{
  "title": "CHICKEN HEART",
  "category": "[RADIO-SCRIPT]",
  "article": "[“Science Finds that Our Bones Die Last of All.” The American Weekly (March 27, 1927).] “On\nJanuary 14, 1912, only\nabout fifteen years ago, Dr. Alexis Carrel,\nof the Rockefeller Institute for Medical\nResearch, cut out with a tiny knife\na small bit of the heart of a young chick,\nrecently killed. This bit of tissue he\ntransferred to a warmed culture solution\ncontaining chemicals put together to reproduce\nas nearly as might be possible,\nthe nutrient value of the blood of the living\nbird. In Dr. Carrel's laboratory in\nNew York City that fifteen-year-old bit\nof chicken heart is still alive, and lusty.\nMotion pictures were made a year or so\nago, showing its growth and life. Many\nscientific societies throughout the world\nhave seen these motion pictures. Not a\nfew of the world's scientific men have\nseen the actual growing cells themselves\nin Dr. Carrel's incubator.\nThe parent chick has been dead for\nfifteen years. Even if the animal had\nbeen allowed to live after giving up its\nbit of heart tissue to science, it would\nhave passed away naturally long ago, for\nchickens do not usually live to be within\nsi^ht of the fifteen-year mark. Meantime,\nthe bit of heart in the solution has been\nnot only living but growing.\nIt doubles its size, Dr. Carrel reports,\nevery day. It must be trimmed at Frequent\nintervals in order to keep it within\na manageable size. So far as any one can\npredict, that bit of chicken heart, will\ncontinue to grow forever, if Dr. Carrel\nand his successors continue to give it the\nwarmth and care and nutrient solution\nwhich it needs. There is no reason to\ndoubt that it cnn bo immortal.\n[“Immortal Flesh.” Massillon Evening Independent (January 21, 1933).]\nStrange thoughts are aroused by that piece of\nchicken heart which Dr. Alexis Carrel of the\nRockefeller Institute cut from an embryo 21\nyears ago and placed in a solution which provided\nnourishment. The solution was kept fresh,\niand the. bit of muscle grew. It grew so steadily\nthat before long the scientist had to trim it to\n' keep it from outgrowing its containing vessel.\nIt has been trimmed hundreds of times since;\n'otherwise it might have outgrown the laboratory.\nAn inspection the other day showed it as healthy\nas ever.\nThe tiny heart from which the specimen was\ncut had started to beat when the operation was\nperformed. The infinitesimal bit of flesh cut\nfrom it continued its contracting movement. It\nhas been contracting regularly ever since, just\nas it would if it had remained a part of the living1\nchicken. But the chicken itself would have\ndied long since. The sample cut fro:n it, scientists\nsay, could live forever if its nourishment\nwere continued.\nWhy this apparent immortality for a part of\na living organism when the whole is mortal?\nDr. Carrel has concluded that the cause lies in\nthe brain. All the other cells and tissues of the\nbody, it seems, can multiply and replace themselves\nexcept those of the brain. This as a price\nwe pay for brains.\nIn a way, however, all flesh is immortal. If,\nas many evolutionists think, all life on earth has\ndeveloped from one primordial cell, or a few such\ncells, then the life of those cells has continued,\nthrough millions of bodies,' enduring, growing\nand differentiating for perhaps a billion years\n[Helena Independent-Record, October 2, 1946—“Famed Chicken Heart Dies After Long, Artificial\nExistence”] “The Herald Tribune says that Dr. Alexis Carrel’s sliver of embryonic chicken heart\ntissue is dead at the age of 34.\n“Doctor Carrel began his experiment January 17, 1912, at the Rockefeller Institute, by placing a\npiece of heart in a test tube and feeding it chicken plasma and chicken embryo extract to prove\nthat tissue could be kept alive artificially. Every 48 hours the tissue doubled in size and every\nweek it had to be pruned, washed and transplanted to a new culture medium but Doctor Carrel\nwas able to make his point at the end of a year or so, the Herald Tribune says.\n“In 1940, Doctor Carrel put responsibility for its sustenance on Dr. Albert H. Eberling, at the\nLederle laboratories, Pearl River, N. Y., who nurtured the heart until May of this year when he\nretired and the heart, according to the Herald Tribune, was discarded.”\nThe “chicken heart” was given a new lease on life in the Sixties when it became a staple of Bill\nCosby’s stand-up routines.\n[Program information]",
  "origination": "Various.",
  "duration": "Various.",
  "personnel": "Arch Oboler (scriptwriter; director—1943).",
  "extant_recordings": "None.\n[NOTE: A ten-minute condensation exists as part of an LP record released by Oboler in 1964\nentitled Drop Dead!. Another performance of this condensed version also circulates among\ncollectors, apparently from the same source that created the ersatz Hermit’s Cave episode “Dark\nHouse.”]\n[Program log]\nLIGHTS OUT (WMAQ, CHICAGO)\n[Wednesday—11:30 PM-12:00 MIDNIGHT]\nMarch 10, 1937 “Chicken Heart”\n[“…The story originates from the fact that a bit of tissue from a chicken\nheart at the Rockefeller Institute in New York has for years been rapidly\ngrowing. In the drama the heart grows at a progressively increasing rate\nuntil the very existence of humanity is threatened by this great throbbing\nmass of flesh…”]\nFebruary 23, 1938\n“Chicken Heart”\n[“…the story of the heart of a chicken which had been given an\nindependent existence by a great scientist, will be repeated at listeners’\nrequest…”]\nLIGHTS OUT (KNX, HOLLYWOOD)\n[Tuesday—8:00-8:30 PM (repeated 11:30-12:00)]\nNovember 24, 1942\n“Chicken Heart”\n[“…based on experiments of Dr. Alexis Carrel, who kept a chicken heart\nalive in a glass container…”]\n[SAN ANTONIO LIGHT: “…The dead and unsung chicken whose famous\nheart continues to beat in a glass case in New York’s most esteemed\nresearch institute could not possibly have foreseen that some day it\nwould be the inspiration for a ‘Lights Out’ tale. There, in its lonely case,\nthe heart, minus the chicken that originally housed it, has been quietly\npulsating these last two decades, astounding scientists and laymen alike,\nminding its own business, until Arch Oboler decided to make a radio\nscript out of it…”]\nTHE GOTHAM RADIO PLAYERS (WBAI, NEW YORK)\n[\n????????? ??, 199?\n“Chicken Heart”",
  "chronology": "",
  "sources": "",
  "gallery": "",
  "images": []
}