DIY History | Transcribe | Hevelin Fanzines | Spaceways, v. 4, issue 4, whole no. 27, April 1942

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Spaceways, v. 4, issue 4, whole no. 27, April 1942

Page 14

14                                                      SPACEWAYS
[Centered] ABC--STF

ities into one--the perfect wife.
Then, there was a play called "The Man and the Shadow" by a German author. It concerned a man who was writing a book and of another man, who was a total stranger to the former. This latter man's life turned out exactly as was writ-ten in the former's book! This went on for some time, and in the meanwhile, the living "hero" recognised the author's wife as the woman with whom he had been in love before she had married. Of course they fall in love all over again--secretly. One day the author and "hero" get together and decide to have an experi-ment. The living "character" is to go away for some specified time and the au-thor to continue with the book. Then when the time has expired, the "hero" and the author will compare notes, and see if they are identical, as in the past. The experiment is started, and the writer of the story writes that the hero is killed. He has found out, through the book, of the secret romance. But this all too mundane explanation of mine can do little justice to such a fine play as was this one.
"Spinney under the Rain" is not the kind of story that you would think pop-ular with the public (the conservative-mundane-stereotyped-reading-anti-fantast-ic !%$"$: public). It was a weird play with a difference. First it was broad-cast sometime in January, 1940, and received so much criticism, attention, as well as a demand that it be broadcast again that the ABC did re-broadcast it not long ago. Here is "Johnathon"'s review in [underlined] Wireless Weekly: 
"I am not easily jerked from my phlematic calm, but 'Spinney under the Rain', a recent play from the studios of ABC, reduced me to a quivering mass of nervous imaginings. This play by Trevor Heath tells the story of three peop-le imprisoned by unceasing rain in a converted farmhouse. One is a professor of classics. He is busy writing a treatise on the Greek god, Pan. The second is his matter-of-face sister, Podge. The third is a visitor to the cottage, their attractive niece, Celia. Peculiar things begin to happen. The playing of a flute keeps Celia and her aunt awake. A dog is torn to pieces in the spinney near the cottage. A neighbour is terrified by the face of a strange thing, half-man, half-beast, peering at him from the spinney, and by a voice that whis-pers eerily, 'Would you like to die, Jenter? Would you like to die?' Celia be-gins to behave strangely. And one night, when the rain is at its most intense, she disappears from her bedroom. At this point the professor offers his fearful explanation. His intensive study of the great god Pan, his concentration upon this macabre deity, have created a material god--a devil-god who plays on a flute made of reeds, who charms sheep and kills dogs, and enchants lovely young women.
"In Celia's bedroom they find Pan's syrinx, the flute that he uses, and de-cide to use it as a bait to lure Pan back to the cottage. The bait works and that night Pan comes back to the cottage, and gives Celia to them in exchange for the syrinx. Then the professor decides to banish Pan back to the plane from which he was brought. Pan is tired of this earthly existence and wishes to go to do this, the professor has to look at Pan's face--which means death! For when his creator dies, so dies Pan. The professor does so, sacrificing his life for Celia and Podge." 
Nearly all of these plays were prouced by Lawrence H. Cecil, and that is one of the reasons why they were so good. 
[Centered] The End
[Line break]
[Justified] If to the left of these lines you find, in that flow-ing Warnerian script, the word "expired", your sub-scription to [underlined] Spaceways is all gone. How about renewing now, without delay? Of course, most fans send 25c for the next three issues, but dimes and dollars look equally good to us. [Handwritten note in black ink] They do? I'll send you a dime, you send me a dollar! 
[Left side of page is blank.]

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14 SPACEWAYS [Centered] ABC--STF ities into one--the perfect wife. Then, there was a play called "The Man and the Shadow" by a German author. It concerned a man who was writing a book and of another man, who was a total stranger to the former. This latter man's life turned out exactly as was writ-ten in the former's book! This went on for some time, and in the meanwhile, the living "hero" recognised the author's wife as the woman with whom he had been in love before she had married. Of course they fall in love all over again--secretly. One day the author and "hero" get together and decide to have an experi-ment. The living "character" is to go away for some specified time and the au-thor to continue with the book. Then when the time has expired, the "hero" and the author will compare notes, and see if they are identical, as in the past. The experiment is started, and the writer of the story writes that the hero is killed. He has found out, through the book, of the secret romance. But this all too mundane explanation of mine can do little justice to such a fine play as was this one. "Spinney under the Rain" is not the kind of story that you would think pop-ular with the public (the conservative-mundane-stereotyped-reading-anti-fantast-ic !%$"$: public). It was a weird play with a difference. First it was broad-cast sometime in January, 1940, and received so much criticism, attention, as well as a demand that it be broadcast again that the ABC did re-broadcast it not long ago. Here is "Johnathon"'s review in [underlined] Wireless Weekly: "I am not easily jerked from my phlematic calm, but 'Spinney under the Rain', a recent play from the studios of ABC, reduced me to a quivering mass of nervous imaginings. This play by Trevor Heath tells the story of three peop-le imprisoned by unceasing rain in a converted farmhouse. One is a professor of classics. He is busy writing a treatise on the Greek god, Pan. The second is his matter-of-face sister, Podge. The third is a visitor to the cottage, their attractive niece, Celia. Peculiar things begin to happen. The playing of a flute keeps Celia and her aunt awake. A dog is torn to pieces in the spinney near the cottage. A neighbour is terrified by the face of a strange thing, half-man, half-beast, peering at him from the spinney, and by a voice that whis-pers eerily, 'Would you like to die, Jenter? Would you like to die?' Celia be-gins to behave strangely. And one night, when the rain is at its most intense, she disappears from her bedroom. At this point the professor offers his fearful explanation. His intensive study of the great god Pan, his concentration upon this macabre deity, have created a material god--a devil-god who plays on a flute made of reeds, who charms sheep and kills dogs, and enchants lovely young women. "In Celia's bedroom they find Pan's syrinx, the flute that he uses, and de-cide to use it as a bait to lure Pan back to the cottage. The bait works and that night Pan comes back to the cottage, and gives Celia to them in exchange for the syrinx. Then the professor decides to banish Pan back to the plane from which he was brought. Pan is tired of this earthly existence and wishes to go to do this, the professor has to look at Pan's face--which means death! For when his creator dies, so dies Pan. The professor does so, sacrificing his life for Celia and Podge." Nearly all of these plays were prouced by Lawrence H. Cecil, and that is one of the reasons why they were so good. [Centered] The End [Line break] [Justified] If to the left of these lines you find, in that flow-ing Warnerian script, the word "expired", your sub-scription to [underlined] Spaceways is all gone. How about renewing now, without delay? Of course, most fans send 25c for the next three issues, but dimes and dollars look equally good to us. [Handwritten note in black ink] They do? I'll send you a dime, you send me a dollar! [Left side of page is blank.]