THE BLACK MASS
[RADIO-SERIES]
”Ah, there you are on the outer fringes…Come into the inner circle of the Black
Mass.”
It would not be overstatement to characterize Erik Bauersfeld as “the father of
modern radio drama.” No one has toiled more vigorously in the perpetuation and
the revitalization of the art form.
Erik Bauersfeld can genuinely be considered the “father of modern radio
drama” for his ground-breaking work at KFKA in Berkley in the 1960s. His
literature-based horror series The Black Mass reinvented the genre with new
production and editing techniques while tackling everything from the terrors of
Poe and Lovecraft to works of psychological and spiritual malais by authors such
as Kafka, Tolstoi and Camus.
Erik Bauersfeld brought his tremendous talents as a narrator to this highly
literary series of the Pacifica network.
[John Whiting] “Black Mass was born in 1963, the brain-child of Jack Nessel,
who was the Drama & Literature Director at KPFA in Berkeley, the first
voluntarily listener-sponsored non-commercial FM station in the world. (The
BBC was compulsorily supported by a government-imposed license system.)
Jack suggested the idea to Erik Bauersfeld, who taught aesthetics and philosophy
at the California School of Fine Art, and had recently begun to do readings of
classic and modern literature for the station. Erik was not wildly enthusiastic, but
thought that it might be interesting to search out some of the best stories of the
supernatural by first-rate authors who did not normally write within that genre.
Obligation soon became obsession.
“I was the station's Production Director at the time and had already produced
some rather elaborate radio dramas. Jack, already a friend before he joined the
station, was aware of my childhood fondness for horror stories and suggested
that I collaborate with Erik. Thus was born one of the most fruitful creative
relationships in my life and, to this day, one of my closest friendships.
“A working pattern quickly evolved which thenceforth never varied. Erik would
edit the stories to a workable length and, as resources permitted, adapt the dialog
to a dramatic format. I would then record him reading the text in the studio, with
or without other actors, and he would take the tapes away to edit, which he did
himself, often piecing them together word by word from almost infinite retakes.
“Once the text was assembled, we would reserve a night in the main studio to
put the program together with music and sound effects. Sometimes these were
plotted in advance in great detail, sometimes not. Usually I would have a chance
to hear the voice track before the production session.
“Because of extreme demands on studio time, each adaptation was begun in the
early evening, after the news had gone out, and carried on until it was completed,
usually some time in the wee small hours. The most remarkable aspect of this
collaboration was that we soon discovered that, when it came to radio
production, we had a single brain between us. When Erik made a suggestion, I
immediately saw that it was the obvious way to proceed; when I suggested a sonic
framework, Erik would declare that it was exactly what he had had in mind. At
the end of the session, we always left the studio with a tape which either of us
would have been glad to put his exclusive name to. The happiest moments of all
were between about 2 and 4 a.m., when we retired to Eric's apartment in the
Berkeley hills and quietly drank our way into oblivion on Erik's excellent
Tanquerey-based gimlets, knowing in our hearts that we had produced yet
another masterpiece.
“Half a lifetime later, having spent years working with multi-track recorders,
I'm convinced that the character of those productions owed much to the fact that
we had only four mono Ampexes and two transcription turntables to work with.
Long sequences which could not be edited together had to be assembled live as
we went along, with sequences of cues spliced together on several machines ready
to be dropped in as needed. Nor did we have the crews of technicians which were
available to the BBC and the networks - if it couldn't be done with two pairs of
hands, we had to think of something else. Such disciplines are perhaps analogous
to the constraints placed upon the composer of a string quartet, and an indication
of why this austere genre has always been held in such high esteem.
“One thing that Erik and I were agreed on was that the text was sacred: no story
was to be altered in plot, in substance, or in diction. We were convinced that “too
close to the original” was a compliment, not a criticism. One great freedom which
this gave us was that our radio dramas were allowed to move seamlessly from
dialog to monologue, in and out of the head of the narrator. To this day I have
rarely heard text treated with such freedom and flexibility: the conventions of
radio, television and film all demand that dialog be created out of nothing to
convey inner realities which become stilted and superficial as soon as they are
forced into the straightjacket of conversation.
“This discipline led to what I still believe to be one of the best radio dramatic
productions I've ever heard: Gogol's “Diary of a Madman”. The action takes place
entirely inside the head of the protagonist, slipping back and forth between inner
monologue and a sequence of dialogues which may themselves be mere
inventions. To compound the paradox, Erik split the schizophrenic personality of
the narrator between two actors - himself and Bernard Mayes - so that
monologue became dialogue and dialogue monologue. Like the narrator,
immersed in fantasy, you were never quite certain where you were.
“Winding like vines around these fragments was a musical sound track
assembled by Charles Shere, KPFA's Music Director. (Charles went on to become
not only a fine composer, but also the author of important books on several of
America's most interesting composers, as well as a director of Chez Pannise,
Berkeley's great restaurant.) Long before “sampling”, this music was a closely
interwoven tapestry of fragments from familiar and half-familiar compositions,
echoing the confused eclecticism of the narrator's own brain.”
Four stories came from the 1959 anthology, The Pan Book of Horror Stories:
Nigel Kneale’s “Oh, Mirror, Mirror,” Bram Stoker’s “The Squaw,” Anthony
Vercoe’s “Flies,” and Alan Wykes’ “Nightmare.” (“Flies” is described: “A starving
tramp breaks into a vacant Elizabethan house in Holborn, and is transported
back in time to the height of the Great Plague.
Variant dates appear in various logs of this series, due in large part to confusion
between the original KPFA broadcasts and the KPFK repeats.
The KPFK repeats were sometimes broadcast under the title The Grand Guignol
of the Air.
KPFK Saturday, August 28, 1965? 10:10 THE BOARDED WINDOW: Grand
Guignol of the Air returns with this production of Ambrose Bierce's chiller.
“KPFK: Sunday, March 15 10:15 BLACK MASS: Beginning this loathsome ritual
on a bi-weekly basis in conformance with FCC rules of balanced programming.
Erik Baursfeld conducts the service consisting of cautionary tales, lore and
occasional formulae. Today: Evening Primrose by John Collier. This series is
produced by Jack Nessel; technical production by Fred Seiden. both of KPFA.”
[Program information]
ORIGINATION: KPFA, Berkeley, California (Pacifica Radio)
DURATION: October 26 1963-January 27, 1968.
PERSONNEL: Erik Bauersfeld (adaptor, director, host), Jack Nessel
(production supervisor), Fred Seiden (technical production), John Whiting
(technical production), Peter Winkler (music—“The Haunted House”).
CASTS: Erik Bauersfeld, Jan Dawson, Pat Franklyn, Michael C. Gwynne, Larry
Madin, Bernard Mayes, Donald Page, Marian Winch, et al.
EXTANT RECORDINGS: “All Hallows” (10/26/63), “Evening Primrose”
(11/??/63), “The Flies” (12/7/63), “The Ash Tree” (12/21/63), “An Evening’s
Entertainment” (4/4/64), “The Rats in the Walls” (7/18/64), “The Squaw”
(8/14/65), “The Dream of a Ridiculous Man” (7/23/66), “Oil of Dog” (10/1/66),
“The Country Doctor” (10/1/66), “The Legend of the Island of Falles” (1/28/67),
“The Judgment,” “The Renegade,” “Bartleby the Schrivener,” “MS. Found in a
Bottle” / “The Man of the Crowd,” “The Boarded Window” / “The Haunted
House,” “Oh Mirror Mirror” / “Oil of Dog,” “The Jolly Corner,” “Esme” / “Sheeta
and Cusiba,” “The Feeder,” “The Imp of the Perverse” / “The Tell-Tale Heart,”
“Proof Positive” / “The Witch of the Willows,” “The Outsider,” “The Diary of a
Madman,” “Atrophy,” “The Moonlit Road,” “The Death of Halpin Frazer,” “A
Predicament,” “Nightmare,” “Tales by Lord Dunsany: Lobster Salad / The
Workman / How the Enemy Came to Tiunrana / The Dream of King Karna-
Vootra / Charon.”
[NOTE: Previously it had been thought that all of the Black Mass broadcasts were
circulating among collectors, but now it appears that at least one is not available.
This is the November 27, 1965 adaptation of “Lazarus” by Leonid Andreyev.]
[Program log]
THE BLACK MASS (KPFA, BERKELEY)
[Saturday—11:35 PM-12:20 AM]
October 26, 1963 “All Hallows”
[“…Not witchcraft, but fiction. Erik Bauersfeld, with
technical assistance by John Whiting, reads Walter de la
Mare’s ‘All Hallows,’ an account of a cathedral possessed by
demonic forces…”]
[Saturday—11:30 PM- ]
November 9, 1963 “Evening Primrose” (John Collier)
[Saturday—12:05 AM- ]
November 23, 1963
[Saturday—12:00 MIDNIGHT- ]
December 7, 1963 “The Flies” (Anthony Vercoe)
[Saturday—11:45 PM-12:25 AM]
December 21, 1963 “The Ash Tree”
[“…M. R. James’ ‘The Ash Tree,’ adapted and performed by
Erik
Bauersfeld, with Marian Winch as Mrs. Chiddock…”]
[Saturday—11:55 PM-12:20 AM]
January 4, 1964 “The Squaw”
[“…Grand Guignol radio, based on a short story by Bram
Stoker, and performed by Erik Bauersfeld and Jan
Dawson…”]
[Saturday—11:45 PM- ]
January 18, 1964 “Nightmare”
[“…by Alan Wykes…”]
[Saturday—12:00 MIDNIGHT-12:45 AM]
February 1, 1964 “Six Tales by Lord Dunsany: Lobster Salad / The
Workman / The Charm Against Thirst / How the
Enemy Came To Thlunrana / The Dream of King
Karna-Vootra / Charon”
[“…Six Tales by Lord Dunsany is performed by Erik
Bauersfeld and Bernard Mayes in a production by John
Whiting…”]
[Saturday—11:45 PM- ]
February 15, 1964 “The Boarded Window” / “Oh Mirror, Mirror” (Nigel
Kneale)
[Saturday—11:30 PM-12:00 MIDNIGHT]
February 29, 1964 “All Hallows”
[Saturday—12:00 MIDNIGHT-12:30 AM]
March 14, 1964 “Oil of Dog”
April 4, 1964 “An Evening’s Entertainment” (M. R. James)
[Saturday—12:00 MIDNIGHT-12:45 AM]
April 11, 1964 “Lights Out, Everyone”
[This was not a regular Black Mass program, but a playing of
the Capitol record album Drop Dead!, produced by Arch
Oboler and featuring horror vignettes and shortened
versions of two of his original scripts for Lights Out.]
[Saturday—12:00 MIDNIGHT-12:30 AM]
April 25, 1964
[Saturday—11:00-11:30 PM]
May 9, 1964
[Saturday—11:15-11:45 PM]
May 23, 1964 “The Death of Halpin Frayser” (Ambrose Bierce)
[Saturday—11:00-11:30 PM]
June 6, 1964 “Proof Positive” (Graham Greene)
[Saturday—11:30 PM- ]
June 20, 1964 “A Predicament” / “The Tell-Tale Heart”
[Saturday—12:00 MIDNIGHT- ]
July 4, 1964 “Disillusionment” (Thomas Mann) / “The Feeder” (Carl
Linder)
[Saturday—11:30 PM- ]
July 18, 1964 “The Rats in the Walls” (H.P. Lovecraft)
August 1, 1964 “MS Found in a Bottle” / “The Imp of the Perverse”
August 15, 1964 “A Country Doctor” (Franz Kafka)
August 29, 1964
[Repeat broadcast; title unknown.]
September 12, 1964 “Esme” / “The Witch of the Willows”
[“…Saki’s Esme and Lord Dunsany’s The Witch of the
Willows with Bernard Mayes and Pat Franklyn, adapted by
Eric Bauersfeld…”]
September 26, 1964
October 10, 1964 “Atrophy”
[“…adapted from a story by J. Anthony West, with Bernard
Mayes as George and Pat Franklyn as Marjory. Technical
production by Fred Seiden…”]
[Saturday—11:15 PM- ]
October 31, 1964 “An Evening’s Entertainment”
[“…adapted by Erik Bauersfeld, with Pat Franklyn, Arlene
Sagan, Marian Winch, Bernard Mayes, Don lePage, and
Frank Laverd. Technical production by John Whiting…”]
[Saturday—11:30 PM- ]
November 7, 1964 “Renegade”
[“…Erik Bauersfeld in a virtuoso performance of Albert
Camus’ story about a missionary driven mad by the natives
he was sent to convert…”]
November 21, 1964 “The Jolly Corner”
[“…Another Grand Guignol radio play, adapted by Erik
Bauersfeld from the short story by Henry James…”]
December 5, 1964
December 19, 1964 “Diary of a Madman”
[“…Adapted by Erik Bauersfeld from the short story by
Nikolai Gogol. Performed by Bauersfeld, Bernard Mayes, and
Pat Franklyn, with technical production by John Whiting,
and music prepared by Charles Shere…”]
January 2, 1965
January 16, 1965
January 30, 1965
February 13, 1965
February 27, 1965
March 13, 1965
March 27, 1965
April 10, 1965
April 24, 1965
May 8, 1965
May 22, 1965
June 5, 1965
June 19, 1965
July 3, 1965
July 17, 1965
July 31, 1965 “The Rats in the Walls”
August 14, 1965 “The Squaw”
August 28, 1965
September 11, 1965
[Saturday—11:15 PM- ]
September 25, 1965
[Saturday—11:30 PM- ]
October 2, 1965
October 16, 1965
October 30, 1965
[Saturday—11:00 PM- ]
November 27, 1965 “Lazarus”
(adapted by Howard Kerr from the short story by Leonid
Andreyev)
February 19, 1966
April 16, 1966
June 11, 1966
June 25, 1966
July 23, 1966 “The Dream of a Ridiculous Man” (Fyodor Dostoevsky)
October 1, 1966 “Oil of Dog” (Ambrose Bierce) / “The Country Doctor”
(Franz Kafka)
November 12, 1966
[Saturday—11:30 PM- ]
January 28, 1967 “The Legend of the Island of Falles” (Betty Sandbrook)
February 25, 1967
April 29, 1967
May 27, 1967
[Saturday—11:00-PM-12:00 MIDNIGHT]
June 24, 1967
[Saturday—11:15 PM-12:15 AM]
July 29, 1967
[Saturday—11:00 PM-12:00 MIDNIGHT]
September 30, 1967
October 28, 1967
[Saturday—11:30 PM-12:15 AM]
November 25, 1967
[Saturday—11:45 PM-12:15 AM]
December 30, 1967
[Saturday—11:30 PM-12:00 MIDNIGHT]
January 27, 1968
OLD RADIO THEATRE (KPFA, BERKELEY)
[Friday—10:00-11:00 PM]
July 20, 1973 “The Black Mass”
[“…host Bud Cary welcomes The Black Mass and its
producer, Erik Bauersfeld, to spend an hour discussing this
series. We will hear selections from ‘The Flies,’ ‘The Rats in
the Walls,’ ‘A Predicament,’ ‘The Diary of a Madman,’ and
‘The Dream of a Ridiculous Man’…”]
SOMETHING’S HAPPENING! (KPFK, LOS ANGELES)
[Monday—12:00 MIDNIGHT- AM]
January 26, 1981 “The Haunter of the Dark”
[“…by H. P. Lovecraft… Erik Bauersfeld presents a special
‘Black Mass’ made especially for this program…”]
Extant shows without known broadcast dates:
“Bartleby, the Shrivener” (Herman Melville)
“The Boarded Window” (Ambrose Bierce) / “A Haunted
House” (Virginia Woolf)
“Candaules, Commissioner” (Daniel C. Jerrold, adapted
from the writings of Herodotus and Plato)
“Esme” (Saki) (7/29/64???)
“The Imp of the Perverse” (Edgar Allan Poe)
“The Judgment” (Franz Kafka)
“The Man of the Crowd” / “Ms. Found in a Bottle”
(Edgar Allan Poe)
“The Moonlit Road (Ambrose Bierce)
“The Outsider” (H. P. Lovecraft) (11/20/68???)
“Proof Positive” (Graham Greene)
“Shiddah and Kusiba” (Isaac Bashevis Singer)
(10/16/63???)
“Witch of the Willows” (Lord Dunsany)