Lights Out debuted in 1934 and was radio's premier horror series. Director and writer, Wyllis Cooper's writing was characterized by grisly stories always matched with the appropriate acting and sound effects, he conceived in 1933 the idea of writing a dramatic midnight mystery serial catchy enough to the listeners' attention at a time when the competition was mostly airing music. It was however dropped in favor of an anthology emphasizing crime thrillers and the supernatural. He stayed with this program until June 1936 when another Chicago writer, Arch Oboler, took over. By the time Cooper left, the series had inspired about 600 fan clubs.
Arch Oboler was eccentric and ambitious when he took over and picked up where Cooper left off, following the latter's general example but investing the scripts with his own concerns using streams of conscious narration and sometimes social and political themes that reflected his commitment to anti-fascist liberalism. Although Lights Out would be closely associated with Oboler later on, he would always credit Wyllis Cooper as the series' creator and spoke highly of him as "the unsung pioneer of radio dramatic techniques" and the first person he knew who understood that radio drama is an art form.
"Burial Service", Oboler's first script in 1936, was initially flooded with outraged response but was followed with the more accepted and frequently repeated "Catwife" and Caligula-inspired "The Dictator". This set the pattern for Oboler's run of two horror episodes followed by a drama on more serious subjects dealing with moral, social and political issues
| Air Date |
Title |
Synopsis |
| 1936-06-12 |
Cat Wife |
In "Alley Cat," a wealthy man who discovers his wife has emptied their life savings after putting everything in her account. The ensuing argument ends up to a bloody murder before the police are sought. (Starring: Boris Karloff) |
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| 1936-08-09 |
Money Money Money |
A sailor murders his buddy who strikes it big at the lottery but managed to escape the authorities when initially investigated. He joins a treasure hunting-diving venture but his real identity is discovered and he receives a second visit. |
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| 1936-09-04 |
The Author And The Thing |
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| 1936-09-15 |
The Sea |
A story told by an old dying lady about her two sons, one good and the other a villain. The good son sends his evil brother to dive for brass when a storm blows and the good son was simply presumed dead by his brother... |
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| 1936-10-19 |
The Fast One |
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| 1936-12-07 |
Nobody Died |
A dying patient begs the doctor to prolong her life just until her youngest son arrives. As the doctor works, she tries a cancer research drug which eventually works. The word reaches the President who pays the doctor a visit, telling her to give the drug to the state for the benefit of all…. and for himself. |
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| 1936-12-18 |
Poltergeist |
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| 1937-02-17 |
Cat Wife |
In "Alley Cat," a wealthy man who discovers his wife has emptied their life savings after putting everything in her account. The ensuing argument ends up to a bloody murder before the police are sought. (Starring: Boris Karloff) |
|
| 1937-03-03 |
Sakhalin |
A megalomaniac murderer roams Russia. |
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| 1937-03-10 |
Chicken Heart |
A laboratory experiment works and becomes a success. (Segment) |
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| 1937-03-17 |
State Executioner |
A wife leaves her husband after she finds out that he is an executioner. Later, the man goes crazy and locks himself up in a room as he imagines his past. |
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| 1937-04-15 |
The Little People |
Weird and heavily accented guy is eventually left by his gallivanting wife to finally join her boyfriend. Their big mistake is to pay him a visit about the divorce proceedings. |
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| 1937-05-19 |
Organ |
A couple excitedly spends summer with their son in a vacant home which is unoccupied for 20 years. An old man visits the and demands they leave, claiming that the house belongs to him. Eerie things begin to happen and the young boy seea a ghost who wants to entice him. They all eventually start to see other apparitions. |
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| 1937-05-21 |
Until Dead |
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| 1937-06-14 |
The Meteor Man |
A meteorite is found by a stargazing couple. Opening it, they find it is made of flesh and transforms into a head that speaks. It tells them that it was the first among the many to arrive on the planet, and why they are coming. |
|
| 1937-06-25 |
Happy Ending |
The story is a diversion from the typical when the doctor informs his wife that she is pregnant. The wife in turn starts to imagine as she walks all the way home, on what her husband and her mother has to say, as well as how her child possibly would look like. |
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| 1937-07-18 |
Lord Marleys Ghost |
A rich man is hooked on his mistress and leaves his wife. Their affair ends tragically in a boating accident. |
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| 1937-11-16 |
Little Old Lady |
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| 1937-12-22 |
Christmas Story |
Three soldiers of different nationalities party on a train on a Christmas Day after their tour of duty. An event involving three wise men similarly happened 2000 years ago. |
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| 1937-12-29 |
The Dark |
A prankster calls an ambulance which promptly responds by arriving on the scene to find a dark house and echoing laughter from a man turned inside out in a room with strange floor. |
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| 1938-01-25 |
Oxychloride X |
Out of frustration from being rejected membership in a fraternity; a gifted laboratory student formulates a super antimatter corrosive substance that eats anything and eventually creating a hole on Earth. |
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| 1938-02-18 |
Murder Castle |
Girls who answer advertisements for older guys keep disappearing. This prompts another girl to search for her missing sister. |
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| 1938-03-01 |
Chicken Heart |
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| 1938-03-12 |
Super Feature |
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| 1938-03-23 |
The Dream |
A murderer who never had experiences a dream suddenly falls into one during his sentencing trial. (Starring: Boris Karloff) |
|
| 1969-12-31 |
Valse Triste |
Two girls on a camping trip, and while rowing docks their boat on an island to pick some flowers when their boat drifts away finding themselves lost. They are drawn to into a strange house where a psychopath lives who demanded that the other marry him and that the other must die. |
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| 1938-04-05 |
Cat Wife |
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| 1938-05-11 |
It Happened |
On a tour in Paris, a rich young girl is fed up with the tour guide, and decides to explore the city by herself. Ignoring the guide’s threat to inform her father, she takes off anyway and is lured by a kidnapper for ransom. She manages to escape from him, who dwells in the putrid Parisian sewer. |
|
| 1938-06-04 |
Spider |
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| 1943-09-14 |
The Word |
Two honeymooners climbs to the 100th floor of a tower to watch the city skyline and simply forget the looming war headlines. Seeing a storm lightning approaching, they go down only to find out that everyone in the city is gone or missing. |
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| 1943-09-21 |
Mirage |
A couple notices that a silent old man on the beach can make people pass out by erasing their names etched on the sand. When he reappeared with the moon, he scribbles some dates instead. |
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| 1943-09-28 |
Author And The Thing |
On the telephone, Obler tells someone he is staying late to write his next story about evil forms that take the thoughts of a man who had been hearing murmurs for seven days. When the man’s brother tries to wake him up from a nightmare, he thinks that his brother is still part of the nightmare’s evil murmer. |
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| 1945-07-21 |
Reunion After Death |
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| 1945-07-28 |
Rocket Ship |
In the year 2000, a crewman returns from the moon and notes moon craters being similar to atom bomb craters in New Mexican test sites. |
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| 1945-08-25 |
Man In The Middle |
A secretary and her boss are having an affair which is discovered by her brother. The brother threatens the boss to stay away from his sister and a big fight follows. |
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| 1945-09-01 |
The Day The Sun Exploded |
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| 1946-07-13 |
The Coffin In Studio B |
While participants are rehearsing for the "Lights Out" show, a coffin salesman enters promoting his product. |
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| 1946-07-20 |
Haunted Cell |
A man is sentenced to death and is visited by a ghost at the death row. The show’s beginning is a bit offshoot. |
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| 1946-07-27 |
Battle Of The Magicians |
An airline owner and a zombie manipulator are warlocks who are mortal enemies trying to destroy the other. The other uses his zombie to pilot and send down the other’s airplane |
|
| 1946-08-03 |
Revenge Of India |
An influential Indian gets kidnapped by gangsters and hidden in the trunk of their car.
Unknowingly, the man keeps a handheld radio and maintained contact with his servant for rescue.
|
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| 1946-08-16 |
Ghost On The Newsreel Negative |
In hope of catching ghosts on film, two men tries their luck in a haunted farm. |
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| 1946-08-24 |
The Signal Man |
A old train signalman is interviewed by a reporter. He says he saw a signaling figure just before the accident occur at the spot where the wrecks occurred. |
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| 1947-07-12 |
Death Robbery |
A man tries to bring back to life his scientist friend’s wife who died in a car accident. They have forgotten something important. (Starring: Boris Karloff.) |
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