Throughout October Midnight Movies will salute Ray Bradbury, a modern horror and science fiction writer so influential that an asteroid is named for him, and a crater on the moon is named after one of his books.

Like his contemporary Isaac Asimov, Bradbury has been amazingly prolific; he has authored more than 500 novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, and teleplays (including episodes of “The Twilight Zone” and “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”). His awards have included the National Medal of Arts , a star on Hollywood’s Walk Of Fame, and The Science Fiction Writers Of America Grand Master Award. His more famous novels and stories have included “Fahrenheit 451,” “The Martian Chronicles,” “Something Wicked This Way Comes,” “The Illustrated Man,” “Dandelion Wine” and “A Sound Of Thunder”. From 1985 to 1992 Bradbury hosted and scripted a syndicated anthology television series, The Ray Bradbury Theater, which many of us remember fondly.

A huge number of his stories have been filmed or dramatized for radio and television, but Bradbury’s wide influence has also sometimes manifested itself in ways he never intended. While his landmark novel “Fahrenheit 451” was made into a classic film by the legendary director Francois Truffaut, it was later referenced in the title of Michael Moore’s controversial documentary “Fahrenheit 9/11” – despite Bradbury’s now famous disapproval, which actually prompted the often arrogant Moore to call him and personally apologize. His short story “The Fog Horn” inspired the classic monster movie “The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms” – which inspired director Inoshiro Honda to create Godzilla, the world’s most sequelized movie monster.

This month we’ll enjoy four radio adaptations of Bradbury’s stories. We begin our tribute, though, with an MP3 of a September 1992 radio interview between Bradbury and Tom Snyder.

view link

***



The first Ray Bradbury radio adaptation we’ll present this month is “The Playground.” As a child abuse survivor, I find this to be one of Bradbury’s scariest stories. The plot concerns an adult survivor of child abuse, who resists allowing his young son to join in the roughhousing at a local playground. His instincts tell him something darker than usual is going on there – and they are absolutely right.

It’s a fitting story to revisit in October, because it first appeared in Esquire in October 1953. It’s been dramatized several times, including a Ray Bradbury Theater episode with William Shatner as the troubled father.



Shatner in The Ray Bradbury Theater version

This half-hour adaptation is from the Canadian Broadcasting Company’s “The Vanishing Point,” and was originally broadcast in November 1984.

view link

***



Here’s another one of Ray Bradbury’s scarier stories. It’s a story about a futuristic family with a high-tech house that does everything for them – cooking, cleaning, and manufacturing whatever they need, including diversions. The two children spend a lot of time in their seemingly magical playroom, which can turn itself into an amazingly realistic replica of any earthly environment instantly at their command. When the kids start spending a lot of time in a steamy African veldt, complete with lions munching on gruesome carcasses, their parents and a doctor friend get worried. With good reason.

“The Veldt” was dramatized as a segment of the Rod Steiger/Claire Bloom film “The Illustrated Man” (1969). It was considered by both “The Twilight Zone” and “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” but both shows ultimately decided it was “too extreme” for television, so it was never dramatized for American TV until “The Ray Bradbury Theater” (1989). This version of it comes from the popular science fiction radio program “X Minus One,” which took its name from a simulated rocket launch heard at the beginning of every show. It was originally broadcast on August 4, 1955 – exactly five months after I was born.

view link

***

Part 2 of the Ray Bradbury Radio Fest, featuring "Marionettes, Inc." and "Riabouchinska," is now archived here:

view link

To visit the month-long Halloween Party in progress at Midnight Movies,

view link