Lights Out: Cat Wife -– ComicWeb Old Time Radio

ComicWeb Old Time Radio
Program: Lights Out
Episode: Cat Wife
Original Airdate: 06/17/1936

ComicWeb's Youtube channel features old movie cliffhanger serials and old time radio programs.
Visit www.comicweb.com for more!

“Lights Out Everybody”
If it was midnight Wednesday, the radio was tuned to NBC for Lights Out, a show that featured tales of the supernatural and the supernormal. It was the first of the horror/suspense radio shows, predating Inner Sanctum and Suspense.

At first, the show was first written by Wyllis Cooper, he emphasized great sound effects and gripping stories. In 1936 Arch Oboler took over the writing and he brought the show through its huge successes. Hit stories like Cat Wife and Chicken Heart (and if you get a chance, listen to Bill Cosby’s comedy routine on the Chicken Heart) still evoke memories today. The stories called for all sorts of horror: breaking bones, blood dripping, heads being severed, and who can forget human flesh being eaten. The glory of the show was that they had a sound effects team up to the challenge. But rather than actually kill people for the show, they experimented and found out that a soaked rag thrown against a wall sounded like a body slamming against pavement, maple syrup sounded like blood, and so on and so on. The stories are also notable for the chances that Oboler took, he played with first person narratives, stream of consciousness. In short, he pushed the envelope of what radio could deliver.

The show had such a following that when NBC tried to cancel the show in 1937 fans protested in the hundreds and kept the show going. Similar to Star Trek in the 1960s.

Lights Out ran from 1934 through 1939. Then it went through several reboots, each less successful then the previous one. The last radio show aired in 1947. Then Lights Out was on television from 1949-1952.

It..is..later..than..you..think