Frank Gallop: The Ghoulish Host of Lights Out

Abstract

Lights Out (NBC-TV, 1949–1952) was one of the first hosted horror anthology shows. The on-screen announcer, Frank Gallop, was responsible for initiating a ghoulish style crucial to the criteria of the horror host. However, his legacy as one of the first distinct examples of this generic tradition, pre-1955, has been overlooked. Current scholarship, instead, has focused on later series and hosts that represented the golden-age of the hosted horror anthology show in the late-1950s and early-1960s. Through content analysis and archival material, this article pays close attention to Gallop’s Lights Out persona and performance. It identifies its distinctive features compared to those of his contemporaries who sought to alleviate the impact of the horror content of their programmes. It also demonstrates how overt horror elements associated with Gallop’s guise contravened self-regulation guidelines regarding the genre at the time.