Pictured left to right: Craig Wickman (actor), Bill Zarro (announcer), Steven Lewis (director), and Mike Thomas-Faria (actor) of the Gotham Radio Players’ recreation of “One Day It Rained Blood.”
The Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention at first presents a panoply of opportunity for the connoisseur of yesteryear—symposiums (histories of Wonder Woman and Captain Midnight); vintage film screenings (the 1915 “Picture of Dorian Gray”); vendors of retro popular-culture collectables and antiques (such as Christmas ornaments with 1960s television shows painted on them; “Green Hornet” board games and toy green gas guns; “Three’s Company” bubblegum cards); and a myriad of DVDs (and even a few classic View-Master reels) of fondly remembered TV programs such as “The Flying Nun.” Celebrities are also present—this year featuring Hal Linden, Max Gail, George Hamilton, Joanna Cassidy, and Tim Matheson, among others, and authors such as Christopher M. Allport, who has co-authored an exciting “Scandinavian Adventure Novel” called the “Senja Chronicles.”
For its radio recreations, presentations, and unique shopping opportunities, we highly recommend attending the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention every September.
Then we entered a quiet ballroom, lit by a somber flickering overhead. Here a sizable audience is prepared for a live recreation of a lost episode of the spooky 1930s radio chiller, “Lights Out,” enacted by the New York-based Gotham Radio Players. This acting group has been staging recreations of radio horror programs such as “Lights Out” since 1991, with a preference for “lost” episodes—shows for which scripts exist, but recordings do not. This performance will be the apocalyptic “One Day It Rained Blood,” originally aired on March 8, 1939. Set a decade ahead in the then-future 1949, the show presciently speaks of a major world war in the 1940s. Lead character, Jimmy Crissman (voiced by Craig Wickman) proclaims, “I am the last man in the world. […] I’ll be the last one to die.” There is then a flashback as Crissman tells listeners of the first day it rained blood. He is with his friend, Burke (well-portrayed by Mike Thomas-Faria), as they observe strange-colored skies—as if the sun were “drawing blood instead of water.” Then it actually begins to rain blood.
The voice actors, dressed in black and sporting crimson ties, not only read their lines but gestured as well, looking in horror as if they are really seeing blood. As the blood pours, there is no more water for people on earth except for those like Crissman and Burke who have private supplies. As people drink the blood rain out of desperation, they do not die. Indeed, they cannot die or be killed but live on in thirst and misery. And “nobody can stop it, nobody in the whole world.”
This is not just a simple tale of horror, rather, it is meant to be a cautionary parable for the destruction caused by war and technology. As one character states, “[God] meant it when He said He didn’t want killing. God gets tired of guys shooting each other.” The most famous “Lights Out” director and host, Arch Obler, often used horror for social commentary, as would Rod Serling in the television series “Twilight Zone” some twenty years later.
“Lights Out” was a horror series known for its “gruesome sound effects,” explains Bill Zarro, who serves admirably as the sepulchral voice of the “Lights Out” announcer. The show is enhanced by the clever use of a wind machine developed by producer Max Schmid and operated by skilled sound effects artist, Bernadette Fiorella-Wichman. The device rubs a wooden drum against canvas to produce the sound of howling wind. Squadron movements and crowd sounds are also heard. At the performance this reviewer attended, rain outside the ballroom increased the verisimilitude of the proceedings. Members of the audience also had the opportunity to audition for “The Phantom Skeleton of Sespe River,” a lost episode of “The Cisco Kid,” directed by Don Ramlow.
For its radio recreations, presentations, and unique shopping opportunities, we highly recommend attending the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention every September. We especially look forward to the next production by the Gotham Radio Players! For more information about the convention, go to their website.
