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
[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.”
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.”
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.
February 11, 1930
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…”]
July 29, 1932“White Zombie”
January 22, 1933
[
“…John Henry, this evening, will wander into the
hut of a conjure woman and demonstrate his remarkable powers...”
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…”
[
“…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!...”]
Geraldine Garrick, Juano Hernandez (adapted from the book by Roark
Bradford).
Juano Hernandez (John Henry), Rose McClendon, et al.
Ca. 1933“Dead Men Walking”
December 3, 1934“Mystery of the Zombie”
(MACGREGOR TRANSCRIPTION DISC, SAN FRANCISCO)
Ca. 1934“Dead Men Walk”
March 8, 1936“The Restless Dead”
back and impressed into earthly labor…”]
August 25, 1936
African jungle…”]
[
Oct. 27, 1936“The Restless Dead”
the surgeon is killed by the ghost of the Haitian patient who had hexed
him prior to dying…”]
November 2, 1937
The Inside Story of Zombies”]
[
“…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…”]
[
“…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…”]
[
“… ‘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…”]
March 22, 1939
‘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…”]
April 18, 1939“The Living Dead”
novelist and adventurer, will discuss
what he learned during a year of
investigating voodooism in Haiti and
Africa…”]
June 4, 1940
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’…”]
(
April 20, 1941
tale of voodooism…”]
[
“…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 byJuano 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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