Retro Radio: Old Time Radio in the Dark

"Let Me See Your Face" is a 1920s Delta blues song inspired by ‘Let Me See Your Face’, an episode of Beyond Midnight — the South African horror anthology that aired on Springbok Radio from 1968 to 1970 — originally broadcast on April 14, 1969. Though the episode aired in the late 1960s, the story itself is set in 1920s, making Delta blues the natural musical language for this tale. When a writer takes a room at a quiet Rouen hotel, a mysterious woman glimpsed alone in the moonlit garden at midnight awakens in him a fascination so powerful, no warning — and no fear — can stop him from seeking her face.Static Wax from Weird Darkness Retro Radio brings old radio drama back to life through original songs written in the musical style of the era each story takes place in. Every song is a standalone journey into a different time and a different tale.Some doors are better left unopened. Some faces are better left unseen.

What if a classic radio story became a song — in the time it takes place? Static Wax reimagines featured RetroRadio stories as songs from their era.
"The Sound of the Old Man's Cane" is a 1930s-style big band number inspired by Dead Walk at Night, an episode of Inner Sanctum Mysteries originally broadcast on September 20, 1942. The story follows a man who murders his blind uncle to claim his inheritance and escape a life of servitude — only to find that the dead don't stay silent, and the sound of a tapping cane follows him long after the old man is gone. 
Static Wax from Weird Darkness Retro Radio brings old radio drama back to life through original songs written in the musical style of the era each story takes place in. Every song is a standalone journey into a different time and a different tale.  This one takes you to the 1930s — and into a darkened hallway where something is coming down the stairs.

“The Dead Walk at Night”: A man who murders his blind uncle to claim his inheritance thinks he has escaped justice clean — until the dead man's cane begins tapping its way down the darkened staircase toward his room. | #RetroRadio #WeirdDarkness | EP0630

Look for this podcast on YouTube Music, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and numerous other podcast apps. Get the full list of options here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTR

CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…
00:00:00.000 = Show Open
00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “In The Fog” (August 17, 1977)
00:45:07.870 = Incredible But True, “Requiem” (1950-1951)
00:48:44.321 = Inner Sanctum, “Dead Walk at Night” (September 20, 1942) ***WD (LQ)
01:12:44.381 = Lights Out, “Valse Trieste” (March 30, 1938) ***WD
01:41:13.607 = Lux Radio Theater, “Ghost And Mrs. Muir” (December 01, 1947) ***WD
02:38:50.504 = Macabre, “House In The Garden” (December 04, 1961) ***WD
03:08:15.614 = Philip Marlowe, “The House That Jacqueline Built” (December 31, 1949) ***WD
03:36:23.408 = Michael Shayne, “Case of the Bayou Monster” (August 20, 1949) ***WD
04:02:29.149 = NBC Short Story, “Dr. Jekyll” (1952 – Never Aired) ***WD
04:29:05.671 = NBC Short Story, “Frankenstein” (1952 – Never Aired) ***WD
04:55:42.202 = Show Close

(ADU) = Air Date Unknown
(LQ) = Low Quality
***WD = Remastered, edited, or cleaned up by Weird Darkness to make the episode more listenable. Audio may not be pristine, but it will be better than the original file which may have been unusable or more difficult to hear without editing.
CUSTOM WEBPAGE: https://weirddarkness.com/WDRR0630

"The Together Place" is an original Static Wax composition written in the style of a 1940s torch ballad — mournful, intimate, and quietly devastating. The song follows Rose Craven from her first whispered mentions of a sister named Lily, through the shared dreams and shared suffering that bind them across worlds, to the moment Rose closes her eyes and follows her twin into the unknown. The torch ballad style was chosen to mirror the era suggested by the story's atmosphere — a haunted, candlelit world of old houses, herb gardens, and women who carry their grief in silence — and to honor the aching tenderness at the heart of a story that is ultimately about a soul searching for the companion it lost before it ever drew breath.

ABOUT THE SOURCE EPISODE
CBS Radio Mystery Theater — "The Together Place" — broadcast August 15, 1977. Written by Elspeth Eric. Starring Norman Rose. Dr. Ed Leahy, the sole physician of the small town of Corbett, enlists his retired nurse Mary Mahaffey to help care for two unusual patients: Mrs. Craven, confined to bed with a thrombosis, and her daughter Rose, a withdrawn young woman of mysterious ailment. When Rose casually mentions a twin sister named Lily — a sister no one knew existed — the doctor and nurse are drawn into something far stranger than a routine house call. Rose is utterly convinced that Lily is real, living in a realm she calls Kamaloka — the Together Place — a world adjoining our own where souls dwell between lives. She shares Lily's headaches, Lily's dreams, and eventually Lily's pregnancy. When Rose announces that Lily is gravely ill and near death, she herself takes to her bed and dies shortly after — her body wasting away as though in sympathy with her unseen twin. The truth, known only to Dr. Leahy, is that Rose did have a twin. A second child was born the same night — deformed and sickly, surviving only an hour — and laid next to Rose in the womb for nine months before the world ever saw her. Rose had carried the memory of that companion throughout her entire life, and in death, it seems, went searching for her. With Rose gone, grief pulls Mrs. Craven toward the same fading. It falls to the remarkable Mary Mahaffey to bring her back — not through medicine, but through the philosophy of Paracelsus: faith, cheerful courage, and hope. In the end, Dr. Leahy is left to set the story down on paper, as Mary Mahaffey requested with her dying breath, so that the lives of Rose Craven and her unknown sister would not pass unremembered. 

ABOUT CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATER
The CBS Radio Mystery Theater was an anthology drama series that aired from 1974 to 1982, produced by Hyman Brown and hosted by the distinctive voice of E.G. Marshall. Created as a deliberate revival of the golden age of radio drama, the series presented original mystery, suspense, and macabre stories five nights a week, earning a devoted audience and a reputation as one of the finest dramatic radio programs of its era. "The Together Place" was broadcast on August 15, 1977, written by Elspeth Eric, and starred Norman Rose, with a cast that included Mary Jane Higbee, Marion Seldes, and Rosemary Rice.

ABOUT STATIC WAX
Static Wax is an original music project from Darren Marlar, the creator and host of Weird Darkness. Each Static Wax song takes a story told on a vintage radio broadcast and reimagines it as an era-appropriate original composition — the way it might have sounded if it had been written for the jukebox instead of the airwaves. The songs are written and produced to authentically reflect the musical styles of the golden age of radio, from crooner ballads and big band swing to early rock and roll and beyond. Static Wax is part of the Weird Darkness RetroRadio universe (https://weirddarkness.com/retroradio), where classic old time radio episodes are presented alongside original music inspired by their stories.

Find more at https://weirddarkness.com/staticwax

“The Together Place”: A small-town doctor and his retired nurse are drawn into the haunting mystery of a young woman who speaks with absolute certainty of a twin sister no one has ever seen — and a place called Kamaloka, the Together Place, where the dead are never truly alone. | #RetroRadio #WeirdDarkness | EP0629

Look for this podcast on YouTube Music, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and numerous other podcast apps. Get the full list of options here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTR

CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…
00:00:00.000 = Show Open
00:01:30.028 = CBSRadio Mystery Theater, “The Together Place” (August 15, 1977) ***WD
00:45:53.828 = Exploring Tomorrow, “Planet of Geniuses” (April 16, 1958)
01:05:19.307 = Dark Fantasy, “The Man With The Scarlet Satchel” (March 06, 1942) ***WD
01:30:20.991 = 5 Minute Mysteries, “Trial By Fire” (1947-1950)
01:35:12.778 = Future Tense, “Born of Man And Woman” (May 16, 1974) ***WD
02:03:11.422 = Hall of Fantasy, “The Judge’s House” (April 03, 1947) ***WD
02:29:50.345 = The Lives of Harry Lime, “Greek Meets Greek” (July 25, 1952) ***WD
02:53:32.719 = BBC Haunted Tales of the Supernatural, “The Emissary” (May 08, 1982)
03:20:27.175 = The Haunting Hour, “Murder Wears a Strange Mask” (March 24, 1945) ***WD
03:45:17.215 = Hermit’s Cave, “The Search For Life” (April 12, 1942) ***WD
04:09:56.301 = Mystery Is My Hobby, “Death Has Blue Eyes” (December 17, 1947) ***WD
04:34:40.892 = Sherlock Holmes, “The Strange Death of Mrs. Abernetty” (November 30, 1946) ***WD
05:03:51.697 = Show Close

(ADU) = Air Date Unknown
(LQ) = Low Quality
***WD = Remastered, edited, or cleaned up by Weird Darkness to make the episode more listenable. Audio may not be pristine, but it will be better than the original file which may have been unusable or more difficult to hear without editing.
CUSTOM WEBPAGE: https://weirddarkness.com/WDRR0629

A cheerful housewife follows a hunch about her husband's biggest customer — and pulls on a thread that unravels a marriage, a murder, and a spy ring hiding in plain sight.

ABOUT THE SONG
"The Name On The Door (Means Nothing At All)" is an original Static Wax composition written in the style of a 1970s pop ballad — warm, melodic, and quietly devastating. The song follows Armina Saunders from the moment she steps off a diverted plane into a city she's never seen, through the unraveling of everything she thought she knew about her husband, her marriage, and the life they built together. The 1970s pop ballad style was chosen to mirror both the era of the original broadcast and the emotional register of the story itself — a song that sounds like it belongs on the radio in the background of a life about to fall apart.

ABOUT THE SOURCE EPISODE
CBS Radio Mystery Theater — "For Want of a Nail" — broadcast August 12, 1977. Written by Sam Dan. Starring Betsy Palmer.A cheerful, sunny housewife named Armina Saunders is returning home from a trip to Hollywood when her plane makes an emergency landing in Marsden City, South Dakota. With an hour to kill, she decides to visit the Audley Company — her husband Ralph's biggest customer, a manufacturing plant she has always assumed was a major operation. But when her cab driver, Oscar Hogan, brings her to 1 Oliphant Avenue, they find not a factory but a seedy, rundown office building. The Audley Company is nothing more than a name on a frosted glass door — a mail drop renting desk space and a phone number.Unsettled but not yet alarmed, Armina returns home and confronts Jim Carroll, Ralph's business partner. Jim confesses that the Audley Company is a fiction he created — a phantom customer designed to cover his own laziness as a salesman. He had been routing the engines through a contact who moved them through unknown channels while fabricating business trips to justify expenses. Ralph and Jim settle the matter privately, and Armina resolves to forget the whole thing.Then a letter arrives from Oscar Hogan. The kindly cab driver has appointed himself an amateur detective, scouting around Marsden City on her behalf. Before Armina can write back to tell him the mystery is already solved, she calls the taxi garage — and learns Oscar has been shot and killed. The police rule it a robbery. But Oscar's wife Maude insists he was onto something.Driven by guilt, Armina impulsively flies back to Marsden City. She visits Maude Hogan, goes to the police — who dismiss her — and returns to the office building on Oliphant Avenue, where she confronts the woman behind the desk. Mid-confrontation, Ralph arrives. He flew out to bring her home. But the woman at the desk — Dolores — says one word: Mayday.The truth unravels fast. Ralph, Jim, and Dolores are foreign agents. The starter engine company was their front, and the phantom Audley Company was the mechanism their government used to funnel money into their operation. Oscar Hogan had gotten too close to the truth and paid for it with his life.Dolores, cold and decisive, declares that Armina cannot be allowed to live. Ralph refuses. In the struggle that follows, Dolores is shot and killed — but not before her bullet finds Ralph. He dies in Armina's arms, confessing that a spy who falls in love has signed his own death warrant. The police arrive to find a shattered espionage cell and a woman holding a man she never really knew.The episode closes with host E.G. Marshall explaining the title: the plane was forced down by a worn gasket — a 17-cent piece of fibrous material — setting in motion a chain of events that destroyed an entire espionage operation, killed three people, and changed one woman's life forever.

ABOUT CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATER
The CBS Radio Mystery Theater was an anthology drama series that aired from 1974 to 1982, produced by Hyman Brown and hosted by the distinctive voice of E.G. Marshall. Created as a deliberate revival of the golden age of radio drama, the series presented original mystery, suspense, and macabre stories five nights a week, earning a devoted audience and a reputation as one of the finest dramatic radio programs of its era. "For Want of a Nail" was broadcast on August 12, 1977, written by Sam Dan, and starred Betsy Palmer.

ABOUT STATIC WAX
Static Wax is an original music project from Darren Marlar, the creator and host of Weird Darkness. Each Static Wax song takes a story told on a vintage radio broadcast and reimagines it as an era-appropriate original composition — the way it might have sounded if it had been written for the jukebox instead of the airwaves. The songs are written and produced to authentically reflect the musical styles of the golden age of radio, from crooner ballads and big band swing to early rock and roll and beyond. Static Wax is part of the Weird DarknessRetroRadio universe (https://weirddarkness.com/retroradio), where classic old time radio episodes are presented alongside original music inspired by their stories.
Find more at https://weirddarkness.com/staticwax

“For Want of a Nail”: When a woman's plane makes an emergency landing in a small South Dakota town, a quick visit to her husband's biggest customer leads her down a rabbit hole of lies, a fake company, and a murder — and the deeper she digs, the more dangerous the truth becomes. | #RetroRadio #WeirdDarkness | EP0628

Look for this podcast on YouTube Music, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and numerous other podcast apps. Get the full list of options here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTR

CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…
00:00:00.000 = Show Open
00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “For Want of a Nail” (August 12, 1977) ***WD
00:45:51.630 = The Clock, “Jungle Drums” (November 08, 1955) ***WD
01:12:36.461 = The Crime Club, “No Time For Murder” (September 25, 1947) ***WD
01:43:30.287 = Danger Dr. Danfield, “$100,000 Live Insurance Claim” (December 08, 1946)
02:08:30.525 = The Devil and Mr. O, “Nature Study” (July 26, 1942) ***WD
02:37:54.260 = Dimension X, “Mars Is Heaven” (July 07, 1950) ***WD
03:06:34.469 = The Strange Dr. Weird, “Death In The Everglades” (December 05, 1944) ***WD
03:19:05.506 = The Eleventh Hour, “Death of Elaine” (October 15, 1959) ***WD
03:45:39.212 = Escape, “The Diamond As Big As The Ritz” (March 27, 1949)
04:15:05.074 = Everyman’s Theater, “This Precious Freedom” (October 04, 1940) ***WD
04:42:20.862 = Murder By Experts, “Murder By Prescription” (July 11, 1947)
05:11:48.121 = Show Close

(ADU) = Air Date Unknown
(LQ) = Low Quality
***WD = Remastered, edited, or cleaned up by Weird Darkness to make the episode more listenable. Audio may not be pristine, but it will be better than the original file which may have been unusable or more difficult to hear without editing.
CUSTOM WEBPAGE: https://weirddarkness.com/WDRR0628

“The Picture of Dorian Gray”: When a beautiful young man wishes that his portrait would bear the burden of aging and sin in his place, he is free to pursue a life of endless pleasure and cruelty — but the portrait keeping his terrible secret cannot stay hidden forever. | #RetroRadio #WeirdDarkness | EP0627

Look for this podcast on YouTube Music, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and numerous other podcast apps. Get the full list of options here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTR

CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…
00:00:00.000 = Show Open
00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “Case Closed” (August 10, 1977) ***WD
00:47:29.369 = Witch’s Tale, “Knife of Sacrifice” (August 27, 1935) ***WD
01:12:01.970 = X-Minus-1, “Colony” (October 10, 1956)
01:40:40.845 = Zero Hour, “Fairs Fair You Know” (May 08, 1974)
01:57:50.909 = ABC Mystery Time, “Picture of Dorian Gray” (1957) ***WD (LQ)
02:21:51.144 = Strange Adventure, “The Dance of Death” (1945) ***WD
02:25:07.056 = BBC Radio 4/Radio 7 Ghost Story, “A School Story” (November 28, 1980)
02:39:35.347 = Beyond The Green Door, “Burt Simms, Bush Pilot” (1966)
02:43:20.027 = The Black Book, “On Schedule” (February 17, 1952) ***WD
02:57:49.195 = Author’s Playhouse, “Inexperienced Ghost” (December 04, 1944) ***WD
03:25:39.040 = Box 13, “Triple Cross” (November 07, 1948)
03:52:14.887 = CBC Mystery Theater, “A Perfectly Happy Life” (1968) ***WD
04:21:54.961 = Chet Chetter’s Tales From The Morgue, “Interface To Terror” (1992) ***WD
04:49:36.773 = Show Close

(ADU) = Air Date Unknown
(LQ) = Low Quality
***WD = Remastered, edited, or cleaned up by Weird Darkness to make the episode more listenable. Audio may not be pristine, but it will be better than the original file which may have been unusable or more difficult to hear without editing.
CUSTOM WEBPAGE: https://weirddarkness.com/WDRR0627

“Haunted Hangman”: When the gallows mysteriously fail on the morning of his execution, a convicted murderer's claims of innocence force a desperate prison governor to question whether the real killer has been inside the prison walls all along. | #RetroRadio #WeirdDarkness | EP0626

Look for this podcast on YouTube Music, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and numerous other podcast apps. Get the full list of options here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTR

CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…
00:00:00.000 = Show Open
00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “Hope Springs Eternal” (August 08, 1977)
00:46:14.384 = The Creaking Door, “Haunted Hangman” (May 25, 1964) ***WD
01:14:51.392 = The Saint, “Train” (June 03, 1951) ***WD
01:43:24.206 = Theater Five, “Living Credit” (November 06, 1964) ***WD
02:03:28.560 = Theater 1030, “The Thing In The Hall” (1971) ***WD
02:32:51.631 = Two Thousand Plus, “The Other Man” (June 07, 1950) ***WD
03:03:25.093 = The Unexpected, “Silver Fox” (September 19, 1948)
03:18:07.579 = Unsolved Mysteries, “Toll Bridge” (1936) ***WD
03:32:33.909 = Dark Venture, “Pursuit” (July 31, 1945) ***WD
04:02:18.917 = The Weird Circle, “Moonstone” (1945)
04:29:30.760 = The Whistler, “Body Wouldn’t Stay In The Bay” (January 08, 1945)
05:01:14.851 = Show Close

(ADU) = Air Date Unknown
(LQ) = Low Quality
***WD = Remastered, edited, or cleaned up by Weird Darkness to make the episode more listenable. Audio may not be pristine, but it will be better than the original file which may have been unusable or more difficult to hear without editing.
CUSTOM WEBPAGE: https://weirddarkness.com/WDRR0626

“The Man In The Black Hat”: A gambler down on his luck gets the surprise of his life when a stranger with cold gray eyes hands him the keys to a brand-new car — no strings attached, no explanation given. From that moment on, nothing but good fortune follows him. But so does the man in the black hat. No matter where he goes, no matter what happens, that same gray-eyed figure keeps turning up — watching, waiting. Who is he? What does he want? And why can't anything seem to stop him? | #RetroRadio #WeirdDarkness | EP0625

CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…
00:00:00.000 = Show Open
00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “The Thousand and First Door” (July 29, 1977)
00:47:20.330 = Screen Guild Theater, “The Maltese Falcon” (September 20, 1943)
01:15:59.326 = The Sealed Book, “Death Laughs Last” (September 02, 1945)
01:45:34.035 = The Shadow, “The Shadow Challenged” (January 19, 1941) ***WD
02:14:35.283 = Sleep No More, “Over The Hill” and “The Man In The Black Hat” (December 05, 1956) ***WD
02:37:55.162 = BBC Radio 4 Spine Chillers, “Falling To Pieces” (April 2006)
02:50:12.599 = Stay Tuned For Terror, “The Bogey Man Will Get You” (October 01, 1945) ***WD
03:04:45.016 = Strange Wills, “Black Interlude” (June 22, 1946)
03:34:37.800 = Strange, “The Ghost Train” (September 18, 1955)
03:48:16.621 = Suspense, “Locked Room” (January 27, 1944)
04:17:35.994 = Tales Of The Frightened, “Call At Midnight” (1957)
04:22:22.192 = Tales of Tomorrow, “The Other Now” (January 22, 1953)
04:52:16.501 = Show Close

(ADU) = Air Date Unknown
(LQ) = Low Quality
***WD = Remastered, edited, or cleaned up by Weird Darkness to make the episode more listenable. Audio may not be pristine, but it will be better than the original file which may have been unusable or more difficult to hear without editing.
CUSTOM WEBPAGE: https://weirddarkness.com/WDRR0625