The Arch Oboler's Original Plays Radio Program Log

Child Program Star
to Enter New Field
in Adult Role Tonight

Ireene Wicker, whose children's programs have won national recognition in her nine years on NBC, will enter a different field at 8 tonight .vhen she is starred in Arch Oboler's "Baby." Her role will be a highly dramatic, adult part. WIBA will broadcast the play.

39-05-13 The Lima News
Ireene Wicker, who has won world-wide recognition and many awards during' the nine years she has been presenting children's programs over National Broadcasting Co. networks, will be starred in a highly dramatic adult role in "Baby," Arch Oboler's play to be presented on, WEAF Saturday at 9:00 p. m.
The story, which Oboler considers one of his best, will be told in the author's striking stream-of-consciousness style. The star is to be supported hy Vicki Vola and Charlotte Manson, young NBC actress, and her ability as a singer will be taken advantage of thru an original musical score written by Jerry Moross, composer of such well known symphonies as "American Patterns' and "Tall Story."

Oboler Radio Play Indicts
Current Affairs In World

"Crazytown" Inhabitants Show Toll Of Hate, Greed, Mistrust

"Crazytown," a stinging indictment of the present anarchic state of "world af fairs, will be presented by Arch Oboler over WEAF Saturday at 9 p. m. The contemporary fantasy is to star Edmund O'Brien, who scored a success this season as Prince Hal in Maurice Evans' Broadway production of "Henry IV." Charlotte Manson, young and talented NBC actress, will have the leading feminine role. The story tolls of two young aviators who make a forced landing in unknown territory while returning from a successful bombing expedition against civilians of a defenseless enemy city. They soon find they have cracked up in Crasytown, the place where individual morul values have become us topsy-turvy as are international moral values in the outside world. Hate, envy and suspicion are cardinal virtues; pity, love and honor are considered unforgivable sins, while murder is the only logical way of settling a quarrel.

Farce - Fantasy Offering To
Be Given Saturday Night

Arch Oboler Masterpiece Will Be Aired At 9 P. M. Via WEAF;

Arch Oboler has written the first comedy in his presentseries of plays and will present it over WEAF Saturday at 9 p.m. The farce-fantasy is entitled "Nero's Wife,'' and deals with the woes of an inoffensive little clerk who returns to his apartment after work to he welcomed by a beauteous dame in toga and diadem. The visitor insists that the clerk is a reincarnation of Rome's fiddling emperor and that she is his l a w f u l spouse.
Complications ensue due to the fact that in the 18OO-odd years which have elapsed since her death, the empress lias forgotten whether she is Octavia, (he pure and innocent first wife whom Nero divorced, exiled to the Isle of Pandateria and murdered; Acte, the Amazonian freedwoman who for a brief period tried to reform the Emperor by beating his head against thr palace wall, or P'oppaea, the bloodthirsty hell-cat consort of Nero's later years.

Favorite Oboler Drama To
Be Presented On Saturday
Repeat Performance By Popular Request

''The Ugliest Man in the World," which inaugurated Arch Oboler's present series of plays was, in fact, largely responsible for his having a series in the first place, will be repeated by popular request over WEAF Saturday at 9:30 p. m.
Raymond Edward Johnson, who has scored repeated personal successes in Oboler's dramas, will havo the title role which he created during the first presentation on March 25.
The supporting cast includes Betty Caine and Ann Shepherd, stage and radio attresses who also have been heard repeatedly on this series.
Boris Karloff, Frankenstein monster of the screen, was Oboler's inspiration for "The Ugliest Man In The World." Two years ago Karloff and Oboler were drawn together in NBC's midnight "Lights Out" thrillers. Karloff was starring in the spine-tinglers which Oboler was then writing. One day the two sat down at lunch and discussed the many hideous characters Karloff had portrayed on the screen.

Versatile Actress To Play
In Oboler Fantasy Saturday

Betty Garde Will Be Star Of "Another World;"

Betty Garde, versatile young stage, screen and radio actress
who has just completed a long Broadway run in "The Primrose Path," will be starred in "Another World.'' Arch Oboler's fantasy about interplanetary travel which is to be presented over WEAF Saturday at 8:30 p.m.
Miss Garde, a native of. Philadelphia, will not feel out of place at the helm of a rocket ship, for, during her exciting !
career, she has played all sorts of roles, from the irrepressible Sis Hopkins in a high school vaudeville show to the venerable Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch in one of the 40
radio serials in which she has starred.
She won fame on the screen supporting Charlie Ruggles, Claudette Colbert and other luminaries; has appeared on Broadway in such productions as "The Nervous Wreck." "Easy Come, Easy Go," "The Social Register" and "The Poor Nut," and, between engagements has found time to play with many noted summer stock companies.

Three Plays To Be Staged
As Saturday Radio Feature

Sidney Lumet, star of the recent Broadway hit "My Heart's in the Highlands,'' by William Saroyan, will play the lead in "The Brat," second of three plays by Arch Oboler to be presented on Saturday from 8:30 to 9:00 p. in., over WEAF.
First drama in the grouip will be "Mr- Pip'" with Ray Collins, outstanding stage and radio actor, in the lead role. "Rich Kid,'' originally played by Freddie Bartholomew and the "Dead End" Kids on the Rudy Vallee hour, will be repeated by popular request as the concluding drama of the broadcast.

Group Theatre Stars To
Play "History Of A Mug"

Elia Kazan, Curt Conway, Ann Shepherd and Hester Sondergaard, all -well-known members of New York's Group Theatre who have appeared singly on previous Arch Oboler programs, will be co-starred in the young author-producer's "History of a Mug" which is to be presented over WJZ Saturday at 8:30 p. in.
"The History of a Mug" tells the life story of a rising young politician of Micldleton, as it is viewed thru the disillusioned eyes of his mother. It shows the grave dangers of carrying to their logical conclusion the high-pressure techniques for winning friends and influencing people.
Kazan, who has the title role in this realistic drama, will be re-membercd for Broadway appearances in "The Gentle People" and "Golden Boy" and for his recent role opposite Nazimova in Oboler's "The Ivory Tower."
Conway also scored in "Golden Boy" and in Oboler's "Sole Survivors." Miss Shepherd was in "The Gentle People" and also in "The Engulfed Cathedral" in this radio series. And Miss Sonderjraard won considerable acclaim in the Group Theatre-Theatre Guild production, "My Heart's in the Highlands" as well as in Oboler's "Another World."
The talented quartet made a special trip to Manhattan fromLake Grover, N. Y., where they are rehearsing the Group Theatre's first fall production, in order that they might play together over the air.

"Efficiency Age" Effects To
Be Studied In Oboler Drama

Betty Caine Will Carry Entire Burden Of Plot At 8:30 p. m. Broadcast On Saturday

Betty Caine, who has been co-starred with her husband, Raymond Edward Johnson, in such striking Arch Oboler
dramas as "The Ugliest Alan in the World" and "The Luck of Mark Street," will carry the entire burden of a plot for the first time when she has the lead in "Efficiency Island" over WEAF Saturday at 8:30 p. m.
This eerie tale is laid in the future when straight-line factory methods of production have reached perfection and workmen, chained for generations to the machine by their pay checks, seem to have lost the will to fight for better working conditions.
The problem of what the assembly line will do to humanity in the long run has vexed economists and sociologists since the start of the industrial era. It will be given a new and surprising twist by the young author-producer.
Miss Caine, who met her husband in Chicago at a rehearsal for one of Oboler's early "Lights Out" thrillers, came to New York several months ago and since has been heard frequently over NBC. A slim, dark-haired girl, she is equally at home in character and in straight roles.
Oboler thinks she is one of the most talented members of the select group of players from which he casts his dramas—and she thinks he's the best producer radio. When not playing a leading part in one of his productions she can usually be found doing a bit role or just sitting in the studio studying his technique.

39-08-26 The Lima News

Nazimova Appears For First
Time On Air In Clever Drama

Nazimova, who once played second fiddle in an orchestra conducted by Tchaikowsky, will realize one of her life's ambitions when she plays the part of Madame von Meck, the great Russian composer's "beloved friend' in "This Lonely Heart." The play is an original hour-long drama by Arch Oboler to be presented over WEAF Saturday at 6:30 p. m.
"This Lonely Heart," will deal mainly with the reactions of Madame von Meck. It will show her unremitting effort to help the selfish musician, both financially and as an adviser, and will disclose that, in spite of the continual humiliations which she was forced to undergo, her love still enabled her to express her own genius and to live fully, rather than becoming stultified by the round of household duties which hedged the average Russian woman of her day.
The close association which has been formed between Nazimova and Oboler is almost as interesting as the relationship discussed in "This Lonelv Hearts," altho from a totally different angle. It was after hearing one of Oboler's powerful dramatic programs that the great Russian actress offered to break her long-standing rule against appearing on the radio.
So confident was she of his ability that she volunteered to play in any story which he might write for her.

Young European Actor To Star In Oboler Drama;

Lew Danis. young European-born actor, will realize an ambition to star in an American drama when he appears in "Love Story," Arch Oboler play for Saturday at 8:30 p. m. over WEAF.' Oboler heard Danis broadcast over a local foreign language station recently, and immediately stamped him as "a young edition of Charles Boyer." Danis comes from a distinguished European theatrical family.

50,000 Year Old Setting To
Be Used In Drama Saturday

Oboler Play To Pose Problem Of Parenthood;

Three moderns — American, French, and English — who find themselves whirled 50,000 years thru time, and two cavemen are the characters in Arch Oboler's play, "And Adam Begot," which will be presented over WEAF' Saturday, from 8:30 to 9:00 p. m.
The drama, presenting contemporary characters moving against a background of Neanderthal men, poses a question old as time itself — that of parenthood. Oboler's fantasy will show i hat parenthood is neither a duty nor an obligation , but a rare privilege which is abused much too often. It also shows the unending struggle between brute force and ethics.
The young dramalist expects to face his biggest casting problem in filling the roles of the two Neanderthal men which he has written into "And Adam Begot."
He wants a voice, he explains, which will instantly suggest a cave-man to the radio listener.
With that in mind, he conducted a survey of what people expect in a Neanderthal voice. "A cross-section of the answers," ' Oboler says, "suggests a bass voiced prizefighter, talking double talk with his mouth full of hot potatoes."

Joan Crawford Will Play
Lead Role In Radio Drama

Joan Crawford, movie star for whom Arch Oboler has just. completed "Fall 0f a Woman", his first motion picture script, will appear at her own request in the leading role of "Baby", one of his most outstanding radio dramas, which will be repeated over WEAF Saturday at 8:00 p. in. It is an original score for this study of a woman who has jus! been told by her doctor that she soon is to become a mother.

The Arch Oboler's Plays [MBS] Radio Program Log

Treatment Of Jap-Americans
Is Thursday Broadcast Theme

A theme that many writers have shied away from—our treatment of the Japanese-American population following Pearl Harbor, will be presented when "The Fumly Nagoya" is broadcast on the "Arch Oboler's Plays" program at it 9 p.m. Thursday over WOR. From material furnished by the Department of the Interior, Oboler looks at the problem and its post-war effect on each of us thru the eyes of the loyal Japanese-American family, Nagoya.

The Arch Oboler's Plays [KHJ Summer 1964 Rebroadcasts] Radio Program Log

AFRTS 'Arch Oboler's Plays' Radio Program Log

The Arch Oboler's Original Plays Radio Program Biographies

ARCH OBOLER, WROTE THRILLERS FOR RADIO IN 1930'S AND 40'S

By WILLIAM G. BLAIR
Published: Sunday, March 22, 1987

Arch Oboler, who enthralled listeners with his tales of suspense and horror in the golden age of radio in the 1930's and 40's, died Thursday of heart failure at the Westlake Community Hospital in Westlake, Calif. He was 79 years old and lived in Malibu.

Although Mr. Oboler was perhaps best known as the writer of a series of nighttime radio dramas that were broadcast under the name ''Lights Out,'' he also wrote for screen and stage.

The ''Lights Out'' programs, delightfully chilling fare to many now over the age of 50, began with these words:

''These stories are definitely not for the timid soul. So we tell you calmly and very sincerely, if you frighten easily, turn off your radio now. Lights out, everybody!'' 'I Wrote About Human Beings'

The rights to rebroadcast and distribute many of the ''Lights Out'' thrillers were acquired from Mr. Oboler late last year by Metacom, a Minneapolis-based concern that specializes in the distribution of old radio shows.

In an interview with The New York Times in October, Mr. Oboler said he had turned down offers to sell his radio stories to television in the 1950's because ''basically, I think TV talks too much and shows too much.''

Mr. Oboler said he believed his thrillers had not lost their ability to terrify because ''I wrote about human beings, not special effects.''

''What we fear most is the monster within - the girl who lets you down, the husband who is unfaithful,'' he said. ''The greatest horrors are within ourselves.''

In movies, he first made a name for himself as the writer of the 1940 screen version of ''Escape,'' the anti-Nazi best-selling novel by Ethel Vance, that starred Norma Shearer and Robert Taylor.

Three-Dimensional Movie

More than a decade later, he wrote, directed and produced the first three-dimensional movie, ''Bwana Devil,'' which had moviegoers in special eyeglasses ducking when African spears and lions appeared to be flying off the screen directly at them.

In the mid-1950's, Mr. Oboler turned to Broadway. He wrote ''Night of the Auk,'' a science-fiction drama set aboard a spaceship. The show, produced by Kermit Bloomgarden and directed by Sidney Lumet, ran for eight performances and was briefly revived in 1963.

From the 1960's on, as head of Oboler Productions, he continued to write for radio, movies and the theater. In 1969, he wrote a book called ''House on Fire'' that a reviewer for The Times described as ''pretty much what Mr. Oboler used to terrify America with.''

He is survived by his wife, the former Eleanor Helfand, and a son, Dr. Steven Oboler of Denver. A private funeral is planned.

Arch Oboler's Plays was Oboler's breakout dramatic showcase over Radio. Everyman's Theater further established Oboler's versatility and range, while underscoring Oboler's growing appeal to a far wider audience than he'd already established with Lights Out!. Though eight years his senior, the diminutive Oboler, while never as widely popular as Orson Welles, invites comparison to the other great young playwright-actor-director. Their skills were clearly each other's equal, their versatility had already been amply demonstrated by 1940, and their genius was indisputable. It's also clear that both Wyllis Cooper and Norman Corwin served to influence and inform Oboler's growing, wider appeal.

The reach and effect of Arch Oboler's writing style, subject matter, and point of view remain significant influences to this day. Indeed a world of imitators, 'hat tippers', homages, and unabashed worshippers of his style have sprung up every year since the mid-1950s. And for good reason. Devising new ways to scare the be-jee-zuzz out of people has become something of a cottage industry at various times during the past 60 years.

Thillers sell when the public is in the mood for them. And when the public is in the mood for them, they tend to be insatiable for them.

Wyllis Cooper and Arch Oboler were arguably the two of the most significant influences in supernatural thrillers over Radio, of the 20th Century. Virtually every modern fiction writer of the past seventy years cites both Cooper and Oboler as influences.

Arch Oboler's fortunes waned with the waning of The Golden Age of Radio. His solo Film projects were, while revolutionary in many respects, not nearly up to the standards of his Radio work. His Five (1951) was a rather overly contrived, over-ripe, and self-important opus about a post-apocalyptic world and its five widely differing survivors. Filmed around his property and home in Malibu Canyon, it's become more of a cult flick than a representative Atomic Age sci-fi drama.

Bwana Devil (1952) was the first feature-length film to be produced in 3-D, yet another of Oboler's signature--albeit eccentric--innovations. Historic for only its innovative technology, the film, while popular as a novelty, was a stinker in every critically measurable way.

His Twonky (1953), starring pal, Hans Conreid, was a fascinating concept, somewhat frivolously executed. It featured a television set with a mind of its own, purportedly receiving direction from an alien force in geoconcentric orbit around Earth. This was highly reminiscent of the CBS Radio Workshop program, The Enormous Radio (1956), wherein a similar problem surfaces with a Radio set.

Oboler later released the Capitol LP, Drop Dead!: An Exercise In Horror (1962), reprised many of his Arch Oboler's Plays with the 1971 revival series The Devil and Mr. O, and in 1969, employed his 3-D production skills in another first, Stewardesses, a soft-core porn feature he wrote and directed for 3-D, under the pseudonym, 'Alf Silliman.'

Arch Oboler spent much of the remainder of his life attending to the various elements of his Oboler Productions company and the various writing, Film, Radio and Television projects Oboler managed through it.

Raymond E. Johnson, Radio Host, Dies at 90

September 16, 2001
By RICHARD GOLDSTEIN

Raymond Edward Johnson, a versatile radio and stage actor who provided a signature moment for radio as the ghoulish host with the creaking door in the long-running "Inner Sanctum," died on Aug. 15 in Wallingford, Conn. He was 90.

Mr. Johnson was a familiar presence in the radio serials of the 1940's and won acclaim playing Thomas Jefferson in Sidney Kingsley's 1943 Broadway play "The Patriots." But he was best known as Raymond, the original host for the gothic tales of "Inner Sanctum," which made its debut in January 1941 and ran for 11 years, on NBC, CBS and ABC.

"I didn't have Leonard Bernstein and 200 musicians doing `The Ride of the Valkyries,' " Himan Brown, the director of "Inner Sanctum," remembered long afterward. "All I used was a creaking door. There are only two sounds in radio that are trademarked — the creaking door and the NBC chimes."

After three bars of organ music, "Inner Sanctum" opened with the sound of Raymond turning a doorknob and then the creaking of rusted hinges. "Good evening, friends," intoned Raymond. "This is your host, inviting you through the gory portals of the squeaking door." Then came a gruesome joke, laughter intended to make his listeners shiver, and finally an improbable episode with ghosts and bloodcurdling sound effects.

When the stories — featuring actors like Boris Karloff, Paul Lukas, Peter Lorre, Claude Rains and Raymond Massey — reached their climax, Raymond offered another round of macabre laughter. Then he concluded the evening by wishing his listeners "pleasant dreams."

Mr. Johnson also played the lead role in "Don Winslow of the Navy" and "Mandrake the Magician" in his busy radio career.

In the summer of 1945, after four years of fan mail sometimes accompanied by oil cans for that creaking door, Mr. Johnson stepped down as host of "Inner Sanctum" and was replaced by Paul McGrath.

By then, Mr. Johnson had achieved success in his Broadway debut as Jefferson in "The Patriots," a tribute to democratic ideals in a wartime America fighting fascism.

While appearing in the play, he continued as the host of "Inner Sanctum" on Sunday nights.

In his review of "The Patriots" in The New York Times, Lewis Nichols wrote that Mr. Johnson "conveys excellently the various moods of Jefferson."

Raymond Edward Johnson was born in Kenosha, Wis., worked as a bank teller, and then studied acting at the Goodman School of Drama in Chicago. His sister, Dora Johnson Remington, who died in 1989, was a radio soap opera actress, best known for playing Evey Fitz, the married daughter in "Ma Perkins."

Mr. Johnson, who suffered from multiple sclerosis for many years, nevertheless revisited his starring years in radio in 1997, when he appeared at a gathering of the Friends of Old Time Radio. He delivered a reading from a portable bed.

His co-star on "Inner Sanctum" was not always a reliable presence, as Terry Ross, a soundman, recalled in telling how a young man setting up the equipment once tried too hard to please.

"We got the hinges and buried them in the dirt out back and watered them down like plants for a couple of weeks or so, till they got nice and rusty, then mounted them on the door a little bit askew, so they would squeak," Mr. Ross recalled in an interview for Leonard Maltin's "Great American Broadcast" (Dutton, 1997). "One of the setup boys came to me and said: `Terry, I fixed the door for you. I oiled the hinges.' This was just before showtime. What do you do when the signature of the show was a squeaky door?"

Mr. Ross became the door. He imitated its creak with his voice, and Raymond and the eerie plot did the rest.

Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company

Raymond Edward Johnson certainly never let any grass grow under his feet as he pursued one of Radio's most successful acting careers. One of Radio's busiest and longest appearing Radio actors, Johnson's radiography comprises many of the Golden Age of Radio's most popular and longest running programming.

From the July 19, 1947 edition of the Cumberland Evening Times:

''Raymond Edward Johnson left Inner Sanctum approximately two years ago to enter the service and upon his release declined to take over his former role in the mystery thriller. He believed that to continue might type him with other producers as a ghostly voice and hinder his chances of portraying lead characters. Currently he may be heard Saturday mornings over NBC as the father in Archie Andrews, in addition to frequent, appearances on ABC's Theatre Guild On The Air.''

When Raymond Johnson returned from the service, he understandably increased his efforts to distance himself from the supernatural thriller typecasting he'd been most associated with through both Arch Oboler's various productions and Himan Brown's successful Inner Sanctum series. He took the name "Raymond" with him, leaving his replacement on the series, Paul McGrath, to his own devicies.

Reinventing himself payed off, finishing out his last years performing over Radio in a wide variety of straight dramatic roles. Stricken with Multiple Sclerosis while in his forties, Johnson's appearances on the small screen were limited to a few appearances behind the scenes as a narrator. He continued to perform over Radio until the early 1960s by which point the effects of his disability forced his retirement from the acting profession.

As indicated in his obituary above, Raymond Johnson's Radio fans continued to make demands on him for the remainder of his life, in spite of the advancing effects of his infirmity. Indeed, while in his 80s and bed-ridden, the otr community prevailed upon him to appear at one of their otr selling conventions with a portable bed and help re-enact their favorite exemplars of his work. While this doesn't say a great deal about the commercial otr community that took grotesque advantage of his circumstances, it speaks volumes about Johnson's continued dedication to the memory of The Golden Age of Radio that he'd both performed in, and loved, for most of his adult working life.

It's that very sense of dedication and love of the craft of acting that endears so many of these great Radio performers to collectors of vintage Radio recordings. With an estimated 3,000 radio appearances to his credit, and hundreds of those exemplars in current circulation, Raymond Edward Johnson's extraordinary versatility as an actor, announcer, narrator, and personality of the era are increasing his avid fan base with each passing year.

Justifiably so.