ZERO HOUR
[RADIO-SERIES]
Broadcast in 1937 over the station of the Los Angeles Evening Herald and
Express (which was also the L.A. outlet for the six-station chain known as the
California Radio System), this series received scant attention in the radio pages of
its own newspaper, except for the occasional “try ending your day with a chill”
comment. “A gruesome half hour is promised to dialers who tune into KEHE at
10:30.”
The important question to be answered is whether Carlos del Prado was
involved with this program at all. He had just finished up his Lost Legends series
for KEHE in mid-June and was presumably in a state of transition as he prepared
to take over the duties of continuity chief (and Black Chapel writer) at KNX. Were
any of the Zero Hour scripts his? Possibly adapted/expanded from the Lost
Legends scripts?
ORIGINATION: KEHE, Los Angeles, California (CRS).
DURATION: July 4-August 29, 1937.
PERSONNEL: Unknown.
EXTANT RECORDINGS: None.
ZERO HOUR (KEHE, LOS ANGELES)
[Sunday—10:30-11:00 PM]
July 4, 1937
[“…The central character in the tale
to be related is an insane surgeon.”]
July 11, 1937
July 18, 1937
July 25, 1937 “Gloomy Sunday”
[“…based on the now famous
Hungarian suicide song…”]
Aug. 1, 1937
Aug. 8, 1937
[“…a weird tale of a man who
commits two almost perfect
crimes…”]
Aug. 15, 1937
[“…will revolve around an asylum for
criminal insane. The story is said to
concern a man who wishes to get
revenge on the managing director of
the asylum…”]
Aug. 22, 1937
Aug. 29, 1937
“ZOMBIE” BROADCASTS
[FOLK-LEGENDS; RADIO-MISCELLANY]
Zombies first entered into American popular culture with the publication of Wiliam Seabrook’s
non-fiction account of his Haitian explorations, The Magic Island, published in 192? by
[publisher?].
[Sheboygan Press, March 23, 1928] “Into the Black Haunts of Voodoo”—“An unusual American
recently emerged from the jungles of Haiti where he was the first white man ever admitted by
blood rite to the Lagba voodooists’ cult. He saw the ‘dead’ reawaken…lived for months with
strange jungle negros…observed weird mutilations of the dead…the horrifying mixture of witch
potions.”
[Ben Wasson, Delta Democrat-Times, February 15, 1976] “…when I first was in New York City it
was my privilege to know William Seabrook whose hair-raising study of Haiti disclosed, at least
according to his controversial account, that he had actually seen a group of these living dead
working on a farm field on the island. Following a dinner one night, Seabrook had a group of us
goggle-eyed as he told his stories—lurid, yes—of Haiti and the facts about Voodoo.”
[“Voodoo Programs Can Be Expected From Clark’s Pen.” San Antonio Light (September 8,
1929)] “Donald Clark, manager of the continuity department of the Columbia Broadcasting
system, has just returned from the West Indies where he made exhaustive studies of Voodoo.
What he learned there is to be incorporated into a dramatic series which will be heard over KTSA
and stations of the Columbia network this fall.”
See also: WHITE ZOMBIE.
CAPTAIN ADAMS (KFRC, SAN FRANCISCO)
[Tuesday—9:30-10:00 PM]
February 11, 1930
[“…South Sea Island magic, called Zombi, which, according to
superstition, enables certain persons to raise the dead forms the basis of
the Captain Adams story… An interesting feature of this program will be
the authentic chants and drum rhythms which the author, John Eugene
Hasty, has obtained through much research work…”]
THE NORTHERN DRAMATIC CO. (WOL, WASHINGTON)
[Friday—8:30-8:45 PM]
July 29, 1932 “White Zombie”
JOHN HENRY—BLACK RIVER GIANT (WABC, NEW YORK)
[Sunday—8:00-8:15 & 8:45-9:00 PM]
January 22, 1933
[SAN ANTONIO LIGHT: “…John Henry, this evening, will wander into the
hut of a conjure woman and demonstrate his remarkable powers...”
[“…Tonight’s adventures of the amazing creature of Negro folklore will
take him to the hut of the ‘conjure woman,’ where he makes good his
boast that he knows plenty about conjuring. The giant makes good to
such an extent that he brings the cabin down in ruins upon all within…”
[SYRACUSE HERALD (April 2, 1933): “…It is Juano Hernandez who takes
the part of ‘John Henry’ in the radio adaptation of Roark Bradford’s
book, heard every Sunday night… It’s quite mystifying and dramatic to
watch him at work. There was a scene in a past incident in which ‘John
Henry’ was to call the ‘spirits.’ That Sunday everybody in the studio felt
eerie when his deep voice began Voodoo chants, and the drums began to
beat. The production man and the engineer expected to see ghosts of
dead chieftains of the Congo tribes come trooping into the very
studio!...”]
SCRIPT: Geraldine Garrick, Juano Hernandez (adapted from the book by Roark
Bradford).
CAST: Juano Hernandez (John Henry), Rose McClendon, et al.
STRANGE ADVENTURES IN STRANGE LANDS (TRANSCO TRANSCRIPTION DISC,
LOS ANGELES)
Ca. 1933 “Dead Men Walking”
EXTANT RECORDING
UNSOLVED MYSTERIES (KHJ, LOS ANGELES)
[Monday—7:45-8:00 PM]
December 3, 1934 “Mystery of the Zombie”
[“…A story of the terrifying voodoo magic of the natives of Haiti…”]
THE THRILL HUNTER (MACGREGOR TRANSCRIPTION DISC, SAN FRANCISCO)
Ca. 1934 “Dead Men Walk”
TERROR BY NIGHT (WABC, NEW YORK—CBS)
[Sunday—10:00-10:30 PM]
March 8, 1936 “The Restless Dead”
[“…Chief characters are a group of Zombies, ghoulish persons brought
back and impressed into earthly labor…”]
THE PHILIP MORRIS PROGRAM (WEAF, NEW YORK—NBC RED)
[Tuesday—8:30-9:00 PM]
August 25, 1936
[“…William Seabrook, author, tells how modern ‘Magic’ saved him in
African jungle…”]
SATAN HAS A GUEST (C??, TORONTO)
[
Oct. 27, 1936 “The Restless Dead”
[“…Satan relates how a surgeon and his wife visit a doctor in Haiti and
the surgeon is killed by the ghost of the Haitian patient who had hexed
him prior to dying…”]
THE PHILIP MORRIS PROGRAM (WEAF, NEW YORK—NBC RED)
[Tuesday—8:30-9:00 PM]
November 2, 1937 [“The Inside Story of Zombies”]
[LIMA NEWS: “…The inside story of ‘zombies’—Haiti’s ‘Living-dead’ will
be dramatized as Charles Martin’s ‘Thrill of the Week’ on Johnny the Call
Boy’s program… And the first ‘zombie’ ever to broadcast, Juano Hobez,
will be presented at the microphone. Robez’s claim is that he was a
‘zombie’ for sixteen years, but finally ‘repossessed’ his soul…”]
[PARIS NEWS: “…Zombie! And a guest star at that. When the Johnny
Presents program…comes on Tuesday evening, the ‘thrill of the week’
section will be devoted to those hazy, Dracula-like creatures known to
Gulf stream islanders as zombies. For those of you who don’t know, a
zombie is the same thing to a Haitian resident as a spiritualist’s assistant
is to a New Orleans Negro—he’s a spook who’s come back to life. The
story goes that zombies are dead persons who’ve been brought back into
this sometimes boring world to stir up excitement for island natives who
haven’t had the opportunity of dying. Further, it’s in the story that
zombies are re-created by native witch doctors and that they wander
soulless throughout the hemispheres of the world. But back to the
Tuesday evening program, we find that the guest star rage will bring
Juano Hobez, reputedly a zombie for 16 years, to the airways to tell all
about how he zombied around. He’s repossessed his soul, he says, so he
won’t bite the microphone unless he suddenly gets rezombied…”]
[OAKLAND TRIBUNE (Jack Burroughs): “… ‘Zombies,’ the ‘living dead’ of
Haiti, will be the subject of Charles Martin’s ‘Thrill of the Week’…
Tonight Juano Hobez, who claims that he was a ‘Zombie’ for 16 years but
finally ‘regained possession of his soul,’ will be a guest on the program.
This is supposed to be the first time one of those living dead men has
ever broadcast, but I wonder. I’ve been listening to radio programs for a
good many years, and I’ve heard a few that were not exactly overflowing
with vitality…”]
HOBBY LOBBY (WJZ, NEW YORK—NBC BLUE)
[Wednesday—8:30-9:00 PM]
March 22, 1939
[“…William Seabrook—author of
‘Asylum,’ ‘Magic Island,’ and other
best sellers—heads the list of guests
on Dave Elman’s ‘Hobby Lobby,’
explaining his particular hobby: Black
magic and African voodooism…”]
THE INSIDE STORY (WJZ, NEW YORK)?
[Tuesday—
April 18, 1939 “The Living Dead”
[“…William B. Seabrook, noted
novelist and adventurer, will discuss
what he learned during a year of
investigating voodooism in Haiti and
Africa…”]
WE THE PEOPLE (WABC, NEW YORK—CBS)
[Tuesday—8:00-8:30 PM]
June 4, 1940
[“…Stories of the ‘zombies,’ the living
dead of Haiti’s voodooland who
according to superstitious legend are
supposed to be actual persons
resurrected from the grave, will be told
by the noted author, William
Seabrook on Gabriel Heatter’s ‘We the
People’…”]
BEHIND THE MIKE (
[Sunday—
April 20, 1941
[“…Juano Hernandez, Negro, spins a
tale of voodooism…”]
[YOUNGSTOWN VINDICATOR: “…A tale of vodooism so potent that it
broke a spell which controlled a radio listener, will be told during ‘Behind
the Mike.’ It was originally presented by Juano Hernandez, colored
writer and actor, on one of Rudy Vallee’s radio programs. He is to do only
part of it this time…”]
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