Terror On The Air! Horror Radio In America, 1931-1952
Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2009 1:05 pm
Terror On The Air! Horror Radio In America, 1931-1952
By Richard J. Hand
Forward by David Kogan
McFarland & Company, Inc. Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
©2006
Hard bound book of 186 pages, with some photos.
A great book for OTR Horror fans, and essential reading, along with THE WITCHES TALE. This book gives detailed overviews of many of OTR favorite horror shows, devoting separate chapters to THE WITCH'S TALE, LIGHTS OUT, THE HERMIT'S CAVE, INNER SANCTUM MYSTERIES, THE MYSTERIOUS TRAVELER, and QUIET PLEASE. It does suffer a little a bit from being too academic, considering these are, after all, HORROR shows. Over analyzing WHY they are scary isn't as fun as talking about HOW scary the shows actually were (and still are, in many instances). One gets the sense the author is perhaps a little embarrassed by the fact he loves these shows too much and is trying to act more grown up and detached about what is essentially a juvenile form of entertainment by sounding more professorial. (That last sentence was written in the detached style you would find in the book!) But I'm probably being too nit-picky. The fact is I enjoyed the book a lot and my only gripe is that there were not more chapters on other shows, like HALL OF FANTASY, DIMENSION X, ESCAPE, SUSPENSE, etc -- granted, they weren't 100% horror like the other shows covered, but I just wanted the discussion to keep going, which is a good compliment to the overall book. I bet if you're an OTR horror fan, you'll enjoy it and will probably keep it for your library.
Being hard cover, it was rather pricey: Around $40 of $50, though I've seen a few used copies around $30.
By Richard J. Hand
Forward by David Kogan
McFarland & Company, Inc. Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
©2006
Hard bound book of 186 pages, with some photos.
A great book for OTR Horror fans, and essential reading, along with THE WITCHES TALE. This book gives detailed overviews of many of OTR favorite horror shows, devoting separate chapters to THE WITCH'S TALE, LIGHTS OUT, THE HERMIT'S CAVE, INNER SANCTUM MYSTERIES, THE MYSTERIOUS TRAVELER, and QUIET PLEASE. It does suffer a little a bit from being too academic, considering these are, after all, HORROR shows. Over analyzing WHY they are scary isn't as fun as talking about HOW scary the shows actually were (and still are, in many instances). One gets the sense the author is perhaps a little embarrassed by the fact he loves these shows too much and is trying to act more grown up and detached about what is essentially a juvenile form of entertainment by sounding more professorial. (That last sentence was written in the detached style you would find in the book!) But I'm probably being too nit-picky. The fact is I enjoyed the book a lot and my only gripe is that there were not more chapters on other shows, like HALL OF FANTASY, DIMENSION X, ESCAPE, SUSPENSE, etc -- granted, they weren't 100% horror like the other shows covered, but I just wanted the discussion to keep going, which is a good compliment to the overall book. I bet if you're an OTR horror fan, you'll enjoy it and will probably keep it for your library.
Being hard cover, it was rather pricey: Around $40 of $50, though I've seen a few used copies around $30.