KING KONG
[MOTION-PICTURE]
[Hollywood Citizen-News, February 10, 1933] “Scenes from ‘King Kong,’ a Merian C. Cooper
production, will be given on the Hollywood on the Air program broadcast by KECA at 9:30. Fay
Wray, Bruce Cabot and Robert Armstrong, who played leading parts in this screen production
which was two years in the making, will be presented.”
[King Kong book] “…on February 10, 1933…RKO sponsored a thirty-minute radio program on
NBC advertising the movie. The program included sound and dialogue clips from the movie and
earned high ratings.”
ORIGINATION: KECA, Los Angeles, California.
DURATION: February 10, 1933.
PERSONNEL: Unknown.
CAST: Robert Armstrong, Bruce Cabot, Fay Wray.
EXTANT RECORDINGS: None.
HOLLYWOOD ON THE AIR (KECA, LOS ANGELES)
[Friday—9:30-10:00 PM]
Feb. 10, 1933 “Scenes from ‘King Kong’”
[“…Fantasy rules the lanes for a half-
hour period tonight when ‘Hollywood
on the Air’ observes ‘King Kong’
night. Colorful and exciting scenes
from this Weird Cooper production
will be presented during the
broadcast…”]
(WJZ, NEW YORK)
[Thursday—10:00-10:30 PM
March 2, 1933 “‘King Kong’ at Radio City”
[“…Sketch; Speakers: Lowell Thomas,
Daniel Frohman, Producer, and
others…”]
(KECA, LOS ANGELES)
[Friday—8:30-9:00 PM]
March 24, 1933 “Premiere of Motion Picture
‘King Kong’”
[“…Joel McCrea will be master of
ceremonies. Participants in the
broadcast are to include Marian
Cooper, Fay Wray, Bruce Cabot,
Louella Parsons and others…”]
KING KONG
[MOTION-PICTURE; RADIO-SERIAL]
“Paul Dumont, 5-foot-3 former announcer, plays the 8-foot-6 giant in the ‘King Kong’ radio
serial.”
ORIGINATION: WEAF, New York City, New York (NBC-RED).
DURATION: February 25-April 22, 1933.
PERSONNEL: William S. Rainey (scriptwriter, director).
CAST: Paul Dumont (King Kong), et al.
EXTANT RECORDINGS: None.
KING KONG (WEAF, NEW YORK)
[Saturday, Monday—6:30-6:45 PM]
Feb. 25, 1933 [1]
Feb. 27, 1933 [2]
March 4, 1933 [3]
March 6, 1933 [4]
March 11, 1933 [5]
March 13, 1933 [6]
March 18, 1933 [7]
March 20, 1933 [8]
March 25, 1933 [9]
March 27, 1933 [10]
April 1, 1933 [11]
April 3, 1933 [12]
April 8, 1933 [13]
April 10, 1933 [14]
April 15, 1933 [15]
April 22, 1933 [16]
Paul Dumont
KPO DRAMA GUILD—“EDGAR ALLAN POE SERIES”
[SHORT-STORIES; RADIO-SERIES]
Poe tales adapted by Lucy Cuddy.
ORIGINATION: KPO, San Francisco, California.
DURATION: June 1-22, 1931.
PERSONNEL: Mrs. John Cuddy (scriptwriter), Baldwin McGaw (director).
CASTS: Emma Knox, Barbara Lee, Baldwin McGaw, Victor Rodman.
EXTANT RECORDINGS: None.
KPO DRAMA GUILD—“EDGAR ALLAN POE SERIES” (KPO, SAN FRANCISCO)
[Monday—10:30-11:00 PM]
June 1, 1931 “The Gold Bug” [Part 1]
[Thursday—8:00-8:30 PM]
June 4, 1931 “The Gold Bug” [Part 2]
[Monday—10:30-11:00 PM]
June 8, 1931 “The Murders in the Rue
Morgue” [Part 1]
[Thursday—8:00-8:30 PM]
June 11, 1931 “The Murders in the Rue
Morgue” [Part 2]
[Monday—10:30-11:00 PM]
June 15, 1931 “The Fall of the House of
Usher”
[Thursday—8:00-8:30 PM]
June 18, 1931 “The Purloined Letter”
[Monday—10:30-11:00 PM]
June 22, 1931 “The Black Cat”
KPRC DRAMATIC PLAYERS—“TALES BY POE”
[SHORT-STORIES; RADIO-SERIES]
This was the first ambitious dramatic production of KPRC after the Houston station moved into
new headquarters on the mezzanine floor of the Lamar Hotel in 1934. Announcer Sylvester Gross
provided the creative impulse behind these series of Poe adaptations. “Harvey Allen’s revised and
republished Israfel has brought about an Edgar Allan Poe revival all over the country.”
In all, ten Poe stories were done on the series, ranging the gamut of the author’s work from…
Harry Bartell started his radio career in 1934 at KPRC in Houston. “I knew an announcer who
thought he was Arch Oboler and he started a series of midnight horror shows. Since everyone
worked cheap, I was in the cast. Prior to that time he had done a show that was 15-minute
versions of movies. The studios sent out scripts for the condensed version of pictures they were
showing. They were broadcast for free and all the actors and producer got tickets to the show...25
cents worth...that was my first professional wage.”
“My first exposure to KPRC was while they were still in the top floor of the Shell Building and
before they moved to the Lamar Hotel. I was there because of Sylvester Gross, who was a personal
friend and a fascinating announcer. He stammered rather badly in off-mike conversation but
could ad-lib by the hour without a mistake on the air… It was here that he became intrigued with
the idea of being producer-director-announcer-actor, a logical idea since there were no such
positions on staff for drama.
“Moving to the Lamar Hotel provided new impetus toward production.”
“I lost track of Sylvester when I left Houston but I think he was a suicide not too long after…”
ORIGINATION: KPRC, Houston, Texas.
DURATION: November 23, 1934-January 28, 1935.
PERSONNEL: Sylvester Gross (scriptwriter, director), Charles C. Hard (musical director),
Marvin Van Dusen (sound effects), Jules White (scriptwriter, director).
CASTS: Harry Bartel, et al.
[NOTE: No specific information was found concerning the identity of the actors in this series,
apart from Harry Bartell. But a newspaper item from April of 1935 listed the following as
members of the KPRC Dramatic Players: Forest Cannon, Cleo Stamm, Fort Pearson, Nita Ruthe
Wright, and Bernard Freeman.]
EXTANT RECORDINGS: None.
THE KPRC DRAMATIC PLAYERS (KPRC, HOUSTON)
[Friday—11:30 PM-12:00 MIDNIGHT]
Nov. 23, 1934 “The Black Cat”
Nov. 30, 1934 “The Fall of the House of
Usher”
[“…the story depicts the weird finale
of the last of the family of Ushers
and the ancestral family mansion.
The action is rapid and thrilling as
Usher, the mad master of the house,
changes mood frequently…”]
Dec. 7, 1934 “The Murders in the Rue
Morgue”
[Wednesday—9:30-10:00 PM]
Dec. 12, 1934 “The Case of Monsieur
Valdemar”
[“…The tale concerns a dying man
who is placed under a mesmeristic
spell and is thus suspended, neither
dead nor alive for a year…”]
Dec. 19, 1934 “Ligeia”
[“…Sylvester Gross and Jules White
have spent considerable time and
effort in adapting this little known
and weird Poe story for radio…”]
[Saturday—9:00-9:30 PM]
Dec. 29, 1934 “Hop Frog”
Jan. 5, 1935 “The Cask of Amontillado”
[Monday—10:15-10:45 PM]
Jan. 14, 1935
Jan. 21, 1935 “Berenice”
[Monday—10:30-11:00 PM]
Jan. 28, 1935 “The Tell-Tale Heart”
Sources for log information: Houston Chronicle, Houston Post
THE KYA MYSTERY PLAYERS—“TALES OF TERROR”
[SHORT-STORIES; RADIO-SERIES]
New productions at KYA of the series originally done on WINS in 1934. This was part of a co-
operative plan to share scripts between five Hearst-owned stations.
ORIGINATION: KYA, San Francisco, California.
DURATION: February ??-March 2, 1935.
PERSONNEL: H. C. Connette (director).
CASTS: Bob Anderson, Ray Leheney, Lynn Morley, Bill Packer.
EXTANT RECORDINGS: None.
THE KYA MYSTERY PLAYERS—“TALES OF TERROR” (KYA, SAN FRANCISCO)
[Saturday—7:30-8:00 PM]
Feb. 23, 1935 “The Fall of the House of
Usher”
March 2, 1935 “The Cask of Amontillado”
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