Bill Cosby and Lights Out

Below is a clip from Bill Cosby's 1966 comedy album Wonderfulness in which he talks about an episode from the radio series Lights Out. (He also briefly mentions Suspense and Inner Sanctum at the very beginning.)

"Chicken Heart" is one of Cosby's most famous monologues, but even if you have heard it before, take a few minutes to appreciate his childhood reminiscences about waiting for the radio to warm up, being terrified by Lights Out, and smearing Jell-o on the floor to keep away monsters. (Better still, buy his album because the sound quality of this clip is not the best.)

Cosby's monologue is based on the Lights Out episode "Chicken Heart" which aired on March 3, 1937. (*update -see comments below about this audio file.)

Download LightsOut_1937.03.10_Chicken_Heart

 Below is a video clip:

Rev. 12/14/08

Comments

[Rob The Bold]

I've heard that "Chicken Heart" had been a Lights Out episode, but the clip you played is from Arch Oboler's LP from the '60s called "Drop Dead--an Exercise in Horror". It's in stereo and has lots of veteran radio actors on it. My copy is autographed--by AO!
Thanks for a great website, I really enjoy and appreciate it.

[cmillinsf]

Hi Rob,
Thanks so much. I'm not really an expert on Lights Out, so I'm glad you commented on this. I got the audio file from the collection at the Internet Archive thinking that it was the orginal episode.
Oh well! Thanks again, - Christine

[Mike Newton]

On the record, Cosby says that he was seven years old at the time he heard Lights Out. He was born in 1938. He also says that it was Saturday night and his parents were going out and leaving him alone. Imagine doing that now. My reference book says that Lights Out re-ran some of their scripts in summer, 1947, at 10 p.m. Since Cosby has often made reference to ten o'clock as being when the monsters come out, I would assume this is when he heard the program. It originally aired in 1937. The script is available on Generic Radio Scripts website.

[Nick Schwartz]

Just curious: is the original half-hour version of 'Chicken Heart' a lost episode?

[Christine A. Miller]

Yes, I believe it is.