{
  "title": "DANSE MACABRE",
  "category": "[RADIO-SCRIPT]",
  "article": "Vallee introduces the sketch as “a frankly melodramatic thriller by Arch Oboler, whose\nremarkable imaginings on the Lights Out program—which happens to be my favorite program—\nhave chilled millions of spines on Wednesday evenings at 12:30 during the past two years.”\nThe composer Saint-Saens mourns at midnight over the grave of his son Louis. Death appears to\nhim as a mysterious fiddler who tries to convince him to end his grief by taking his own life. He\nhesitates at the very brink of suicide, and the fiddler summons the restless dead—“my white\nones!”—out of their graves to dance wildly until dawn. Death tells Saint-Saens that he has still\ntriumphed because the composer will not be able to forget the music that he has heard.",
  "origination": "",
  "duration": "",
  "personnel": "Arch Oboler (scriptwriter).",
  "extant_recordings": "“Danse Macabre” (The Royal Gelatin Hour, May 5, 1938).",
  "chronology": "LIGHTS OUT (WMAQ, CHICAGO—NBC-RED)\n[Wednesday—11:30 PM-12:00 MIDNIGHT]\nAugust 26, 1936\n“Danse Macabre”\n[“…Arch Oboler gives his idea of the weird events which led the\nFrenchman Saint-Saens to write the eerie music for his famous\ncomposition…The weird strains of Saint-Saens’ ‘Danse Macabre’ played\nby a phantom violinist. This will be the first time music has been used in\nthe series…”]\nSCRIPT: Arch Oboler.\nTHE ROYAL GELATIN HOUR (WEAF, NEW YORK—NBC-RED)\n[Thursday—\nMay 5, 1938\n“Danse Macabre”\n[“…Boris Karloff will be heard in a new one act play by Arch Oboler… The\nplay is entitled ‘Danse Macabre’ and is based on the music of that name\nby Saint-Saens…”]\nSCRIPT: Arch Oboler.\nCAST: Horace Braham (Charles Camille Saint-Saens), Boris Karloff (Death), et al.\nEXTANT RECORDING\nARCH OBOLER’S PLAYS (KHJ, LOS ANGELES—NBC-RED)\n[???day—8:00-8:30 PM]\nDecember 2, 1939\n“State Executioner” / “Danse Macabre”\nSCRIPT: Arch Oboler.\nCAST: Ray Collins, Hans Conried.",
  "sources": "",
  "gallery": "",
  "images": []
}