Black Mass- Radio Station KPFA, California, 1963-64:
These presentations are well presented with almost nothing in the original texts amended. The source was the original 7 inch reels and quality is excellent. The programs are as long as the text requires and vary in length.
Black Mass was born in 1963, the brain-child of Jack Nessel, who was the Drama & Literature Director at KPFA in Berkeley. Jack suggested the idea to Erik Bauersfeld (who died in 2016) and suggested that John Whiting collaborate with Erik.
John Whiting, currently living in the UK, writes: 'A working pattern quickly evolved which thenceforth never varied. Erik would edit the stories to a workable length and, as resources permitted, adapt the dialog to a dramatic format. I would then record him reading the text in the studio, with or without other actors, and he would take the tapes away to edit, which he did himself, often piecing them together word by word from almost infinite retakes.
Once the text was assembled, we would reserve a night in the main studio to put the program together with music and sound effects. Sometimes these were plotted in advance in great detail, sometimes not.'
Dates of the programs:
All Hallows (Walter de la Mare) September 1963
The Ash Tree (M. R. James) December 18, 1963
Atrophy (J. Anthony West) October 10, 1964
Bartleby the Scrivener (Herman Melville) Date?
The Boarded Window (Ambrose Bierce) February 12, 1964
A Country Doctor (Franz Kafka) August 14, 1964
Death of Halpin Frayser (Ambrose Bierce) May 20, 1964
Diary of a Madman (Nikolai Gogol) December 16, 1964
Disillusionment (Thomas Mann) July 1, 1964
Tales by Lord Dunsany (Lobster Salad, The Workman, The Charm against Thirst,
How the Enemy Came to Thlunrana, The Dream of King Karna-Vootra,
Charon) January 29, 1964
Esmé (Saki) September 1964
An Evening's Entertainment (M. R. James) October 31, 1964
The Feeder (Carl Linder) July 1, 1964
The Haunted House (Virginia Woolf) Date?
The Imp of the Perverse (E. A. Poe) July 29, 1964
The Jolly Corner (Henry James) November 1964
The Judgement (Franz Kafka) Date?
The Man in the Crowd (E. A. Poe) Date?
The Moonlit Road (Ambrose Bierce) November 1965
MS Found in a Bottle (E. A. Poe) July 29, 1964
Nightmare (Alan Wykes) January 18, 1964
Oil of Dog ( Ambrose Bierce) March 4, 1964
O Mirror, Mirror (Nigel Kneale) February 12, 1964
The Outsider (H. P. Lovecraft) October 1965
A Predicament (E. A. Poe) June 20 1964
Proof Positive (Graham Greene) June 3, 1964
The Rats in the Walls (H. P. Lovecraft) July 1964
Shidah and Kuziba (Isaac Bashevis Singer) Date?
The Squaw (Bram Stoker) January 4, 1964
The Tell-Tale Heart (E. A. Poe) June 20, 1964
The Witch of the Willows (Lord Dunsany) January 29, 1964