PROJECT AUDION 61: LIGHTS OUT -- BURIAL SERVICES

Brought back to life after nearly 90 years buried at the Library of Congress, Project Audion recreates the very first script Arch Oboler created for NBC's famous late night horror drama "Lights Out." Lights Out stories gave the listener free rein to imagine the worst. And in the hands of a master storyteller like Oboler, the worst could be terrifying indeed - like a good campfire ghost story, reinforced with sound effects.    "Burial Services" took a simple, horrifying premise - being buried alive - and wrapped a moody story around it, one whose shock value comes as much from hearing the private thoughts of the attendees as what happens to the person in the coffin. When "Burial Services" aired June 3, 1936 it upset so many listeners that it was never produced again - but it launched Arch Oboler on a long and highly successful career. Only the original script of "Burial Services" survived, resting in peace in the archives of the Library of Congress. Project Audion was able to unearth the script, and our transcontinental cast (even including a licensed mortician) performs the episode in its original as-broadcast form for the first time in nine decades. Listen with the lights out...if you dare...   Featuring: Holly Adams, New York Patte Rosebank, Canada John Mauldin, Tennessee Grace Wagner, Illinois Doug Fain, Kentucky Greg McAfee, California Sharon Grunwald, New Jersey Vincent Caruso, New York Production, direction, and sound patterns were by Larry Groebe, Texas.