APAGUE LA LUZ Y ESCUCHE
[RADIO-SERIES]
Although the name of the series would make it seem that this is the Mexican version of Lights Out
(the title translates, literally, as Extinguish the Lights and Listen), it would seem to be closer in
spirit to Inner Sanctum Mysteries.
“With this call to intima the dark, this radioteatro produced by Raul del Campo Jr. Trasmita by
the XEW from mid cincuentas until first sesentas. The carvernous voice of yucateco Arturo
Garcia—re-baptized “de Cordova”—by the cinematografica industry and but elegant known as ‘the
Horseman of Itza’—identifies to the series.”
Arturo de Cordova was already an established film star in his native country in diverse romantic
adventures—Louella Parsons dubbed him “the Clark Gable of Mexico”—and he had also enjoyed a
brief Hollywood career in the mid-Forties, appearing in For Whom the Bell Tolls, Frenchman’s
Creek, and a guest-star appearance as himself in the movie version of the radio comedy Duffy’s
Tavern. His work on Apague la luz y escuche quickly established him in the public ear as a master
of the sinister, and in 1950 he starred in two films that were clearly influenced by the “Inner
Sanctum” horror-noir approach of the series. (One of these films, El Hombre sin Rostro, even
pre-dates Robert Bloch’s Psycho in its depiction of the main character as a homicidal maniac who
commits murders while dressed as his own mother.)
Pablo O’Farril Marquez: “"A day of many, we were making one of the chapters of Turn off the
light and listen starring Arturo de Cordova, a tub filled with water, and with some straws did
bubbles constantly because the characters were in a submarine, suddenly I slipped and fell inside
the tub, the audience in the theater studio laughed a lot, as I left immediately and I kept doing
bubbles as if nothing had happened.”
ORIGINATION: XEW, Mexico, D.F.
DURATION: 1949-ca. 1960s.
PERSONNEL: Raul del Campo Jr. (producer), Arturo de Cordova (host, narrator), El Cieudadano Martinez
(scriptwriter), Pablo O’Farril Marquez (sound effects).
CASTS: Manuel Bauche Alcalde, Pedro D’Aguillon, Antonio Gonzalez, Carlos Lopez Moctezuma, Carmen
Madrigal, Omar Sanchez, et al.
EXTANT RECORDINGS: One on the 2-LP set.
[OG-NOTE: This episode was included in a 2-LP set of classic Mexican horror and police shows which was released in
1988 by the Museo Nacional de las Culturas Populares.]
[GALLERY]
Arturo de Cordova
APAGUE LA LUZ Y ESCUCHE
[RADIO-SERIES]
In 1999 XEW premiered a two-hour program hosted by Ruben Garcia which bore the same name
as their hit shudder show of the Fifties. This new series was not primarily dramatic, though,
instead following very faithfully in the mano tradition started by XEDF’s La Mano Peluda, and
featuring phone-in calls by people relating supposedly true ghost stories that had happened to
them. During the second part of each broadcast, however, an episode of the original Apague la luz
y escuche was aired (albeit, according to some reports, in an abridged format).
ORIGINATION: XEW, Mexico, D.F.
DURATION: 1999-?.
PERSONNEL: Ruben Garcia (host).
EXTANT RECORDINGS: Unknown.