{
  "title": "BURIAL SERVICE",
  "category": "[RADIO-SCRIPT]",
  "article": "Arch Oboler’s first play for Lights Out created a furor among listeners and network executives.\n“Oboler produced a radio play entitled ‘Burial Service’ which brought thousands of indignant\ntelephone calls and angry letters. Oboler’s play told of a girl, completely paralyzed, though\npossessed of all her senses, who is buried alive. Using scanty dialogue and long, suggestive\npauses, he so frightened listeners that thousands said they never wanted to hear him again.”\n[Oakland Tribune, June 10, 1936] “Herbert Hoover's speech to the convention will be broadcast\nat approximately 6 p. m. and you will be able to dial it locally over KPO and KGO.\n“A still later bulletin says Hoover's talk is to be heard on KYA and KFRC, top, and that it may\nbegin as early as 5:30. . . . Better tune in at the earlier hour to be on the safe side.”\nA Minnesota paper announced: “HERBERT HOOVER SPEAKS TONIGHT Over All Networks at\nApproximately 8:30 O'CLOCK Central Standard Time TUNE IN.”\n“His voice will go out on the air waves, just a few minutes after the family radios cease to give\nforth the voice of his arch political foe-President Roosevelt.”\n“But [Roosevelt’s] schedule called for a full day of appearances across the state, climaxed by a\nbroadcast speech at Little Rock ending only a few minutes before former President Hoover's radio\naddress from the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.”\n[Greeley Daily Tribune] “The Republican national convention tonight devoted an hour to an old\ntime welcome to Herbert Hoover. Appearance of Hoover touched off the first prolonged\ndemonstration of the convention. As he stepped onto the platform wearing his usual high collar\nand conservative dark, gray suit, the delegates let loose in a 15 minute period of shouting and\nparading.\n“Again when he finished the delegates got. out of hand. For 88 minutes they jammed the aisles\nand filled the hall with some shouts, \"We want Hoover\" and all sorts of side antics.\n“But the former president had left almost as soon as his last word was spoken and boarded a\ntrain for New York. Chairman Snell adjourned the session at 8:08 p.m. m.s.t….”\n[K. L. Ecksan, Oakland Tribune, June 12, 1936] “This is one of those occasions when a radio\neditor feels like pouring out a few vials of wrath. So bear with me while I spill at least a thimbleful\nof vitriol in a deserved direction.\nDid you listen to that grisly ‘Lights Out’ thing Wednesday night? It was a Grand Guignol horror,\nexcept that, as far as I could tell, it was pointless, and utterly lacking in the macabre deftness of\nthe French school of morgue drama.\nA young woman was being buried alive. She was conscious. She could hear, but could not move\nnor open her eyes. Horror was piled upon horror. Listeners were permitted to hear her shaping in\nher mind the words she was trying to say aloud. They heard a detailed word picture of the funeral\nobsequies for a live ‘corpse,’ apparently a victim of catalepsy. I prefer live talent, myself.\nI am sincerely sorry for any sensitive children who may have been listening in. What burns me\nup is that censors will hold up their hands in holy horror if a casual ‘damn’ happens to slip\nthrough the mike, and then permit a ghastly thing like this to go wandering at large through the\nether.”\n[Oakland Tribune, June 15, 1936] “In reply to indignant queries: No, that horror drama that\nfollowed after half an hour of Town Hall Tonight last Wednesday was NOT Fred Allen’s. Fred was\nheld down to half an hour, in case the convention wanted a portion of the time. The convention\ndidn’t come on at that time, so the 30-minute horror was piped through from the East as a fill-in.”\n[“Horrors for Infants,” Oakland Tribune, June 18, 1936] “Most parents watch the reading of\ntheir children, according to temperament. In the early years they can control their children's\nmotion picture fare…\n“The one thing beyond their control is the turn of the dial in almost every living room which\nbrings plays of sheer horror at the bed time hour to responsive but uncritical nerves.\n“The youngsters who listen are unlikely to be ruined for life by an occasional word of profanity.\nIf their home life is normal, they will merely be bewildered by the radio plays or movies that shock\nthe censors by their unconventionality.\n“But horror in the name of adventure is more serious in its effect, as our own radio editor\npointed out in his recent criticism of a sweet little bedtime tale regarding a girl being buried alive.\nNo child will go to bed in a better mood for that.”\nA surviving memo from network executive Sidney Strotz reports that he and his Chicago office\n\"have received many complaints from listeners on the West Coast\" and, although he mentions\nreading Oboler's script and agreeing it should not have been broadcast, he also says, \"I think it\nwas a mistake to feed Lights Out to the Coast for the period 8:30 to 9 Pacific Coast time. It\ncertainly is not the type of show that should go on at such an early hour. I don't think Lights Out\never should be on earlier than 11 o'clock at night.\" Another June '36 NBC memo reports \"getting\nvitriolic complaints\" about the series and \"particularly\" during the week that \"Burial Service\"\naired.\n[Beaver Valley Times, May 17, 1947—“Frightening Man” by Patricia Clary] “Orson Welles and\nOboler have more in common than that both write, direct and act. Both have nearly been banned\nfrom radio for being too effectively frightening. Long before Welles stagged [sic] his invasion from\nMars, Oboler produced a radio play entitled ‘Burial Service’ which brought thousands of\nindignant telephone calls and angry letters.\n“Oboler’s play told of a girl, completely paralyzed, though possessed of all her senses, who is\nburied alive.\n“Using scanty dialogue and long, suggestive pauses, he so frightened listeners that thousands\nsaid they never wanted to hear him again.”",
  "origination": "WMAQ, Chicago, Illinois (NBC-RED).",
  "duration": "June 10, 1936.",
  "personnel": "Arch Oboler (scriptwriter).",
  "extant_recordings": "",
  "chronology": "LIGHTS OUT (WMAQ, CHICAGO—NBC-RED)\n[Wednesday—8:30-9:00 PM]\nJune 10, 1936\n“Burial Service”\n[Wednesday—11:30-12:00 PM]\nJune 10, 1936\n“Burial Service”",
  "sources": "",
  "gallery": "",
  "images": []
}