THE ALTAR OF HATE
[RADIO-SCRIPT]
Alonzo Deen Cole’s radio script borrows heavily from Balzac’s story “The Executioner,” but
transposes the story from the Napoleonic campaigns in Spain to the French Revolution and
imposes a supernatural denouement.
Cole himself maintained descent from an aristocratic family that was uprooted by the French
Revolution and the Reign of Terror. This motif of revolutionary bloodshed and cruelty informs a
number of his scripts, including “The Lady of the Guillotine” and “Physician to the Dead.”
[CHRONOLOGY]
THE WITCH’S TALE (WOR, NEW YORK)
[Wednesday—10:30-11:00 PM]
November 8, 1933 “The Altar”
PERSONNEL: Alonzo Deen Cole (scriptwriter, director).
THE WITCH’S TALE (KHJ, LOS ANGELES)
[Friday—9:30-10:00 PM]
October 11, 1935 “The Altar”
[“…A story of the French Revolutionary period… In it you will be told
about a son who was given his life but at the expense of becoming his
parents’ executioner.”]
THE WITCH’S TALE (WOR, NEW YORK)
[Thursday—10:30-11:00 PM]
January 13, 1938 “The Altar of Hate”
THE WITCH’S TALE (MACQUARIE, SYDNEY)
Circa 1941 “The Altar of Hate” [EXTANT RECORDING]