The Gaming Gang October Spooktacular 2021 - Lights Out: Death Robbery (1947)

Jeff McAleer

Once again we're going to return to one of the premiere horror radio shows of all time, Lights Out. We discussed a little bit of the history of the program earlier in The Spooktacular but let's dig a little deeper. Lights Out was popular but always seemed to bounce around during the 1940s, run as a summer replacement or some other short run, after a rather steady 1930s. In fact the episode we'll listen to tonight was the premiere of the third Lights Out revival of the 1940s. In 1947 Eversharp razors sponsored an eight episode ABC summer run of classic Willis Cooper scripts which would feature Boris Karloff. After only three episodes Eversharp pulled the plug because, as the story goes, the company's president found the episodes already aired far too gruesome. Tonight we'll hear the premiere episode of that short 1947 revival. It just happens to be a reworking of a 1930s script which showcases just how explicitly horrific and outrageous those early Lights Out episodes were. So here's Death Robbery, starring Boris Karloff, on Lights Out as it originally aired on July 16th, 1947.

This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.