Originating in the Skirvin Tower Hotel studios of WKY in Oklahoma City,Dark Fantasywas an
anthology series in the Arch Oboler-Lights Outmold, with stories ranging from speculative
explorations of other dimensions to bloodcurdling exercises in spectral horror. George H.
Hamaker, the station’s continuity editor who waxed creative under the pseudonym “Scott
Bishop,” was the sole scriptwriter for the entire run of the series, and even managed to work
himself (a la Oboler) as a character into one of the episodes (the religious allegory “The House Of
Brede”).
NBC, smarting from an ASCAP music ban that left the networks short on late-night big band
remotes, snapped upDark Fantasyand another WKY series,Southern Rivers, for its Friday
evening line-up, where they ran for an eight-month period—much to the joy of the parent station
which lost no opportunity to publicly crow about its ascension to the “big league.” (According to
WKY press releases, Hamaker had previously written for network shows, so he was not without
experience on that level of programming.)
According toThe Oklahoman: “…WKY will demonstrate that it has reached full maturity by
inaugurating a series of programs Friday on the NBC red network…”(Oklahoman, 11/13/41) The
article professed: “Friday night it will become the first station outside of New York, Hollywood
and Chicago from which a dramatic production has been originated for the national chain.”
The Oklahomanpromoted the Friday the thirteenth episode from February 1942. According to
the paper: “Who-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o is scared of Friday the thirteenth? Not the cast of ‘Dark Fantasy,’
that weird and grisly horror drama…” (Oklahoman, 2/13/42) The article continues: When Author
Scott Bishop and Producer John Prosser noticed they had to present the thirteenth in their series
of blood-curlers on Friday the thirteenth, they determined to abandon caution entirely.
The episode’s title for this entry in the series was “W is for Werewolf.” Unfortunately, the series
didn’t capture a large enough audience and was cancelled by NBC in the early summer of 1942.
This didn’t stopThe Oklahomanfrom bragging about WKY’s achievement. In April 1944 the
paper reminds readers of the twenty-six week run of Dark Fantasy.
Capital Times(April 19, 1942).] "‘Dark Fantasy,’
radio's weirdest thriller series, heard late in the evenings over Station WIBA, was born in a
Chinese tea room late on the stormy night of Nov. 3. 1M1 while Scott Bishop, father of hundreds
of mystery novels, stories, and radio scripts, sat' drinking an iced, spiced tea concoction of his own
invention, with Radio Production Man John L Prosser in a haunt known as Yung Si Fa's.
“The darkly psychological conversation centered around mystery tales, with frequent references
to Poe, De Quincy, Blake, Coleridge and other masters of the craft. Bishop's mind kept turning on
the subject after he went home, so he sat down, and wrote a 30-minute script called ‘The Man
Who.Came Back.’ Next day Prosser and Bishop read the tale over in the cold light of morning,
decided it was good, got a dramatic cast together, made a recording and submitted it, still hot off
the infernal griddle, to the NBC-Red network program Department. Eleven days later ‘Dark
Fantasy’ had its premiere.
“On Friday, Apr. 24, ‘Dark Fantasy will present Bishop's 23rd original story of the series over
Station WIBA at 11:05 p.m. The title is ‘The Screaming Skulls.’
Asked recently why he thinks his type of mystery thriller has particular appeal for radio, Bishop
reasoned, “Granted that listeners enjoy a good whodunit yarn where all the facts have sound
reasons for existing, I think there is more fascination in the ‘Dark Fantasy’ type of tale where the
horror comes from things unusual or even supernatural. In this case, it is not the terror itself that
causes listeners’ hair to rise. It's the unseen, unaccountable cause of the terror.’”
WKY, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (NBC-RED).
November 14, 1941-June 19, 1942.
George H. Hamaker (scriptwriter—as “Scott Bishop”), Keith Painton (announcer), Tom
Paxton (announcer), John I. Prosser (producer).
Georgiana Banks, Eleanor Naylor Caughron, Minnie Jo Curtis, Muir Hite, Ben Morris, Garland
Moss, Alf Stanley, Fred Wayne.
All but four-and-a-half episodes of this series survive. (The missing half is the last
part of “Sleeping Death.”) The four missing titles are “The Soul Of Chen Hi Yuan” (11/21/41), “Karari”
(4/17/42), “The Screaming Skulls” (4/24/42), and “The Hearse With The Broken Wheel” (6/19/42). A half-
episode entitled “Séance,” which is a re-make of “A Delicate Case of Murder,” also exists; some log compilers
identify this with a June 19 date also.
DARK FANTASY (WKY, OKLAHOMA CITY—NBC-RED)
November 14, 1941“The Man Who Came Back”
November 21, 1941“The Soul of Chen Hi Yuan”
meeting with a strange old man, all furnish exciting drama…”]
[
The title of this story was cited (phonetically, perhaps) in aVarietyreview
as “The Soul of Shan-Hi-Wan.”]
November 28, 1941“The Thing from the Sea”
through the water with Ansau, last ruler of the renowned land of Mu, at
the helm…”]
December 5, 1941“The Demon Tree”
Nannau Woods’ in England…”]
December 19, 1941“Men Call Me Mad”
[
This play was originally scheduled for December 12, but was postponed a
week “due to the current war.” Originally announced for the date of the 19th was
“Three Lines of Old French,” described as “a strange story, told by a famous French
doctor about the first World war, but not a story of the war itself…”]
December 26, 1941“The House of Brede”
January 2, 1942“Resolution—1841”
January 9, 1942“The Curse of the Neanderthal”
January 16, 1942“Debt from the Past”
long standing ‘debt of honor’…”]
January 23, 1942“The Headless Dead”
January 30, 1942“Death Is a Savage Deity”
February 6, 1942“The Sea Phantom”
February 13, 1942“W Is for Werewolf”
February 20, 1942“A Delicate Case of Murder”
February 27, 1942“The Spawn of the Sub-Human”
March 6, 1942“The Man with the Scarlet Satchel”
March 13, 1942“Superstition Be Hanged”
March 20, 1942“Pennsylvania Turnpike”
to hitch-hike rides with gentlemen with red hair…”]
March 27, 1942“Convoy for Atlantis”
treasures that arise from the sea…”]
April 3, 1942“The Thing from the Darkness”
April 10, 1942“Edge of the Shadow”
April 17, 1942“Karari”
potion of terrible poison and designs an awesome destiny for his
enemies…”]
April 24, 1942“The Screaming Skulls”
death of a nobleman and his bride some hundred years ago…”]
May 1, 1942“The Letter from Yesterday”
attic of an ancient house they have rented, only to find a century-old
letter that affects both their lives…”]
May 8, 1942“The Cup of Gold”
holding a gold cup he has won at a golf tournament, and how that tragedy
is repeated with herself playing one of the leading roles…”]
May 15, 1942“Funeral Arrangements Completed”
bearing the names of two living persons…”]
[
The title of the story was originally announced as “Coffin for Two.”]
May 22, 1942“Dead Hands Reaching”
May 29, 1942“Rendezvous with Satan”
June 5, 1942“I Am Your Brother”
June 12, 1942“Sleeping Death”
[
Only the first half of this program survives.]
June 19, 1942“The Hearse with the Broken Wheel”
OCTOBER 31, 1950:
[Miami News—“Group Will Plan Stage Production”]
“Plans for the first Civic theater stage production will be announced at a
membership meeting tomorrow at 8 p.m. at the Miami Conservatory, 3900
Biscayne blvd.
“Auditions and rehearsals for a series of radio dramas, written byScott
Bishop, station WIOD program director, will also be arranged, according to
George Moffat, president.”
December 24, 1950“The House of Brede”
[
“… ‘The House of Bread [sic],’ a presentation
written especially for today byScott Bishop. It features the story of the
first Christmas and one in the 20th Century…”]
[
After the war, Hamaker, now working professionally under the Scott
Bishop name, became program director at WIOD.]
PERIODICALS:Times-Picayune