Lights Out! (1934-1947) aired “What the Devil” on Tuesday, October 6, 1942 as the 1st of the 52 episodes of the 1942-43 season. This is our 21st Lights Out! episode since June of 2009 but only the 4th since September of 2016, the last coming in early December of 2024. Since that last episode, where much background material was put forth about the series’ history, as well as behind the scenes anecdotes concerning the program’s wild popularity, we felt it was time to repeat the fascinating back story for newcomers, with the usual follow up teaser about the current episode.
The original iteration of Lights Out! ran from 1934-39, producing some 274 original scripts (of which only around 140 are believed to still exist), though it was revived for short periods of time–using many recycled or updated scripts from the 1930s–off and on until 1947. The show was created by Willis (aka Wyllis) Cooper who, the story goes, after a hard day’s work and tired of listening to the same old late night radio dance band programs, decided to write his own supernatural and horror stories for his own amusement (though he frightened himself so much that sometimes he couldn’t finish his own stories until the next morning). A fan of mystery and horror stories (he was especially frightened of ghost stories), he eventually convinced a local Chicago radio station (an NBC affiliate) to produce Lights Out! using his own material, and which would air at midnight, far past the bedtime for impressionable children. After the show had run for maybe a year it was announced without fanfare that the show was at an end, whereupon the radio station was deluged with irate fans from around the country demanding the show continue. Bowing to the pressure, the program was quickly revived and within three weeks Lights Out! once again was scaring the pants off of its ever-growing cult-like audience. It became so popular that fan clubs sprang up all over the country and numbered around 600 by mid-1936. Small to large groups of fans would gather at a host’s house and play cards or listen to the radio for hours ahead of the show’s midnight airing, for it was the early 1930s episodes that made it one of the most talked about horror shows of all time, notably for its gruesome sound effects and grisly scenes of murder (dismembered bodies, bodies dissolved to bones in acid baths, etc.).
Even the cast and crew became so involved in the plays they were reading or producing that as the programs began all lights in the studio were turned off, except for the pin lights needed for the reading of the scripts or those needed by the equipment technicians. Cooper (1899-1955, photo at left) was at the helm from the show’s inception in 1934 through mid-1936, at which point he would venture to Hollywood to work on films (most notably the script for 1939’s Son of Frankenstein). From 1936 on, the wunderkind Arch Oboler (1909-1987, photo at right) would, with rare exceptions, write all of the show’s scripts through the 1943 season, sometimes borrowing or adapting stories from his other radio shows, a few with a much more social or political message (Oboler was a staunch anti-Nazi)–-though retaining the much-loved supernatural or horror element. Following the 1943 season, others would script the various episodes, including Wyllis Cooper who would pen a handful or two over time. Oboler would remain connected to the show as either producer, host, or both; however, the money he was paid for his Lights Out! efforts would help finance his own private radio plays for which he would come to be highly regarded, especially during the war years amid the fervor of anti-Nazi sentiment in the United States.
“What the Devil” reminds one of Steven Spielberg’s first feature film, 1971’s Duel. Aside from the bare bones concept, the stories are quite different. In this 1942 radio drama we have a recently divorced woman and her new boyfriend driving to Mexico through the American southwest. They are not a likable couple as their back and forth banter proves. All of a sudden and out of the blue a huge truck appears ahead of them. When they try to pass the truck it almost runs them off the road. Further episodes ensue, even more dangerous and life threatening. What they eventually discover as to the mad driver behind the wheel of the huge truck is hair-raising and scares the bejeezus out of them. Suffice it to say things don’t work out well for the traveling couple, and lest I risk a spoiler or two, I’ll just say that while I’ve chosen this episode less than two weeks before Christmas, Santa’s reindeer have absolutely nothing to do with this bone-chilling tale of horror on the highway. So settle in and prepare for a wild ride as you finish listening to “What the Devil.”
(The CD linked above contains this episode and 19 others on 10 CDs, all restored and remastered.)
Play Time: 29:50
{After listening to the chilling episode of Lights Out! the night before, the neighborhood gang couldn’t wait for school to end the next day so they could hit the nearby newsstand for more stories of danger and the unknown. Action Stories (1921-50) was one of the best of the multi-genre pulp magazines, with stories ranging from adventure, to mystery, to western, and more. It ran for an amazing 30 years and a whopping 224 issues as a monthly until 1933. In 1942 it was a bi-monthly. Adventure (1910-70) was born in an attempt to hit the same market as the venerable magazine Argosy, which was selling hundred of thousands of copies per issue. While such pulps as Argosy and others with a broad spectrum of fiction were popular, Adventure decided to focus primarily on danger and thrills, which proved quite insightful if its almost 50-year lifespan is any indicator. It was a monthly in 1942. Weird Tales (1923-54) came to be known alternately as “the unique magazine” and as “the magazine that never dies.” Both are true, for WT is held in high esteem by contemporary supernatural horror fans and where they can be found in convention huckster rooms, command a high price. It also ceased publication several times over its lifespan, sometimes for only a few issues and others for a longer period, only to be brought back from the dead to live again, to the delight of its devoted readership. It was a bi-monthly in 1942.}
[Left: Action Stories, 10/42 – Center: Adventure, 10/42 – Right: Weird Tales, 9/42]
To view the entire list of weekly Old Time Radio episodes at Tangent Online, click here.