LIGHTS OUT: Radio Horror "The Phantom Meteor"

In the summer of 1942, Sterling Products bought Lights Out to replace its current series, Board of Missing Heirs, for Ironized Yeast. CBS at that time had always banned horror stories, being more stricter than NBC in that regard, but the network decided to relax their position because playwright Arch Oboler was involved. Having made a name for himself as one of the top ten playwrights on network television, his stock in trade as a "stream on consciousness" style often first person singular applied. Oboler was scripting for weekly patriotic programs and wanted to return to his favorite genre -- horror. And because Oboler was already providing scripts for Everyman's Theater over NBC for Procter & Gamble, and just signed with NBC Blue for To the President, CBS wanted to compete.

 

The Continuity Department (the official name for the censorship department) at CBS looked at a handful of the radio scripts proposed and stamped them “acceptable” before the premiere on the evening of October 6, 1942. The series was contracted with the sponsor and the network for a total of 52 weeks. Many of the radio broadcasts that exist in recorded form originate from this 1942-43 series, which is one of the reasons why the playwright has been unjustly labeled as the creator of Lights Out. 

 

Lights Out premiered over NBC Chicago in January of 1934, created and scripted by Wyllis Cooper. NBC, under a specific term in the contract, owned the program and when it was decided to take the late-night horror series coast-to-coast in 1936, Cooper lost control of his own program. A number of authors began submitting radio scripts, including Arch Oboler, who was at that time writing brief sketches for such prestigious programs as Rudy Vallee and Edgar Bergen. Cooper had no objections; he still owned the rights to his own scripts and he was being lured to Hollywood. But with Cooper leaving in 1936, new writers were necessary. Enter stage left: Arch Oboler. 

 

For Arch Oboler to broadcast a weekly primetime horror series of the same name, he had to secure permission from NBC. Executives at NBC had no objection, considering they did not want horror programs and they wanted to retain first option on Oboler for future patriotic programs. CBS was delighted to have their first weekly program written and directed by Arch Oboler, described in the trades as “experimental drama.” The price tag was a reported $1,325 a week. Arch Oboler was able to get by with that figure by not only writing and directing, but hosting as emcee and confining himself to small casts and covering the absence of any music by elaborate sound effects. For many of the episodes, the cast consisted of only two people. 

 

Oboler always felt his Lights Out series was never horror, but was instead a “psychological chiller.” Wyllis Cooper, who created the program, always described his stories as “fantasy” (with a slight touch of horror). 

Cooper’s 1934-1936 concepts, incidentally, would be expanded from the 15-minute format to 30 minutes and a number of them repeated for some of the 1936-39 national run, then recycled for use on the 1945, 1946 and 1947 summer revivals of Lights Out on NBC, then again under a new format, Quiet, Please, from 1947-1949.

 

As for Cooper's Hollywood career... that was short-lived. After arriving in Hollywood in 1937, he found work at 20^th Century Fox and Universal Studios, contributing for such classics as Think Fast, Mr. Moto (1937), Thank You, Mr. Moto (1937), Mr. Moto Takes a Chance (1938), The Phantom Creeps (1939) and Son of Frankenstein (1939). His experience with brutal last-minute re-writes at Universal for Son of Frankenstein gave Cooper sour grapes – he promptly left Hollywood after production concluded and returned to script writing for radio. (He expressed his displeasure for Universal and production of that movie very specifically, including references to Boris Karloff, in the Quiet, Please episode, "Rain on New Year's Eve.")

 

Beginning in 1946, some of his Lights Out and Quiet, Please radio scripts were adapted for television for such programs as Quiet Please: Volume One, Lights Out, and Escape.

 

Thankfully, the 1936-1939 radio scripts for the NBC national run of Lights Out was recently scanned into PDF. This allows us to enjoy such dramas as “The Blood of the Gorilla,” “Satan’s Orchid,” “Queen Cobra,” “The Legion of the Dead,” “Black Zombie” and “One Day it Rained Blood.”

Enclosed below is a link for you to download a copy of the April 19, 1939, broadcast titled “The Phantom Meteor.”

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5dj9fvsmqgbmo64/Lights%20Out%20%28April%2019%2C%201939%29%20The%20Phantom%20Meteor.pdf?dl=0

The Phil Harris and Alice Faye Digital Collection

The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show, was a comedy radio program which ran on NBC from 1948 to 1954 starring Alice Faye and Phil Harris. Harris had previously become known to radio audiences as the band-leader-turned-cast-member of the same name on The Jack Benny Program  while Faye had been a frequent guest on programs such as Rudy Vallee’s variety shows. After becoming the breakout stars of the music and comedy variety program The Fitch Bandwagon, the show was retooled into a full situation comedy, with Harris and Faye playing fictionalized versions of themselves as a working show business couple raising two daughters in a madcap home. But what few do not know is that the comic adventures were – in some aspect – based on their real-life family adventures. The season opener of 1952-1953 had the narrator open with an explanation that Phil Harris had just returned from England with his new automobile and was working on the engine in the drive-way. Turns out Harris really was in England that summer and he did buy a roadster.

 

A few years ago over 2,000 photographs were scanned from an archive containing Phil Harris and Alice Faye’s family and publicity photos, including awards and achievements. We have been digitally restoring the images for a future book project. Below, for your amusement, are a few of those photos chosen at random. (Almost random. I did select the one with the roadster so you can see what it looked like.) The photos, by the way, were the initial scan and not the digitally restored renditions.

Thelma Lou: Betty Lynn, Joi Lansing, Grant Williams, Virginia Gregg (Book Reviews)

Not a month goes by that I do not received a package at my front doorstep containing a book that the author or the publisher asked me to review. Somehow I feel obligated because they went to all the time and expense to ship it to me, and write the customized letter requesting the favor. The most recent box came from Bear Manor Media and contained four biographies about actors and actresses that are long overdue. 

GRANT WILLIAMS

By Giancarlo Stampalia

An accomplished actor in film, theater, television, and old-time radio, Grant Williams, best-known for playing the title role in The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957), gradually shrank away from the world. His film work reads like a Who’s Who of Hollywood’s Golden Years, with such famous filmmakers as director Jack Arnold, writer Richard Matheson, and producer Walt Disney. 

 

After gaining experience in theater and studying with Lee Strasberg, Grant graduated to live American television, and then to small roles in film, such as Written on the Wind (1956) and dozens of television series, such as Gunsmoke (1959), Hawaiian Eye (1960-1963), The Outer Limits (1965), Bonanza (1960-1965), and Perry Mason (1964-1965), among many others. A melancholy loner despite being surrounded by Hollywood hullabaloo, his gradual fade from films and fame left him as an enigma . . . until now. 

 

Through archival and personal documents, the author now divulges details never known by the public and dispels the myths about the man that were created by columnists of the 1950s and 1960s, such as Rual Askew, Emily Belser, Harrison Carroll, Mel Heimer, Hedda Hopper, and Bob Thomas. 

 

I recall his role in The Monolith Monsters (1957) when I grew up, not The Incredible Shrinking Man, but I do hear his name credited on Suspense and Johnny Dollar radio shows from time to time. Grant Williams may be known today only as the Incredible Shrinking Man, but his legacy now finally enlarges again through this titanic tribute to a tallest of talents. Illustrated with 122 photos, many never before seen, including portraits, candid or personal photos, behind-the-scenes photos, publicity and production stills, and frame captures from films and television shows. Bibliography, a List of Film and Television Credits, and an Index. 

 

Giancarlo Stampalia did an excellent job with this book, helping to preserve the life and career of Grant Williams, who might otherwise have fallen into obscurity by now. 

 

 

UNCREDITED: THE LIFE AND CAREER OF ACTRES VIRGINIA GREGG

By Lona Bailey

She had one of the most recognizable faces and voices in American media for over 40 years. On the Have Gun - Will Travel radio program, she was Missy Wong. On I Led Three Lives, she was a villainous Comrade of the Communist Party who kept close eyes on Herbert A. Philbrick. But her voice remains largely uncredited and it seems unlikely all of her radio work will ever be fully documented. Consider her legendary performance as the voice of "Norma Bates" from Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 classic Psycho, who provides the closing narration of the movie but is never credited on screen. 

 

In radio she was a semi-regular on classics like Dragnet, Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, and Richard Diamond, Private Detective. On television she made guest appearances on Gunsmoke and The Twilight Zone. In film she gave her most memorable performances in productions including Operation Petticoat, and Spencer's Mountain.

The character actress was well-loved by those who worked with her and I was pleased to see someone went to the trouble of documenting her career in a book.

 

GONE TOO SOON: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF RISING STAR STEVE IHNAT

By Linda Alexander

In 1967, Steve Ihnat was on top of the world in Hollywood, an actor on the precipice of true stardom. He was seen as both a heavy and a leading-man type, an actor who could fit into any role that came his way. He was making excellent money as a guest star on virtually every episodic show on television, seen on the screen most every night. Star Trek, The Virginian, The Outer Limits, and many other shows were already part of his resume. He’d branched off into movies, finding himself up against heavy-hitting superstars. Casting directors rang his phone constantly, and he never wanted for work. He was moving into writing and directing movies, and his personal life was turning the page into a deeper, more meaningful story. He was just beginning to live the life he’d always wanted for himself. 

 

Five years later, Steve Ihnat was dead. He was a man of international mystery, from the country of his birth, Czechoslovakia, to his home country, Canada, to his adopted country, the United States. His existence proved to be one of intrigue, not only in a great many of the roles he played, but in some of the underlying tones of his personal life. This was the late ‘60s and into the early 1970s. The world was in great turmoil with much change going on. Certain things were happening behind the scenes that would alter the direction of Steve Ihnat’s story, one which became a tale not even Steve could have imagined. Not even he could have written such a script if he had been trying to put together a movie with him in the starring role ... and that’s exactly what he had been doing. To this day, Steve Ihnat stars in a mystery which continues to develop.

 

Linda Alexander contacted his family and thus scored what is always essential for writing a biography: going directly to the source. She also interviewed people who worked with him. Through exclusive never-before-published photographs to exclusive recollections from colleagues, her biography about Steve Ihnat will be the quintessential book you ever need.

 

WHEN A GIRL’S BEAUTIFUL: THE LIFE AND CAREER OF JOI LANSING

By Richard Koper

Joi Lansing made a career in Hollywood at a time when being blonde and curvy was much appreciated. Although she never became as successful as Jayne Mansfield or Mamie Van Doren, let alone Marilyn Monroe, she carved out a path for herself, appearing in several iconic television shows. In the 1960s, she took a new route by becoming a singer, earning praise for her newfound talents.

 

Insecurity about her looks and talent plagued her all her life. In growing older, she did everything to stay young and beautiful. Nevertheless, Joi was also acute enough to know that it had taken more than good looks to become famous. In 1965 she stated that, “Looks are important, of course. But after the looks go, what does a girl have? What I mean is, a girl has to have more than just looks to succeed in Hollywood.” 

 

“When a Girl’s Beautiful” — The Life and Career of Joi Lansing tells the story of a vulnerable, sweet and talented woman, who gave her all to become famous and struggled to survive in the harsh world of show business. With an overview of Joi Lansing’s film and television appearances, it also contains rare pictures and many never-before-seen photographs from family albums. It’s enlivened with quotes and anecdotes of people who knew and worked with her. If you wanted to know anything about the actress, this book covers her entire life and career and is illustrated heavily with lots of photographs.

George O'Brien and The Lone Ranger Mystery

Seems I have a photograph in my archives that remains a mystery. Correctly dated 1936, cowboy actor George O'Brien posed outside the Strand Theatre, in East Los Angeles, California. The actor was playing cowboy heroes on the big screen so it seems unlikely he played the role of the famed radio masked man on stage, but rather one of his movies was being screened at the theater that week. But the mystery resolves about who played the role of The Lone Ranger on stage. Was this a performance? Was this a brief stage play? 

It is a known fact that had producer George W. Trendle, back in Detroit, learned about this, he would have thrown a fit. He was adamant about having anyone masquerade as The Lone Ranger on stage without his permission. The Lone Ranger on stage was more than likely unauthorized and slipped through the cracks without being observed by Trendle.

So... who was that masked man?