Blog-o-ween 2022: Inner Sanctum

It should go without saying that the strength of many an old time radio horror play comes down to the effective use of sound effects and music. The script may be meh, and the acting my be blah, but if the sound design and music are top notch, then the listener tends to remember little else. The right sound at the right time is worth a thousand words.

Of all the old time radio shows, Inner Sanctum Mystery stands head and shoulders above the rest for its use of sound -- a single sound in particular. When listeners tuned to the NBC Blue Network from 1941 to 1943 (and later to CBS from 1943 until 1952), they were greated by one of the scariest sounds ever: the creaking door. Producer Himan Brown (who would go on to create the CBS Radio Mystery Theatre in the 1970s) said that the creaking door was a sound from his childhood. There was a door in the basement of his family's house that creaked and that always frightened him.

Beyond the creaking door was the Inner Sanctum host, Raymond. Actor Raymond Edward Johnson was hired simply to introduce each week's show, but he soon became as intregal a part of the festivities as the tale. Raymond's tongue-in-cheek manner, his terrible dad joke puns, and his sardonic laugh are very recognizable to any fan of Svengoolie and other TV horror hosts. Certainly William Gaines and the rest of the EC Comics crew were fans of Raymond and Inner Sanctum, and when it came time create a host for their line of horror comics, The Crypt Keeper took a page from Raymond Johnson's book.

For tonight's old time radio thrills, lets put our shoulders to that door, force it open and see what waits for us in...the Inner Sanctum!

First up, a young woman is home alone with her child. She is waiting for her husband to make the long trek home from the city after working late. She hears someone at the door, but when she opens it, she is confronted by an injured man who is not her husband. Thus begins a battle of wills. Who will prevail when "Murder Comes at Midnight?"

Next is the story of Johnny Thompson and his rather poor decision making skills. It seems l' Johnny is out driving and sees a young woman hitchhiking. Her picks her up, and she is attractive, friendly, and talkative. The problem is...she may also be a..."Strange Passenger!"

Our last tale concerns a ship, the Mary Kay. (I wonder if it's pink?) The ship crashes on a reef in the Caribbean. Everyone on board dies, except five men. One of the men is dying, and he blames his death on the captain. The dying man curses him with his last breath. A series of strange events unfolds, and the survivors begin to realize that it might have been better had they gone down with..."The Death Ship!"

Blog-o-ween 2022: Ray Bradbury

If there is a single writer that we can associate with autumn, October, and Halloween, then it surely has to be Ray Bradbury. All of Bradbury's fiction -- even his science fiction, oddly enough -- gives the reader the feel of cool nights and green lawns, sere leaves and wet sidewalks, a pining for the past and a hope for the future. All of his fiction is map of and a way to small town America, that good, imaginary place where no one locks their doors, neighbors help each other out, and extended familis live under the same roof.

That is the safe Bradbury, the Bradbury taught in schools and included in Reader's Digest. But there is another Bradbury. One whose work gives us the flip side of the small town America coin. The nights in this other town are darker, its shadows longer, the people you meet on its sidewalks are stranger and more grotesque. This is the Bradbury of the "Dark Carnival" and the "October Country."

Born on August 22, 1920, in Waukegan, Illinois, Bradbury spent much of his time at the local Carnegie library devouring books by H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, and Edgar Allan Poe. He read comic books, listened to radio shows, and attended the movies whenever he could. In 1934, his family settled in Los Angeles, CA, after years of moving back and forth between Waukegan and Tucson, AZ. Bradbury roller skated through the City of Angels seeing and meeting stars like Norma Shearer, Ronald Colman, George Burns, and Mae West. He wrote stories and fanzines during his youth, then at the age of 24 he became a full-time writer with the sale of his first solo story, "The Lake."

And the rest, as they say, is history.

For tonight's Ray Bradbury radio experience, we are going to go back to the Orwellian year 1984. On 30 October of that ignominious year, ABC Radio broadcasted a ninety-minute show based on a few of the stories from The October Country. Best of all, the show was broadcast live and performed in front of an audience! The voice work of Robert Brown, Barrie Ingham, June Lockhart, Lynn Redgrave, Casey Kasem, Jean Kasem, Gary Owens, Danny Cooksey, Frank Welker, and Marvin Miller bring the stories "Emissary", "There Was An Old Woman", "The Next in Line" and "The Wonderful Death of Dudley Stone" to life via an overarching tale of an older TV producer trying to stay relevant. He believes that filming the stories of horror writer Dudley Stone is his ticket back to the top.

Blog-o-ween 2022: Werewolves

“Even a man who is pure in heart,
And says his prayers by night,
May become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms,
And the moon is full and bright.”

When Lon Chaney, Jr., hears these words for the first time in George Waggner's 1941 film, The Wolf Man, he laughs them off as village superstition. He doesn't laugh for long, however, and as the moon goes up, ol' Lon lets his hair down.

While not the first cinematic portrayal of lycanthrophy, The Wolf Man really crystallized the mythololgy in the minds of the general populace. The rules are simple:

1.) Anyone who is bitten by a werewolf and lives becomes a werewolf.

2.) Said person becomes a werewolf during the full moon.

3.) A werewolf can only be killed by silver.

It wouldn't be until the 1970s that we learned from Warren Zevon that werewolves prefer the piña coladas at Trader Vic's and that they have outstanding taste in coiffure.

Werewolves on the radio seem like a perfect match because, since we are dealing with the theatre of the mind, the messy, elaborate, and just expensive transformation scenes are taken care of by the perfect blend of sound design and the listener's imagination. There are many old time radio programs that dealt with werewolves. Let's listen to a few...

First up is Dark Fantasy and their tale "W Is for Werewolf." This story was first broadcast on a Friday the 13th and it was Dark Fantasy thirteenth broadcast, so...listen at your own peril! The story concerns Jim Howard and his visit to the town of Cape Howe to see his old friend Dr. Bill Andrews. The doc keeps to himself on a private island he shares with his son, John. Before his visit, Jim was asked by his friend to bring every book he could fin on the subject of lycanthropy. Now why would he want that, I wonder?

Next, let's go back to our old friends, The Weird Circle. Their tale, "The Werewolf," is described on one website thusly: A simple woodland hunter marries a lady with sharp teeth. I can't think of a way to improve on that economic use of language, so let's move on...

...to the last of today's shaggy dog stories. Creeps by Night host Boris Karloff brings us the story of "The Hunt." In this tale, a old recluse keeps his sister hidden in a farmhouse by a swamp. When a potential suitor has his throat ripped out by a strange wolf-like, an expert on lycanthrope arrives on the scene to investigate.

Blog-o-ween 2022: Escape

 

"Tired of the everyday grind? Ever dream of a life of romantic adventure? Want to get away from it all? We offer you... Escape!"

With those words, a magic portal to a world of excitement opened up to radio listeners in the 1940s and 1950s. Introduced at times by William Conrad and at others by Paul Frees (two of old time radio's all-time great voices), Escape was radio's leading anthology series of high-adventure. Produced and directed by Norman MacDonnell, Escape aired on CBS from July, 1947, to September, 1954. Although it did not have a regular sponsor or even a regular airtime (its schedule was often moved around), Escape drew big audiences and is considered to be in the top tier of all radio shows ever produced.

It seems that a lot of people wanted what was offered...Escape!

Tonight, we have three of some of the best episodes that Escape ever aired. First up is an adaptation of the John Collier short story "Evening Primrose." It concerns a strange story scribbled on a notepad found in a deaprtment store. The story purports to tell the story of a poet fed up with the regular world, who decides to break free by living in and off of a store. Unfortunately, the poet discovers that he isn't the only person with that idea.

Next, we have an adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier’s story "The Birds" -- some ten years before Alfred Hitchock's film. Set on a farm on the southern coast of England, the birds throughout the countryside seem unusually perturbed. Soon, pooping on everyone's freshly washed cars isn't enough for them. As the story progresses, they begin attacking people, causing widespread panic, and cutting the survivors off from each other.

Last up is Escape's version of the M. R. James classic, "Casting the Runes." In it, a man is slipped a piece of paper with strange markings on it. The runes foretell his death. Can he break the curse in time?

Blog-o-ween 2022: Peter Lorre

There are some actors who were just born to stand in front of a camera. As the transition from the silent era to the sound era taught us, however, sometimes these same beatiful people don't have the pipes to match. It goes the other way, too. There are some actors whose voices are made to spin tales over the airwaves. Unfortunately for them, the powers-that-be deemed their looks to be less than satisfactory. Take the example of William Conrad. Conrad esitmated that during his career on the radio, he voiced more than 7,500 roles. One of those was as "Marshal Matt Dillon," the hardboiled Western hero of the show Gunsmoke. For nearly ten years, Conrad was Dillon. Then, when the show transitioned to television, Conrad was cast aside for the more camera-friendly James Arness. C'est la guerre!

There are, of course, actors of whom the ear and eye just can't get enough. Peter Lorre is one of those actors. The man looks and sounds so unique, so odd, that we as viewers and listeners are naturally drawn to him.

Born László Löwenstein in Hungary, Lorre began his acting career on the Viennese stage in the early 1920s. Later, he moved to Berlin, then the cinematic cultural center of Europe. There, he played his most famous part as the child murderer in Fritz Lang's M. When the Nazis came to power, Lorre, a Jew, fled to Paris, then to London, then to the United States. He worked at several studios, lending every picture he appeared in an aura of the strange and outre. He appeared in such films as The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, Mad Love, Crime and Punishment, Stranger on the Third Floor, and Arsenic and Old Lace.

On the radio, his rasping, sibilant tones gave his characters a quality of menace. He always seemed to be teetering on the edge of insanity. Let's take a listen to three such performances and see of you agree.

First up is an episode of Inner Sanctum, "The Black Seagull." After Raymond opens the squeaking door, we find Lorre playing a man whose wife is fatally injured in a boating accident. Her dying words to her husband promise him that she will one day return to him and...you guessed it...drag him along with her!

Next, we have an adaptation of the Alexander Pushkin tale "The Queen of Spades" for the radio show Mystery of the Air. Lorre plays a Russian officer who commits murder in order to learn how to play cards without losing. He acquires the knowledge, but...you guessed it again...at a terrible price!

Last, is an episode of Mollé Mystery Theater. Lorre merely acts as emcee here for an adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's "Bottle Imp." Anything you wished for while the bottle was in your possession came true, but you had to sell it in a fortnight for less than you paid for it. If you didn’t...you know the drill...you’d go stark staring mad!

Blog-o-ween 2022: Limetown

Many years ago, in a small town in the United States, a crime occurred under mysterious circumstnaces. The tragedy bubbled up to the top of the 24-hour news cycle, then quickly lost steam and became an urban legend -- if it was remembered at all. Ten years later, a headstrong reporter opens an investigation into the event. The reporter sifts through various media formats -- VHS tapes, CCTV security footage, audio cassettes, photographs, written reports, first-hand, eyewitness accounts. The truth, it seems, is out there, but is a lot more complex than was originally thought. As new evidence is found, new questions are formed, until the reporter isn't sure what the truth really is.

Sound familiar? That's because the above is essentially the plot of every non-fiction, true crime podacast made in the past ten years. It is even the formula of many fictional podcasts that are written and recorded to sound just like a story on NPR. The line between fact and fiction is blurred more now than ever before -- if it ever existed in the first place.

For today's Blog-o-ween entry, we are going to take a trip to the mountains of Tennessee, to a company town of sorts called Limetown.

Limetown made its bow in July, 2015. Two-Up Productions released six episodes and five minisodes over the next five months. Three years later, Two-Up was at it again, releasing the second season of Limetown in October, 2018. Over the next three months, five more episodes and three minisodes -- including the series finale -- were made available. The following year, Facebook Watch aired one season of Limetown starring Jessica Biel. (No second season was ever made.)

The story of Limetown, as noted above, is a familiar one. Ten years ago, in a town that was built virtually overnight in the wilds of Tennessee, over three hundred men, women and children suddenly disappeared and were never heard from again. American Public Radio reporter, Lia Haddock, is obsessed with the case for professional and personal reasons. She promises to dig into the known records and reveal the truth behind the terrible events of that final night in Limetown. As she peels the layers of the onion back, she discovers the reasons for Limetown's existence, and in doing so exposes herself to the powers-that-be who don't want that truth known.

The genius of Limetown is in its construction and delivery. It sounds very real, and because it sounds real, its premise becomes plausible. Each episode is put together from disparate sources. Newscasts, telephone interviews, audio recordings, video all come into play, and holding it all together is the voice of Lia Haddock. As played on the podcast by Annie-Sage Whitehurst, Haddock is your typical intrepid reporter who will stop at nothing to get her story. While we do get captured audio of spooky things that happen to her, none of these events is "outside" the story, so to speak. Everything that we hear has been edited by Haddock and her team -- which only adds to the verisimilitude and the creepiness of it all. This would change in the second season (to the detriment of the story and its effects), but for that first season -- wow! -- it works like gangbusters.

Do yourself a favor this Halloween and make a little time in your schedule for a listen to Limetown. The third episode, "Napoleon," is alone worthy of your attention. It is one of the most heartbreaking, terrifying podcast episodes I've ever heard. Then give the TV series a chance. It is streaming on the Peacock app. Jessica Biel is incredible in the role of Lia Haddock.

Listen...watch...whichever you do after one episode you'll be hooked and begging the answer to the same question as Lia: "What did happen to the people of Limetown?"

Blog-o-ween 2022: Dark Fantasy

Usually when one imagines old time radio at the time it was just plain ol' radio, one would be forgiven for picturing a group of men and women huddled around a microphone in a studio in New York City or Los Angeles. After all, these cities are and have been for quite some time the twin centers of pop culture for as long as most of us can remember. But popular culture wasn't always as monolithic as it is now. Before corporations moved in and took over everything, the means of production (if I could get a little Marxist for a moment) were in the hands of local radio and TV stations.

You said it beautifully, Tubbs!

The stations in your area, wherever that area may have been, was responsible for filling the majority of the airtime in a day's broadcast. What you heard and/or saw was the result of local people doing their best Mickey and Judy impersonation: they were puttin' on a show! And sometimes if the show was good enough, it got picked up for a national audeince.

Dark Fantasy was one such "local" show that earned a shot at a nationwide audience. Originating from WKY in Oklahoma City, Dark Fantasy had a very short life on the air: just 31 episodes running from November, 1941, to June, 1942.

Like other old time radio horror programs, Dark Fantasy was created to fill an opportunity, as well as an open time slot. When NBC decided to end its late-night dance band remote broadcasts, this allowed its affiliate statoins to fill the time with its own programming. WKY in Oklahoma City gave writer Scott Bishop a shot at it. He wrote "The Man Who Came Back." It became a hit, and the rest is history. Bishop's supernatural stories aired under the banner Dark Fantasy every Friday night.

Today isn't Friday, but let's enjoy some Dark Fantasy nonetheless. First up is "The Thing from the Sea." In it, a newspaper reports on the strange disappearance of cinema star Philip Haywood, his friend Judy Johnson, and her director father. The three had been taking Hayward's yacht to New Zealand when for some reason the boat refused to move a knot. What could be keeping the boat in place? Could the rumors of an ancient civilization beneath the waves be true.

Next up, it's "Death Is A Savage Diety." This one is a tale of witchcraft and black magic. Young Delores is the sole heir to her father's fortune in Haiti. Her aunt, Wanda, wants the money and will stop at nothing to get it...even if she must use supernatural means!

Finally, there's "The Edge of the Shadow," which takes place on a dairy farm in Vermont. Hank plans on killing his boss and marrying the boss's wife (is this a case of "Why buy the cow if you can get the milk for free?"). Instead, Hank gets more than he bargained for when he gets a glimpse of the near future.

Blog-o-ween 2022: The Weird Circle

"In this cave by the restless sea, we are met to call from out of the past, stories strange and weird. Bell keeper, toll the bell, so that all may know that we are gathered again in The Weird Circle."

And with those words, the listener was encouraged to huddle close to their radio set and enjoy another bizarre tale of horror from one of the spookiest show around: The Weird Circle.

The Weird Circle was produced in New York City. It originally ran for two seasons from 1943 to 1945 and gave the world 78 strange and weird adaptations of classic horror literature. These episodes were syndicated and rerun many times over the following decades, including the 1970s when interest in old time radio was re-kindled.

Production values were kept to the bare minimum. While other programs laid it on thick with organ music and sponsorship hullaballo, The Weird Circle forewent the usual accoutrements that old time radio listeners expect to hear. Most episodes begin with the above incantation and then jump right into the story. Kinda like The Ramones. You get the count-off from Dee Dee, then you're right into the music. No foolin' around!

The first of tonight's episodes is based on a short story by Guy de Maupassant. "The Horla" is the story of a man who believes that he has discovered an invisble vampire-like creature that he claims follows him about, haunting his life.

Next up is another a tale concerning itself with unseen phenomena. "What Was It?" by Fitz-James O'Brien presents a group of people who are trying to determine if the world of spirits is real or not. To prove or disprove the existence of the invisible world around us, they perform a seance and inadvertantly invite something into their circle.

The last story for tonight is from a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne. "The Burial of Roger Malvin" is about an unkept promise and a strange revenge from beyond the grave.

Blog-o-ween 2022: Algernon Blackwood

Today, let's focus on the old time radio work of a single author, Algernon Blackwood. Blackwood was born in a part of north-west Kent, England, called Shooter's Hill in 1869. Throughout his life, he developed one heck of a C.V.: dairy farmer in Canada, hotelier, newspaper reporter in New York City, bartender, model, private secretary, businessman, and violin teacher. It was when he returned to his native England in his late thirties that he began to write the stories of the supernatural that would make his name, including his two most well-known works, "The Willows" and "The Wendigo."

Old time radio on both sides of the pond took advantage of the wealth of material generated during his career.

One of the most famous radio series, Escape, began with either William Conrad or Paul Frees (two of radio's best ever voice actors) intoning:

"Tired of the everyday grind? Ever dream of a life of romantic adventure? Want to get away from it all? We offer you... Escape!"

Why anyone would choose to escape into an Algernon Blackwood story is beyond me, but they did when Escape adapted "Ancient Sorceries" and "Confession." The former is a tale of the supernatural and witchcraft in a small Welsh town. The latter is the noir-esque story of a shell-shocked soldier walking the fog-filled streets of London and finding a dead body. The probelm is the soldier can't recall if he did or did not cause the woman's death.

Canada's CBC Mystery Theatre got in on the act, as well. In 1968, they broadcast an adaptation of one of Blackwood's most famous tales, "The Wendigo." In this story, a hunting party go out into the Canadian wilderness in search of moose, but instead they may have found an ancient legend in the flesh.

Finally, let's hear from the man himself. In 1948, the BBC broadcast Algernon Blackwood reading...Algernon Blackwood! The story is a quickie called "Pistol Against a Gun."

Blog-o-ween 2022: Mummies

Ugh. After the week I've had at work, it's not enough to just curl up on the couch, throw on an episode or two of old time radio, and veg out. No, I need something more. I need to be comforted and soothed.

I NEED MY MUMMY!

Yeah, I know that's bad joke, so sue me.

Today for Blog-o-ween 2022, we're gonna take a look at the impact that Howard Carter's 1922 discovery of the tomb of 18th Dynasty King Tutankhamun had on spooky old time radio. After Carter plundered...er...I mean...after Carter conserved the 5,000 relics in King Tut's burial chamber, public interest in all things Egyptian was sky high. Egyptian motifs could be found everywhere from fashion to architecture. For instance, the famed Grauman's Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, CA, was originally going to be built following a more Spanish style design. However, once mummy-mania hit, the plans were quickly changed.

It wasn't just the discovery of King Tut's tomb that fired the public's imagination. Following the mysterious death of Carter's patron, George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon, the public lapped up any story that dealt with ancient burial grounds and the curses purportedly connected to them.

Hollywood hit the (burial) ground running in 1932 with the Boris Karloff vehicle, The Mummy. This movie spawned many sequels, none of which had the romantic power of the original. Hammer Studios in England, as part of their Universal Monsters remake cycle, which included Frankenstein, Dracula, and the Wolf-Man, made a few Egyptology-centric films in the 1950s and 1960s. The Brendan Fraser Mummy movies from around the turn of the 20th century were probably the last hurrah for the venerable monster. After that...it's pretty much a wrap.

Hey-O!

But we're here to talk old time radio, and there is plenty to talk about. I've picked three stories out of the sands of time that run the gamut from ancient curses to Ace bandages. There is much more out there...you just have to dig for them.

I'm killin' it tonight!

First up is another story from yesterday's subject, The Witch's Tale. In "The Priest of Sekhet," a young British archeologist becomes trapped in an ancient tomb, along with a dead priest from ancient Egypt. After his rescue, the archeologist undergoers a strange change of character. I wonder what that could entail?

Next is an entry from The Hall of Fantasy, a radio series that ran on the Mutual Broadcasting System from August, 1952, until September, 1953. "The Golden Bracelet Of Amun-Iris" is another “curse of the mummy” type of tale. The titular bracelet belongs to a long dead queen who has put a curse on anyone who steals her gee-gaws. Naturally enough, archeologists discover her tomb, take the bracelet, and then...well...you should hear it for yourself.

Last up is an episode of the CBS Radio Mystery Theater, a series that aired on CBS Radio Network affiliates from 1974 to 1982. Hosted by E.G. Marshall, the Mystery Theater was probably radio's last bastion of regularly programmed audio drama. In "The Pharaoh's Curse," a beautiful female singer (played by Kim Hunter) joins an expedition to the forbidden tomb of an ancient Egyptian princess...and that's in spite of (natch!) the curse placed on the tomb against intruders and the strange string of 'accidents' that have befallen previous explorers. Ahh-Ooooo!...scary!