Late Night with the Devil Trivia Quiz

Answer: Night Owls with Jack Delroy

During the 1970s, Jack Delroy hosted a live talk show that capitalized on the weird. On April 4, 1971, the debut episode of 'Night Owls' aired on UBC, the network having elected a Chicago radio host to lead their late night programming block. Originally, the program specialized in interviews, music, and sketch comedy and it was quite successful. He would end up receiving an Emmy nomination and a five-year deal with the studio.

After four years, he wouldn't win the Emmy and, unfortunately, his ratings wouldn't match Johnny Carson's in the late night timeslot. Eventually, after tragedy struck in 1976, his show's contents would take a marked turn. It would mark the beginning of a swift and tragic end.

Answer: Bohemian Grove

Knowledge of Jack's associations with The Grove weren't new even when he was still in radio. Considered an exclusive men's club based in the redwood forests of California, it was known that its members were, at least a little, interested in the occult. Established in the 1800s, The Grove has long been pushed as a getaway and retreat for the rich elites, but speculation has always involved its taste for arcane ceremony.

Although Jack's connection to The Grove were never fully disclosed, one wouldn't have to make a leap in logic to understand what happened during his visits there.

Answer: Cancer

Throughout the early days of 'Night Owls', Jack had stage actress Madeleine Piper by his side and they were considered one of the more enduring relationships in show business.

But tragedy struck in September 1976 when Madeleine was, unexpectedly, diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. She would appear on 'Night Owls' in October, giving the show its highest ratings to date (though these would still fall short of Johnny Carson).

Two weeks later, Madeleine passed away. Jack would go into hiding for one month before UBC announced his return to the airwaves, and from there, in an effort to boost ratings, his show would become more and more controversial, intentionally bringing on more dangerous guests and taboo topics.

Answer: Halloween

Everything was on the line for Jack and 'Night Owls' when Sweeps Week began on Halloween night in 1977. Desperate, Jack planned an episode that would push the envelope. It was a live TV event that shocked the nation.

As the show's introduction rattled off the guests (amongst which Jack featured a psychic medium, a paranormal skeptic, a parapsychologist, and her patient), Jack appeared onset to spook his bandleader, Gus, and kick off the program. All seemed normal going into Jack's monologue-- topical stuff about sports and politics, of course-- but soon the discussion turned to the prevalence, at least in recent news, about the occult.

Answer: Cold psychic reading for the audience

Jack's first guest was what he called 'a shining light in the occult movement'; a medium, a spiritualist, a miracle worker. With that, Christou was brought out to the crowd. Since All Hallows Eve was the perfect opportunity to introduce the crowd to spirits before they crossed to the other side, it was a quick order of business to call upon said spirits for his segment.

Although Christou's initial readings were derided quite a bit by the audience, at least off the jump, he seemed to get into a groove with some of the crowd, properly speaking to some of the guests about their deceased relatives.

Before Jack could throw to break, Christou received a particularly painful connection with a spirit known as 'Minnie'. As he shouted for someone to accept the reading, Christou's eyes dimmed and the lights in the studio shorted out. Over the break, Christou remained seated onset, but his condition deteriorated. Christou's nose started bleeding, but Jack persisted and brought out his next guest without stopping the show. It worsened from there.

Answer: He was a skeptic.

Jack's second guest, Carmichael Haig, was at one time a 'conjurer' but has since become one of the leading voices in the skeptic movement. After a bit of silly sleight of hand, Haig got into the meat of his recent work in IFSIP, the International Federation of Scientific Investigation into the Paranormal. It was his mission to contest any claims of the paranormal put before him and put to bed any lies in the space. In fact, if he could get irrefutable proof of the paranormal, he would pay the prover $100,000.

Haig's disdain for swindlers extended to Christou, seated next to him, but their argument ended quickly when Christou's health took a further turn for the worse.

As Christou got up to leave, Jack admitted that the last reading-- the one that seemed dangerous-- might have been for him specifically as Madeleine's private nickname was Minnie. As Jack came to this conclusion, Christou bent to his knees and projectile vomited a wave of black sludge. As the show went to break, the crew cleaned up and Christou took a ride in an ambulance. He would be declared dead upon arrival at the hospital a short time later, having haemorrhaged during the trip.

Answer: Conversations with the Devil

After Jack came back from his next break, Carmichael criticized Christou's attempts at making for a spooky show, committing to an old charlatan routine, but the festivities couldn't stop from there. A month earlier, Jack received a manuscript of 'Conversations with the Devil' by Dr. June Ross-Mitchell and he claimed it hasn't left his thoughts since.

With that, Jack showed a clip of the work from Dr. June's psi-research facility outlining the satanic rituals of the First Church of Abraxas and its enigmatic leader, Szandor D'Abo, who committed to dreadful rituals leading to mass murder in August 1974. After three days in a stand-off with federal agents, D'Abo and his acolytes doused themselves in gasoline and burned down the church. The only survivor was a ten-year-old girl by the name of Lilly who, unfortunately, didn't have full understanding of the events with D'Abo. Dr. June's recordings of those sessions were particularly chilling.

With that, Dr. June and Lilly were brought onstage to take a seat and tell their story, but first, congratulations were in order. Lilly went out of her way to suggest to Jack that he needn't worry about his show-- he would be very famous very soon.

During the next break, Dr. June had to come clean. Earlier in the week, Lilly went into one of her fugue states and started saying Jack's name. She regretted coming onto the show; Lilly's safety should have come first.

Answer: Mr. Wriggles

After introductions to Lilly's case, Dr. June described her aims with her career in parapsychology as they related to her subject's likely possession not necessarily by Abraxas, but by a lesser demon, a creature Lilly refers to as 'Mr. Wriggles' because of the way he wriggles into and out of her head. As Lilly echoed June's sentiment that everyone could have a demon inside them, the studio's theremin went on the fritz, feedbacking through the speakers in the room until Carmichael unplugged it (though not before its shrill tone shattered glass).

Jack and the audience were able to convince June to attempt a brief demonstration of communing with the demon, even though much of the crew considered jumping ship. What followed was of concern. After June put Lilly into a hypnotic trance, she asked after Mr. Wriggles and he came forth, causing Lilly to writhe against her restraints, speak in another voice, change her appearance.

It was during this encounter that Mr. Wriggles indicated he met Jack, once before, in the tall trees. He also indicated that there may have been a burgeoning relationship between Jack and June. As an electric spark raced through the rigging in the studio, Lilly's seat levitated on its own in front of the watching crowd. And when the lights returned, Jack threw to break.

With the commercials running, Jack received the news that many people were watching from home; the network was thrilled with the result, and they'd called an emergency meeting for the following morning. The show wasn't over... yet... however.

Answer: Worms

Returning from the break, Jack apologized to the audience for the frightening images they'd just seen while Lilly reassured the viewers that she was fine. Carmichael interrupted, explaining that he still had skepticism towards all of the events that occurred, chalking the levitation up to stagecraft.

Beckoning Gus, Carmichael had him sit centerstage for a demonstration, just to show how easy it could be to rig the whole event. He placed him into a quick and easy hypnotic state with a thick pocketwatch and beckoned everyone in the studio (and watching at home) to watch as well. Once Gus was under his spell, he asked him about his vermiphobia-- his morbid fear of worms.

With Gus in the trance, a simple snap of the fingers brought him deep, causing him to feel uncomfortable, start hearing things, and rise from his seat to determine the cause of his dismay. Taking off his jacket, he realized his skin was itchy. Carmichael pointed to his neck, calling out a bloody mark from which Gus tugged free a worm. Within minutes he'd torn open his stomach, letting the worms inside spill out. Lilly giggled from her seat while a massive worm burst free of Gus' eye socket and Carmichael struggled (before finally succeeding) in snapping the room out of the hypnotic state. Embarrassed, Gus put his clothing back on and admitted to not knowing what he did.

Carmichael explained that he did, essentially, what June did in fooling the audience. The viewers, he claimed, were quite suggestible.

Jack had the producers cue up the recording so that they could see what actually happened, and that was when things took more of a turn. They watched as Gus experienced the moment in real-time, but there were no worms in the studio; Gus remained unharmed even if it seemed that he was dealing with his greatest fear. Neither Jack nor the audience, for the most part, couldn't account for the occurrence.

June reiterated that she did not hypnotize the crowd. Lilly encouraged Jack to play back the earlier tape of her possession, just to prove the truth there, and despite June's protests, he did. The tapes, Jack, noted, wouldn't lie. In that clip, everyone in the studio and at home watched as the spectre of Jack's dead wife, Madeleine, appeared behind him in the footage. Lilly could only laugh to herself while Jack gazed at the screen in shock.

Answer: Jack

Lilly, possessed, harnessed the powers of the television waves in the room, taking on an unearthly glow as her head appeared to split open. Gus, rising to ward her off with his crucifix necklace, was the first to perish; Lilly telepathically snapped his neck. While the crowd attempted to flee the studio, Lilly used June's own necklace to strangle her, garrotting her neck open and tossing her aside. Carmichael attempted to placate Lilly with his chequebook, but she melted the flesh from his bones. As Jack backed up from the set, Lilly watched and let him go.

The footage indicated technical difficulties in the studio.

Jack, meanwhile, emerged onto the set at Gus' introduction, appearing before an adoring audience. While the crowd laughed at his entrance, he looked into the camera and slipped into segments of past shows. In one such segment he contended with Madeleine, telling upsetting stories about him while he acknowledged that she was dead.

Jack experienced another moment in which he signed his contract with UBC while reporters asked about the sacrifices he'd made to get to that point. The truth was that he had sacrifices yet to make. As members of the Bohemian Grove lifted him from his seat and forced him to carry a chalice and drink from it, he was made to kneel before the cult.

Finally, he was brought before Madeleine in her deathbed where, with pained breaths, she admitted she knew she was the price he had to pay to find success. Filled with remorse, Jack apologized for taking things too far, but she begged him to put her out of her misery. Using Abraxas' ritual dagger, he plunged the blade into her stomach and...

...returned to the 'Night Owls' set, discovering that he'd actually plunged the blade into Lilly's stomach. As sirens sounded in the distance, Jack tried, and failed, to wake himself from the trance he hoped he was still in.