Old Time Radio (OTR) - Black Chapel
Just two recordings out of 100 episodes of this show are known to survive today, indicating the remainder of the series are believed to be lost.
Black Chapel played on the Columbia Network at 11:45 pm on Thursday nights, and (beginning in November of 1938) Friday nights. Such a time slot allowed the show's chilling climax to hit right around the stroke of midnight. Although the 15 minute series was short on cast and sound effects, it made up for it with sinister delivery and a slow, building pace. All the narration and characters were portrayed by a "hooded figure" whose "gnarled fingers grip the cracked keys" of the organ. This series was recorded live in 1939, several years before post-war magnetic tape made editing easy and convenient. Black Chapel has several similarities with Black Castle (1942), in that both were 15 minute horror anthology shows with one character performing all the roles. And so to the haunting introduction to the show.....
Wait........wait.....dont go away....dont be afraid just because its near the hour we go to the black chapel.....each evening we come to this remote place, a place of mystery and terror where the hooded figure appears and sits at the keyboard of the ruined old organ...mumbling and jibbering his fantastic tales....as his hands grip the keys (cackles).....
Little do they know....little does anyone know....the true story of the tale........I know it and I shall tell it to you now......
Despite the lost episodes we still have the names of those episodes which you can access Here
Box 13
The first show was broadcast on the 19/08/1939 and the last show date was 21/07/1939. There were 100 shows in total - although only 2 are known to exist today
