{
  "title": "DRUMS OF AFRICA / MOON OVER AFRICA",
  "category": "[RADIO-SERIAL]",
  "article": "The enormous box-office success of the Hollywood films Trader Horn (1930) and Tarzan the Ape\nMan (1932) revived the public’s interest in tales of jungle adventure. West Coast radio was quick\nto fuel the appetite of its listeners for drama of a wild and exotic nature. Between 1930 and 193?\nEdgar Rice Burroughs’ production company released three Tarzan serials on transcription discs,\nKFI in Los Angeles had a hit with the Kenya Bill series, and two of Carlton Morse’s serials for\nKGO—The Dragon in the Sun and The Return of Captain Post—featured harrowing excursions\ninto the “heart of darkness” in Mexico and Cambodia, respectively.\n[“Georgia Fifield, who teams with Richard Le Grand in KHJ’s new Mr. And Mrs. Skits, is one of\nthe pioneer troupers of western radio…Came to Los Angeles in 1921 from San Jose, her\nbirthplace…Since that time has taken part in numerous radio and dramatic productions and\nproduced more than 400 half-hour one-act plays…In addition to the Mr. and Mrs. Skits she is\nappearing on Hollywood Hotel and Bing Crosby’s broadcasts…Claims membership in the\nDominoes and Squids…Likes to attend horse races and usually wins…Resembles Mary Pickford.”]\n[VARIETY] “Serial of mysticism and wild animal stuff that combines the elements of a Chandu\nand Tarzan. Spotted three times a week, for half-hour periods early in the evening, it is aimed at\nthe kids, but in this section, where they are suckers for the serial fodder, it will be oke, too, for the\nadult dial-turners.\n“Story deals with an exploration party searching for a lost white tribe with a romance between\nthe explorer’s daughter and a young scientist in the party. Cast, recruited from among screen\nplayers, handle the parts unusually well. Good sound effects lend to the illusion of the danger\nsupposedly existing from animals and hostile natives.”\n[K. L. Ecksan, Oakland Tribune, July 7, 1935]\n“He was once known as Michael Kelly, but he is now known under his real monicker, Michael\nFitzmaurice, and his distinctive Dublin-English manner of speech is nightly heard over KHJ and\nother stations of the Columbia-Don Lee network as he announces various programs.\n“He was born in London, April 18, 1908… took his Master of Political Science at Trinity College,\nDublin. During Summer vacations, in keeping with his ambition, he visited British embassies in\nall parts of the globe.\n“Then came a meeting with a young man named Noel Coward, which completely changed the\nFitzmaurice course of events. Michael joined with the Henry Lonsdell Players when barely out of\nhis teens, remained with them for nearly two years and then went over to the Abbey Players of\nDublin for a series of plays. Adventure then took Fitzmaurice and a party of friends to Africa on a\ncrocodile hunt.\n“Michael was taken down with jungle fever and returned to England in such impaired health\nthat his theatrical career had to mark time for several months…\n“Straight to Hollywood went 22-year-old Michael, but instead of a place in films, he landed in a\npublicity job at a local radio station. This entailed occasional announcing, and his chief finally\nseized upon the idea of having him heard under the name of Michael Kelly. ‘Fitzmaurice’ was too\ndifficult for most persons to spell, and was not sufficiently Irish to suit his boss. Thus, the\n‘Michael Kelly” myth came into being…”\nAs if enough confusion didn’t exist already over the transition from Drums of Africa to Moon\nOver Africa, a further mystery has come to light. In March of 1937 the MacGregor-Sollie\ntranscription company announced the release of a new recorded serial which, from their\ndescription, sounds amazingly like Drums of Africa. Yet it purports to be an entirely brand new\ncreation. “It was written by Jack Lewis,” asserted the press release, “who spent fourteen years in\nSomaliland… ‘Talking Drums’ is the story of a white party headed by Dr. Campbell, an English\nscientist. With him are his attractive daughter, Barbara, and a young assistant named Grant.\nTheir search for African lore takes them into the heart of the jungle. Early in the serial they\nencounter a mad Frenchman who has taken a terrific hold on the natives, and he mysteriously\ndogs their footsteps… In the story Lewis takes the part of Ulagi, the friendly Massei chieftain who\nguides Dr. Campbell’s party through darkest Africa.”\n[Abilene Reporter-News, Sunday, May 15, 1938—“African Lore Reflected In New Mystery Serial\nSlated By KRBC”] “The drums will not be those of fictitious, theatrical Africa, but the genuine\nmood of the mysterious continent captured by Jack Lewis, a writer who spent several years there\nas a member of a scientific expedition.\n“During his sojourn in Africa Lewis filled several notebooks with authentic legends, gathered an\namazing collection of native exhibits, and actually learned parts of the native dialect. Like the\nlegendary Trader Horn, he learned to interpret the weird and terrifying legend of the drums.\n“In the radio play Lewis enacts the part of Massei chieftain Ulagi by name, who befriends Dr.\nCampbell and party. The story deals with the search of Dr. Campbell, his daughter, Barbara, and\nyoung assistant, Grant, for historic lore among the jungle natives. Early in the plot, their footsteps\nare dogged by a mad and wily Frenchman whom the natives consider a strange sort of god.\n“Scheduled to appear as Dr. Campbell is Bruce Payne, prominent Hollywood radio actor.\nBarbara is played by Barbara Luddy, star of the ‘First Nighter’ and other network programs. Grant\nis portrayed by Joe Kearns, rising Hollywood juvenile.”\n[Winnipeg Free Press, September 14, 1938] “Drums talk across the veldts of darkest Africa\nwhen Professors Adrian and Aalbert Smith (you know Aalbert, ‘oo was et by lion) set out over the\nCBC airwaves in quest of the Talking Skull, which alone of all the skulls in the world knows the\nsecret of the Elephants’ Graveyard. Accompanying the Smith Brothers will be those two intrepid\nexplorers, Col. Theodore Woodhouse and Frank (Bring ‘Em Back Alive) Hawkins, with whom will\nmarch Deadshot Oftenbroke, the celebrated big-game hunter, Egbert (The Lion-Killer) Holloway,\nLord Percy, and Uncle Andrew (Bang Goes Saxpence) MacGregor.”\n[Winnipeg Free Press, Sepember 21, 1938] “The profoundest secrets of darkest Africa revealed\nas the Laughing Skull expedition—which began last week in the CBC’s Winnipeg studios winds its\nway into the remotest fastnesses of the high veldt… Characters in the stirring drama include Chief\nWoochabi, alias Hawkins; Toolagi, the Witch Doctor; Boola Boola, native guide; and the fearless\nbig game hunter Captain Featherhead… There be a Laughing Skull named Brian Hodgkinson also\nin the offing…”\nThe transcription series is believed to have been released in 1935. Several sources list broadcast\ndates from March 16 to September 7 of that year, but this has not been confirmed nor has it been\ndetermined what station might have broadcast the show on those dates.\nAnother source, the 1938-39 edition of the Variety Radio Directory, cites Moon Over Africa as\na release of Radio Recorders, Inc. in Hollywood. Research has determined that it played on ????\nstation ???? in 193?. It was also broadcast from several facilities in Australia—from Bathurst\nstation 2BS in 1937, from Canberra station 2KA (“The Voice of the Mountains”) in 1938, and from\nArmidale station 2AD in 1939.",
  "origination": "KNX, Hollywood, California.\n[OG-NOTE: Electrical transcriptions of an expanded version of this series were released by Transco under the title\nMoon Over Africa.]",
  "duration": "September 19-October 8, 1932 (KNX); ca. 1936 (release of transcription series).",
  "personnel": "True Boardman (announcer), Georgia Fifield (producer), Michael Kelly (scriptwriter).\n[OG-NOTE: Talbot Mundy has been credited by one source as the author of this serial, but there is no confirmation\nof this assertion.]\nCAST: Lionel Belmore (Professor Anton Edwards), True Boardman (N’guru), Georgia Fifield (Lorna\nEdwards), Fred Shields (Jack Martin).",
  "extant_recordings": "Episodes nos. 1-26 of the transcription program are extant, but there remains\nsome question as to whether this is the entire series or not.\nDRUMS OF AFRICA (KNX, HOLLYWOOD)\n[Monday, Wednesday & Saturday---8:45-9:00 PM]\nSeptember 19, 1932\n[1]\n[“…A young man in love with the professor’s daughter. A bit of the\n‘Drums of Africa’… Jungle love ‘n everything…”]\nSeptember 21, 1932\n[2]  ?????\nSeptember 24, 1932\n[3]\n[“…The jungle wireless!… Mystery, adventure and for good measure a\n‘mummified head’… Weird hypnotism…”]\nSeptember 26, 1932\n[4]\nSeptember 28, 1932\n[5]\n[“…In the jungles searching for a mythical white race…”]\nOctober 1, 1932\n[6]\n[“…Led by a weird talking, mummified head, they are captured by\nsavages…”]\nOctober 3, 1932\n[7]\nOctober 5, 1932\n[8]\nOctober 8, 1932\n[9]\nMOON OVER AFRICA (1935 DISC SERIES)\nMarch 16, 1935 [1] “The Talking Head”\nMarch 23, 1935 [2] “The Atlantis Quest”\nMarch 30, 1935 [3] “Jungle Trance”\nApril 6, 1935\n[4] “The Sacred Python”\nApril 13, 1935\n[5] “The Rhinocerous Hill”\nApril 20, 1935 [6] “Captured by Cannibals”\nApril 27, 1935\n[7] “Escape”\nMay 4, 1935\n[8] “A New Land”\nMay 11, 1935\n[9] “Inside the Volcano”\nMay 18, 1935\n[10] “Prisoners in the Palace”\nMay 25, 1935\n[11] “Sacrificed”\nJune 1, 1935\n[12] “Revolution”\nJune 8, 1935\n[13] “The Secret of the Talking\nHead”\nJune 15, 1935\n[14] “Passage of the Rock”\nJune 22, 1935\n[15] “The Witch Woman of the\nRock”\nJune 29, 1935\n[16] “Back to the Jungle”\nJuly 6, 1935\n[17] “The Eyes of the Moon”\nJuly 13, 1935\n[18] “The Leopard Cult”\nJuly 20, 1935\n[19] “The Leopard Woman”\nJuly 27, 1935\n[20] “The Devil Doll”\nAug. 3, 1935\n[21] “White Magic”\nAug. 10, 1935\n[22] “Native Revenge”\nAug. 17, 1935\n[23] “The Whispering Forest of\nDeath”\nAug. 24, 1935\n[24] “Treachery”\nAug. 31, 1935\n[25] “The Orchids of Death”\nSep. 7, 1935\n[26] “The Treasure of the\nAncients”\n[Episode titles are not from the original series, but were added descriptively by OTR collectors in\nthe Seventies.]\nGeorgia Fifield",
  "chronology": "",
  "sources": "",
  "gallery": "",
  "images": []
}