Aural Atavism: The Witch's Tale and Gothic Horror Radio
2012; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 19; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/19376529.2012.667021
ISSN1937-6537
Autores Tópico(s)Crime and Detective Fiction Studies
ResumoAbstract This article offers a cultural historical interpretation of The Witch's Tale (1931–38), an early U.S. horror radio drama, and argues that the program's use of the Gothic genre unified its content and form. Its plays emphasized temporality to highlight the Gothic intertwining of the past and present, and offered allegories that while often rooted in the fantastic nevertheless addressed contemporary concerns—gender, Others, and socio-economic anxieties. It used sound to complement its content, evoking the supernatural and monsters, and cuing and sustaining suspense. And it tapped radio's connotation as a supernatural medium to complement and magnify its generic horror. Notes 1Other programs featuring horror or the supernatural include: Lights Out (1934–1947), The Hermit's Cave (1935–1944), I Love a Mystery (1939–1952), Dark Fantasy (1941–42), Suspense (1942–1962), The Whistler (1942–1955), The Weird Circle (1943–47), Creeps by Night (1944), The Haunting Hour (1944–46), Stay Tuned for Terror (1945), Murder at Midnight (1946–47), Escape (1947–1954), The Hall of Fantasy (1947–54), Mystery in the Air (1945, 1947), The Croupier (1949) and Nightmare (1953–54). 2 The Detective Story Hour was created by pulp publisher Street & Smith (CitationChandler, 2004, p. 729). 3Even the prestigious Mercury Theater on the Air featured horror in 1938 with its adaptations of "The War of the Worlds" (30 November 1938) and "Dracula" (11 July 1938), its first play. 4Mutual carried Dark Destiny (1942–43), The Mysterious Traveler (1943–53), The Sealed Book (1945), Strange Dr. Weird (1944–45), The Hall of Fantasy (1947–54) and, initially, Quiet, Please (1947–49), which later moved to NBC. Mutual's relationship to horror radio is addressed in CitationKillmeier (2010). 5"The Evil Eye" (27 August 1931), "The Transplanted Souls" (28 December 1931), "Clairimonde" (16 August 1932) and "The Doctor of Souls" (15 May 1936). My interpretation of the program is based on an analysis of 37 plays (24 are recordings and 13 are scripts), which constitute the bulk of available material. CitationCole (1998) lists 333 total plays in total however many were reprised—quite a few of them multiple times. 6"Rappaccini's Daughter" (2 February 1932). 7"The Devil and Tom Walker" (26 October 1931) and "The Headless Horseman" (31 October 1931). 8"Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (23 November 1931) and "The Wonderful Bottle" (21 March 1932). 9(1 February 1932). 10(19 December 1932). 11(25 September 1933). 12"The Statue of Thor" (22 May 1933). 13"Kamohoalii" (18 January 1932). 14Universal's Werewolf of London (Stuart Walker, 1935) was contemporaneous with the reprise of "The Were-Wolf" (15 October 1935). Lycanthropy also featured in "The Image" (8 February 1932). 15From script (CitationCole, 1998, pp. 63–76). Although derived from Stoker's story Cole's play changes many elements in a "free adaptation" (CitationHand, 2004, p. 80). And, as Hand notes, broadcasting it on America's Independence Day was particularly ironic—the protagonists are nouveau riche Texans who purchase a haunted house in England illustrating an American association between status and the former colonial power that suggests dependence. 16From script (CitationCole, 1998, pp. 47–62). 17 Weird Tales also spawned a radio show, Stay Tuned for Terror (1945), based on adaptations of Robert Bloch's stories. 18Publisher Street & Smith certainly did so with The Shadow magazine (1931–49). 19From script (CitationCole, 1998, pp. 163–179); AKA "The Hairy Monster" (26 September 1932). 20"From Dawn to Sunset" from script (CitationCole, 1998, pp. 31–45); AKA "Vampire Village" (21 January 1936). 21 Weird Tales also serialized "Frankenstein" beginning in 1932. But the editor "was so roundly condemned by readers that he decided against following it up with 'Dracula'" (CitationHaining, 1976, p. 13). 22An American film adaptation was also made: Mad Love (1935, Karl Freund). The Raven (Louis Friedlander, 1935), nominally linked to Poe, exhibits a similar scenario. 23The literary source for the severed hand is Guy de Maupassant's The Flayed Hand (1875); such a hand figures prominently in "Four Fingers and a Thumb" (19 October 1937) and in the comic Tales from the Crypt 18 (June–July 1950). I am grateful to an anonymous reviewer for pointing out these connections. 24From script (CitationCole, 1998, pp. 131–146). 25The form noted, "I realize that many ideas, programs, formats, scripts, slogans, plans, suggestions, and other materials submitted to WOR are either not original or, if used by WOR are not used as the result of such submission. I herewith submit to WOR certain material; it being understood that I have full power to control and dispose of all rights thereto" (Undated contract, Bamberger Broadcasting Service, Incorporated (WOR), Radio Writers Guild Records, 1930–1958, Box 70, Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library). Other evidence suggests that copyrighted pulp stories were used on radio for no compensation or a meager fee. For instance, NBC confirmed that it had been granted permission and paid no royalties for three Story Digest stories used on Stories by Olmsted (Marion E. Noyes to Albert Gibney, 3 December 1946, Box 4, Popular Publications, Inc. records, New York Public Library). Other correspondence indicated that a fee of $25 for first radio rights was a common figure offered to Popular Publications in the late 1940s. The pulp publishers claimed to own all rights to stories they published and seemed to see radio as less a source of revenue than a means of publication promotion. This began to change from the late 1930s onward as writers organized and demanded fair compensation (Alden H. Horton to Martin Jurow, 17 March 1950, Box 4, Popular Publications Inc. records, New York Public Library). 26The introduction noted: "From THE WITCH'S TALE—that highly popular radio broadcast which thrilled you so often over the air—comes a story specifically adapted for the magazine by that famous program's author and director" (Cole, 1941, p. 29). 27Its alchemists include: Kendall in "The Alchemist" (5 October 1934); Hawker in "Mrs. Hawker's Will" (20 June 1935); DeCaseraut (also a diabolical occultist) in "The Devil Doctor" (19 February 1937); and Old Dr. Drummond in "The House of the Bridegroom" (26 June 1933). Its mad scientists include: Dr. Sternhoff in "The Entomologist" (7 January 1935); and Victor Frankenstein in "Frankenstein" (3 August 1931). Its diabolical occultists include Mr. Black in "The Tenant" (6 May 1937); Judge Merrick in "Hangman's Roost" (4 July 1932); and Turgoff in "Devil Hands" (14 September 1934). Its pagan witch/sorcerer figures include: the witch doctor in "The Devil Mask" (13 June 1935); the American Indians in "The Spirits of the Lake" (2 January 1933); Kaleema in "The King Shark God" (14 August 1935); Goody Fairfax in "The Haunted Crossroads" (17 October 1932); the spirit of an Aztec priest in "Knife of Sacrifice" (27 August 1935); Nora in "The Troth of Death" (11 March 1937); the pianist in "Gypsy's Hand" (14 November 1932); Cheng Liu in "Four Fingers and a Thumb" (19 October 1937); Old Eric in "The Devil's Number" (12 December 1935); the folklorist Farnum in "The Image" (8 February 1932); and Marianne in "Boa Goddess" (31 July 1933). 28Living in the modern world is "to experience personal and social life as a maelstrom, to find one's world and oneself in perpetual disintegration and renewal, trouble and anguish, ambiguity and contradiction" (CitationBerman, 1982, p. 345). Modernism and modernist, although intertwined with modernity, are particular engagements with modernity. When capitalized both describe art and literary styles or movements and works thereof. When lowercase the terms refer to ideas and practices tied to modernity or particular responses to modernity; e.g., "to be a modernist is to make oneself somehow at home in the maelstrom, to make its rhythms one's own, to move within its currents in search of the forms of reality, of beauty, of freedom, of justice, that its fervid and perilous flow allows" (CitationBerman, 1982, pp. 345–346). 29For example, hear respectively "The Devil's Number" (12 December 1935) and "The Puzzle" (7 September 1934). 30"The Mirror" (22 October 1935) concerns the temporal dimension—"the land of time"—accessed through a mirror apparatus. Closer to science-fiction or mystery than horror, the play nonetheless offers an allegory of its times. The protagonist-villain not only cheats on his wife, but bilks money in stock speculation making already poor workers destitute. The play repeatedly stresses that he gets away with his monetary malfeasance as his actions, although unethical, are clearly legal. 31A similar method is depicted in Arthur J. Burks' "The Room of Shadows" (Weird Tales, May 1936): "an ancient Tibetan wizard who [is] kept alive for ages by transferring his personality from body to body" (CitationWeinberg, 1977, p. 40). Transmigration also features prominently in Supernatural (Victor Halperin, 1933). 32Perhaps Tasso is an allusion to the Italian poet Torquato Tasso best known for Jerusalem Delivered (1580), an epic poem on the First Crusade notable for its supernatural and imaginative elements. 33"The Spirits of the Lake." 34Their 1930s intermedia are likely noir fiction—a good deal of which originated in the detective pulps. Horror film of the period also shared elements with film noir (CitationMeehan, 2011). 35For example, "Kamohoalii" (18 January 1932), "The Spirits of the Lake" (2 January 1933). "The Devil Mask" (13 June 1935), "The Boa Goddess" (31 July 1933), "The Statue of Thor" (22 May 1933) and "Four Fingers and a Thumb" (19 October 1937). 36Ka-moho-ali'i is a shark god in Hawaiian mythology, however it was a benevolent entity. The interpretation of the play is based on a script from the Generic Radio Workshop Script Library. Retrieved from http://www.genericradio.com/show.php?id=3XK5LQ9H6. AKA "The King Shark God" (14 August 1935). 37In "The Spirits of the Lake" (2 January 1933) Hilda desires money so she can "swell it over" her neighbors that looked down upon her, which partly motivates murder and her death. Dr. Zander, the villain in "The Snake House" (4 April 1932), murders his boss and becomes engaged to the boss's rich sister. Zander's material aspiration partly motivates his actions and his moral and economic transgressions result in his death. 38Such a linkage would certainly qualify as a radical stimulus for the uncanny which CitationFreud (1955) ultimately associates with women—specifically the vagina and womb. They are familiar in that we biologically originate from them and strange owing to our phallic identification. That the boa goddess is a woman and a phallic monster licenses multiple Freudian and Christian connotations. 39Morgan learned about the Aztec statue from his native girlfriend who he describes as "only a squaw." 40For example, "The Violin" (3 May 1934), "The Troth of Death" (11 March 1937) and "The Statue of Thor" (22 May 1933). 41Michel Chion argues that disembodied voices in film, which he calls "acousmêtres," are perceived as ubiquitous, panoptic, omniscient and omnipotent, qualities ascribed to supernatural or divine entities (1999, p. 24). In radio all voices are disembodied, but The Witch's Tale's use of subjective sound to convey supernatural and fantastic phenomena is akin to acousmêtres as it provides listeners with formal cues that encode such voices as actually disembodied in the narrative. 42One of the most effective radio examples of this technique is the Mercury Theater on the Air's "The War of the Worlds." 43AKA "The Clock Strikes Four" (25 June 1931) 44For example, Tasso is associated with the sounds of a violin playing in "The Violin" (3 May 1934), the wife and her revenant are linked with the sound of coughing in "The Spirits of the Lake" (2 January 1933), the animated statue in "The Bronze Venus" (2 July 1931) is articulated with gong sounds, and the disembodied hand in "Gypsy's Hand" (14 November 1932) is tied to a dog's barking. 45The sound of the clock's ticking also serves as a sound bridge between Old Nancy's introduction and the opening of the play. 46Lodge was not alone. "Picking up on the connection between radio and spiritualism, several mediums claimed that radio was a special agent of telepathy. NBC, in 1929, offered a show called the Ghost Hour, which featured an advocate of 'electrotelepathy'" (CitationDouglas, 1999, p. 53). 47"The House of the Bridegroom" (26 June 1933) 48The importance of darkness to the program is suggested by the comments of a Bronx junior high school student cited in a 1936 study: "If it were in the afternoon it wouldn't seem too ghostly, but it is on at a pretty later hour of the night when everything is still and sometimes I think that a witch could walk right into the room, grab me, then take me to an underground den, and torture me there. After The Witch's Tale, which ends about ten-thirty P.M., I try to fall asleep. Then comes the sad part of it. If I do fall asleep I dream of ghosts, goblins, and witches and many other fairy tale folks, which frighten little folks. From now on, when The Witch's Tale comes on the air, I won't listen in, unless it comes on the ether earlier" (CitationEisenberg, 1936, p. 109). 49Thirties horror films were likewise affected by the addition of sound to cinema, which sparked supernatural and uncanny connotations that transcended their content (CitationSpadoni, 2007).%
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