Some of the more gruesome aspects of the shows were toned down-somewhat-for network audiences.Ĭhicago was an excellent place for the program to be produced, as it was one of the main centers of radio production in the 1930’s.Īmong those appearing often during the Cooper era were Harold Peary, Betty Winkler, Mercedes McCambridge, Willard Waterman, Arthur Peterson, Betty Caine, Ed Carey, Sidney Ellstrom, Murray Forbes, Robert Griffin, Rupert LaBelle, Robert Guilbert, Philip Lord, and Raymond Edward Johnson. It was heard nationally late at night on Wednesdays. That was the same month (April, 1935) that Lights Out moved to the NBC Network after a successful tryout in New York. “I was frightened out of my wits,” she said. Newsweek reported that one listener fainted from excitement and another called police to her home after listening to the show. The aural impact of intense acting and unusual sound effects could be powerful. Sound effects at this time were created by Bob Graham, Ed Joyce, and Ed Bailey. He once had his crew build a gallows and was not satisfied until one of the sound men personally dropped through the trap. Bacon frying in a pan gave the sense of someone being electrocuted.Ĭooper was a stickler when it came to sound effects. Adhesive tape, stuck together and then pulled apart, simulated the sound of a man’s skin being ripped off, cleavered cabbages and melons became beheadings, and snapped pencils and spareribs stood in for broken bones. Sound effects were a vital part of these shows. They could be vaporized in a ladle of white-hot steel, absorbed by giant amoeba, or have an arm torn off by a robot. Characters were buried, eaten, or skinned alive. There had been some attempts at radio horror before, but nothing as outrageous and graphic. These early Lights Out scripts were often grisly. In January, 1935, Lights Out was discontinued, to ease Cooper’s workload, but popular demand had it back on the air in a few weeks. By April, the program had grown to a half hour format. The 15-minute serial format was soon dropped for an anthology which featured crime thrillers and the supernatural. ![]() The first shows were aired in January, 1934, on WENR, at midnight on Wednesdays. ![]() Cooper was NBC’s continuity chief in Chicago, and late in 1933 wanted to produce “a midnight mystery serial to catch the attention of the listener at the witching hour,” when almost all the competition was playing music. ![]() Lights Out was conceived by one of the true geniuses of radio drama, Wyllis Cooper, today best remembered for his 1947-48 thought provoking series, Quiet Please. Even today, its reputation is far larger than its total time on the air would seem to warrant. Certainly, one of them is Lights Out, which aired at various times and in different formats, on and off from 1934 to 1947. This story was published in Radio Recall, the journal of the Metropolitan Washington Old-Time Radio Club, published six times per year.Ĭlick here to return to the index of selected articles.Īmong the myriad of shows that form the history of Old Time Radio, few can be considered as truly groundbreaking.
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