The Dark Venture Radio Program

Background

Supernatural or psychological thrillers were a natural genre for Radio drama--from Radio's earliest days. Throughout the Golden Age of Radio psychological dramas of one form or another appeared with regular frequency between the 1930s and 1960s. The more popular among the genre were:

• 1930 The Shadow [Love Story]
• 1931 The Witches Tale
• 1932 Witching Hour
• 1935 The Hermit's Cave
• 1936 Devil's Scrapbook
• 1936 Lights Out!
• 1937 The Black Chapel
• 1939 Arch Oboler's Plays
• 1941 Dark Fantasy
• 1941 Inner Sanctum
• 1941 Lew Loyal
• 1942 The Whistler
• 1943 Horror, Inc. [with Eva Le Galliene]
• 1943 The Mysterious Traveler
• 1943 Weird Circle
• 1944 Creeps By Night
• 1944 The Haunting Hour
• 1944 The Strange Dr. Weird
• 1945 Stay Tuned for Terror
• 1945 Dark Venture
• 1945 The Sealed Book
• 1945 With Book and Pipe
• 1946 The Hall of Fantasy
• 1947 Quiet! Please
• 1948 Cabin B-13
• 1952 The Black Book
• 1952 The Whisperer
• 1953 Nightmare Theater
• 1956 Sleep No More
• 1961 AFRTS' own AVN-produced Macabre.

The more compelling of the genre very deliberately played on the fears and apprehensions almost universally common to modern societies of the era. Such psychological thrillers of the era found audiences as varied as the content of each offering. The majority of the examples of the genre tended to portray their dramas, in varying degrees, as morality tales. The listener was generally let in early on as to the nature of the episode's psychological dilemma. This allowed the listener to connect to one degree or another with the dramatic situation, informed by his or her own foundation of cultural, spiritual and moral beliefs, then following the protagonist(s) on through to the playlet's resolution.

Psychological thrillers were comparatively easy to write, given the universally human situations that comprised the typical psychological dramas of the era. That common human connection provided virtually any moderately sized Radio station of the era the opportunity to mount such dramas in-house. Radio station KGO was just such a station.

Radio Station KGO, Oakand: Early West Coast Powerhouse

Oakland's Radio station KGO can trace its roots to 1924, as the early, west coast 'test station,' 6XG. Under call letters 'KGO,' the station first signed onto the air in January 1924 from General Electric's engineering building in Oakland with 1000 watts of power--one of the era's more powerful transmitters.

In 1922, Radio station KPO, San Francisco began broadcasting transmissions from the Hale Department Store at Market Street and 5th Street. Then owned jointly by the Hale Brothers and The San Francisco Chronicle, the station's central location and innovative horizontal antenna atop the Hale Brothers' four-story department store allowed KPO to be heard throughout the Pacific Coast. Seizing on KPO's reach, the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) had recently acquired Radio station KGO, and brought KPO on as an NBC affiliate in 1927.

Soon after, NBC bought KPO outright, making it a key station for its Gold Network and, ultimately, its Blue Network. Both KGO and KPO were then colocated at NBC's facility at 111 Sutter Street in San Francisco. Not long after NBC had completed its Radio City facilities in New York, NBC erected its Radio City-West in 1941, at 420 Taylor Street, eventually becoming one of broadcasting history's finest complexes of the era.

With the FCC-mandated break up of NBC, KPO remained an NBC station and KGO became a key station of The Blue Network, and ultimately, the American Broadcasting Company (ABC). During the development years of The Blue Network (ABC), KGO developed a great deal of local and regional programming that eventually found its way to the entire ABC Network. Further consolidations and growth under the ABC Network ultimately found most of KGO-originated programming moving to ABC's new Hollywood facilities at ABC Key Station, KECA.

KGO inaugurates a psychological thriller, Dark Venture

"Over the minds of mortal men come many shadows. . .

Shadows of greed and hate, jealousy and fear.

Darkness is the absence of Light . . .

So in the sudden shadows which fog the minds of men and women are to be found the strange impulses which urge them on to their venture . . . in the dark."

This was the portentious original introduction to KGO's new psychological thriller program, Dark Venture. the announcer emphasized these "ventures into the dark" as portents of the drama to follow. One of the last of many KGO-originated programs, Dark Venture first aired over KGO at 9 p.m., Tuesday night, on May 29, 1945, immediately preceding KGO's equally innovative and regionally popular Murder Will Out mystery drama, with William Gargan as Inspector Burke, Chief of Homicide. Both innovative new series' aired regionally until January 1946.

ABC, eager to bring even more programming variety to its growing national audience, took Dark Venture nationwide on February 19, 1946, promoting it as Dark Venture's premiere broadcast over the entire ABC Network. By then originating out of ABC's new KECA facilities, Dark Venture ran for another fifty-two episodes between February 1946 and February 1947.

From the February 15th 1946 edition of The Daily Mailblah:

NEW YORK. Feb. 15, (AP)--For the reason that mystery shows are cheap to produce, have strong audience pull, and therefore practically a guaranteed high rating. A sponsor looking for a new show to advertise his product would rather rely on this pat formula than gamble on a variety show. Another new one is being thrown on the market at 8:30 Tuesday night over ABC, namely the "Dark Venture." The advance press notice informs that this latest entry is a "Psychological Drama." The new twist is to "challenge the listener to solve the outcome by applying psychology."

From the February 19, 1946 edition of The Morning Herald: 

Dark Venture's premiere episode over ABC, 'Holy Acrimony,' was dramatized pictorially by members of the Dark Venture production staff for the Radio Life issue of January 27th 1946

When Dark Venture went national over ABC, one of the few minor tweaks was a subtle transition to its new opener:

"Over the minds of mortal men come many shadows. . .
Shadows of greed and hate, jealousy and fear.
Darkness is the absence of Light . . .
So in the sudden shadows which fog the minds of men and women are to be found the strange impulses which urge them
. . . into the unknown."

The subtle change in the intro reflected the 'journies into the unknown' aspect of the nationwide run. In addition, once Dark Venture went national, its production values were commensurately augmented with, for example, the addition of John Newland as host/narrator and George Fenneman as announcer. The musical accompaniment was augmented with the additions of Rex Koury and Buzz Adlam at the organ.

Dark Venture also found at least one prominent sponsor during the nationwide run--Wildroot Cream Oil for the Hair. Wildroot began sponsoring Dark Venture from April 16, 1946, forward. The only writing credits we've uncovered for the series were Larry Marcus and Robert Light. We suspect that Larry Marcus was responsible for the majority of the scripts during the 1946-1947 run. If the circulating exemplars are any indication, the writing for Dark Venture was generally a cut above much of the competing psychological dramas that preceded or succeeded Dark Venture.

The West Coast acting talent was equally superb, with Radio legends Jack Moyles, Elliot Lewis, Lurene Tuttle, William Johnstone, Howard Duff, Irene Tedrow, Barney Phillips, Harry Lang, Howard McNear, Sam and Jack Edwards, Wilms Herbert, Joan Banks, Hans Conried and Virginia Gregg among the more prominent performers.

From the December 23, 1946 edition of the Oakland Tribune, ascerbic Radio and Television critic, John Crosby, deigns to assay Episode No. 43 of the ABC National Run of Dark Venture, "The Miser": 

Also of note, Dark Venture ran--virtually uninterrupted--from June 5, 1945 through well into 1947. We underscore the absence of preemptions and interruptions because this was a period of ABC's growth when it had already established a reputation for turning its programming on a dime in order to compete with Mutual, CBS and NBC. Dark Venture had clearly established a loyal following and, though we have only empirical evidence to suggest this, it would appear that Dark Venture was a programming property that ABC demonstrably didn't wish to disturb--except for four day changes during its 52-episode run.

Meanwhile, back in the San Francisco Bay Area, Dark Venture's loyal audience found its original run extended well into 1947, airing like clockwork every Tuesday night at either 9 p.m. or 8:30 p.m. over the same KGO Radio that had originated the series in 1945.

Series Derivatives:

• 46-02-19 to 46-06-11 -- Tuesdays
• 46-06-15 to 46-09-21 -- Saturdays
• 46-09-29 to 46-10-06 -- Sundays
• 46-10-14 to 47-02-10 -- Mondays

Notes on Provenances:

The most helpful provenances were newspaper listings. The least helpful was The Hickerson Guide.

OTRisms:

It should come as no surprise that Dark Venture continues to be one of the most elusive and misrepresented series' from The Golden Age of Radio. All of the usual anomalies, ambiguities and misrepresentations by 'authoritative' commercial resellers and venerable collectors remain at play among both the circulating exemplars and virtually all circulating logs:

As demonstrated below, Dark Venture ran, continuously, from June 5, 1945 through well into 1948 over one ABC-affiliated venue or another.

The series didn't premiere on May 29 nor May 30 of 1945. It premiered over its originating station, KGO, on Tuesday, June 5, 1945.

The purported Dark Venture 'audition' widely alleged to have been recorded or broadcast on September 10, 1945 remains problematic on several levels:

• The series had already been successfully launched on June 5, 1945 and had aired for fourteen episodes prior to the date of the alleged audition of September 10, 1945.
• It defies all logic why KGO would feel obliged to record an audition for a program already well underway.
• It's somewhat plausible that, in preparation for a nationwide launch of Dark Venture, that ABC may have ordered an audition for its national affiliates, but the date for the alleged audition is almost four months prior to the introduction of Dark Venture to a national audience.
• All told, we view the alleged date for the purported Dark Venture audition of September 10, 1945 as fraught with inconsistency.

Yet another purported audition for Dark Venture is represented to be dated July 22, 1947:

• The circulating exemplar of this purported 1947 audition is comprised of only the first side of Elizabeth Is Frightened, starring Joan Banks as Elizabeth and Hans Conried as her manipulative husband. There are no indications whatsoever within the recording to suggest that it's an audition.
• We know from contemporaneous Radio Listings that Dark Venture ran well into 1947 and 1948 over ABC Network affiliate stations.
• As with the other purported audition, we see no business or promotional reason for ABC to have produced yet another audition for Dark Venture so late into its run history. The format of the purported audition is identical to all other Dark Venture formats of 1946 and 1947.
• Elizabeth Is Frightened is, in all likelihood, simply the first side of Episode No. 113 of the contiguous KGO run--if the circulating date is accurate.

A number of circulating exemplars are curiously annotated as "West Coast only," broadcasts. Every single Dark Venture episode ever recorded and broadcast originated from either KGO, San Francisco or KECA, Los Angeles--both unquestionably West Coast stations. Clearly, every single Dark Venture exemplar ever recorded was 'West Coast only.' If the inference in that annotation was that the annotated exemplars were aired over only the original KGO run, that's equally in error. The circulating exemplars annotated as 'West Coast Only' were both clearly broadcast during the nationwide ABC run of 1946 through 1947.

Where does all this misinformation and misrepresentation come from? Perhaps it's something as simple as bragging rights between venerable collectors or commercial Vintage Radio resellers. Whatever it actually is, you'll have to ask all the authoritative experts and venerable collectors for that answer. We simply point out what actually transpired--as a matter of historical record. We leave it to others to either perpetuate the misinformation and misrepresentations, or own up to the commercial inaccuracies and correct them. OTR is a multi-million dollar 'cottage industry' business, after all. But should be held to mainstream business standards--like honesty and accuracy.

What you see here, is what you get. Complete transparency. We have no 'credentials' whatsoever--in any way, shape, or form--in the 'otr community'--none. But here's how we did it--for better or worse. Here's how you can build on it yourselves--hopefully for the better. Here are the breadcrumbs--just follow the trail a bit further if you wish. No hobbled downloads. No misdirection. No posturing about our 'credentials.' No misrepresentations. No strings attached. We point you in the right direction and you're free to expand on it, extend it, use it however it best advances your efforts.

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[Date, title, and episode column annotations in red refer to either details we have yet to fully provenance or other unverifiable information as of this writing. Red highlights in the text of the 'Notes' columns refer to information upon which we relied in citing dates, date or time changes, or titles.]