Arch Oboler Real Shows
After this list was created, "What The Devil" 42-10-06 has also been found.
Date: Tue, 9 Mar 2004 12:07:58 -0500
From: "Martin Grams, Jr." <>
To:
Subject: LIGHTS OUT new episode fraud
George Aust commented:
I have a puzzlement! I have a "Lights Out" episode entitled "Nobody Died".
The tape is from Metacom and is dated only 1939. The only log that I can
find ( Jerry Haendiges) shows "Nobody Died" as being from 12-9-36 and also
that it is not available. I can't find that it was repeated later as some
other scripts were. Anybody know something about this?
Sure do. George has fallen victim to the horrible "copy cat" problem that
plagues OTR (but thankfully, little by little, is being shut down). What
George has is a fake recording. I'll explain by going in chronological
order starting in 1938. The following are the only Arch Oboler/Lights Out
broadcasts known to exist in recorded form.
LIGHTS OUT (third, fourth and fifth season)
7/13/38 A Room for the Night
5/12/37 Organ
12/22/37 Uninhabited (also known as the Christmas Story)
3/23/38 The Dream (later dramatized under a different title, "Kill" on
4/20/43)
The March 23, 1938 broadcast is also known as "Darrell Hall's Thoughts"
4/6/38 Cat Wife (with Boris Karloff)
5/11/38 It Happened (also known as Call Her Jean)
4/26/39 The Devil's Due
ARCH OBOLER'S PLAYS (this was the series Oboler wrote, produced and
directed)
3/25/39 The Ugliest Man in the World
4/1/39 Mirage
4/15/39 Three short plays: Memorium, Humbug (aka Laughing Man) and Sole
Survivor
4/29/39 The Cliff
5/6/39 The Engulfed Cathedral
5/20/39 Crazy Town
6/10/39 Nero's Wife
6/17/39 The Immortal Gentleman
7/8/39 The Ivory Tower
7/29/39 Another World (also known as The Voice Within Me)
12/16/39 Nobody Died (this is what George mentioned he had)
12/30/39 This Precious Freedom
1/13/40 The Truth
1/27/40 Three plays: Back to the Indians, The Day the Sun Exploded and The
Laughing Man
3/9/40 Johnny Got his Gun
3/16/40 The Most Dangerous Game
Now for a few notes: The 6/3/39 broadcast doesn't really exist. The June 3
broadcast featured three short dramas, one of them was entitled "Steel
Worker." The drama "Steel Worker" was featured on an episode of the Rudy
Vallee program in the mid-1930s with Raymond Edward Johnson and someone
snipped that drama out of the Rudy Vallee recording and have been selling it
as a "partially existing recording" of the June 3, 1939 ARCH OBOLER'S PLAYS.
So collectors keep thinking what they have is a partial recording of the
6/3/39 broadcast but what they really have is the drama as it was broadcast
on the Rudy Vallee show.
EVERYMAN'S THEATER
10/11/40 This Precious Freedom
10/18/40 Cat Wife
10/25/40 And Adam Begot
11/8/40 I'll Tell My Husband
11/15/40 The Flying Yorkshireman
12/20/40 The Women Stayed Home
1/24/41 Of Human Bondage
1/31/41 Madame Affamee
2/21/41 Mr. Ginsburg
2/28/41 The Family
3/7/41 Problem Papa
3/28/41 Baby
As I'll explain below in detail, the March 28 broadcast of "Baby" was a
broadcast of EVERYMAN'S THEATER, not LIGHTS OUT. If anyone has a recording
of LIGHT OUT entitled "Baby," it's really the EVERYMAN'S THEATER broadcast
with the opening and closing deleted, replaced with the LIGHTS OUT theme.
PLAYS FOR AMERICANS
2/1/42 Johnny Quinn, USN
3/15/42 A Letter at Midnight
6/21/41 Adolph and Mrs. Runyon
LIGHTS OUT (remember I am only listing the episodes known to exist in
recorded form...)
10/20/42 Poltergeist
10/27/42 Mungahra
11/10/42 Bon Voyage
11/17/41 Come to the Bank
12/1/42 The Story of Mr. Maggs
12/8/42 Scoop
12/15/42 Knock at the Door (aka Mother in Law Story)
12/22/42 Meteor Man
12/29/42 Valse Triste
1/5/43 The Fast One (aka Speed)
1/26/43 The Projective Mr. Drogan
2/2/43 Until Dead
2/9/43 He Dug it Up
2/16/43 Oxycloride X
2/23/43 They Met at Dorset
3/2/43 The Sea
3/9/43 The Ball
3/16/43 The Dream
3/23/43 The Flame
3/30/43 Money, Money, Money
4/6/43 Superfeature (aka Ghost in the Newsreel Negative)
4/13/43 The Archer
4/20/43 Kill
4/27/43 Execution
5/4/43 Heavenly Jeep
5/11/43 Murder in the Script Department
5/18/43 The Spider
5/25/43 Little Old Lady (aka Mrs. Kingsley's Report)
6/8/43 Organ
6/15/43 Prelude to Murder
6/22/43 Nature Study
7/20/43 Profits Unlimited
7/27/43 The Little People (a personal favorite)
08/03/43 Murder Castle
8/10/43 Sakhalin
8/17/43 State Executioner
8/24/43 Sub-Basement
9/7/43 Lord Marley's Guest
9/14/43 The Word
9/21/43 Mirage
9/28/43 The Author and the Thing
EVERYTHING FOR THE BOYS, WWII program which Oboler adapted from some of
Sherwood's stories.
1/18/44 The Petrified Forest
2/1/44 Lost Horizon
2/8/44 Berkeley Square
2/15/44 A Man to Remember
3/7/44 Of Human Bondage
3/14/44 The Ghost Goes West
3/21/44 The Girl on the Road
3/28/44 An Ostrich in Bed
4/4/44 This Living Book
4/11/44 Citadel
4/18/44 The Jarvis Bay Goes Down
4/25/44 Death Takes a Holiday
5/2/44 Holy Matrimony (aka Buried Alive)
5/9/44 This Above All
5/16/44 Blythe Spirit
5/23/44 Quality Street
FOUR FOR THE FIFTH, Oboler's four plays for the Fifth War Loan Drive.
6/3/44 Surrender
6/10/44 High Command
6/17/44 The Laughter
6/24/44 E-Day
ARCH OBOLER'S PLAYS (1945 revival)
4/5/45 Strange Morning
4/26/45 The House I Live In
5/3/45 Love, Love, Love
5/10/45 Holiday 194X (not a typo)
5/17/45 Mr. Ten Percent
5/24/45 An Exercise in Horror
5/31/45 An Ostrich in Bed / Report to My Relatives
6/7/45 Night
6/14/45 Mr. Pyle
6/21/45 The Naked Mountain
6/28/45 The Truth
7/5/45 Doctor Bluff
7/12/45 A Gallery of Big Shots: Feminine
7/19/45 Special to Hollywood
7/26/45 My Chicago
08/02/45 Parade
08/09/45 does exist, title not on hand, sorry
8/16/45 Lust for Life
8/23/45 Three short dramas: I Do, Facts of Men and Baby
9/6/45 Mirage
9/13/45 A Gallery of Big Shots: Masculine
9/20/45 Rocket from Manhattan
9/27/45 The Family Nagashi
10/4/45 Mr. Miller
10/11/45 This Living Book
FANTASIES FROM LIGHTS OUT (written by Wyllis Cooper, not Oboler)
7/21/45 Reunion After Death (aka Ghost of Diana, and Reunion)
8/25/45 Man in the Middle
LIGHTS OUT (written by Wyllis Cooper and Oboler)
7/13/46 The Coffin in Studio B (same as 5/11/43)
7/20/46 The Haunted Cell
7/27/46 Battle of the Magicians
08/03/46 The Revenge of India
8/10/46 Ghost on the Newsreel Negative
8/24/46 The Signalman
LIGHTS OUT (stars Boris Karloff, scripts by Cooper)
7/16/47 Death Robbery
7/30/47 The Ring (only the first half is known to exist)
In 1964, Arch Oboler created a short-run syndicated revival of ARCH OBOLER'S
PLAYS (not LIGHTS OUT!) using some old scripts and a few new scripts.
The Word
Visitor From Hades
Special to Hollywood
The Day Sinatra Got Fat (new)
Come to the Bank
The Immortal Gentleman
Big Ben (new)
Rocket from Manhattan
African Story (new)
Revolt of the Worms
Bathysphere
Mirage
Him or Me
From 1971 to 1972, Oboler re-recorded, produced and directed a revival
series entitled THE DEVIL AND MR. O and at the beginning of each drama,
Oboler had recorded a brief intro explaining how he came about writing the
scripts, and how some special sound effects were accomplished. He did
retitle most of the scripts, so the original titles are in (parenthesis).
1. Alley Cat (Cat Wife)
2. Neanderthal Man (Across the Gap)
3. Revolt of the Worms
4. Where Are You? (The Word)
5. Mr. Freak (The Ugliest Man in the World)
6. Gravestone (Poltergeist)
7. Ancestor (The Archer)
8. Nature Study
9. Big Mr. Little (The Projective Mr. Drogan)
10. No Escape (Until Dead)
11. Vacation with Death (Organ)
12. The Hole (Oxycloride X)
13. Live Forever (The Immortal Gentleman)
14. Going Down (Sub-Basement)
15. Balance Sheet (Profits Unlimited)
16. The House is Haunted (Mungahra)
17. Official Killer (State Executioner)
18. The Hungry One (Meteor Man)
19. Three Thousand Dollars (Money, Money, Money)
20. The Chest (The Story of Mr. Maggs)
21. Paris Macabre (The Ball)
22. Rocket From Manhattan (Special to Hollywood)
23. Hollywood Visitor (Lord Marley's Guest)
24. Cemetary
25. Speed (The Fast One)
26. The Shrinking People (The Little People)
Oboler also wrote scripts for numerous program such as THE ROYAL GELATIN
HOUR, FIRST NIGHTER PROGRAM, THE CAVALCADE OF AMERICA, TEXACO STAR THEATER,
GOOD NEWS OF 1940, THE WEIRD CIRCLE, THE COLUMBIA WORKSHOP, CURTAIN TIME,
SCREEN GUILD THEATER, TREASURY STAR THEATER, KEEP 'EM ROLLING, YARNS FOR
YANKS, NELSON OLMSTEAD PLAYHOUSE, SEARS RADIO THEATER, and many others.
Now that I've given a brief rundown (and in rough draft form) of Oboler's
work that exists in recorded form, I'll explain why the recording George
described is baffling him. It's a fake. The script "Nobody Died" was never
broadcast on LIGHTS OUT and is not known to exist in recorded form.
(end original email)
-----
(beginning commentary by "Doc"
One episode missing from Martin's article is "Miss American" with Katherine
Hepburn. This was the 2nd half of ARCH OBOLER PLAYS 11-25-39 and is complete
in itself.
[Mr. Oboler retitled the episode "Suffer Little Children" when it was
reissued as part of Metacom's YESTERDAY, TODAY, AND TOMORROW set.]
The various portions of DROP DEAD ("Chicken Heart," "Day at the
Dentist," etc.) are at least partial fragments of other LIGHT OUT
episodes. If they are from LO's 15-minute seasons then they are
at least less fragmented than I believe.
I think Arch Oboler himself is a BIG reason why so many shows have been mislabled. I have many episodes on cassette wherein he did the show's opening lines (sans commercial). In other cases--such as the reissue of "Special to Hollywood"--he specifically mentioned writing the play for LIGHTS OUT all those years ago, thereby fostering the illusion again of more shows than actually existed.
Rule of thumb: If you hear Mr. Oboler doing the announcement chores himself, it's most likely NOT an original LO broadcast but an episode of another of his series. If he refers to himself at all as "This is Mr. O--Arch Oboler," then it's definitely a DEVIL & MR. O episode that has been redubbed again by a collector.