CREEPS BY NIGHT
[RADIO-SERIES]
Found in the radio program listings of the Portland Oregonian; no further information is known.
Nor is any likely to be known; the Portland newspapers had declared a ban on publishing radio
news or columns during this period of time.
[Program information]
ORIGINATION: KXL, Portland, Oregon.
DURATION: December 16, 1937-June 1, 1939.
PERSONNEL: Unknown.
EXTANT RECORDINGS: None.
[Program log]
CREEPS BY NIGHT (KXL, PORTLAND)
[
December 16, 1937
CREEPS BY NIGHT
[RADIO-SERIES]
“This is Boris Karloff, joining with you once again for another exploration into the unknown
darkness of the human mind.”
After the BLUE network lost Inner Sanctum Mysteries to CBS in the fall of 1943, they developed
this replacement series and lured Boris Karloff away from his guest slots on Sanctum to be the
permanent host and star. Actually, they didn’t have to do much luring. Karloff was now back in
Hollywood after three years of performing Arsenic and Old Lace on Broadway and on the road. So
his association with the New York-originated Sanctum was, for the time being, effectively ended.
Karloff was introduced as “?????,” although on one broadcast a tongue-tied announcer referred
to him as “the mastery of mystery.”
[NOTE: is that Lurene Tuttle and Harry Bartell in “The Hunt.”??]
[Winnipeg Free Press, June 12, 1944] “A new series of stories, taken from the book, The World’s
Finest Mystery Stories, edited by Dashiell Hammett… guest stars will include Bela Lugosi, Peter
Lorre, Laird Cregar and Raymond Massey.”
[Variety] “New York origination resulted in dropping Karloff and replacing him with ‘Dr. X,’
program’s annotator whose identity is unknown even to other members of the cast. ‘Dr. X’
gimmick is obvious attempt to build up audience interest in a narrator who has little or no public
appeal when appearing under his own name.”
[Program information]
ORIGINATION: KECA, Los Angeles, California, and WJZ, New York City, New York (BLUE).
DURATION: February 15-May 9, 1944 (Los Angeles series), May 16-August 15, 1944 (New York
series).
PERSONNEL: [KECA] Robert Leslie Bellem (scriptwriter, script editor), Alonzo Deen Cole
(scriptwriter), Dave Drummond (director), Ruth Fenisong (scriptwriter), Boris Karloff (host),
Robert Maxwell (producer), Albert Sack (musical director), Gene Wang (scriptwriter).
CASTS: Harry Bartel, Boris Karloff, Lurene Tuttle, et al.
[WJZ] Hector Chevigny (scriptwriter), Jesse Crawford (organist), Paul Creston (music composer),
Robert Maxwell (producer), Ted Osborne (voice of “Doctor X”), Joseph Stopak (musical director).
George ????? (announcer).
GUEST STARS: Edmund Gwenn (5/23/44), Peter Lorre (6/6/44, 6/13/44, 8/8/44), Florence
Reed (6/20/44).
CASTS: Eleanor Audley, Jackson Beck, Ed Begley, Juano Hernandez, Abby Lewis, Gregory
Morton, Ted Osborne, Mary Patton, Everett Sloane.
EXTANT RECORDINGS: “Those That Walk In Darkness” (4/11/44; AFRS re-broadcast on
Mystery Playhouse, missing opening identification), “Final Reckoning” (5/2/44), “The Hunt”
(5/9/44), “The Walking Dead” (5/16/44), “The Strange Burial of Alexander Jordan” (5/23/44),
“The Three Sisters” (6/20/44), “The Six Who Did Not Die” (7/11/44; AFRS re-broadcast on
Mystery Playhouse, missing opening identification).
[Program log]
CREEPS BY NIGHT (KECA, LOS ANGELES—BLUE)
[Tuesday—10:30-11:00 PM]
February 15, 1944 “The Voice of Death”
[“…a widow is impelled by the voice of her deceased husband to
commitseveral murders…”]
February 22, 1944 “The Man with the Devil’s Hands”
[“…Boris Karloff, boogie-man of the stage and screen, will be starred in
the role of a great musician who has no control over his hands, whether
for creating beauty or causing death…”]
SCRIPT: Alonzo Deen Cole.
March 7, 1944 [TITLE UNKNOWN]
March 14, 1944 “Dark Destiny”
[“…deals with superstition and its power over so many credulous souls…a
story of a man possessed by fear of a curse that has come down in his
family from father to son…a man determined the curse shall not be
passed to his son… Boris Karloff will be heard as an artist who will
even kill to break the family curse.”]
March 21, 1944 [TITLE UNKNOWN]
March 28, 1944 “String of Pearls”
[“…Boris Karloff plays the role of a man who lives two different
lives…”]
April 4, 1944 “The Unwelcome Visitor”
[“…a chiller-thriller with a dash of insanity, a dab of murder, and a
soupcon of mayhem… Boris Karloff will portray a maniac who escaped
from a state institution…”]
SCRIPT: Robert Leslie Bellem.
April 11, 1944 “Those Who Walk in Darkness”
SCRIPT: Robert Leslie Bellem.
EXTANT RECORDING
April 18, 1944 “The Permanent Guests”
SCRIPT: (Robert Leslie Bellem)
April 25, 1944 “Appointment With Death”
SCRIPT: (Robert Leslie Bellem)
May 2, 1944 “Final Reckoning”
SCRIPT: (Robert Leslie Bellem)
EXTANT RECORDING
May 9, 1944 “The Hunt”
SCRIPT: (Robert Leslie Bellem)
EXTANT RECORDING
CREEPS BY NIGHT (WJZ, NEW YORK—BLUE)
[Tuesday—10:30-11:00 PM]
May 16, 1944 “The Walking Dead”
SCRIPT: (adapted from passages in Of Mules and Men by Zora Neale Hurston).
EXTANT RECORDING
May 23, 1944 “The Strange Burial of Alexander Jordan” (Hector Chevigny)
[VARIETY: “…It was the story of a man who is afraid of being buried alive
after being pronounced dead because he suffers from a sickness that
produces comatose symptoms readily diagnosed as death. He leaves
elaborate instructions as to his burial and these instructions coupled with
his will, which leaves his possessions to his nephew’s wife, ultimately
leads to the death of both…”]
SCRIPT: Hector Chevigny.
EXTANT RECORDING
May 30, 1944 [TITLE UNKNOWN]
June 6, 1944 [Possibly canceled due to D-Day reportage.]
June 13, 1944 “Big Top”
[“…Peter Lorre will be a trapeze artist…”]
June 20, 1944 “The Three Sisters”
[“…a woman looks beyond the grave…”]
SCRIPT: Hector Chevigny (adapted from the story by W. W. Jacobs).
CAST: Florence Reed, et al.
[Tuesday—11:30 PM-12:00 MIDNIGHT]
July 4, 1944 [TITLE UNKNOWN]
July 11, 1944 “The Six Who Never Died”
[BERKELEY DAILY GAZETTE: “…A pearl-fishing boat in the South Pacific
will be the setting… The story will deal with a man whose greed forced
him to stand trial before a jury of the dead…”]
[“…The eerie proceedings will be dominated over, as usual, by the
program’s baffling narrator, the mysterious ‘Dr. X’…”]
SCRIPT: Hector Chevigny.
July 18, 1944
July 25, 1944
August 1, 1944
August 8, 1944 “Beyond the Grave”
August 15, 1944
GENERAL ELECTRIC PROGRAM (WRGB-TV, SCHENECTADY)
[Thursday—8:00-10:15 PM]
September 14, 1944 “The Tomb of Alexander Jordan”
[THE BILLBOARD: “…Mysteries seem destined to become as popular on
the tele screen as they now are on radio if the vivid scanning of The Tomb
of Alexander Jordan, video version of a Blue Network psychological radio
drama, can be viewed as writing on the wall.
[Sources]
PERIODICALS: Atlanta Constiution, Miami Herald, New York Herald Tribune, Hollywood
Citizen-News.
[Gallery]
WARNING!
Persons suffering from heart trouble and those
whose blood has a tendency to curdle and hair
to uncurl under the stress of great excitement
are urged NOT to listen to
Boris Karloff
in "Creeps By Night"
TONIGHT at 9:30
—and Every Tuesday Night
The station disclaim!, all responsibility for th«
health of rhosa^ho insist on hearing thii thriller
IT'S A BLUE NETWORK PROGRAM