STRANGE TALES
[RADIO-SERIES]
Extremely short-lived anthology series on WHAM in Rochester…”broadcast from the studios of
WHAM…”
STRANGE TALES (WHAM, ROCHESTER)
[Monday—8:30-9:00 PM]
May 19, 1930 “The Monkey’s Paw”
[ROCHESTER DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE: “…At 8:30 o’clock this
evening WHAM inaugurates ‘Strange Tales,’ a new series of mysteries
and melodramas. ‘The Monkey’s Paw,’ by W. W. Jacobs, portraying a
clash between Hindoo mysticism and middle class skepticism, and the
consequent disaster to a little family living just outside of London, is the
first play to be presented…”]
CAST: Richard Brodhead, Harold E. Cowles, Hazel Cowles, Jesse Ogden, Jack
Ross.
May 26, 1930 “The Widow of Wasdale Head”
[ROCHESTER DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE: “…fantasy in one act by Sir
Arthur Wing Pinero, noted English playwright, will be heard as the
second in the new series of dramatic productions known as ‘Strange
Tales’…. Romance as well as mystery is incorporated in the drama…”]
CAST: Richard Brodhead, Hazel Cowles, Jack Lee, Jesse Ogden, Jacob Ross.
June 2, 1930 NYT
June 9, 1930 NYT
SWEENEY TODD
[FOLK-LEGEND; STAGE-PLAY]
JULY 13, 1925:
[Kingston Daily Freeman—“Only Legends Tell About Sweeney Todd”]
“A report to the effect that the house on Fleet street, London, formerly occupied by Sweeney Todd
has been discovered gives rise to the question: ‘Who is Sweeney Todd?’ He was rather a mythical
person and his existence is accounted for largely by unproved legends. The story goes that
Sweeney Todd was a barber of Fleet street, who had an unpleasant way with his customers. For,
according to tradition, if anyone came for a shave who looked worth robbing, he would seat the
man in a chair which would presently capsize and throw the occupant into a well or vault below.
There, it was said, he would rob the unfortunate fellow and afterward dispose of the body to a
confederate who kept a pie shop in the adjoining house, whose bakehouse communicated with the
vaults of St. Dunstan’s church. While the legend says that Todd was hanged at Tyburn, the annals
of Newgate have nothing about him. But Sweeney Todd was sufficiently famous to figure in many
old ballads and melodramas.”
DECEMBER 12, 1940:
[Salt Lake Tribune—“Screen’s Top Villainess, But Hates It” by Alexander Kahn]
“If you hate Rafaela Ottiano, one of the screen's better villainesses, you are not alone in your
attitude—for Miss Ottiano hates herself. So thoroughly does she dislike herself as she appears on
the screen that she doesn't even see the daily "rushes" and even waits a long time, sometimes six
months or a year, before she sees a picture in which she has appeared.
"‘I can't look myself in the face,’ laments Miss Ottiano, who currently is playing the part of a
sinister housekeeper in the Hal Roach mystery-comedy, ‘Topper Returns.’ ‘If they ever give me a
chance to play a nicer character, I might get over the idea that I'm such a detestable person. But I
don't suppose I'll ever have the chance. And I feel that if I'm destined to be a menace, I might as
well do a workmanlike job of it.’
“And she does. For when Miss Ottiano steps into a scene, the audience immediately knows she
is bad. That reaction brands Miss Ottiano as a dyed-in-the-wool, full-time menace.
“In fact , she can put more menace in a simple act, like winding a clock, than most other actors
could while strangling a child.
“Miss Ottiano says that frequently persons meeting her for the first time face to face are uneasy.
"‘They act as if I were carrying a concealed weapon,’ she says. ‘That's all right with me. It is
something of a testimonial to my work as a screen villainess.’"
(WOR, NEW YORK)
[Monday—3:30-3:50 PM] ???
July 21, 1924 “Sweeney Todd or The String of Pearls”
[BRIDGEPORT TELEGRAM: “…Scenes from the English melodrama
‘Sweeney Todd or The String of Pearls,’ now playing at the Frazee
Theater, New York City…”]
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