{
  "title": "DARK FANTASY",
  "category": "[RADIO-SERIES]",
  "article": "Originating in the Skirvin Tower Hotel studios of WKY in Oklahoma City, Dark Fantasy was an\nanthology series in the Arch Oboler-Lights Out mold, with stories ranging from speculative\nexplorations of other dimensions to bloodcurdling exercises in spectral horror. George H.\nHamaker, the station’s continuity editor who waxed creative under the pseudonym “Scott\nBishop,” was the sole scriptwriter for the entire run of the series, and even managed to work\nhimself (a la Oboler) as a character into one of the episodes (the religious allegory “The House Of\nBrede”).\nNBC, smarting from an ASCAP music ban that left the networks short on late-night big band\nremotes, snapped up Dark Fantasy  and another WKY series, Southern Rivers, for its Friday\nevening line-up, where they ran for an eight-month period—much to the joy of the parent station\nwhich lost no opportunity to publicly crow about its ascension to the “big league.” (According to\nWKY press releases, Hamaker had previously written for network shows, so he was not without\nexperience on that level of programming.)\nAccording to The Oklahoman: “…WKY will demonstrate that it has reached full maturity by\ninaugurating a series of programs Friday on the NBC red network…”(Oklahoman, 11/13/41) The\narticle professed: “Friday night it will become the first station outside of New York, Hollywood\nand Chicago from which a dramatic production has been originated for the national chain.”\nThe Oklahoman promoted the Friday the thirteenth episode from February 1942. According to\nthe paper: “Who-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o is scared of Friday the thirteenth? Not the cast of ‘Dark Fantasy,’\nthat weird and grisly horror drama…” (Oklahoman, 2/13/42) The article continues: When Author\nScott Bishop and Producer John Prosser noticed they had to present the thirteenth in their series\nof blood-curlers on Friday the thirteenth, they determined to abandon caution entirely.\nThe episode’s title for this entry in the series was “W is for Werewolf.” Unfortunately, the series\ndidn’t capture a large enough audience and was cancelled by NBC in the early summer of 1942.\nThis didn’t stop The Oklahoman from bragging about WKY’s achievement. In April 1944 the\npaper reminds readers of the twenty-six week run of Dark Fantasy.\n[“Dark Fantasy Sees Light In Tea Room.” Capital Times (April 19, 1942).] \"‘Dark Fantasy,’\nradio's weirdest thriller series, heard late in the evenings over Station WIBA, was born in a\nChinese tea room late on the stormy night of Nov. 3. 1M1 while Scott Bishop, father of hundreds\nof mystery novels, stories, and radio scripts, sat' drinking an iced, spiced tea concoction of his own\ninvention, with Radio Production Man John L Prosser in a haunt known as Yung Si Fa's.\n“The darkly psychological conversation centered around mystery tales, with frequent references\nto Poe, De Quincy, Blake, Coleridge and other masters of the craft. Bishop's mind kept turning on\nthe subject after he went home, so he sat down, and wrote a 30-minute script called ‘The Man\nWho.Came Back.’ Next day Prosser and Bishop read the tale over in the cold light of morning,\ndecided it was good, got a dramatic cast together, made a recording and submitted it, still hot off\nthe infernal griddle, to the NBC-Red network program Department. Eleven days later ‘Dark\nFantasy’ had its premiere.\n“On Friday, Apr. 24, ‘Dark Fantasy will present Bishop's 23rd original story of the series over\nStation WIBA at 11:05 p.m. The title is ‘The Screaming Skulls.’\nAsked recently why he thinks his type of mystery thriller has particular appeal for radio, Bishop\nreasoned, “Granted that listeners enjoy a good whodunit yarn where all the facts have sound\nreasons for existing, I think there is more fascination in the ‘Dark Fantasy’ type of tale where the\nhorror comes from things unusual or even supernatural. In this case, it is not the terror itself that\ncauses listeners’ hair to rise. It's the unseen, unaccountable cause of the terror.’”",
  "origination": "WKY, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (NBC-RED).",
  "duration": "November 14, 1941-June 19, 1942.",
  "personnel": "George H. Hamaker (scriptwriter—as “Scott Bishop”), Keith Painton (announcer), Tom\nPaxton (announcer), John I. Prosser (producer).\nCASTS: Georgiana Banks, Eleanor Naylor Caughron, Minnie Jo Curtis, Muir Hite, Ben Morris, Garland\nMoss, Alf Stanley, Fred Wayne.",
  "extant_recordings": "All but four-and-a-half episodes of this series survive. (The missing half is the last\npart of “Sleeping Death.”) The four missing titles are “The Soul Of Chen Hi Yuan” (11/21/41), “Karari”\n(4/17/42), “The Screaming Skulls” (4/24/42), and “The Hearse With The Broken Wheel” (6/19/42). A half-\nepisode entitled “Séance,” which is a re-make of “A Delicate Case of Murder,” also exists; some log compilers\nidentify this with a June 19 date also.",
  "chronology": "DARK FANTASY (WKY, OKLAHOMA CITY—NBC-RED)\n[Friday—11:30-11:55 PM]\nNovember 14, 1941\n“The Man Who Came Back”\nEXTANT RECORDING\nNovember 21, 1941\n“The Soul of Chen Hi Yuan”\n[“…A visit to San Francisco’s Chinatown, a small brass idol and a chance\nmeeting with a strange old man, all furnish exciting drama…”]\n[OG-NOTE: The title of this story was cited (phonetically, perhaps) in a Variety review\nas “The Soul of Shan-Hi-Wan.”]\nNovember 28, 1941\n“The Thing from the Sea”\n[“…a strange story of a becalmed ship that suddenly races at a rapid pace\nthrough the water with Ansau, last ruler of the renowned land of Mu, at\nthe helm…”]\nEXTANT RECORDING\nDecember 5, 1941\n“The Demon Tree”\n[“…a weird story based on the ancient legend of ‘The Strangling Oak of\nNannau Woods’ in England…”]\nEXTANT RECORDING\nDecember 19, 1941\n“Men Call Me Mad”\n[OG-NOTE: This play was originally scheduled for December 12, but was postponed a\nweek “due to the current war.” Originally announced for the date of the 19th was\n“Three Lines of Old French,” described as “a strange story, told by a famous French\ndoctor about the first World war, but not a story of the war itself…”]\nEXTANT RECORDING\nDecember 26, 1941\n“The House of Brede”\nEXTANT RECORDING\nJanuary 2, 1942\n“Resolution—1841”\nEXTANT RECORDING\nJanuary 9, 1942\n“The Curse of the Neanderthal”\nEXTANT RECORDING\nJanuary 16, 1942\n“Debt from the Past”\n[“…a weird tale of how a business man, 30 years dead, manages to pay a\nlong standing ‘debt of honor’…”]\nEXTANT RECORDING\nJanuary 23, 1942\n“The Headless Dead”\nEXTANT RECORDING\nJanuary 30, 1942\n“Death Is a Savage Deity”\nEXTANT RECORDING\nFebruary 6, 1942\n“The Sea Phantom”\nEXTANT RECORDING\nFebruary 13, 1942\n“W Is for Werewolf”\nEXTANT RECORDING\nFebruary 20, 1942\n“A Delicate Case of Murder”\nEXTANT RECORDING\nFebruary 27, 1942\n“The Spawn of the Sub-Human”\n[“…story of an opera star and a madman…”]\nEXTANT RECORDING\nMarch 6, 1942\n“The Man with the Scarlet Satchel”\nEXTANT RECORDING\nMarch 13, 1942\n“Superstition Be Hanged”\nEXTANT RECORDING\nMarch 20, 1942\n“Pennsylvania Turnpike”\n[“…the fantastic tale of a little old man who had nothing better to do than\nto hitch-hike rides with gentlemen with red hair…”]\nEXTANT RECORDING\nMarch 27, 1942\n“Convoy for Atlantis”\n[“…a weird tale of ships that disappear in the night and of strange\ntreasures that arise from the sea…”]\nEXTANT RECORDING\nApril 3, 1942\n“The Thing from the Darkness”\nEXTANT RECORDING\n[Friday—11:05-11:30 PM]\nApril 10, 1942\n“Edge of the Shadow”\n[“…Tonight’s story evolves around a strange dream…”]\nEXTANT RECORDING\nApril 17, 1942\n“Karari”\n[“…an eerie story of an aged and vengeful witch doctor who brews a\npotion of terrible poison and designs an awesome destiny for his\nenemies…”]\nApril 24, 1942\n“The Screaming Skulls”\n[“…Involved are a dark, deserted English mansion and the mysterious\ndeath of a nobleman and his bride some hundred years ago…”]\nMay 1, 1942\n“The Letter from Yesterday”\n[“…story of a young married couple who investigate the mysteries of the\nattic of an ancient house they have rented, only to find a century-old\nletter that affects both their lives…”]\nEXTANT RECORDING\nMay 8, 1942\n“The Cup of Gold”\n[“…story which concerns a young girl who sees a man murdered while\nholding a gold cup he has won at a golf tournament, and how that tragedy\nis repeated with herself playing one of the leading roles…”]\nEXTANT RECORDING\nMay 15, 1942\n“Funeral Arrangements Completed”\n[“…The story of a crudely made coffin with an engraved nameplate\nbearing the names of two living persons…”]\n[OG-NOTE: The title of the story was originally announced as “Coffin for Two.”]\nEXTANT RECORDING\nMay 22, 1942\n“Dead Hands Reaching”\n[“…story of a man who unearths a treasure while he’s unconscious…”]\nEXTANT RECORDING\nMay 29, 1942\n“Rendezvous with Satan”\nEXTANT RECORDING\nJune 5, 1942\n“I Am Your Brother”\nEXTANT RECORDING\nJune 12, 1942\n“Sleeping Death”\n[“…A grim story of twisted minds at work…”]\nEXTANT RECORDING\n[OG-NOTE: Only the first half of this program survives.]\nJune 19, 1942\n“The Hearse with the Broken Wheel”\nOCTOBER 31, 1950:\n[Miami News—“Group Will Plan Stage Production”]\n“Plans for the first Civic theater stage production will be announced at a\nmembership meeting tomorrow at 8 p.m. at the Miami Conservatory, 3900\nBiscayne blvd.\n“Auditions and rehearsals for a series of radio dramas, written by Scott\nBishop, station WIOD program director, will also be arranged, according to\nGeorge Moffat, president.”\nCIVIC THEATER (WIOD, MIAMI)\n[Sunday—3:00-3:30 PM]\nDecember 24, 1950\n“The House of Brede”\n[MIAMI SUNDAY NEWS: “… ‘The House of Bread [sic],’ a presentation\nwritten especially for today by Scott Bishop. It features the story of the\nfirst Christmas and one in the 20th Century…”]\n[OG-NOTE: After the war, Hamaker, now working professionally under the Scott\nBishop name, became program director at WIOD.]",
  "sources": "PERIODICALS: Times-Picayune [New Orleans],",
  "gallery": "",
  "images": []
}