The Hall of Fantasy Radio Program

Background: Dark Fantasy Redux

Supernatural thrillers, as a dramatic genre, were a popular staple throughout the Golden Age of Radio. While some were originated and produced by independent programming syndicators, the majority of the more enduring supernatural thrillers originated out of key stations of one of the larger networks--occasionally larger affiliate stations within a network's chain. Some of the more popular of the genre were as follows:

• 1931 The Witch's Tale
• 1932 The Witch of Endor
• 1932 The Witching Hour
• 1935 Hermit's Cave
• 1936 Dr. Satan
• 1936 Lights Out!
• 1941 Dark Fantasy
• 1941 Inner Sanctum
• 1942 The Whistler
• 1943 Mysterious Traveler
• 1944 Creeps By Night
• 1944 Strange Dr. Weird
• 1944 The BBC's Appointment with Fear
• 1945 Haunting Hour
• 1945 Sealed Book
• 1945 Stay Tuned for Terror
• 1946 Hall of Fantasy
• 1947 Diary of Fate
• 1947 Quiet Please
• 1948 Cabin B-13
• 1950 Detour
• 1950 Satan's Waitin'
• 1952 Obsession
• 1953 Stroke of Fate

Though not all-inclusive, the list reflects a reasonably representative mix of affiliate origination, key station origination and independent syndicator programming. Some of the more satisfying 'David vs. Goliath' success stories to emerge from this list of programs were 1941's Dark Fantasy, 1945's Haunting Hour and 1946's The Hall of Fantasy. The Hall of Fantasy's story reads much like that of Dark Fantasy. Each the vision and creation of one man, each originating in affiliate stations, and each eventually emigrating to Chicago. Dark Fantasy's creator, Scott Bishop, didn't continue Dark Fantasy in Chicago, but was summoned there from WKY, Oklahoma, with a promise of creative carte blanche to begin other horror-thriller series' there.

In the case of Richard Thorne, KALL staff announcer and creator of The Hall of Fantasy, he began his productions out of Salt Lake City CBS affiliate, KALL. Two years after producing approximately twenty-six episodes originating out of KALL, Richard Thorne took a positition with W-G-N, Chicago, a Mutual key station, and eventually created the W-G-N runs of The Hall of Fantasy from 1949-forward.

The Hall of Fantasy debuts for Granite Furniture Company

While little is known about how Dick Thorne hooked up with Granite Furniture, it's clear both parties were pleased with the result. Both KALL and KDYL had developed serveral programs over the years that went national at one time or another. NBC affiliate KDYL's earliest claim to national syndication was with its Diamond Dramas feature. KALL, a CBS affiliate, aired many programs of thriller fare over either the Columbia chain or via independent syndication.

KALL had aired the independently syndicated Haunting Hour through most of 1946 and area listeners seemed to enjoy the format. Given Haunting Hour's syndication cost once NBC began syndicating it, program creator, Richard Thorne couldn't have had a very difficult time pitching KALL execs the notion of a locally produced thriller feature as long as a generous sponsor could be lined up. That sponsor was Granite Furniture Company of Provo, Sugarhouse and Murray. One of the area's fastest growing and most successful home furnishing chains, a deal was struck between Dick Thorne, KALL and Granite to slot the initial broadcasts of The Hall of Fantasy in the 11:30 p.m. timeslot for the last two Wednesdays of November 1946. One might well conclude that the late night spot was by way of a trial run of the format and to iron out any bugs.

By December 4, 1946 The Hall of Fantasy moved into the 9 p.m. Wednesday slot, where it remained throughout the holidays and the first few weeks of 1947. The program became a Sunday evening feature on January 12, 1947 and remained in either an 8:30 p.m. or 9:30 p.m., Sunday night slot for the remainder of its run over KALL.

Series Derivatives:

Notes on Provenances:

The most helpful provenances were the log of the RadioGOLDINdex and newspaper listings.

OTRisms:

Let's get this out of the way right up front. The log(s) that 95% of the 'otr community' have been hanging their hats on vis a vis The Hall of Fantasy for the past twelve years are complete and utter rubbish.

As a direct consequence of this silliness--and blatant collusion, engineered entirely to prop up commercial otr sales, an entire canon representing the largest output of The Hall of Fantasy in its prolific history is now overwhelmingly in question. We can substantiate no more than twenty-five of the approximately 104 titles airing over W-G-N between 1949 and February 1952. As best as we can determine, no one can at present. While many say they can, they simply can't.

We don't take this position lightly. We personally view Dick Thorne's talent as the equal of Scott Bishop of Dark Fantasy fame. Dick Thorne was a gifted and imaginative writer, director, actor and producer. Indeed, we take great exception to 'otr expert' observations that Thorne's earliest exemplars over KALL, Salt Lake City, were inferior in some way. We personally find the six circulating exemplars from the November 1946 to June 1947 canon to be the equal of anything Dick Thorne produced while with W-G-N. Indeed, given the production limitations of that first twenty-six to twenty-nine programs we find it extraordinary that Thorne could weave together such compelling productions from such a humble production staff, ensemble, and budget. He managed to pull it off with a combination of creativity, drive and passion. Even more to the point, the production was perfectly suited for its target audience--a vast valley of predominantly Mormon listeners readily inclined to forgive a lack of production glitz for honest, creative, and locally originated performances.

By contrast, the overwhelming trade in exemplars of The Hall of Fantasy is as sleazy as it gets in otr--and that's saying something. A scrub of our own trades acquired over the past 11 years of collecting The Hall of Fantasy disclosed some thirty bogus, misrepresented programs out of what we previously believed to be seventy-nine valid exemplars of The Hall of Fantasy. Almost all of the misrepresented exemplars were from the rebroadcast and syndicated runs.

What you see here, is what you get. Complete transparency. We have no 'credentials' whatsoever--in any way, shape, or form--in the 'otr community'--none. We don't get a steady stream of 'complimentary' cassettes and CDs from commercial otr dealers to keep silent about their rubbish catalogs. Here's how we did it--for better or worse. Here's how you can build on it yourselves--hopefully for the better. Here are the breadcrumbs--just follow the trail a bit further if you wish. No hobbled downloads. No misdirection. No posturing about our 'credentials.' No misrepresentations. No strings attached. We point you in the right direction and you're free to expand on it, extend it, use it however it best advances your efforts.

We ask one thing and one thing only--if you employ what we publish, attribute it, before we cite you on it.

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We don't pronounce our Golden Age Radio research as 'certified' anything. By the very definition, research is imperfect. We simply tell the truth. As is our continuing practice, we provide our fully provenanced research results--to the extent possible--right here on the page, for any of our peers to review--or refute--as the case may be. If you take issue with any of our findings, you're welcome to cite any better verifiable source(s) and we'll immediately review them and update our findings accordingly. As more verifiable provenances surface, we'll continue to update the following series log, as appropriate.

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[Date, title, and episode column annotations in red refer to either details we have yet to fully provenance or other unverifiable information as of this writing. Red highlights in the text of the 'Notes' columns refer to information upon which we relied in citing dates, date or time changes, or titles.]