CAT WIFE
[RADIO-SCRIPT]
One of the most famous of Arch Oboler’s Lights Out scripts—and one of the few recordings to
survive from the original Chicago run of the show.
[1938, press release] “To start things off Karloff will do a revival of ‘Cat Wife,’ a favorite horror
drama of the Lights Out listeners. It seems they wrote in and wanted him to do the piece, as full of
shivers as anything that Lights Out has presented.”
[Capital Times, June 14, 1939] “Betty Winkler can’t avoid being a cat. As title role player in ‘Cat
Wife’ more than a year ago, she turned out a stellar dramatic performance in the Lights Out
drama. Tonight, over WIBA at 10:30, Betty Winkler will turn into a cat again when she becomes
the voice of the black-pelted, green-eyed alley cat that stalks across Robert Gerson Powers’ Lights
Out horror plot to participate in a ghastly murder climax.”
[Circleville Herald, September 12, 1940] “Girl Alone star, Betty Winkler, will fly to the coast for
her guest shot on the Arch Oboler series, staying there only long enough for the rehearsal and
broadcast. Vehicle will be ‘The Cat Wife,’ which she did with Boris Karloff two years ago.”
[Hammond Times, November 13, 1940, Paul K. Damai] “Incidentally we just received a letter
from Arch which reads in part: ‘…on the Cat Wife show I personally asked for a middle
commercial simply because I felt there was such danger of the drama becoming so real to children
listening, that it would be wise to take a deep breath in the middle and say ‘Look, folks—this is all
in fun.’”
PERSONNEL: Arch Oboler (scriptwriter; director—1940, 1943).
[CHRONOLOGY]
LIGHTS OUT (WMAQ, CHICAGO—NBC-RED)
[Wednesday—11;30 PM-12;00 MIDNIGHT]
June 17, 1936 “Cat Wife”
CAST: Betty Winkler, et al.
February 17, 1937 “Cat Wife”
CAST [1937, Lights Out]: Betty Winkler, et al.
April 6, 1938 “Cat Wife”
[“…It is the story of a neurotic wife, played by Betty Winkler, who drives
her husband, Karloff, to the point of insanity… Miss Winkler created the
Cat Wife role and appeared in both previous presentations…”]
CAST [1938, Lights Out]: Boris Karloff, Betty Winkler (Linda), et al.
EXTANT RECORDING
EVERYMMAN’S THEATRE (
[
October 18, 1940 “Cat Wife”
[“…Arch Oboler has written an Everyman Theater play for Betty Winkler,
Chicago serial actress who has carved an enviable radio career for herself
since he wrote some of his early scripts for her. This one concerns
psychological twists appropriate to the approaching Halloween…”]
CAST [1940, Everyman’s Theatre]: Raymond Edward Johnson, Betty Winkler
(Linda).
EXTANT RECORDING
YOUNG IDEAS (KNX, HOLLYWOOD—CBS)
[Sunday—1:00-1:30 PM]
August 24, 1941 “Cat Wife”
[CHARLESTON DAILY MAIL: “…‘Cat Wife,’ an original radio drama by
Arch Oboler, is presented by the junior staff of KNX, the Columbia
station in Hollywood, today at 4 on WCHS. The production is directed by
Bob Guggenheim, young contact man at CBS, and the cast includes tour
guides, clerks, stenographers and page boys. Oboler is guest producer,
supervising the work of the various junior staff members. ‘Cat Wife’
concludes the series of radio dramas broadcast under the program title,
‘Young Ideas’.”
LIGHTS OUT (WABC, NEW YORK)
[Tuesday--????
January 19, 1943 “Cat Wife”
[“WILL COME FROM THE LOCAL CBS STUDIO”—NYC]
[NOTE: The 1943 performance of “Cat Wife” is available under the title of
“Alley Cat” in a syndicated package released by Oboler in the early 1970s
as The Devil and Mr. O.]
THE DEVIL’S PLAYHOUSE (WTOP, WASHINGTON)
[Sunday—11:05-11:30 PM]
October 15, 1944 “Cat Wife”