock
tonight.
________________________________
[January 26, 1938 Appleton Post-Crescent]
"Oxychloride X," a story of the world catastrophe which takes place when a
chemist concocts a destructive substance which eats away steel and glass, will
be heard on Lights Out program ...
________________________________
[February 2, 1938 Appleton Post-Crescent]
"Front", a ghost story by Arch Oboler concerning the strange events which will
take place when supernatural forces take over a suite in a world famous hotel,
will be dramatized on Lights Out ...
________________________________
[February 2, 1938 Hammond Times]
The bombing of a radio station by a maniac is the theme of Lights Out tonight,
11:30 WMAQ ...... say-yy-y! That's an idea! After all, we're getting tired of
Bei Mir Bistu Shein ennyho. [sic, refers to hit pop song "Bei Mir Bist Du
Schoen"] ...
________________________________
[February 2, 1938 Kokomo (IN) Tribune]
"Death Letter," an original thriller written for radio, will be the Lights Out
drama tonight at 11:30. The story is woven about a detective and a girl owner
of a radio station who become the targets for attacks by a maniac. The madman
bombs the radio station and the girl and man come back from death to frustrate
further outrages on the part of the bomber.
________________________________
[February 9, 1938 Hammond Times]
"Screen Test" is the Lights Out drama tonight. A screen idol and seven
mysterious old ladies meet in a haunted room of a strange, out-of-the way
hotel ... and the screen idol has quite a time, let me tell you kid.
________________________________
[February 9, 1938 Appleton Post-Crescent]
... "Screen Test", another play by Arch Oboler, will be presented on [the]
"Lights Out" program at 11:30 over WMAQ and WTMJ. It is a story concerning the
unbelievable events which take place in a Hollywood studio during the filming
of a super-special production. ...
________________________________
[February 16, 1938 Appleton Post-Crescent]
"Murder Castle", an Arch Oboler drama, based on the story of the "Holmes
Murder Castle" in Chicago will be heard on Lights Out program ... "The Castle"
is the scene of 27 murders before the criminal is eventually captured and
hanged.
________________________________
[February 23, 1938 Appleton Post-Crescent]
... "Ogre Wall," a new play by Arch Obeler, [sic] will be heard on [the]
"Lights Out" program at 11:30 over WMAQ and WTMJ. It is a story of the
attempts by two adventurers to climb the famous "Sigerwand", a great mountain
wall in the Alps that has never been conquered. ...
________________________________
[March 2, 1938 Chicago Tribune]
Here's an item that will make you Lights Out fans shudder for weeks to come.
Boris Karloff, who specializes in horror rôles in pictures, is coming here
March 23 and will remain for five weeks to be the headliner on this macabre
Wednesday night show on NBC. Arch Oboler, who arranged with Karloff to do the
guest appearances, will write a group of plays specially suited to his
talents.
He will be supported by Betty Winkler, Betty Caine, Helen Behmiller, Harold
Peary, Phil Lord, Macdonald Carey, Arthur Kohl, and others. G. P. Hughes
directs the show and Bill Joyce handles those awful sound effects.
________________________________
[March 2, 1938 Appleton Post-Crescent]
Arch Oboler's play, "Mother-In-Law," will be dramatized on "Lights Out"
program at 11:30 over WMAQ and WTMJ. The story gives some ideas on how to
remove unwelcome visitors from the home.
________________________________
[March 2, 1938 San Antonio (TX) Light]
Arch Oboler's Lights Out drama, "Mother-in-Law," deals with the thoughts of a
murderess about to commit suicide to escape her conscience—this on N. B. C.,
but not locally, at 11:30 o'clock tonight.
________________________________
[March 13, 1938 Kansas City Star]
KARLOFF IN LIGHTS OUT
SCREEN ACTOR TO PLAY IN HORROR DRAMA FOR FIVE WEEKS.
Arch Oboler, Author of the Show, Will Write Five Special Programs for
"Frankenstein."
Boris Karloff, famous horror actor of the screen, is going on the air in
radio's most famous horror dramatic series, Lights Out.
His first appearance on the program will be on the broadcast of Wednesday,
March 23 at 11:30 o'clock over WDAF and the red network.
His contract calls for his appearance on five of the Wednesday night Light Out
programs.
For Karloff, Arch Oboler, Lights Out author, is writing five original radio
melodramas, each designed to bring out the special talents of the noted actor.
Karloff. whose most famous role in the movies was that of "Frankenstein's
Monster," will broadcast from the Chicago studios.
Light Out recently marked its fourth anniversary on the air. A hit from its
beginning, it has increased in popularity until it is now one of the most
widely followed programs on the air. Once the program was dropped to make way
for another show. So insistent were the demands for its return that soon it
was back.
The technique of directing the program which has prevailed throughout its life
will not be changed. G. P. Hughes, director of the program, will rehearse the
cast in a darkened studio with shaded stand lamps providing enough light for
the actors at the microphone.
A recent audience poll of Lights Out brought thousands of letters from
listeners. Among the writers were astronomers from the Mt. Wilson Observatory,
faculty members of the universities as far apart, geographically, as Harvard
and the University of Texas; students, clerks and businessmen.
Karloff never misses a Lights Out broadcast if he can help it.
"I always have been interested in plays that deal in the supernatural," the
actor said in speaking of the program. "I am glad that my screen schedule
permits me to join the Lights Out cast for these five programs."
________________________________
[March 14, 1938 Logansport (IN) Pharos-Tribune]
The struggle of two men to vanquish remorse forms the theme of "Super
Feature," the Lights Out thriller for Wednesday, March 16, at 11:30 p. m.
(CST) over the NBC-Red network. The story, written by Arch Oboler, dramatizes
the climax in the life of a ruthless killer and his ignorant, helpless dupe.
________________________________
[March 16, 1938 The Lowell Sun]
Boris Karloff, who will star in a series of five "Lights Out" dramas over the
NBC Red network starting March 23, will leave Hollywood this week with Arch
Oboler, writer of the series. They will pick up Betty Winkler, feminine lead
opposite Karloff, in Wickenburg, Arizona, where she has been vacationing, and
will rehearse the opening show en route to Chicago from where the programs
will originate.
________________________________
[March 16, 1938 Hammond Times radio column]
... WWAE Program Director Del Obert sez: Watch out for our Saturday night
Jamboree at 11, followed by Adela Kay's Chamber of Horrors at 11:45. The
latter is better than Lights Out, but then who am I to say? Mlle. Mimi Kay is
basing her intimidations on the Wax Crimes she saw in Mme. Tussaud's as a
chee-yild. ...
________________________________
[March 22, 1938 Oshkosh Northwestern - syndicated Radio Around the Clock
column by C. E. Butterfield]
Boris Karloff, who by his screen roles has gained the title of "horror man" of
the movies, now is to become the "eerie man" of the radio. Starting Wednesday
night he is to make a series of appearances in the late-hour Lights Out
broadcast of WEAF-NBC at 11:30.
To start things off Karloff will do a revival of "Cat Wife," a favorite horror
drama of the Lights Out listeners. It seems they wrote in and wanted him to do
the piece, as full of shivers as anything that Lights Out has presented.
________________________________
[March 23, 1938 Fresno (CA) Bee]
Boris Karloff Headlines New KMJ Broadcast ...
Boris Karloff, famous for his portrayal of so-called "horror" roles in motion
pictures, will make his debut tonight in a new series of Lights Out dramas,
which will be heard over KMJ, The Fresno Bee Radio, between 10:30 and 12 P. M.
The Lights Out series, which has been on the air in the East for a long
period, has won the distinction of being radio's most famous series of this
type of dramatic production, and Karloff was engaged for a special series of
five productions which will be broadcast over the coast to coast Red Network
of NBC.
Karloff's first vehicle is The Dream. It was written by Arch Obeler, [sic]
radio playwright, who also is the author of the other plays be offered in the
series.
Obeler has included in this play many of the unusual techniques developed in
connection with the Lights Out programs.
Karloff portrays a murderer awaiting the verdict of the jury before which he
has just been tried. What takes place in his mind comprises most of the drama.
Mercedes McCambridge has been substituted in the chief feminine role for Betty
Winkler, who was originally announced as the female star. Others of the NBC
staff who will he in the supporting cast are Templeton Fox, Arthur Peterson,
Raymond Johnson and Bob Gilbert.
The series will be presented each Wednesday at the same hour.
________________________________
[March 23, 1938 Lima News]
... Horror Drama Will Be Repeated With Karloff
... As the result of a flood of requests for the revival of "Cat Wife," a
horror drama heard before on the Lights Out program, this play will be the
vehicle for Boris Karloff, "horror" actor of the films, when he makes the
first of five appearances on the popular NBC melodrama on Wednesday night,
March 23, at 12:30 a. m. EST, over the NBC-Red Network.
"Cat Wife," the tale of a neurotic wife, was one of the most popular plays
ever offered on the program, and for months listeners have been writing in to
ask that it be repeated.
For the other four broadcasts in which Karloff will star, Arch Oboler is
writing original radio plays.
Karloff, most noted for his portrayal of the monster in the film,
"Frankenstein," will arrive in Chicago on Sunday, March 20, to start
rehearsals for his first Lights Out broadcast. ...
________________________________
[March 30, 1938 Fresno (CA) Bee]
... Another feature on the air over KMJ tonight is the second appearance of
Boris Karloff in the "horror" drama series entitled Lights Out.
On the air at 10:30 P. M., Karloff will appear in the role of an Englishman
unjustly imprisoned for life on Devils Island. His suffering and attempts to
escape to wreak vengeance on the person responsible for his imprisonment form
the subject matter for the drama.
The subject of the drama, Valse Triste, also will be used as theme music on
this occasion, one of the few in which music is heard during these programs.
This story, like the first of the series, was especially written for Lights
Out by Arch Obeler. [sic]
________________________________
[April 2, 1938 The Lowell Sun]
A beautiful old cameo adorns the neck of Betty Winkler, "Lights Out" star.
It's a gift of an admirer in Pennsylvania who recently died. The woman, who
was 90, had been a faithful listener to all of Betty's broadcasts and in her
will she dictated that the cameo--more than a century old--be sent to her
favorite radio actress.
________________________________
[April 6, 1938 Winnipeg Free Press - You Will Hear ...]
. . . Cat Wife, the story of a neurotic wife, as the third Lights Out vehicle
for Boris Korloff, famed horror actor of the screen, when it is presented over
the NBC-Red network at 11.30 p.m. (WENR). Karloff believes the play, which is
being revived at the request of thousands of Lights Out listeners, is one of
Oboler's best.
________________________________
[April 13, 1938 Fresno (CA) Bee]
The haunting memory of a girl he sent to her death will be told in tonight's
Lights Out drama staring Boris Karloff, with Mercedes McCambridge in the role
of the girl.
The girl returns to haunt Karloff in the flame on his match and of his
fireplace, and the way in which the flames of three matches serve to revenge
the wrong committed by the star gives the tale its title of Three Matches.
________________________________
[April 13, 1938 Kokomo (IN) Tribune]
The flaming souls of three matches will reach out horrid fingers to exert a
just revenge on Boris Karloff in the "Three Matches" horror drama to be
presented in the Lights Out broadcast at 11:30.
________________________________
[April 20, 1938 Appleton Post-Crescent]
"Night On the Mountain," starring Boris Karloff will be heard on Lights Out
program at 11:30 tonight over WMAQ and WTMJ. The story was inspired by
Moussorgsky's composition, "Night On Bald Mountain."
________________________________
[April 20, 1938 Fresno (CA) Bee]
Karloff Closes As Star Of Air Dramatic Series
Fifth Drama Is Based Upon Musical Composition By Moussourgsky
The final appearance of Boris Karloff, star of the stage and screen, in the
leading role in the radio series of "horror" dramas, written by Arch Obeler,
[sic] will be one of the outstanding features of tonight's broadcasts by KMJ,
The Fresno Bee Radio.
The play, Night On The Mountain, opening at 10:30 P .M., was inspired by the
weird musical composition by Moussourgsky titled Night On Bald Mountain.
Karloff assisted Obeler in preparing the script, which tells the story of a
condemned murderer who escapes from the death cell an hour before the
appointed time for his execution.
The play also climaxes two years of effort by Obeler to write a Lights Out
thriller in harmony with the music, which he achieved after calling upon
Karloff for assistance.
________________________________
[April 23, 1938 The Bismarck Tribune]
Arch Oboler, Author of 'Lights Out' Can't Just Sit Down and Write Story
CREATOR OF HORROR SERIES MUST HAVE DAYS FOR THINKING
Abandons Typewriter in Favor of Dictaphone So That Dialogue Will Be Better
WRITES FOR VARIOUS TYPES
Has Prepared Work for Walter Huston, Rudy Vallee and Irene Rich, Among Others
Chicago, Apr 23 "Plots aren't to hard to find. It's the dressing of the plots
that takes thought and time."
Arch Oboler, author of the "Lights Out" thrillers in which Boris Karloff,
famed "horror" actor of the screen, is now starring, waves his hand and
dismisses the inquiry. Oboler is in Chicago at present writing the vehicles
through which Karloff brings spinal shivers to listeners each Wednesday night
at 11:30 p m (CST).
"Perhaps I'm Different"
"No," the author continues, "it's not the plots that are so hard. They seem to
come easy. But it takes a lot of work to get them all built up.
"Perhaps I am different from many writers" he explains. "You see, I can't
write with my finger tips. That is I can't just sit down and bat out a story.
I have to have it all built in my head first.
"Weeks before I write a play I begin to think about it. Often folks think I am
a loafer, because I just wander around picking up a magazine, then dropping it
without even looking through it, sitting, walking, watching people pass by.
But all that time the story is building.
"For 'Lights Out' I can often outline a dozen stories in advance. But I
couldn't just sit down and write them the moment the outline is done.
"Another belief of mine is that working on a typewriter makes me try to be
literary at the expense of my dialogue. So I use a dictaphone. Once the story
is complete in my mind I sit down and dictate it. Then a stenographer
transcribes it and I read it over. Sometimes it sounds so bad I just throw it
away and start all over again.
Writes Various Types
"It's all part of the game. But don't let anyone tell you writing isn't hard
work. If I wrote just one type of thing, maybe it would be easier. But the
thrillers for 'Lights Out' are just one type. I have written dozens of other
things. I have supplied scripts for Rudy Vallee and I wrote an Abraham Lincoln
play for Walter Huston. Then I have done lots of 'boy meets girl' pieces for
Irene Rich.
"When I start on a piece I get my mind set for the type of thing I Intend to
do. Then I plan it, get it all straight and write it sounds easy, doesn't it.
But just that takes days sometimes."
Oboler intends to return to Hollywood when Karloff's present contract for
"Lights Out" is completed.
________________________________
[April 27, 1938 Appleton Post-Crescent]
"They Died" is the title of tonight's "Lights Out" thiller at 10:30 over WMAQ
and WTMJ. It is the story of a young couple pursued by a strange malignant
spirit.
________________________________
[May 4, 1938 Winnipeg Free Press - You Will Hear ...]
... Devil's Island, as the Arch Oboler play to be presented on the Lights Out
programme, at 10.30 p.m. (NBC-CKY) on the initial Canadian broadcast. The play
is built around the theory that if there is no justice in life there may be
justice in death. The locale of the drama will be the French penal colony in
French Guiana. The story will deal with the fate of an English prisoner who
unjustly has been sentenced to the living death of the notorious prison. The
story is based upon a true incident which occurred in the early part of the
20th century.
________________________________
[May 8, 1938 Helena Daily Independent]
Q. How is the sound of an electrocution made in the Boris Karloff Lights Out
program?
A. Radio Guide says that the electrocution of a criminal in the Karloff dramas
is achieved by radio technicians with a frying pan of bacon sizzling on an
electric grill plus the sound of flying sparks obtained from an ordinary
telegraph key and dry-cell battery.
________________________________
[May 11, 1938 Kokomo (IN) Tribune]
The horrors of the labyrinths of the sewers of Paris will form the basis for
the thrills in Arch Oboler's "It Happened" on the Lights Out program at 10:30
this evening.
________________________________
[May 13, 1938 Appleton Post Crescent - Post Mortem column by "jonah-the-
coroner"]
... One of the more painful things about daylight saving time is the fact that
the "Lights Out" program (of super-collossal horrors) now comes on at ten
thirty, standard time, thereby giving more of us a chance to get all built up
for a dandy nightmare.
I often wonder whether Arch Obeler, [sic] author of these pieces, has much
trouble sleeping.
At any rate, do not let your youngsters hear these blood curdlers, even if
your offspring stay up that late.
________________________________
[May 18, 1938 Winnipeg Free Press - You Will Hear ...]
... Good, Bad, Indifferent, Arch Oboler's weird drama of the amazing events
which take place at an English house party, presented on the Lights Out
programme at 10.30 p.m. (NBC-CKY). The plot is based on a local superstition
that at a certain time of the year three persons die -- one good, one bad and
one indifferent. The dramatization of the deaths, unearthly in their
relationship to the superstition, will be heard from the NBC Chicago studios.
________________________________
[May 25, 1938 Circleville (OH) Herald]
Mrs. Crazy . . . thriller
"Lights Out"—NBC, 11:30 p. m.
Wednesday night's thriller by Arch Oboler is the story of the strange revenge
an insane woman takes upon her accusers. The story is based upon an element of
truth, in that a similar incident did take place at a well-known state
institution [for the insane].
________________________________
[June 1, 1938 Winnipeg Free Press - You Will Hear ...]
... Scoop, a newspaper drama to end all newspaper dramas, as the latest Arch
Oboler thriller booked for the Lights Out broadcast, at 10.30 p.m. (NBC-CKY).
Highlighting the programme, which is replete with horror, will be the sound of
a strange newspaper sheet -- printed, according to the script, on human skin.
________________________________
[June 4, 1938 Bismarck Tribune]
... Ken Robinson, continuity editor of the NBC Central Division, ... sees
approximately 2,000 amateur radio scripts every year and listens to as many
ideas verbally presented. ...
... Chicago is the point of origin for a number of top-ranking scripts by
writers who learned to write for radio after specializing in something else.
For instance, Fibber McGee and Molly is written by a former cartoonist, Don
Quinn; the Woman in White and the Guiding Light are written by Irna Phillips,
one-time elocution teacher; the story of Mary Marlin is the brainchild of Jane
Crusinberry, once a singer; Girl Alone is the mental product of Fayette Krum,
ex-newspaper reporter; Lights Out is the work of Arch Oboler, erstwhile free
lance magazine writer. In addition to writing Dan Harding's Wife, Robinson
oversees all staff continuity prepared by his five assistants, four men and a
girl--Leslie Edgley, William Hodapp, J. L. Frazier, William Murphy and
Katherine Persons.
________________________________
[July 27, 1938 San Antonio (TX) Light]
The Light's [sic] Out drama over N. B. C. ended last Wednesday. They will be
resumed next fall. Dance music will be beard at the Lights Out spot on WOAI
at 10:30 tonight.
________________________________
[October 5, 1938 The (Connellsville, PA) Daily Courier]
... The scheduled fall premiere of "Lights Out" has been cancelled. ...
________________________________
[October 19, 1938 Nebraska State Journal]
... Lights Out returns with new series of horror and mystery plays.
________________________________
[NBC publicity for the December 21, 1938 episode, a rebroadcast of Wyllis
Cooper's "Three Men" script.]
... a story of reincarnation, which has become a LIGHTS OUT Christmas
tradition. The play deals with the strange experience of three officers, a
Frenchman, an Australian and an American...
________________________________
________________________________
[February 14, 1939 Logansport (IN) Pharos-Tribune]
"Jerico", an original radio drama by Katherine Persons, will be presented on
the Lights Out program, Wednesday, February 15, at 11:30 p. m. CST over the
NBC-Red network. The play, directed by Gordon T. Hughes, tells what happens
when a thief robs an inventor of a disintegrator which he had hoped would be a
boon to mankind.
________________________________
[March 25, 1939 Lima News]
Boris Karloff, Frankenstein monster of the screen, was the inspiration for
"The Ugliest Man in the World," premiere production of Arch Oboler's Plays,
new series of original dramas of the fantastic and of the imagination to be
produced by NBC.
The play will be broadcast over WEAF Saturday at 10 p. m.
Two years ago [sic] Karloff and Oboler were drawn together in NBC's Midnight
thrillers, "Lights Out." Karloff was starring in the spine-tingling
productions and Oboler was then writing them. One day the two sat down at
lunch and discussed the many distorted-faced characters Karloff had portrayed
on the screen.
"That was the beginning of 'The Ugliest Man in the World'," Oboler explained.
"But don't misunderstand me. Boris himself is one of the handsomest men in the
world in a virile way, but these ugly monster roles set me thinking. What
would happen to the man who was so ugly that children would scream in fright
when they saw him, who was such a shocking spectacle that even his mother's
life became unbearably unhappy? How would such a man react to people and to
love? What childhood would he have?" ...
________________________________
[March 29, 1939 Hammond Times - syndicated column Radio Short Circuits by Paul
K. Damai]
ARCH OBOLER PLAYS (Sat 9 pm WCFL) Oboler is overrated -- or at least thus run
our sentiments. Occasionally he socks the carillon but even when he clicks his
writings have a monotony. A demi-moribund air pervades too thickly not only
the confines of his whole works but hangs heavy in the subdivisions comprising
the individual MSS. Such lack of versatility earns criticism.
The first in this new series "The Ugliest Man In The World," was one of
Oboler's better efforts. Not only that, it had a happy ending, which is
surprising for a psychological study where a suicide seemed to be the only
hackneyed but expected solution. Not romantic, but psychological said Author
Arch after the play, describing the aims and modus operandi of the series.
Oboler betrayed an excellent mike delivery, and displayed that which gave us a
vague notion that here might be better actor than playwright.
The series is of a very high type and decidedly an addition to the enrichment
of the air if the present form is maintained.
Oboler's Play for this week is "The Mirage," a drama with only two characters.
... these will be enacted by Joan Blaine (Mary Marlin) and Raymond Johnson
(who played to the hilt last Saturday's "Ugliest Man").
________________________________
[April 25, 1939 Logansport Pharos-Tribune]
"Lights Out everybody!" Those shivery words, dripping with portentious
possibilities for every Lights Out melodrama fan, will be uttered before a
studio audience for the first time [sic] in five years when "The Devil's Due"
is presented on the fifth anniversary of the unique program at 11:30 p. m.,
CST, Wednesday, April 26, over the NBC-Red network.
________________________________
[April 26, 1939 The (Madison, WI) Capital Times]
LIGHTS OUT ANNIVERSARY
Another headline attraction for WIBA listeners will be the special "Lights
Out" drama to he presented tonight at 11:30 on the fifth anniversary of this
popular ghost-hour series.
June Travis, glamour girl who deserted the movies for radio, will make her
debut in a feature role as the only girl in a cast of seven actors in "The
Devil's Due," an original drama. Miss Travis is the daughter of Harry
Grabiner, vice president of the Chicago While Sox.
Arthur Kohl will be heard as His Satanic Majesty, and others in the cast are
Sidney Ellstrom, Cliff Soubier, Robert Griffin, Phil Lord and Pat Murphy.
________________________________
[April 29, 1939 Lima News]
... Because Arch Oboler considers her to be one of the most talented young
actresses in radio, Betty Winkler, of the National Broadcasting Co.'s Chicago
division, will make a special trip to New York to play the lead in Oboler's
"The Last Man," which is to be heard over WEAF Saturday, at 10 p. m.
Oboler wrote "The Last Man" some months ago but refused to broadcast it until
Miss Winkler could arrange to make the trip east. Betty played a number of
important roles when Oboler was writing the 'Lights Out' series in Chicago and
since then he has been highly enthusiastic about her talents. ...
________________________________
[May 13, 1939 Lima News]
Ireene Wicker, who has won world-wide recognition and many awards during the
nine years she has been presenting children's programs over National
Broadcasting Co. networks, will be starred in a highly dramatic adult role in
"Baby," Arch Oboler's play to be presented on WEAF Saturday at 9:00 p. m.
The story, which Oboler considers one of his best, will be told in the
author's striking stream-of-consciousness style. The star is to be supported
by Vicki Vola and Charlotte Munson, young NBC actress, and her ability as a
singer will be taken advantage of thru an original musical score written by
Jerry Moross, composer of such well known symphonies as "American Patterns"
and "Tall Story."
________________________________
[May 20, 1939 Lima News]
"Crazytown," a stinging indictment of the present anarchic state of world
affairs, will be presented by Arch Oboler over WEAF Saturday at 9 p. m. The
contemporary fantasy is to star Edmund O'Brien, who scored a success this
season as Prince Hal in Maurice Evans' Broadway production of "Henry IV."
Charlotte Manson, young and talented NBC actress, will have the leading
feminine role.
The story tells of two young aviators who make a forced landing in unknown
territory while returning from a successful bombing expedition against
civilians of a defenseless enemy city. They soon find they have cracked up in
Crazytown, a place where individual moral values have become us topsy-turvy as
are international moral values in the outside world. Hate, envy and suspicion
are cardinal virtues; pity, love and honor are considered unforgivable sins,
while murder is the only logical way of settling a quarrel.
________________________________
[May 27, 1939 Lima News]
The reactions of a young honeymoon couple who come down from the eminence of
the Empire State Tower to find themselves the only ones in the world will be
revealed by Arch Oboler when he presents the next drama in his current series
over WEAF Saturday, from 9 to 9:30 p. m. For this week only the program will
originate in Chicago.
Titled "The Word," the original play carries on the Oboler tradition of stark
realistic drama enhanced by sound effects. Altho the characters move in an
imaginary and impossible situation, they behave as normal human beings.
________________________________
[May 27, 1939 Oshkosh Daily Northwestern]
... Arch Oboler's Plays. "The Word," the story of a woman obsessed by the
desire to know the meaning of death, will be tonight's play. This play was
originally scheduled for last week. ...
________________________________
[June 17, 1939 Lima News]
Edmund O'Brien, who played the tempestuous Prince Hal in Maurice Evans'
Broadway production of "Henry IV" last, season, and who had the part of the
overbearing young aviator in Arch Oboler's "Crazytown" on May 20, will he
starred in "The Immortal Gentlemen," Oboler's 13th production, to he presented
over WEAF Saturday, at 8:30 p. m.
The story was inspired by a line from Walt Whitman's "Reconciliation" and
deals with a youth who is so obsessed with the idea of death that he has no
time really to live. Projected by accident into a brave new world far in the
future where medical science has made immortality a reality, the hero
discovers the wonders, dangers and even horrors of such a condition.
________________________________
[June 18, 1939 Hammond Times - Radio Short Circuits column by Richard Murray]
... "It's unfortunate that I must always be associated with great globs of
blood," chuckled Orson [Welles] when Rosemary Wayne, WJJD's movie reporter
with whom we shared the interview, asked him if he had ever written Lights
Out. He comforted Miss Wayne by telling her that many people had the same
mistaken impression, probably because he played the Shadow on Mutual at one
time. ...
________________________________
[June 23, 1939 Lima News item about Arch Oboler's Plays]
Due to the fact that the dramatic series has changed time and is now heard on
the West Coast before youngsters retire, Arch Oboler will tone down the chills
and horror in his weekly offerings.
________________________________
[June 24, 1939 Lima News]
Raymond Edward Johnson and Betty Caine, NBC artists who have been heard
frequently in Arch Oboler's plays, will be co-starred in "The Luck of Mark
Street" which Oboler is to present over WEAF Saturday at 8:30 p. m. This drama
is a tragedy which shows how the inescapable consciousness of guilt haunts a
criminal until his eventual undoing. The plot was suggested by the old proverb
which runs: "Nothing is more common than for great thieves to ride in triumph
when small ones are punished. But let wickedness escape as it may, at the last
it never fails of doing itself justice; for every guilty person is his own
hangman." As interpreted by Oboler the proverb has considerable contemporary
significance.
________________________________
[June 28, 1939 Hammond Times - Radio Short Circuits column by Richard Murray]
... If the [Joe Louis-Tony Galento] fight isn't gory enough for you, Lights
Out is bound to please because tonight they bring you the bloodiest work of
their brand new script writing discovery, William Shakespeare. "Macbeth" is
but the first of a new series of adaptations of the great bard's plays. I grow
pale and ponder over the fate of "Romeo and Juliet." (WMAQ, 11:30) ...
________________________________
[July 22, 1939 Lima News]
Favorite Oboler Drama To Be Presented on Saturday
Repeat Performance By Popular Request ...
"The Ugliest Man in the World," which inaugurated Arch Oboler's present series
of plays [and] was, in fact, largely responsible for his having a series in
the first place, will be repeated by popular request over WEAF Saturday at
9:30 p. m.
Raymond Edward Johnson, who has scored repeated personal successes in Oboler's
dramas, will have the title role which he created during the first
presentation on March 25. The supporting cast includes Betty Caine and Ann
Shepherd, stage and radio actresses, who also have been heard repeatedly on
this series.
Boris Karloff, Frankenstein monster of the screen, was Oboler's inspiration
for "The Ugliest Man in the World." Two years ago Karloff and Oboler were
drawn together in NBC's midnight "Lights Out" thrillers. Karloff was starring
in the spine-tinglers which Oboler was then writing. One day the two sat down
at lunch and discussed the many hideous characters Karloff had portrayed on
the screen. ...
________________________________
[July 26, 1939 The (Madison, WI) Capital Times]
ANOTHER Lights Out thriller ...
How a self-made, wealthy broker, driven insane by the snubs of society
leaders, gains revenge on five of those who refused to recognize him, is the
theme of the Lights Out drama, "The Giggler," to be heard on WIBA at 10:30
tonight.
Possessed of a knowledge of surgery, the fanatic changes the characteristics
of five persons. The story was written by Bill Fifield, who authoredthe recent
adaptation of "Macbeth."
________________________________
[August 19, 1939 Lima News]
"Efficiency Age" Effects To Be Studied In Oboler Drama
Betty Caine Will Carry Entire Burden Of Plot At 8:30 p. m. Broadcast On
Saturday
Betty Caine, who has been co-starred with her husband, Raymond Edward Johnson,
in such striking Arch Oboler dramas as "The Ugliest Man in the World" and "The
Luck of Mark Street," will carry the entire burden of a plot for the first
time when she has the lead in "Efficiency Island" over WEAF Saturday at 8:30
p. m.
This eerie tale is laid in the future when straight-line factory methods of
production have reached perfection and workmen, chained for generations to the
machine by their pay checks, seem to have lost the will to fight for better
working conditions.
The problem of what the assembly line will do to humanity in the long run has
vexed economists and sociologists since the start of the industrial era. It
will be given a a new and surprising twist by the young author-producer.
Miss Caine, who met her husband in Chicago at a rehearsal for one of Oboler's
early "Lights Out" thrillers, came to New York several months ago and since
has been heard frequently over NBC. A slim, dark-haired girl, she is equally
at home in character and in straight roles.
Oboler thinks she is one of the most talented members of the select group of
players from which he casts his dramas--and she thinks he's the best producer
in radio. When not playing a leading part in one of his productions she can
usually be found doing a bit role or just sitting in the studio studying his
technique.
________________________________
[September 2, 1939 Fresno Bee]
Lew Danis a young Italian actor, will make his initial appearance in a network
radio drama when he plays the leading role in a play by Arch Oboler at 5.30
o'clock this evening. The play is entitled Love Story.
Two other plays by Oboler, The Valley, laid in the far West, and Mungahara, a
tale of the wild bush country of Australia, also will be presented.
________________________________
[September 9, 1939 The Lima News]
50,000 Year Old Setting To Be Used In Drama Saturday
Oboler Play To Pose Problem Of Parenthood; ...
Three moderns — American, French, and English — who find themselves whirled
50,000 years thru time and two cavemen are the characters in Arch Oboler's
play, "And Adam Begot," which will be presented over WEAF Saturday, from 8:30
to 9:00 p.
The drama, presenting contemporary characters moving against a background of
Neanderthal men, poses a question old as time itself — that of parenthood.
Oboler's fantasy will show that parenthood is neither a duty nor an
obligation, but a rare privilege which is abused much too often. It also shows
the unending struggle between brute force and ethics.
The young dramatist expects to face his biggest casting problem in filling the
roles of the two Neanderthal men which he has written into "And Adam Begot."
He wants a voice, he explains, which will instantly suggest a cave-man to the
radio listener. With that in mind, he conducted a survey of what people expect
in a Neanderthal voice.
"A cross-section of the answers," Oboler says, "suggests a bass-voiced
prizefighter, talking double talk with his mouth full of hot potatoes."
________________________________
[September 17, 1939 Port Arthur News - New York Reporter column by Jack Sher
in Screen & Radio Weekly]
Arch Oboler gave a party atop Radio City for Alla Nazimova. Most of the
attention was centered on Oboler's pretty, childish-looking, blond wife. She
came garbed in a bright colored peasant's costume, her hair in pigtails. She
looked about 14. Everyone remarked about this, but Arch explained that it was
sort of an optical illusion. "Eleanor is really not as young as she looks," he
said, "and she certainly isn't a child-bride, as one old fellow in the South
thought."
Oboler met his present wife while they were both attending the University of
Chicago. They were soon married and she stuck by him loyally during a very
tough year and a half, during which he was trying to break into radio writing.
Before Oboler took to using a dictaphone, she acted as his stenographer, and
Arch claims she is the fastest and best in the country.
________________________________
[October 15, 1939 Screen & Radio Weekly - New York Reporter column by Jack
Sher]
ARCH OBOLER is going to be able to write his own ticket in Hollywood. He's had
several offers from film studios already and will be even hotter when he's
broadcasting from the Coast.
The day before Oboler left, he had to put on a radio show. Show needed last-
minute rewriting and Oboler's dictaphone was packed along with all his books
and his recording machine. Oboler tried the typewriter, then turned to
longhand to get the stuff written. Oboler is the only producer who rehearses
his cast at his apartment. He makes a record of their readings and then they
play it back and criticize it. This week they had to rehearse in the studio.
More trouble came up when the car Arch just bought in which to drive to the
Coast couldn't be delivered on time. When we left him he was frantically
trying to get a fast train to Chicago. He explained he had to get a fast train
because slow train trips make his pet horned toad very sick. And where Oboler
goes so goes the toad.
________________________________
[December 16, 1939 Fresno Bee]
Lorre Is Star Of Oboler Play
One of the highlights of broadcasts over KMJ will be the appearance of Peter
Lorre, famous as Mr. Moto of motion pictures and currently appearing in
Strange Cargo, as the star of the Arch Oboler play at 5 o'clock this evening.
The play, Nobody Died, is Oboler's is answer to the question, "What would the
elixir of youth do to our modern situation if it were suddenly made
available?"
Lorre, who is well known to both radio and motion picture audiences as well as
on the legitimate stage, made his radio debut several years ago in a play by
Oboler. Tonight he will appear as the head of the propaganda bureau of a
foreign country who is confronted unexpectedly with the wonder of a great
discovery.
________________________________
[January 6, 1940 Nebraska State Journal]
Arch Oboler's Plays; tonight's drama is a ghost story entitled "Money, Money,
Money" and starring Edmund MacDonald.
________________________________
[February 17, 1940 Lima News]
"Genghis Khan," which Arch Oboler considers the strangest story he has
written, will be presented during his series of plays over WEAF Saturday, at 8
p. m. The drama concerns a simple Harlem Negro who suddenly decides to become
dictator of the world. The plot is based on the theory that dictators of this
generation are reincarnations of ruthless power-seekers of the past.
________________________________
[February 17, 1940 Nebraska State Journal]
... Arch Oboler's Plays, presenting "Genghis Khan," a drama about a Harlem
Negro who suddenly decides to become dictator of the world. ...
________________________________
________________________________
________________________________
[March 5, 1941 Variety]
Wyllis Cooper, who scripted 'Lights Out' for three years, will tell Graham
McNamee how horror yarns are concocted for radio on 'Behind the Mike' next
Sunday (9) ...
________________________________
[June 2, 1941 Time Magazine article with photo of Cooper. The caption reads:
NBC's Cooper / This time he's serious.]
Mouths South
Month ago Merlin Hall ("Deac") Aylesworth acquired the title of DRAOCCCR-BAR,
New Deal for Director of Radio Activities in the Office for Coordination of
Commercial & Cultural Relations Between the American Republics. In plain
English: chief of the radio sector of the Hemisphere Solidarity campaign.
Deac Aylesworth's immediate job is to let as much light as possible into the
murk beclouding the average U.S. citizen's notion of life Down There; also to
see that southbound programs do not conflict, hurt anybody's feelings or
suffer from the dreary blight of what is known as "education" -- in general,
to make them make sense.
"The National Farm and Home Hour," ventured the Deacon, "would not make much
sense in Uruguay."
Meantime, while radio's pioneer ringmaster (ten years president of NBC) was
readying a comprehensive air program between the U.S. and Latin America, U.S.
broadcasters voluntarily came forth with two of their most impressive stunts
in ten years of more or less catch-as-catch-can short-waving back & forth
across the Rio Grande. Initiated by the two major networks were two series of
regular weekly half-hour shows.
CBS's Calling Pan-America (4 p.m. Saturday, E.D.S.T.) began with a broadcast
from Buenos Aires and will jump each week from Latin-American capital to
capital, featuring local talent which will be mostly musical but also
oratorical. Columbia's initial effort celebrated Argentina's 131-year-old
Independence Day. NBC for its 22 Good Neighbors shows (10:30 p.m. Thursday,
E.D.S.T.) threw in Dr. Frank Black and his 60-piece orchestra, a troop of some
20 actors and the gilt-edged intonings of Announcer Milton Cross. It will
broadcast from Manhattan with appropriate guest diplomats on duty in
Washington, and every week the program will be tailored to a different Latin-
American country.
It is safe to predict that neither program will be as sensational as the
career of Wyllis Cooper, veteran radio dramaturge who writes NBC's show. From
1933 to 1936 Radioman Cooper wrote and directed the silo-of-blood programs
called Lights Out. Late at night, so children couldn't hear them and have
their little livers scared out of them, they gushed from Chicago's WMAQ and
were beyond doubt the most goose-fleshing chiller-dillers in air history. At
each broadcast's opening a deep, dark, dank voice would instruct listeners to
put their lights out and settle back in their chairs, whereupon gore would
commence to flow, bones to snap, screams and groans to rowel the air.
Lights Out was a sound-effect's man's paradise. On one occasion the audible
illusion of a victim's hand being smashed on an anvil had to be achieved.
Everything was tried from slapping a pork chop with a cleaver to pounding wet
paper with a hammer. At last came triumph: a lemon was laid on an anvil and
struck with a small sledge.
Another time there was the problem of the exact noise of a man being skinned
alive: pulling apart stuck-together pieces of adhesive tape was the solution.
Beheading acoustics were attained by slicing cantaloupes with a cleaver.
Fingers were scissored off by substituting pencils for fingers. Dropping a raw
egg on a plate simulated perfectly the blup of an eye-gouging. Flowing corn
syrup furnished the voop-vulp of freely flowing blood. When a mechanical giant
pulled a wretch's arm off, the leg of a cold storage chicken was pulled off
beside the mike.
There were about 600 Lights Out clubs in the U.S. when Mr. Cooper stopped
writing the show to go to Hollywood to do picture scripts. A Kansas City, Mo.
chapter whose meeting he attended had officers and by-laws and fined any
member who spoke or lit a cigaret during broadcasts.
In appearance and character Cooper belies his ghastly army of brain children.
A short roly-poly of 42, resembling nothing so much as an amiable Alexander
Woollcott on a smaller scale, he is a dutiful husband,* an ardent dog-lover,
an amiable drinker, and loved by his friends. Despite Latin-American fondness
for the sanguine (bullfights, the annually-produced slaughter melodrama Don
Juan Tenorio, the "Day of the Dead," etc.), Cooper will not in his new job
employ his Lights Out talent. "This one's in earnest," he says.
* He changed his name from Willis to Wyllis to please his wife's
numerological inclinations.
________________________________
[September 8, 1941 Charleston Gazette]
George Barnes, exponent of the amplified guitar, and Wyllis Cooper, rotund
author and racontuer, [sic] will highlight the capers of the "Chamber Music
Society of Lower Basin Street" at 8:05 p. m. "Professor" Barnes, starred on
several NBC shows from Chicago, will be piped into the "Basin Street" session
from the Windy City. It marks the first time a guest act has been picked up
outside the studios. "Dr." Cooper, author of NBC's "Lights Out" horror tales
will appear as guest intermission commentator.
________________________________
________________________________
[November 1, 1942 Washington Post]
Just when Uncle Sam is getting the citizens used to a speed limit of 35 miles
per hour, Arch Oboler comes up with a transportation idea that will make the
fastest airplane look like a dead pigeon. Be sure your easy chair is nailed
down if you plan to listen to Oboler's "Across the Gap" in the Lights Out
series Tuesday night at 8:00 p. m., over WJSV.
Even Mother Earth has nothing on the invention in this tale. The earth
carousels on its axis (pardon the pun) at a speed of more than 1000 miles per
hour. Which is not bad. But it might conceivably be bettered any year now by a
new stratoliner since at this very moment some planes are zooming at a 500-
mile clip.
To Oboler, however, that is terribly slow, practically stationary. Planes are
a thing of the past in this story. For "Across the Gap" is a flight of the
imagination into the future, especially the future of transportation.
Today, only radio and television travel with the speed of light or 186,000
miles per second. That's the speed at which Oboler wants to transport people
in Lights Out. Is it mad? Then so was Jules Verne's concept of a submarine
decades ago, or Bellamy's anticipation of what turned out to be radio. Want to
check up on Oboler? All you have to do is to live another hundred years.
________________________________
________________________________
[May 18, 1943 Long Beach Independent]
Arch Oboler Strictly A Spook Writer
Arch Oboler's many years of writing stories of the supernatural seems to have
made a permanent impression on him. The prolific author-director of KNX's
"Lights Out" series seldom gets away from the imaginative concept even in his
more serious plays, which contain many similar touches of ghosts and haunts.
________________________________
________________________________
[_Oboler Omnibus_ by Arch Oboler (Duell, Sloane & Pierce, 1945)]
Wyllis Cooper ... is the unsung pioneer of radio dramatic techniques; his was
the first mind in American radio broadcasting which sought, in a sustained
series of plays, to make use of the spoken word and the subtlety of sound
effects, not in imitation of the theatre, but with the wonderful intimacy of
approach that is unique to "blind" broadcasting.
To follow Mr. Cooper was a challenge ...
_________________