"Mrs. Hawker's Will"

"Mrs. Hawker's Will," pp. 70-71

"Mrs. Hawker's Will," pp. 72-73

"Mrs. Hawker's Will," pp. 74-75

"Mrs. Hawker's Will," pp. 76-77

"Mrs. Hawker's Will," pp. 78-79

"Mrs. Hawker's Will," pp. 80-81

"Mrs. Hawker's Will," pp. 82-83

"Mrs. Hawker's Will," pp. 84-85

"Mrs. Hawker's Will," pp. 86-87

"Mrs. Hawker's Will," p. 88

Copy of November 1936 issue of "The Witch's Tales" currently on sale at eBay for $800!

Ouch on the price ($800), but here's the item listing - http://www.ebay.com/itm/Alonzo-Deen-Cole-WITCHS-TALES-Nov-1936-Vol-1-No-1-/300890541222?ssPageName=ADME:B:WNARL:US:1123  The eBay listing for this item describes this magazine as containing 12 stories by Cole, but for details on the contents of this magazine see the Moskowitz article previously posted at this blog.

If you buy this magazine, send me a copy of "The Madman."

Episodes of "The Witch's Tale" available online at...

http://www.myoldradio.com/old-radio-shows/witches-tale/1

Additional weblinks will be added as they become known.

"The Gipsy's Hand," p. 102

"The Gipsy's Hand," p. 103

"The Gipsy's Hand," p. 104

"The Gipsy's Hand," p. 105

"The Gipsy's Hand," p. 106

"The Gipsy's Hand," p. 107

"The Gipsy's Hand," p. 108

"The Gipsy's Hand," p. 109

"The Gipsy's Hand," p. 110

"The Gipsy's Hand," p. 111

A drawing of Alonzo Deen Cole from "Weird Tales" magazine, May 1942

Alonzo Deen Cole and "Weird Tales" magazine

Of Alonzo Deen Cole's submissions to Weird Tales, Sam Moskowitz said the following:

In 1936, the radio program "The Witch's Tale" was on every week and popular. The speedy failure of the magazine must be attributed to poor quality and inadequate distribution. It is possible that in the 1930's, Alonzo Deen Cole did approach Weird Tales magazine and they found his stories much inferior to those they were running and would not take them.

The program was taken off the air in 1938 and Cole, finding that Weird Tales was under new ownership, tried again.  He offered them the first story for nothing if they would give his notion of running adaptations from his radio programs a trial. They agreed.  They announced with a special two thirds of a page advertisement the appearance in the forthcoming November, 1941 issue of "The Spirits of the Lake."  Then they featured it on the cover of that issue, "A Witch's Tale, specially adapted from the famous radio program by Alonzo Deen Cole."

In printing the second story Weird Tales made no prior announcement, nor was the story featured on the cover.  It may be presumed the experiment was unsuccessful. The main problem with the stories was they read like what they were, radio scripts converted into fiction. In a radio script, confined to thirty minutes on the air, the material must move directly and with a minimum of background to carry the plot line. The narrative stroke must be easily and instantly comprehensible. These elements do not always make for the best fiction, which desirably has elements of characterization, atmosphere and subtlety to enrich the plot.

"The Gipsy's Hand" by Alonzo Deen Cole, Weird Tales, May 1942

My copy of the May 1942 issue of Weird Tales arrived in yesterday's mail and, as promised, here's the story "The Gipsy's Hand," which I presume has lapsed into the public domain.

 

This story first appeared as an episode of the radio program "The Witch's Tale" on November 14, 1932. 

 

"Snake House," Mystery Novels Magazine, July 1935, a story by Alonzo Deen Cole?

 

The Fiction Mags Index reports that a story by Alonzo Deen Cole entitled "Snake House" appears in the July 1935 issue of Mystery Novels Magazine. 

 

This story is not part of the Alonzo Deen Cole bibliography previously noted on this blog.  In regard to this story, Sam Moskowitz, in his article on Cole, wrote:

At least one story in the radio series was not written by Alonzo Deen Cole. Fantasy Magazine's columnist Mort Weisinger reported in his column "The Ether Vibrates" in the April, 1934 issue that Richard Sale had written the transcript for "Snake House" which ran on the weekly "The Witch's Tale" show.  This raises a question as to whether the fiction version of that story as by Alonzo Deen Cole which ran in the July, 1935 issue of Mystery Novels Magazine, a Winford Publication issued the auspices of Louis Silberkleit, was actually rendered by Sale, since Cole rarely placed storied in periodicals.

So, maybe this is truly a Cole story.  Maybe it's not.  Regardless, I'll keep an eye out for this magazine.

"The Witch's Tale: Stories of Gothic Horror from the Golden Age of Radio" (Edited by David S. Siegel)

 

I'm thankful in advance to David S. Siegel for writing this book, The Witch's Tale: Stories of Gothic Horror from the Golden Age of Radio, which I definitely look forward to ordering and reading.  I truly enjoyed the liner notes Siegel contributed to the collection of audio episodes of "The Witch's Tale" currently available via Radio Spirits. 

What intrigues me about Alonzo Deen Cole

At this particular moment in time, what intrigues me the most about Alonzo Deen Cole - aside from the fact that The Witch's Tale is so irresistably enjoyable - are the following two aspects of the items previously posted here:

 

1.  The Find a Grave web entry reports, "[A]uthor Read G. Burgan noted that 'nearly all radio, television, and even comic book horror series that followed borrowed liberally, and often shamelessly from the conventions first developed by Cole'."  And the Wikipedia entry adds, "EC Comics publisher Bill Gaines was inspired by Cole's Old Nancy host to create the character the Old Witch, illustrated by Graham Ingels as the host of EC's The Haunt of Fear."  More on this in future posts.

 

2.  The Find a Grave entry reports, "After the series had ended, while packing to move to California, Cole destroyed all of his original recordings of 'The Witch's Tale'. Only about 30 recordings of the original 332 episodes still exist in poor condition."  (I'll have to find the website to confirm this, but I've read that Cole arrived at this decision after determining that his recordings of "The Witch's Tale" wouldn't be worth shipping, when he moved from the east coast to the west coast.)  Thankfully, I think more episodes than this have been discovered over the years, but, hopefully, that can be pinned-down as well.

 

The first point highlights the reason why this blog should exist - it is criminal that Cole is not a household name.  As Sam Moskowitz said in 1993: "[P]ractitioners of the arts in all fields have their works preserved and are remembered because of the enthusiasm and loyalty of a group of fans. This is as true for moving pictures and music as it is for literature. No such organized group of devotees currently exists for Alonzo Deen Cole and he survives only in the form of records and tapes that have been preserved by collectors of radio memorabilia."

And the second point just makes me want to learn more about Cole as a person.

Alonzo Deen Cole, Grand View Memorial Park, Los Angeles

This photo is courtesy of http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=47485069, which offers some interesting biographical information regarding Cole:

 

"Alonzo D. Cole has been hailed by early radio fans as a prolific genius and legend of the golden age of radio drama. He created the popular gothic radio horror classic, "The Witch's Tale". Later he became the only writer for the famous radio series "Casey, Crime Photographer", producing 384 scripts. In addition, he wrote scripts for the legendary "Shadow" series, "Gangbusters", "Seth Parker", the "Hour of Charm", and the "Kate Smith Hour" creating a total of almost 900 radio plays.

 

Cole began acting in school plays as a young man in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and toured in dramatic plays and stock companies. While in New York, Cole convinced WOR to air his horror series devoted to the supernaural.

 

"The Witch's Tale" was first broadcast on May 28, 1931 through the Mutual Broadcasting System and ran for 7 years, until June 13, 1938.  He crafted, wrote, produced, directed, and even starred in his gothic brainchild along with his wife Marie O'Flynn, who played the key female roles. "The Witch's Tale", is credited by early radio scholars as the first of its genre in old time radio. Importantly, author Read G. Burgan noted that "nearly all radio, television, and even comic book horror series that followed borrowed liberally, and often shamelessly from the conventions first developed by Cole". A cackling witch named Nancy introduced the half hour program with her meowing cat, Satan. She created the atmosphere for the show by inviting the listener to put out the lights and listen to her terrifying tales.

 

Cole created a new tale each week featuring murderous dummies, vampires, crawling hands, haunted houses, devils, curses, werewolves, and mirrors leading to other dimensions. The series became statistically the top radio program of its day. "People like to be scared", said Cole, "just as they like to eat candy."

 

After the series had ended, while packing to move to California, Cole destroyed all of his original recordings of "The Witch's Tale". Only about 30 recordings of the original 332 episodes still exist in poor condition. Cole did however, keep the scripts. If not for David Seigel, an avid old radio buff, the series might have been lost forever. He copied all 332 of the fragile scripts from the program, and his wife typed each script. He chose 13 scripts to publish in his book on "The Witch's Tale". KLOS in Los Angeles and 15 other west coast stations aired a remake of two of Cole's original scripts in recent years using well known actors and actresses for the parts."

Are there any/many Alonzo Deen Cole fans out there?

If so, please feel free to email me care of isoadc@gmail.com ["isoadc," of course, stands for "In Search of Alonzo Deen Cole"] or leave a comment here.

"The Spirits of the Lake" by Alonzo Deen Cole, Weird Tales, November 1941

This one, which I presume has lapsed into the public domain, is courtesy of http://thepulpreader.blogspot.com/2010_01_01_archive.html. 

This story was originally presented on January 2, 1933, as an episode of the radio program "The Witch's Tale."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An Alonzo Deen Cole bibliograpy

According to http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?11182, Alonzo Deen Cole published four short stories:

 

1.  "The Madman," The Witch's Tales, November 1936, (Nov 1936, ed. Alonzo Deen Cole, publ. Carwood Publishing Co., $0.15, 52pp, Quarto, magazine) Cover: Elmer C. Stoner.

 

2.  "The Spirits of the Lake," Weird Tales, November 1941, (Nov 1941, ed. D. McIlwraith, publ. Weird Tales, $0.15, 132pp, Pulp, magazine) Cover: Hannes Bok.

3.  "The Gipsy's Hand," Weird Tales, May 1942, (May 1942, ed. D. McIlwraith, publ. Weird Tales, $0.15, 132pp, Pulp, magazine) Cover: Ray Quigley.

 

4.  "Mrs. Hawker's Will," Tune in for Fear, (May 1985, ed. Peter Haining, publ. William Kimber, 0-7183-0558-2, £7.50, 192pp, hc, anth).

 

In regard to the above stories:

* "The Spirits of the Lake" will be uploaded in the next blog entry.

 
* "The Gipsy's Hand" and "Mrs. Hawker's Will" will be added in the coming days.  (I've got Tune in for Fear and the May 1942 issue of Weird Tales on order.)

 
* And if you have a copy of "The Madman," please feel free to share!  Please!

"Alonzo Deen Cole and 'The Witch's Tales' Magazine" by Sam Moskowitz, Pulp Vault, No. 11, June 1993

The (incredibly researched and well written) article below is by the legendary, late Sam Moskowitz.

 

If anyone from Tattered Pages Press has an issue with this article appearing here, please contact me.