Radio Recap: Everyman's Theatre

Everyman's Theatre was a radio series that ran on NBC from the fall of 1940 to the spring of 1941. We appear to have only 4 circulating episodes at present.

Everyman's Theatre is notable because it was written and directed by Arch Oboler and was one of his first dramatic programs following his successful stint as the head of Lights Out. Of course, there's a lot of confusion in Oboler's back catalog with regards to what scripts belonged to which shows. He repeated scripts fairly often throughout his career - and some well-intentioned fans have circulated (for example) episode of Arch Oboler's Plays as though they were episodes of Lights Out.

Even thought Oboler didn't originate Lights Out, that's the program he's most identified with and I think it really helps fans to check out other examples of his work in order to better understand what specifically he brought to Lights Out, as opposed to what was carried over from Wyllis Cooper's heyday. Oboler claimed in the first episode that this series was one which was made for "every man and every woman." In Everyman's Theatre we get a few different sides to Oboler's writing; we get Oboler's the romantic, Oboler the human rights advocate and Oboler the horror producer. Just examine these four surviving episodes:

• "This Lonely Heart" (October 4, 1940) a dramatization of the love between Tchaikovsky and his "dear friend."
• "This Precious Freedom" (October 11, 1940) a businessman returns home to find fascism has taken root in America.
• "Cat Wife" (October 18, 1940) nagging wife becomes meowing wife.
• "The Women Stayed at Home" (December 20, 1940) a war widow tends to a German prisoner.

"This Lonely Heart" is perhaps the most instructive to OTR fans. It's told primarily by the female lead Nazimova as she presents a first-person singular drama but at various times other voices fade in to respond to her memories. The fade-in/fade-out voices were heard frequently in Lights Out and in "This Lonely Heart" he demonstrated it had uses outside of horror. But much of what remains of Everyman's Theatre is very much like Lights Out. "Cat Wife" is a notorious episode of Lights Out and one I think fans either love or hate; it's much easier to love the Lights Out version because Boris Karloff starred in it; Everyman's Theatre was not so honoured. But "This Precious Freedom" with Raymond Massey is an interesting and nightmarish drama about a fascist version of the USA. It is, however, a bit nebulous, the way in which the entire nation has changed so suddenly and no one wants to resist the authoritarian regime but also they don't want to warn Massey about what he's walking into; it's a bit surreal like Oboler's unfortunately campy film The Bubble, but Massey's performance remains very strong and carries the drama.

The Digital Deli has an excellent article and radio log about this program.