"Call Of Cthulhu" 1938 Musical La Pierre Theater, New Orleans - H.P. Lovecraft-Music Of The Mythos

#cthulhumythos #hplovecraft #cthulhu
#hplovecraft #cthulhu #cthulhumythos
Debuting in September of 1938 in New Orleans, "Master In The Deep" took audiences aback during it's extremely brief run at the La Pierre Theatre, which sat in a particularly seedy side of the Crescent City. The initial performance, of which this recording is taken from. was attended by mostly a "friendly" audience. That being, the majority of the patrons at first performance were connoisseurs of the occult or at least its fringes. Subsequent performances would bring outrage and the demise of the theatre and the mysterious disappearance of most of the cast.
The "musical" was brought to the La Pierre by an eccentric artist named Raster Morneau, who was known to associate with the darker elements around the New Orleans area. Not originally from the area, Morneau had been run out of New York City and later Chicago over 15 years before due to what many had whispered were "deviant" behaviors. New Orleans was a natural landing spot for a character like Raster after the years directly following The Great War. The seeming mixing pot of African pagan religions and Latin American Catholicism along with downright witchcraft that existed throughout the area for decades had slowly built a facade of "acceptability" amongst the more "civilized" in New Orleans society and in fact, many made fortunes selling trinkets and souvenirs that on the surface, reduced the city's sinister undercurrent to a fairy tale fit for tourists and thrill seekers.
Therefore the people of New Orleans were no strangers to bizarre performances and beliefs and Morneau's feature raised not an eyebrow from the locals before it's debut.
However, when the curtain was raised at the La Pierre on the night of the second Saturday in September of 1938, events would unfold quickly that would leave those who attended disturbed and later wondering what had happened after the curtain dropped.
The gallery for the debut was filled with a virtual who's who of New Orleans mystics and occult figures and many others that seemed to ooze in from the surrounding swamps and appeared to have never stepped foot into a building with plumbing or electric lights. This element remained silent and fixated throughout the performance. They all seemed to show no emotion, but remained for the entirety of the show and then quietly left their seats, moved out the door and said not a word. This lot seemed to bring guarded worry from some of the wilder and outrageous characters that were in attendance that evening.
The following night the show was once again attended by a nearly capacity crowd. However, this time many in the gallery were not from the circles that had filled the hall the night before. These were more "normal" people. What they witnessed left them confused and filled with a sense of dread that they could not easily explain. The forms that danced on stage were strange, very strange. The costumes were unearthly and the movements were very unnatural. The musical numbers were contemporary, but the subject matter was filled with characters and references that they had never heard of....and instinctively wanted no part of. They all left that night feeling as if they had just witnessed a catastrophic accident. There was a trauma that they felt had occurred, but no one could explain exactly how they felt. One patron was heard to say, "I feel like I've had a curse put on me".
The next performance was the following Tuesday. The gallery was only half full as the lights dimmed. The show began with no incident, but after approximately 23 minutes, the stage lighting failed and several screams range out. The theater was pitch black and chaos ensued. No one seemed to be able to find the doors that had been not even a row away from them. Suddenly amidst the murky disorder, there came a deep, almost sub-sonic droning. The room fell silent as the fumbling and terrified patrons were practically paralyzed by the sound. A sound they could hear, but could also...feel. Soon, the smell of smoke was announced by one of the patrons that was now renewed with panic. The pandemonium that followed could never be accurately be put to page, but with the another 15 minutes, the La Pierre was engulfed in flames. Curiously, those who witnessed the fire said the flames were "a sickly bluish green....like the color of swamp water".
City fire teams arrived, but nothing could be done. They found no survivors. In fact, they found no one dead or alive, not a trace of a human remain of any kind. It would appear that there had been no one in the theater at all.
In the days that followed, the authorities remained puzzled but quickly moved to minimize the knowledge of the event among the public-at-large. Many "out of town" vehicles were seen in the days that followed and the site of the old La Pierre was unceremoniously flattened within days.
Raster Morneau was never seen again.