Horror Stars on Radio

This book chronicles the radio appearances of all prominent classic horror movie stars–Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Peter Lorre, Vincent Price, and two dozen more, including “scream queens” like Fay Wray. It contains script excerpts from radio shows as well as material from narrated albums and music singles. Each star’s appearances are listed by show and air date, with descriptions of the subject matter.

Bronx native Ronald L. Smith has written 19 books and produced and DJ’d a continuous 24 hour radio broadcast. He has edited three national magazines, appeared on a variety of television programs including “A&E Biography,” and written a dozen radio scripts for the series “Comedy College.” He lives in New York.

Ronald L. Smith
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 260
Bibliographic Info: 88 photos, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2010
pISBN: 978-0-7864-4525-7
eISBN: 978-0-7864-5729-8
Imprint: McFarland

Introduction      1

1. Boris Karloff      7
2. The Wolfmen: Henry Hull and Lon Chaney, Jr.      29
3. Bela Lugosi      46
4. Vincent Price      64
5. The Horror Hams: Laird Cregar, John Carradine and Basil Rathbone      87
6. Professors of Pain: Lionel Atwill, George Zucco and Henry Daniell      127
7. Peter Lorre      144
8. Two-Shot Wonders: Claude Rains and Charles Laughton      171
9. Strange Ladies: Elsa Lanchester, Una O’Connor and Maria Ouspenskaya      196
10. Sinister Women: Gale Sondergaard and Agnes Moorehead      206
11. Scream Queens: Helen Chandler, Julie Bishop, Ann Doran, Louise Allbritton, Hillary Brooke, Evelyn Ankers, Jane Adams, Gloria Stuart, Elena Verdugo and Fay Wray      224
12. Radio’s Own Horror Stars      241

Bibliography      249
Index      253

• “A delightful walk down memory lane, well worth being on the serious OTR fan’s bookshelf”—SPERDVAC’s Radiogram
• “A marvelous addition”—Chattanooga Airwaves.