CRAZYTOWN
[RADIO-SCRIPT]
In the wake of several significant anti-war radio plays—including Archibald MacLeish’s “Air Raid”
and Norman Corwin’s “They Fly Through the Air”—which dealt with the bombing of civilian
populations, Arch Oboler offered this twisted diatribe on the horrors of war on his NBC series. A
kind of distopian Shangri-La…
[RadioGoldIndex] “Two Italian aviators crash after a bombing mission. They find themselves
imprisoned in a ‘crazy town.’ ‘In a community where all men are mad, no one is mad.’”
[San Antonio Express, from press release] “…concerns the hilarious escapades of two barn-
storming aviators who attempt a world flight in an old plane…”
[press release] “The contemporary fantasy is to star Edmund O’Brien, who scored a success this
season as Prince Hal in Maurice Evans’ Broadway production of ‘Henry IV.’ Charlotte Manson,
young and talented NBC actress, will have the leading feminine role.” O’Brien returned to the
microphone a month later for another Oboler play, “The Immortal Gentleman.”
[Program information]
ORIGINATION: WEAF, New York City, New York (NBC-RED).
DURATION: May 20, 1939.
PERSONNEL: Arch Oboler (scriptwriter, director).
CAST: John Brown, Betty Caine, Charlotte Manson, Edmond O’Brien, Paul Stewart.
EXTANT RECORDINGS: Yes.
[Program log]
ARCH OBOLER’S PLAYS (WEAF, NEW YORK)
[???day—10:00-10:30 PM]
May 20, 1939 “Crazytown”
[“…a stinging indictment of the present anarchic state of world affairs…
The story tells of two young aviators who make a forced landing in
unknown territory while returning from a successful bombing expedition
against civilians of a defenseless enemy city. They soon find they have
cracked up in Crazytown, a place where individual moral values have
become as topsy-turvy as are international moral values in the outside
world. Hate, envy and suspicion are cardinal virtues; pity, love and honor
are considered unforgivable sins, while murder is the only logical way of
settling a quarrel…”]