There was at least one series called "The Witching Hour" in the late 1920s but, as far as I can tell, it was devoted to organ music, not drama.
In January 1932, CBS debuted a supernatural drama anthology out of Chicago called "The Witching Hour." The Digital Deli site -- at digitaldeliftp.com -- says this is a Cooper show. "Witching" seems to have run about three months or so, featured actress Bess Johnson, and was apparently sponsored by something called BREETHEM. Here's what I've been able to dig up on short notice: ________________________________________
________________________________________
[Text of an advertisement in the January 23, 1932 New Orleans (LA) Times-Picayune]
Tune in on
"THE WITCHING HOUR"
WDSU--4:30-4:45 TODAY And on Each Saturday Afternoon
Breath-Taking Thrillers by Dr. Stuart, student of the supernatural. Another of his hair-raising experiences with the unknown--
AND $1,000.00 in CASH PRIZES
A Columbia Broadcast With the Compliments of
BREETHEM "The Breath of a Nation" ________________________________________
[February 7, 1932 Cleveland (OH) Plain Dealer]
Bess Johnson is leading lady in that "Witching Hour" series to be heard on Saturday afternoons, 5:30, CBS Net. ________________________________________
[March 11, 1932 Charleston (WV) Gazette headline and photo caption]
Charleston Girl Is Popular Radio Star
BESS JOHNSON
Here is the lady of "The Witching Hour," a weekly radio program dealing with dramas of the supernatural, and of "The First Nighters," [sic] a popular feature. She is Bess Johnson, who comes to radio after a wide stage experience. She has appeared in several Broadway presentations.
In private life she is Mrs. S. Paul Perry, wife of a prominent. Chicago physician, and she is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Herman G. Johnson of Charleston. She has visited her parents here on a number of occasions. ________________________________________
[Her e are the titles of five episodes, according to schedules in contemporary newspapers:]
01-23 "The Vampire" 01-30 "Voodoo Drum" 02-06 "The City of the Dead" 02-13 "Possessed" 02-20 "The Living Dead" ________________________________________
[November 11, 1941 San Antonio Express]
... Wyllis Cooper, rotund and prolific radio writer, is the scripter of the "Story of Bess Johnson" . . . The new assignment has resulted in a reunion for three of the principals of NBC's old hair-raising series, "Lights Out" . . . Cooper wrote them, Bess Johnson was starred in them and Basil Loughrane, who directs "The Story of Bess Johnson," got his first radio start there ... ________________________________________
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Comments on Cooper's The Witching Hour (1925)
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Does anyone have any information on the 1932 series, "The Witching Hour"? Supposedly, it was a Willis Cooper series.
Has anyone heard of it or have info on it?
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There was at least one series called "The Witching Hour" in the late 1920s but, as far as I can tell, it was devoted to organ music, not drama.
In January 1932, CBS debuted a supernatural drama anthology out of Chicago called "The Witching Hour." The Digital Deli site -- at digitaldeliftp.com -- says this is a Cooper show. "Witching" seems to have run about three months or so, featured actress Bess Johnson, and was apparently sponsored by something called BREETHEM. Here's what I've been able to dig up on short notice:
________________________________________
________________________________________
[Text of an advertisement in the January 23, 1932 New Orleans (LA) Times-Picayune]
Tune in on
"THE WITCHING HOUR"
WDSU--4:30-4:45 TODAY
And on Each Saturday Afternoon
Breath-Taking Thrillers by Dr. Stuart, student of the supernatural. Another of his hair-raising experiences with the unknown--
AND $1,000.00 in
CASH PRIZES
A Columbia Broadcast With
the Compliments of
BREETHEM
"The Breath of a Nation"
________________________________________
[February 7, 1932 Cleveland (OH) Plain Dealer]
Bess Johnson is leading lady in that "Witching Hour" series to be heard on Saturday afternoons, 5:30, CBS Net.
________________________________________
[March 11, 1932 Charleston (WV) Gazette headline and photo caption]
Charleston Girl Is Popular Radio Star
BESS JOHNSON
Here is the lady of "The Witching Hour," a weekly radio program dealing with dramas of the supernatural, and of "The First Nighters," [sic] a popular feature. She is Bess Johnson, who comes to radio after a wide stage experience. She has appeared in several Broadway presentations.
In private life she is Mrs. S. Paul Perry, wife of a prominent. Chicago physician, and she is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Herman G. Johnson of Charleston. She has visited her parents here on a number of occasions.
________________________________________
[Her e are the titles of five episodes, according to schedules in contemporary newspapers:]
01-23 "The Vampire"
01-30 "Voodoo Drum"
02-06 "The City of the Dead"
02-13 "Possessed"
02-20 "The Living Dead"
________________________________________
[November 11, 1941 San Antonio Express]
... Wyllis Cooper, rotund and prolific radio writer, is the scripter of the "Story of Bess Johnson" . . . The new assignment has resulted in a reunion for three of the principals of NBC's old hair-raising series, "Lights Out" . . . Cooper wrote them, Bess Johnson was starred in them and Basil Loughrane, who directs "The Story of Bess Johnson," got his first radio start there ...
________________________________________