Spoiler : Love Arch Oboler's scary stuff. I admire his patriotism and foresight into what Hitler would ultimately do, but prefer his Lights Out work to his other dramatic plays.

Spoiler : Born in Chicago, Illinois 12/6/1907; died 3/19/1987 of a stroke in Los Angeles, California. He was educated at The University of Chicago.

Spoiler : Writer for radio programs including Grand Hotel on NBC (1933?); Keep 'Em Rolling on Mutual (1941-1942). Writer/producer/director for radio programs including Lights Out on NBC and NBC (1936-1943); Arch Obler's Plays on NBC-Radio (1939-1940); Plays For Americans on NBC (1942); Everything For The Boys on NBC-Radio (1944-1945). Writer/director for Free World Theater on NBC-BLUE (1943). Host of the syndicated transcribed version of Lights Out (repeats of broadcasts from 1942 to 1943), (1970-1973).

Spoiler : Six of Oboler's original stories were dramatized on Arch Obler's Comedy Theater for KECA-TV-Los Angeles (1949). Writer for television programs including episodes of Obler Comedy Theatre (1948); Lights Out (1951); The Bell Telephone Hour (1959).

Spoiler : In 1986, there was a cache of unheard Obler plays discovered by Metacom in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and they were released under the title of Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.

Spoiler : Arch Oboler was known as an incredibly fast scriptwriter, with a very strong moral compass. According to this article in the Dec. 13, 1942 "Radio Life" magazine, he completely rewrote his "Lights Out" script "Mr. Maggs" (AKA "The Chest" and "He Dug It Up"), when news broke of the horrific Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire in Boston, which killed 492 people (including cowboy star Buck Jones), and injured hundreds more. The fire happened on the night of Nov. 28, 1942. The "Lights Out" broadcast was on Dec. 1, 1942.

Spoiler : I've always found fires particularly interesting in a sort of a creepy, intriguing way, so while his sensitivity was totally valid at the time I'm a little disappointed not to hear the original in retrospect, heh

Spoiler : wonder if the script for his original version is in his archives at the Library of Congress. My own writing instinct tells me that in the original version, the thing in the chest was probably a fire-demon, which might have borrowed some elements from another "Lights Out" episode: "The Flame" (about a man who becomes obsessed with a fire-goddess, who convinces him to say the spell that releases her. She then creates a wave of huge fires in the city, killing hundreds of people), which he first did in 1936, and later re-did. Oboler often re-worked and rewrote his scripts, using similar elements in multiple scripts. For example, the idea of a scientist unwittingly unleashing unstoppable total destruction of the Earth ("Oxychloride X", "Chicken Heart", "Revenge of the Worms", "Rocket From Manhattan").

Spoiler : Arch Obler had a very serious moral compass. For example, on his later OTR show, "Arch Obler's Plays". there is an episode, "An Exercise In Horror", which revolves entirely around a conversation, explaining to Peter Lorre, that his new show doesn't have any horror stories, because he wouldn't be able to match any of the real horrors in the world (the holocaust, the threat of nuclear war, etc).

Spoiler : History won't repeat such a distinguished writer