Dark Dark Dark tales
and other dark tales!
innova 222
www.innova.mu
Radio Dramas by
Judson Fountain
featuring Sandor
Weisberger
ŅI didnÕt see anything
upstairs. IÕll go down
these stairs here. Wonder whatÕs down there?
Looks like IÕm going down the cellar of a house—
or something.Ó*
ŅAs you know, they run radio programs
different times. The same time itÕs daytime one place while you may be
listening, itÕs night time some other place theyÕre
listening at the same time you are. So if itÕs daytime youÕre listening to this
program now, well, just listen. But if itÕs night time youÕre listening—STOP!, whatever you are doing. Turn out all the lights,
because right now, Judson Fountain brings you a brand new radio drama, as only radio can bring it to you.Ó —Sandor
Weisberger, intro, The GorgonÕs Head
For fans of old-time radio tales of mystery and
suspense, Judson Fountain is back to shed some ŅdarkÓ on the subject. |
In 2004 we compiled a
CD, Completely in the Dark, featuring radio dramas written and produced
by Judson Fountain in New York during the late 1960s and early 1970s. This material had originally been released independently by Judson
on vinyl LP, in small editions of unknown quantity. By the time of our CD
release, Judson had achieved worldwide cult notoriety thanks to airings of his
dramas on WFMU radio since the early 1990s. When the broadcasts began, we
didnÕt know the whereabouts of Judson or his announcer sidekick, Sandor
Weisberger. In September 1995 they were both located (Judson
in Jersey City, NJ; Sandor in Brooklyn) by a fan, Geoff Wrightson. The
two artists had long been out of contact but were reunited in a historic
one-time WFMU appearance on October 30 of that year, to commemorate Halloween.
Judson and Sandor were
as delightful and cooperative as we expected and excited to be back on radio.
Judson was innocent and free with his emotions, ebullient in his enthusiasms,
and respectful about the people he admires in show business. Sandor was warm,
patient, and avuncular.
The old buddies were
interviewed and given a transcript of JudsonÕs 1969 classic The Old Woman of Haunted House for live reenactment (with sound effects). They gave an intrepid performance, re-creating their roles and
character voices with gusto. A surprise awaited the duo: a new radio drama, The Nasty Roomer!, written in JudsonÕs style by charter
ŅFountainheadÓ Don Brockway specially for their appearance. In a one-take, live
sight-reading, they acted their parts with ˇlan.
After that visit, we
lost touch with Judson, and to date he cannot be located. Sandor still lives in
Brooklyn, and we remain in contact. We hope word reaches Judson that his dramas
have been preserved with great affection in two volumes. We hope to release a
third volume in a few years. In the meantime, we invite you again to Ņturn out
all your lights and be completely in the dark.Ó
Irwin Chusid
October 2008
Judson Fountain and
Sandor Weisberger visited WFMU Radio, October 30, 1995. Excerpts
from the interview by Irwin Chusid and Irene Trudel.
WFMU: WeÕve got Judson Fountain and Sandor
Weisberger live in the studio. YouÕve probably heard their drammers on the
radio. We call them ŅdrammersÓ because, Sandor, thatÕs the way you pronounce
it.
Sandor: Yes, I say Ņdrammer.Ó
Judson: Well, itÕs supposed to be Ņdrama.Ó (laughs)
WFMU: Judson, say hello to the WFMU audience.
Judson: Hello to everybody. IÕm very, very proud and
happy to be here, doing the radio programs for you. I hope it goes over well.
WFMU: With Sandor at your side, very spiffily
dressed in a suit. This is radio, Sandor, they canÕt see you.
Sandor: Yeah, thatÕs right. I was thinking of
television, but thatÕs okay. (laughs)
WFMU: Sandor was the announcer in all the Judson
Fountain drammers.
Sandor: Yes, I also played an evil real estate agent
and JohnnyÕs father.
WFMU: Judson, have you been doing radio over the
years?
Judson: A little bit. IÕve done work mostly in the
theater, and that went over very, very good. I did something with Mary Monday,
and then we did quite a few years ago a show at Carnegie Hall. But the church I
belong to in Brooklyn, we have a theater, and I have been doing shows there,
Halloween things. And hereÕs one of the most heart-touching things I got: we
try to raise money for people, and I got a letter from one of my best friends
in Hollywood, Jimmy Stewart, and he said he was very happy that I helped to
raise $3,000. And I got a letter from the fire department, they said, ŅJudson,
you ought to be proud of yourself because what you donated to us went to help a
lot of firemen.Ó And I got a letter from the police department because I was
able to help them too, and St. PeterÕs College. Years ago, when I was small and
skinny, I used to play the piano at the P.A.L. So itÕs very, very good to do
all these nice, cheerful things and all, because youÕre an asset to other
people. ThatÕs what I really believe in. Other people comes
first.
WFMU: Sandor, you have been out of radio and
theater for years?
Sandor: For a while, yes, a little while.
WFMU: But you used to work with Judson all the
time?
Sandor: Yes, yes. But also I did acting at the
Manhattan club I belonged to. I was in different shows, plays. And then for
talent nights, I would sing songs. I sing fairly well.
WFMU: Judson, when you guys
first met, you had a lot of scripts you were trying to produce. You met Sandor,
who seemed like the right person for the announcer and supporting roles. Yet
youÕre a one-man cast yourself.
Judson: Thanks. I saw that Sandor had a talent, but
I helped to train him because he had a very, very good voice. And then weÕd do
the play at the library in Brooklyn. Some of the churches where we had
different shows, he helped too.
Sandor: And people enjoyed it very much.
WFMU: All the stories that IÕve
heard—theyÕre horror stories, theyÕre frightening, there are witches and
goblins and hags. That seems to be an obsession.
Judson: In a way, yeah, but we did a lot of comedy
and things, too.
WFMU: But you really like Halloween?
Judson: Yeah. Yeah.
WFMU: Were your parents in theater?
Judson: Yeah, in a way. See, my mother was a cripple.
She was short, she had a hump on her back, and her legs was
a little twisted. I had red hair when I was younger, she had red hair too. Her own mother was a dancer, but she
didnÕt want my mother. So she left her with Mrs. Murphy to raise in Brooklyn. IÕm Canadian. My
father came over from Canada and he went back. When my grandmother
passed away I had to go out and work and support my mother—not in radio,
but I had to work sometimes from 9 oÕclock
in the day until 8 and 9 oÕclock at night, and I had to give her my whole
salary, and sometimes she couldnÕt give me anything because she had to run the
house. But IÕm very, very grateful for things like that, because it teaches you
to have respect for other people. I donÕt believe a parent give the kids
everything they want—no, no, IÕm
against that. Let them go out and work and see what itÕs like, and then
they grow up with respect for people.
What IÕm going to say
now isnÕt nice to say, but itÕs true. A lady that lived in my neighborhood, she
always said, ŅOh my little boy, he wants something,Ó and then when he got in
his teens, she gave him everything he wanted. If he didnÕt feel like going to
work, he didnÕt have to. And then she moved away, and when I saw her again, she
said, ŅDo you know what happened to my son?Ó And I said, ŅNo, because I donÕt
live in Brooklyn no more.Ó She said he was found dead in a park from an
overdose of dope. This isnÕt my type of conversation. I usually donÕt like it.
I just have to say this now. So I donÕt believe in a child, anybody, the parents
giving them—even if the person is very, very rich—giving the kid
what they want. Let the kid go out and work for it. They will have respect for
their own parents and for other people. Like another lady said, her son wanted
a car when he got a certain age. I had big respect for her, she said, ŅOh you
want a car? Oh, youÕre going to get a car, but this is what youÕre gonna do. YouÕre gonna go out and
work. And youÕre gonna work hard, even if you have to
take a job at night. All the money you make, youÕre gonna save, youÕre gonna
bring it to me, and in one year from now, not a few months or anything, what
you lack, IÕll match.Ó He did that, and he was able to get the car. He turned
out to be a nice, decent citizen. Another person out there did something like that,
heÕs proud of his son because his son is a policeman.
WFMU: Judson, how did you get into radio? What
interested you about radio dramas? YouÕre not quite old enough to remember the
golden age of radio, right?
Judson: I love radio, maybe because of my background.
My grandmother was a dancer. And then I used to play the piano. ThereÕs one
church group that we had, they sang around different churches. But what I did
too, I did dramas, takeoffs of radio programs. And then something very, very
wonderful happened to me. When my
mother and I had to move, my mother had to move in a place where disability
people were, so I had to move and Millie Pagarmo, she let me have a five-room
apartment for 65 dollars a month rent. Nobody pays that in this day and time.
But hereÕs how I got the apartment—like I said, so many good things goes
around. I played the piano years ago at the P.A.L. And
then when I did certain radio programs and things, and helped other people.
Millie Pagarmo and her husband George and their family—he had a cork leg,
he was hurt in the war, so what happened was I did a story called ŅThe
Tinderbox,Ó dedicated to the soldiers. And Uncle Bill Adams of LetÕs Pretend [an old-time radio show] helped me in it,
but it was a different type of story, the library had it too, it was dedicated
to the soldiers for Memorial Day. And the District Attorney said, ŅJudson, what
you did was wonderful because I was a veteran. And people over here, they donÕt
know what the soldiers and things go through out there. A lot of people donÕt
even think about that, but if you have a family out there, you always worry,
are they going to come back crippled? Are they going to come back lame or
something? So what you did to help the soldiers and the veterans was very, very
nice.Ó And we didnÕt know it at the time, the Pagarmos owned a few houses, but
George, he had a cork leg, he was hurt in the war. And because my mother was a
cripple, and I supported her, and then the other things I did for other people,
they let me have that apartment when I needed it, right at a cheap rent. So
like I said, it never hurts to do something good, because you never know which
way it is going to come back.
It makes you feel nice
because it shows you that people really can be nice. ItÕs not like people think,
the world is so bad all the time. I often say, so much good going on, all over.
If more people would tell the good things thatÕs going on, I often felt that if
the newspapers would say, ŅOkay, today, what weÕre gonna do, weÕre gonna put
all the good in the newspaper that people are doing,Ó the paper couldnÕt hold
it. Because thereÕd be too much.
1. The GorgonÕs Head (14:47)
Judson
Fountain: Richie;
Molly; Pop
Sandor
Weisberger:
Announcer; RichieÕs Father
2. Captain Hale Goes to
Japan! (9:07)
Judson
Fountain: Ghost of the Castle;
Giant, Seven-Year-Old Boy; Witch Dame Gudrun
Sandor
Weisberger:
Announcer; Captain Hale
3. The Golden Arm (9:34)
Judson
Fountain: Old Man
Sandor
Weisberger:
Announcer
Lauren
Scott: Old ManÕs Wife
4. Dark, Dark, Dark! (5:15)
Judson
Fountain: Announcer;
The Thief
5. The Legend of Sleepy
Hollow (8:34)
Judson
Fountain: Granny; Witch
Kenneth
Benjamin: Ichabod Crane
James
White: Roland
Colin
Gary: Johnny
Sandor
Weisberger:
Announcer
6. The Wax Museum (6:20)
Judson
Fountain: Old Irishman; Old Lady;
Mama La Meccia
Kenneth
Benjamin: Owner of the Wax Museum
7. The Evil Portrait of
Old Man Beni (5:47)
Judson
Fountain: Old Man Beni
Kenneth
Benjamin: The Man
8. The Nasty Roomer! (12:41)
Judson
Fountain: Johnny; Molly; The Old
Hag
Sandor
Weisberger:
Announcer
The Old
Codger: himself
DARK DARK DARK TALES
AND OTHER DARK TALES!
Original radio dramas written, directed, and produced by
Judson Fountain*
Track 1 from untitled album, Sanders Recording, New York, 1970
Tracks 2 and 4 from Fun in Radio! (label, studio, date unidentified)
Tracks 3 and 5 from untitled album, Sanders Recording, New York, 1971
Tracks 6 and 7 from untitled album, Sanders Recording, New York, 1972
Track 8 recorded live at WFMU, 10/30/1995, engineered by Irene Trudel
Produced for CD issue by Irwin Chusid and Barbara Economon
info @judsonfountain.com
Audio transfers: Barbara Economon
Mastering: Irwin Chusid at WFMU
Cover illustration: Drew Friedman
Back cover montage: Don Brockway
Art director, cover and booklet design: Laura Lindgren
Innova Director: Philip Blackburn
Innova Operations Manager: Chris Campbell
Digital stills by Don Brockway and Mitch Friedman
Thanks to: Judson Fountain, Sandor Weisberger, Don Brockway
Geoff Wrightson, Scotty Marshall, Philip Blackburn, Jen
Vafidis
Ken Freedman continues to deny any involvement.
www.JudsonFountain.com, designed and maintained by Otis Fodder
Also available: Completely
in the Dark!: Tales of Mystery & Suspense
by Judson Fountain (Innova 200)
Innova is supported by an endowment from the McKnight
Foundation
Supported in part by a grant from the New York State Music Fund, established by
the
New York State Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.
www.innova.mu
*except Track 8, written by Don
Brockway, produced by Irwin Chusid and Irene Trudel,
and self-directed
ŅJust because IÕm
18 years old doesnÕt mean IÕm a criminal. You were 18 years old once yourself.Ó
(The Wax Museum)
ŅA suitcase that
size is too small
to hold clothes. It can only hold one
thing: MONEY!Ó
(The GorgonÕs Head)
ŅNow, go and have one on your brain!Ó (The Wax Museum)