{
  "title": "LIGHTS OUT",
  "category": "[RADIO-SERIES]",
  "article": "Warburg: “Devoting himself entirely to morale dramas on sustaining programs for a period of\nyears did things to Oboler’s pocketbook that forced him to revive his Lights Out series for Ionized\n[sic] Yeast… Now that Lights Out has served Oboler’s purpose, that of relining his purse, he plans\nto return to his real love—the writing of Win-the-War dramas like Plays for Americans and Free\nWorld Theater.”\nThe New York World-Telegram radio columnist Harriet Van Horne declared that Oboler was\n“known as the most prolific, sternest principled and worst dressed writer in radio” and announced\nthat “the strong-stomached—the devotees of the macabre—may gorge themselves on thrills and\nchills de luxe as the Lights Out series unfolds tales more terrible than Edgar Allan Poe ever\nimagined, even through a glass darkly.”\n(Anent  the “worst dressed” remark, another columnist quipped: “If he wears a twenty-buck hat\nwith a twenty-one buck suit it’s Arch Oboler.”)\nOboler: “People want to escape from the horror of the headlines.”\nAnnouncer Frank Martin recalled Oboler as a “marvelous director” who maintained total\ncontrol over his actors. “He used to say, over and over, to people, ‘Watch me. Do what I direct you\nto do. Let me be wrong.’”\nHaefele: “One of his memories of Lights Out is the way each program ended. Martin would\nmake a scripted comment about the story and Oboler would respond. ‘He would throw me bum\ncues,’ he recalled. ‘I remember one time we were running short. He came to the end of his line…\nHe said, ‘This mass of gelatinous compound was coming closer and closer’ and I was supposed to\ninterrupt him by saying, ‘That’s enough, Arch, I get the picture.’ But since we were running short I\nsaid nothing. I was just shaking my head at him.’ Oboler stretched out his conclusion with a\nrecord repetition of the words ‘closer and closer’ until he filled the time. ‘Don’t you ever do that to\nme again,’ Oboler warned. ‘Don’t you ever write the script so short again,’ the announcer\nretorted.”\nFinishing up the series with a bang was Oboler’s revamping of “The Author and the Thing.”\n“Oboler, in a slightly sensational manner, will wind up the series by a mass murder,” commented\nWarburg. “By killing off himself as writer, as well as all the actors, [he] sets a new standard in\ncomplete annihilation…”",
  "origination": "KNX, Hollywood, California (CBS).\n[OG-NOTE: The broadcasts of December 15, 1942, and January 19 and 26 and February 2, 1943, came from WABC in\nNew York.]",
  "duration": "October 6, 1942-September 28, 1943.",
  "personnel": "Bob LeMond (announcer), Frank Martin (announcer), Arch Oboler (scriptwriter, director,\nhost).\nCASTS: Hans Conried, Mercedes MacCambridge.\nSPONSOR: Sterling Products, Inc. (Ironized Yeast).\n“Bon Voyage” (11/10/42), “Come to the Bank” (11/17/42), “Mr. Maggs” (12/1/42),  “Scoop” (12/8/42),\n“Knock at the Door” (12/15/42), “The Meteor Man” (12/22/42), “Valse Triste” (12/29/42), “The Fast One”\n(1/5/43), “The Projective Mr. Drogan” (1/26/43), “Until Dead” (2/2/43), “He Dug It Up” (2/9/43),\n“Oxychloride X” (2/16/43), “They Met at Dorset” (2/23/43), “The Sea” (3/2/43), “The Ball” (3/9/43), “The\nDream” (3/16/43),\nLIGHTS OUT (KNX, HOLLYWOOD—CBS)\n[Tuesday—8:00-8:30 PM; re-broadcast for East Coast—11:30 PM-12:00 MIDNIGHT]\nOctober 6, 1942\n“What the Devil”\n[“…A man is called by his draft board and tries to run away, but wherever\nhe turns, always ahead of him is a big truck loaded high with\nexplosives…”]\nEXTANT RECORDING\nOctober 13, 1942\n“Revolt of the Worms”\n[“…It tells what would happen if earthworms three inches long suddenly\nbegan to grow to 40 feet in size. This, we are told, is based on the\n‘scientific truth’ that the common earthworm has a tremendous\ndestructive power, and, for its size, does a better job of devastation than a\nbomb…”]\nEXTANT RECORDING\nOctober 20, 1942\n“Poltergeist”\n[“…You had better be careful the next time you walk (or run) through a\ncemetery. A poltergeist might get you. According to one dictionary a\n‘poltergeist’ is ‘a noisy ghost.’ How this avenging spirit rises from the\ngrave to punish three city girls is told on ‘Lights Out’…”]\nEXTANT RECORDING\nOctober 27, 1942\n“Mungahra”\n[“…A story about the bush country of Australia and inspired by the Nazis’\nstrategy of terror…”]\nNov. 3, 1942\n“Across the Gap”\n[“…Speculation as to what would\nhappen to a person if he were to\ntravel at the speed of light over wires\n—186,000 miles a second—is the\nsum and substance of Arch Oboler’s\nplaylet…”]\nNov. 10, 1942\n“Bon Voyage”\nNov. 17, 1942\n“Come to the Bank”\nNov. 24, 1942\n“Chicken Heart”\n[“…based on experiments of Dr.\nAlexis Carrel, who kept a chicken\nheart alive in a glass container…”]\nDec. 1, 1942\n“Mr. Maggs”\n[“…a man goes digging in his garden\nand finds a coffin…”]\nDec. 8, 1942\n“Scoop”\n[Tuesday--????? PM\nDec. 15, 1942\n“Knock at the Door”\nBROADCAST FROM NYC?\n[Tuesday--????? PM\nDec. 22, 1942\n“The Meteor Man”\nDec. 29, 1942\n“Valse Triste”\n[“…based on the thought that\nchance plays an overwhelmingly\nvital part in our daily lives…”\nHarriet Van Horne: “Dinah Shore\nacquitted herself right well in her\nfirst dramatic role—a young woman\nthreatened by a maniac…”]\nJan. 5, 1943\n“The Fast One”\n[“…In this tale Oboler investigates a\ncriminal who can move with the\nspeed of light…”]\nJan. 12, 1943\n“The Mirror”\n[“…The radio listening audience will\nat last have an opportunity to hear one\nof Arch Oboler’s most famous plays…\nOboler says he has been trying to\ncomplete this difficult play for the last\nfive years. At various times it was\nscheduled for broadcast with such stars\nas Norma Shearer, Miriam Hopkins\nand Bette Davis, but Oboler was never\nable to find the right ending for it.\nNow that it has been completed, he\nguarantees that all who hear it won’t\nbe able to look into a mirror for quite\nsome time…   It tells the story of the\namazing disappearance of a motion\npicture star whose alias is given as\n‘Sherry Palmer.’ Sam White,\nHollywood publicity man, tells the\nstory and, as he puts it, ‘when you love\na lot or you hate a lot, you can tell the\ntruth, and brother, even if it is coming\nout of Hollywood, this is the truth!...”]\n[Tuesday--????\nJan. 19, 1943\n“Cat Wife”\n[“WILL COME FROM THE\nLOCAL CBS STUDIO”—NYC\nJan. 26, 1943\n“The Projective Mr. Drogan”\nFeb. 2, 1943\n“Until Dead”\n[“…When a husband tries to avenge\nthe murder of his wife, watch out.\nNeither can an escape-proof jail hold\nhim nor a death cell intimidate\nhim…”]\n[Tuesday--????\nFeb. 9, 1943\n“He Dug It Up”\nFeb. 16, 1943\n“Oxychloride X”\nFeb. 23, 1943\n“They Met at Dorset”\n[“…a story of the fanatical attempt\nby two Nazis to rescue Rudolph\nHess, held in England…”]\nMarch 2, 1943 “The Sea”\n[“…the widow Donel’s dying\nconfession of revenge against her\nevil son…”]\nMarch 9, 1943 “The Ball”\nMarch 16, 1943 “The Dream”\n[“…story about a woman who won’t\nsleep because she killed her stepson,\ndreamed about it, took too many\nsleeping tablets, and woke up to find\nherself dead in a river…”]\nMarch 23, 1943 “The Flame”\n[“…the story of a man who develops\na unique conception of life and\ndeath, and carries his theory to a\ndramatic conclusion…”]\nMarch 30, 1943 “Money, Money, Money”\n[“…story of two men, one of whom\nwanted money for unselfish reasons,\nand the other who wanted it for its\nown sake…”]\nApril 6, 1943\n“Superfeature”\nApril 13, 1943\n“Archer”\n[“…three kidnappers sit in a desolate\nshack, awaiting the order to murder\nthe beautiful girl they have\nkidnapped…”]\nApril 20, 1943 “Kill”\n[“…the strange story of a man on\ntrial for his life who believes that the\nevil abroad in the world today has\nbecome a living thing…”]\nApril 27, 1943\n“Execution”\n[“…drama of tragic happenings in\nthe marketplace of a French village\nafter the German invasion…”]\nMay 4, 1943\n“Heavenly Jeep”\n[“…an Oboler fantasy which takes\nthe listener for a breathless ride\nwhich starts on a mine-strewn\nTunisian road and winds up\nsomewhere on another planet… It\nall starts when a beautiful English\ngirl, who has been gazing at a\nstrange star shortly before, finds\nherself in the jeep, and soon the\nmilitary conveyance becomes an\nastral taxi, riding the Milky Way…”]\nMay 11, 1943\n“Murder in the Script\nDepartment”\n[“…Oboler was swamped with\nquestions by the girls in the CBS\nscript department regarding the art of\nmystery writing. He pays them back\nby writing this story and requiring\ntheir presence at the broadcast…”]\nMay 18, 1943\n“Spider”\n[“…An equatorial jungle teeming\nwith weird life and weirder events\nforms the fascinating background…\nthe hero is an explorer in search of\nthe world’s largest spider… Arch\nOboler once had an idea of\nbecoming a curator at a museum,\nhence his research makes this\nprogram one of unusual interest…”]\nMay 25, 1943\n“Little Old Lady”\nJune 1, 1943\n“The Ugliest Man in the\nWorld”\nJune 8, 1943\n“Organ”\nJune 15, 1943\n“Prelude to Murder”\n[“Screen Test” was originally\nannounced.]\nJune 22, 1943\n“Nature Study”\n[“…a professor of botany takes his\nclass on a field trip…”\nJune 29, 1943\n“The Dictator”\nJuly 6, 1943\n“The Cliff”\nJuly 13, 1943\n“Visitor from Hades”\n[“…a weird situation results from\nthe mutual hatred of a married\ncouple…”]\nJuly 20, 1943\n“Profits Unlimited”\nJuly 27, 1943\n“The Little People”\nAug. 3, 1943\n“Murder Castle”\nAug. 10, 1943\n“Sakhalin”\n[“…Arch Oboler has written the story\nof Sakhalin Island, used by old Russia\nas prison… When the Soviets came\ninto power they abolished the place of\nhorror, making it into an agricultural\ncolony. The story revives memories of\nthe terror that was Sakhalin in the\nczaristic days…”]\nAug. 17, 1943\n“State Executioner”\n[“…the tale of a hangman who came\nto enjoy his brutal work for the gold\nit brought him… Arch Oboler\nweaves his story about a man who\nlost his wife and eventually his mind\nwhen his greed overcame\nknowledge…”]\nAug. 24, 1943\n“Sub-Basement”\nAug. 31, 1943\n“The Immortal Gentleman”\n[“…a man who feared death and\nwanted eternal youth…”]\nSep. 7, 1943\n“Lord Marley’s Guest”\n[“…A monster from the deep\nintervenes to disrupt a scheming\nwoman’s plan to take rich Lord\nMarley from his wife…”]\nSep. 14, 1943\n“The Word”\n[“V-Day” was originally\nannounced.]\nSep. 21, 1943\n“Mirage”\n[“The Producer and the Thing” was\noriginally announced.]\nSep. 28, 1943\n“The Author and the Thing”\n[“…In a jovial mood, Arch Oboler\nturns actor in the role of himself,\nmurdering his enemies and taking\nhis friends to heaven…”]",
  "extant_recordings": "",
  "chronology": "",
  "sources": "",
  "gallery": "",
  "images": []
}