Murder Before Midnight (Jan. 23, 1950-Aug. 24, 1953; WBKB-4; Chicago, Illinois)
During the dawn of the 1950s, local Chicago television station WBKB (Channel 4) was, in all actuality, ahead of its time when it produced and aired a little programmer called Murder Before Midnight. Every week a different movie thriller would be showcased and hosted by an unusual Swami character, who went by the name of Drana Badour. The strange mystic spoke in an eerie voice and wore the appropriate attire and turban. The show's macabre theme music would play as the time grew nearer for the film to begin. Captivated television viewers would then be lured into Drana Badour's crystal ball where the week's mystery or horror thriller would start.
Originally, the man behind the turban was WBKB's very own television announcer Allen Harvey (see top pic). Eventually, actor Art Hern took over the role of the mystic Drana Badour. Hern was a former radio actor, best remembered as one of the cast in the 1939-1949 radio program Captain Midnight. After the cancellation of Murder Before Midnight in 1953, Hern was cast as a regular in the television series The Happy Pirates, a children's program which starred Dick Two Ton Baker. At the time, WBKB changed ownership and was bought by ABC (Channel 7). Over the decades, Art Hern continued to work in various films, such as Simon, King of the Witches (1971), and Transylvania Twist (1989), up until his death at the age of 90.
