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Arch Oboler

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Arch Oboler
Arch Oboler with actorTommy Cook(c. 1940)
Born(1907-12-07)December 7, 1907
DiedMarch 19, 1987(1987-03-19)(aged 79)
Occupations
  • Playwright
  • screenwriter
  • novelist
  • producer
  • director

Arch Oboler(December 7, 1907 – March 19, 1987) was an American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, producer, and director who was active in radio, films, theater, and television. He generated much attention with his radio scripts, particularly the horror seriesLights Out,and his work in radio remains the outstanding period of his career. Praised as one of broadcasting's top talents, he is regarded today as a key innovator of radio drama. Oboler's personality and ego were larger than life. Radio historianJohn Dunningwrote, "Few people were ambivalent when it came to Arch Oboler. He was one of those intense personalities who are liked and disliked with equal fire."[1]

Early life

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Oboler was born inChicago,Illinois,to Leon and Clara Oboler, Jewish immigrants fromRiga,Latvia.[2]The family was poor, though cultured. He grew up a voracious reader and discerning music appreciator, listening to the likes of violinistFritz Kreislerand the great sopranoAmelita Galli-Curci.[citation needed]

Early radio career

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Oboler entered radio because he believed it had great unrealized potential for telling stories with ideas. He thought that the medium was being wasted onsoap operas.In 1933, he wrote a spec script calledFuturistics,which satirized the world of the present in light of the future. NBC bought Oboler's script and broadcast it as part of a dedicatory program to NBC's new futuristic headquarters in New York City,Radio City.The broadcast was a success, but it set the stage for Oboler's future run-ins with broadcasters. In the play, one of Oboler's characters lampoons the slogan ofAmerican Tobacco.At that time in broadcasting history, making fun of commercials was still taboo.[citation needed]

From 1933 to 1936, Oboler wrote potboilers for programs such asGrand HotelandWelch's PresentsIrene Rich.Things changed in 1936, when radio's leading impresarioRudy Valléeused a short radio playlet of Oboler's titledRich Kid.The success ofRich Kidlanded Oboler a lucrative 52-week stint writing plays forDon AmecheforThe Chase and Sanborn Hour.During this time, Oboler wrote a number of idea plays and some were aired, in shortened form, onThe Rudy Vallée ShowandThe Magic Key of RCA.

Lights Out,Part I

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Wyllis CoopercreatedLights Outin 1934. The program aired at midnight and was notorious for its extreme (for the time) violence. In 1936, Cooper left the program forHollywood.NBC gave Oboler the opportunity to take over the series and make it his own. He was unenthusiastic at first, "a weekly horror play that went on at Tuesday midnight to the somber introduction of 12 doleful chimes, was not exactly my idea of a writing Shangri-La...".[3]But Oboler soon realized that the midnight time slot and the lack of a sponsor gave him the freedom to experiment with both story content and style. Although NBC maintained strict neutrality regarding Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, Oboler smuggled anti-fascist messages onto the program. Additionally, he used stream-of-consciousness techniques that were often deemed too esoteric for commercial audiences.

Oboler caused controversy with his very first play for the series,Burial Services.The ending of the play, in which a young girl is buried alive with no hope of rescue, was too much for audiences. Letters of protest poured into NBC. After this incident, Oboler toned down the realistic terror in his horror plays in favor of the fantastic. Perhaps the best remembered story from this series ofLights OutisChicken Heart.In that story, the tiny heart of a chicken, kept alive in a Petri dish in a lab, grows exponentially until it covers the entire earth. Oboler was very innovative with sound effects, and the insistent beating heart creates much of the terror in the broadcast. The story made such an impression on a youngBill Cosbythat he created a memorable comic routine (featured on theWonderfulnessalbum) around his childhood memories ofChicken Heart;Stephen Kingalso singles outChicken Heartas a memorable episode in his discussion of horror radio in the bookDanse Macabre.Another well remembered story isThe Dark,about a malevolent fog that turns people inside out. This story also features memorable sound effects. LikeChicken Heart,The Darkwas also parodied, this time byThe Simpsonson a "Treehouse of Horror" Halloween special. Oboler tired ofLights Outbecause he wanted to write realistic plays about Fascism. "I found myself wanting the dimensions of that half hour on the air expanded to take in the actual horror of a world facing, with half-shut eyes, the fascisticFrankenstein's monstermoving over Europe. ".[3]

Your Hollywood Paradeand the Mae West incident

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Around the time that Oboler was writing forLights Out,he was invited to Hollywood to write sketches for theLucky Strike-sponsoredYour Hollywood Parade.The show featured such guest stars asDick Powell,Bob Hope,Edward G. Robinson,Gary Cooper,and many others. After a frustrating encounter withGary Cooper,Oboler decided that he would need to direct his plays in addition to writing them.

Arch Oboler caused more controversy with his script contribution to the 12 December 1937 edition ofThe Chase and Sanborn Hour.In Oboler's sketch, hostDon Amecheand guestMae Westportrayed a slightly bawdy Adam and Eve, satirizing the Biblical tale of the Garden of Eden. On the surface, the sketch did not feature much more than West's customary suggestive double-entendres, and today it seems quite tame. But in 1937, that sketch and a subsequent routine featuring West trading suggestive quips withEdgar Bergen's dummyCharlie McCarthycaused a furor that resulted in West being banned from broadcasting and from being mentioned at all on NBC programming for 15 years. The timing may have been a contributing factor, according to radio historianGerald S. NachmaninRaised on Radio:"The sketch resulted in letters from outraged listeners and decency groups... What upset churchgoing listeners wasn't the Biblical parody so much as the fact that it had the bad luck to air on a Sunday show."[4]

Arch Oboler's Plays,Part I

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In 1939, with his own money, Oboler recorded an audition record of his playThe Ugliest Man In the World,from which he hoped to launch a new radio series of idea plays. He brought the recording to his network, NBC. At the time, NBC was looking to launch an experimental radio series to rivalCBS'sColumbia Workshop.NBC was also looking for a radio writer and director to rival CBS'sNorman Corwin.NBC gave Oboler his own series, without a sponsor and with complete creative control. It was NBC that named the seriesArch Oboler's Plays.It was an almost unheard-of honor. The time slot was less auspicious; the series occupied the Sunday 7–7:30 period oppositeJack Benny.An impressive roster of actors worked for scale to appear in Oboler's plays, includingBette Davis,Ronald Colman,Edmond O'Brien,Elsa LanchesterandJames Cagney.Perhaps the most memorable broadcast was Oboler's adaptation ofDalton Trumbo'sJohnny Got His Gun,starring James Cagney. The harrowing story of Joe Bonham, a World War I casualty with no limbs, eyes, ears, or mouth, was particularly suited to radio. Oboler created striking sound effects for the play, including the eerie vibration of bed springs, which Joe Bonham learns to recognize as the movement of people entering and exiting his hospital room.

Oboler's series was so successful that it attracted the sponsorship ofProcter & Gamble.The new series was titledEveryman's Theatre.Everyman's Theatrewas essentiallyArch Oboler's Playswith commercial sponsorship. The series ran from 1940 to early 1941. Oboler lost patience with the series because of the middle commercial interruption that came during his plays. After the series ended, it took almost a year before Oboler's services were called on again.

Plays for Americans

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AfterPearl Harbor,Oboler's anti-Fascist plays – once shunned by corporate radio sponsors – were in demand. Oboler's new series was titledPlays For Americans;its purpose was to "stimulate the American people to the importance of the war effort by indirection rather than by direct appeal." Oboler'sPlays For Americanswas World War II propaganda in half-hour radio drama form, each story teaching a lesson about wartime responsibility. Oboler's shows for this series were as star-studded as his last series.James Stewartstarred inLetter At Midnight,the story of a wealthy young man's conversion from isolationist to soldier.Bette Davisstarred inAdolf and Mrs. Runyon,a fantasy-comedy whereHitlerfinds himself magically transported into the back seat of a car belonging to an irate war bride. The program's life was cut short because of comments that Oboler made at the Radio Institute at Ohio State. Oboler was adamant that World War II propaganda should instill hatred of the enemy in the listener. To some at the institute, it sounded like Oboler was advocating the same kind of racial hatred that the Axis was advocating.Father Edward J. Flanaganrebuked Oboler and remarked that America did not need its ownGoebbels.Oboler enlisted the help ofEddie Cantorto get another propaganda series on the air, but Cantor's efforts were of no avail.

Lights Out,Part II

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Oboler generously wrotePlays for Americansfor no fee. He decided that in order "to go on writing plays which contained some level of maturity and usefulness, [he] had to find a way to make money quickly...a sponsor was quickly procured to pay me well for a revival ofLights Out".Oboler's new series carried the introduction for which it is best remembered, the sound of chimes behind announcer Frank Martin intoning:

Lights out, everybody! We bring you stories of the supernatural and the supernormal, dramatizing the fantasies and the mysteries of the unknown. We tell you this calmly, but sincerely, so if you wish to avoid the tension of these plays we advise you to turn off your radio now.[5]

This series ofLights Outdiffered from its predecessors in that it contained overt anti-Nazi messages. For instance, inExecutiona Nazi commandant's efforts to kill the leader of a French resistance movement are frustrated by the continual regeneration of the leader. Most of theseLights Outbroadcasts are remakes of Oboler's firstLights Outseries. Almost all of these broadcasts are saved, whereas only three broadcasts remain of the earlierLights Out.[citation needed]

To the President

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At the same time that Oboler wroteLights Out,he started a new series of propaganda plays titledTo the President."The plays used the device of a citizen speaking to the President; each drama concerned itself with the particular problem of that week in the war." LikePlays For Americans,To the Presidenthad a star-studded cast including actors such asFred MacMurray,Claude Rains,andHarry Carey.[citation needed]

Free World Theatre

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Oboler's next series was the ambitiousFree World Theater.Oboler produced and directed all 19 of the propaganda radio plays of this series, and wrote two of the plays. These plays were published with an introduction byThomas Mann.[6]

Everything for the Boys

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Oboler next worked withRonald Colmanon a propaganda series that featured Colman as the lead in adaptations of popular novels and plays. Colman and Oboler did not get along. Oboler chafed at the commercial interruptions of his plays. The series was an expensive disaster.[citation needed]

Arch Oboler's Plays,Part II

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Oboler's second series ofArch Oboler's Playswas broadcast over the Mutual Broadcasting Company. It aired without commercial interruption, and featured a mixture of idea and propaganda plays.

Filmography

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In making a leap from radio to film, Oboler was sometimes compared toOrson Welles,as in this commentary by Marty Baumann:

Even as Welles shocked much of the nation with the unforgettableWar of the Worldssham, so did Oboler incite panic with an episode detailing the horror of a giant, undulating chicken heart. The very fact that something patently silly could nonetheless be terrifying is a testament to Oboler's genius for manipulating his medium. Like Welles, Oboler was eventually summoned to Hollywood and began churning out feature scripts for mellers likeRKO'sGangway for Tomorrow.Proving to producers that he knew his way around a screenplay, Arch was at last given the opportunity to direct.[7]

His screen credits includeEscape(1940) andOn Our Merry Way(1948). By 1945, he moved into directing withBewitchedandStrange Holiday,followed by the post-apocalypticFive(1951), filmed at his ownFrank Lloyd Wright-designed house. He made film history with the3-D filmeffects inBwana Devil(1952).The Twonky(1953) was adapted from theLewis Padgett(pseudonym for writersC.L. MooreandHenry Kuttner) short story in the September, 1942, issue ofAstounding Science Fiction.Oboler returned to films with another 3-D feature,The Bubble,in 1966. According to a retrospective article atmondo-video,many writers and dramatic artists, includingRod Serling,François TruffautandDon Coscarellihave claimed Oboler's films and radio work as significant influences.

Year Title Director Writer Producer
1940 Escape No Yes No
1943 Gangway for Tomorrow No Yes No
1945 Strange Holiday Yes Yes Yes
Bewitched Yes Yes No
1947 The Arnelo Affair Yes Yes No
1951 Five Yes Yes Yes
1952 Bwana Devil Yes Yes Yes
1953 The Twonky Yes Yes Yes
1961 One Plus One Yes Yes No
1966 The Bubble Yes Yes Yes
1972 Domo Arigato Yes Yes Yes

Broadway

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Sidney Lumetdirected Oboler'sBroadwayplay,Night of the Auk,ascience fictiondrama about astronauts returning toEarthafter the first Moon landing. The play was based on Oboler's radio playRocket from Manhattan,which aired as part ofArch Oboler's Playsin September 1945.[8]Produced byKermit Bloomgarden,the play ran for only eight performances in December 1956 despite a cast that includedMartin Brooks,Wendell Corey,Christopher Plummer,Claude RainsandDick York.[9]In the December 17, 1956, issue,Timereviewed:

Night of the Auk(by Arch Oboler) took place on a rocket ship returning to the earth from man's first landing on the moon (time: "The day after some tomorrow" ). The mood of the return voyage is far from jubilant, what with a loathed egomaniac in command, a succession of murders and suicides, the discovery that full-scale atomic war has broken out on earth, and the knowledge that the rocket ship itself is almost surely doomed. Playwright Oboler seems indeed to be prophesying that theatomic agemay end up with man as extinct as the great auk. Closing at week's end, the play mingled one or two thrills with an appalling number of frills, one or two philosophic truths with a succession ofPolonius-like truisms, an occasional feeling for language with pretentious and barbarous misuse of it. A good cast of actors, including Claude Rains, Christopher Plummer and Wendell Corey, were unhappily squandered on a pudding of a script – part scientific jargon, partMermaid Tavernverse, partMadison Avenueprose – that sounded like cosmic advertising copy.[10]

A version ofNight of the Aukaired as an episode of the anthology television seriesPlay of the Weekin 1960.[11]In August 2012, Outside Inside Productions presented the first New York revival ofNight of the Aukat the 16th AnnualNew York International Fringe Festival.Authorized by the Oboler family, this new production, directed by Adam Levi with co-direction by Kaitlyn Samuel, was a 75-minute one-act version of the original play, adapted by playwright Michael Ross Albert.

Television

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In 1949, Oboler helmed an anthology television series,Oboler's Comedy Theatre(akaArch Oboler's Comedy Theater) which ran for six episodes from September to November. In the premiere show, "Ostrich in Bed," a couple awaiting the arrival of a dinner guest find an ostrich in their bedroom. In "Mr. Dydee" a dim-witted horse player inherits a diaper service.

Recordings

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Oboler'sLPrecording,Drop Dead! An Exercise in Horror(Capitol Records,1962) features horror-themed dramatic vignettes, interspersed with commentary from Oboler: "Introduction to Horror", "I'm Hungry", "Taking Papa Home", "The Dark", "A Day at the Dentist's", "The Posse", "Chicken Heart", and "The Laughing Man". "Arch Oboler's African Adventure" (Decca 10 "LP)field recordings during the filming of Bwana Devil.

Books

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Novels

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House on Fire(Bartholomew House, 1969), was adapted by Oboler for radio'sMutual Radio Theaterin 1980. in 2015,Valancourt BooksreissuedHouse on Firewith a new introduction by Christopher Conlon.

Collected works

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  • Free World Theatre: Nineteen New Radio Plays(Random House, 1944)
  • Oboler Omnibus: Radio Plays and Personalities(Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1945)
  • Night of the Auk: A Free Prose Playwas published by Horizon Press in 1958

Short stories

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His short story "And Adam Begot" was included in Julius Fast'sOut of This Worldanthology (Penguin,1944) "Come to the Bank" was published inWeird Tales(Fall 1984).[12]"Happy Year," a short story based on an Oboler script "from theGood Newsprogram, "was published (beginning on page 8) in the December 1940 issue ofRadio and Television Mirror.

Non-fiction

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"My Jackasses and the Fire" in the June 1960 issue ofCoronet.

Personal life

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Oboler married the former Eleanor Helfand; they had four sons: Guy, David, Steven and Peter Oboler.[2]

In 1953, Oboler had amental breakdown.[13]On April 7, 1958, Oboler's six-year-old son, Peter, drowned in rainwater collected in excavations at Oboler'sMalibuhome.[14]The house was designed by architectFrank Lloyd Wright;the Wright-designed Oboler residential complex was namedEaglefeather(which was destroyed[15]in 2018 by theWoolsey Fire). The house is featured in Oboler's filmFive.Arch Oboler died inWestlake Village, California,in 1987, aged 79.

References

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  1. ^Dunning, John (1998).On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio(Revised ed.). Oxford University Press. pp. 37–39.ISBN0-19-507678-8.
  2. ^abProfile,familytreemaker.genealogy; accessed October 31, 2014.
  3. ^abOboler Omnibus:Radio Plays and Personalities,Oboler, Leisure Books, Inc.[ISBN missing]
  4. ^"Nachman, Gerald.Raised on Radio.Pantheon, 1998 ".Archived fromthe originalon 2009-02-10.Retrieved2009-01-02.
  5. ^William E. Spear (24 January 2007)."Great Beginnings: Lights Out".Two Plus Plus Productions LLC.Retrieved29 October2015.
  6. ^ASINB000Q9OYAM
  7. ^Baumann, Marty. The Astounding B Monster Archive: "Arch Oboler: Radio raconteur enters new dimension",bmonster; accessed October 31, 2014.
  8. ^Lucanio, Patrick; Coville, Gary (2002).Smokin' Rockets: The Romance of Technology in American Film, Radio and Television, 1945–1962.Jefferson, North Carolina:McFarland & Company.pp. 66–78.ISBN0-7864-1233-X.
  9. ^Hischak, Thomas S. (2009).Broadway Plays and Musicals.Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. p. 326.ISBN978-0-7864-3448-0.LCCN2008044300.
  10. ^Time,December 17, 1956.
  11. ^Richard F. Shepard (May 3, 1960)."Night of the AukonPlay of the Week"(PDF).The New York Times.
  12. ^Internet Speculative Fiction Database,isfdb.org; accessed October 31, 2014.
  13. ^"Oboler Mending Abroad".Variety.August 19, 1953. p. 5.RetrievedMarch 17,2024– viaInternet Archive.
  14. ^"Son of Arch Oboler Drowns in Excavation,"Cumberland Evening Times,April 8, 1958.
  15. ^"Frank Lloyd Wright's Arch Oboler Complex Appears Gutted by California Fire".28 November 2018.
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