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The following article was published in our article directory on November 4, 2009.
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Try Not to Scream: Horror Shows in the Golden Age of Radio

Article Category: Entertainment

Horror was a genre uniquely suited to American radio of old time. In the 1930s and 1940s, radio had a profound hold on the imaginations of listeners, which various horror programs could readily exploit. With just a few well-chosen sound effects or choice lines of dialogue, radio could evoke a mad scientist's lab, to a planet filled with monsters or a swamp filled with creatures ready to eat the unwary visitor.

The large majority of radio programs that featured horror did not specifically focus on this genre, but mixed such stories with mystery and suspense thrillers. The most popular radio programs from the Golden Age of Radio that featured horror were Lights Out, Inner Sanctum, and Suspense.

Lights Out was the first of these programs to air, first hitting the airwaves in 1934 and continuing on various networks until 1947 before making the transition into television. Although the program was created by Wyllis Cooper, the show would become most associated with Arch Oboler, who took over the show in 1936. Lights Out attracted quite a lot of publicity in 1938 when Hollywood horror star Boris Karloff appeared for five consecutive episodes. Its most notorious episode may be "Chicken Heart" about an ever-growing and still-living chicken heart which, because of a scientific experiment gone horribly wrong, eventually engulfs the world.

Even though Inner Sanctum (which aired from 1941 to 1952) focused primarily on mystery stories, it also featured many horror-themed programs, such as an adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's classic short story "The Tell-Tale Heart". It was most famous for its sardonic host, "Raymond," and its trademark sound effect of an eerie creaking door that we all know. "Raymond" would go on to influence several generations of horror hosts, including the Crypt Keeper from the "Tales from the Crypt" comics to Elvira, Mistress of the Dark.

Suspense (1942-1962) similarly focused primarily on crime stories, albeit with a dark bent that edged many of the stories into horror territory. The program was most noted for the high level of its writing and production values, which attracted many movie stars to appear on the show. The Hollywood stars who appeared on the show included Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant and Henry Fonda. The most famous Suspense program is "Sorry, Wrong Number" in which an invalid woman overhears a murder plot over a crossed phone line. The popular story was done 7 times over the course of the program's run and was adapted into a successful film starring Barbara Stanwyck and Burt Lancaster.

Nowadays, horror has become primarily a visual genre due to the movies and television. However, for those who would like to sample the sound of horror from the Golden Age of American Radio, many episodes of old-time radio shows are readily available for listening on the Internet.

Keywords: old time radio, radio shows, american radio

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