The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society

We’re spending this Christmas with Candy Matson! This episode, entitled “Jack Frost,” features Candy on the case of a missing assistant to a department store Santa, Jack Frost! When the man who played Jack turns up dead, she needs to call in some festive help from her friend Rembrandt Watson! Who would want to kill Jack Frost? What important question will Detective Mallard ask Candy? Can Eric explain the sports jokes to his co-hosts? Listen for yourself and find out!

This week’s visit to the Listener Library is a gift for Tim from our mysterious listener, Hank. Thanks, Hank! “The Crisis of Dirk Diamond” is an episode of Suspense featuring a cartoonist who’s going to lose his job if he doesn’t come up with a new villain to challenge his protagonist, Dirk Diamond. But when he introduces Freddy, a character that haunted his own childhood, the danger begins to spill off the page and invade reality! Can an artist truly kill his own creation? Can theater of the mind be adapted to comic strip of the mind instead? How many layers of meaning lie beneath the surface of this episode? Listen for yourself and find out!

Join us in this celebratory toast to the peaks and valleys that we traveled through in 2022! Based on listener polls, the keen insights of esteemed special guests, and our own incoherent ramblings, one episode shall be declared the specialty of the house and another shall be declared a real punch to the groin. Who can outwit the chess master? Who will regret having followed a banjo act? Why does this episode feature a cat butt? Listen for yourself and find out!

This week’s episode is “The Man Who Stole a Planet,” from Quiet, Please! Even for this idiosyncratic, and groundbreaking series, this story is one of the stranger ones, featuring tomb raiding, the undead, and natural disasters in the Iron Range! Who is this man? What planet did he steal? Who wrote the script for the Red-Headed Stepson of Frankenstein? Listen for yourself and find out!

It’s been a while since we’ve payed a visit to The Hall of Fantasy, so we’re stopping by for an episode entitled, “The Man in Black!” The story features two men who encounter a woman terrified by a person she calls “the man in black.” Once she’s found dead, the men become obsessed with finding out the truth behind this dark-clad figure. Soon, the two are themselves targeted by this mysterious, unnatural being. Can they discover the identity of the man? What threat does he prove to the woman they both love? What do you call the guy who follows He Who Follows? Listen for yourself and find out!

Happy Thanksgiving! As always, we are most grateful for our listeners and today we’re celebrating with a visit to our Listener Library! Our Mysterious Listener Dave recommended we check out “The Black Room” from CBS Radio Mysterious Theater. Thanks, Dave! The story features a man locked against his will in a light-less, window-less room. The men who subjected him to this peculiar treatment and the purpose of the room itself are mysterious, but what is certain is that he needs to find a way to survive in utter isolation and darkness. Why was this man chosen for the black room? What might he discover in there? Is it helpful to have a guide during your honeymoon? Listen for yourself and find out!

As the weather turns cold, “The Cabin” from Gunsmoke is the perfect was to prepare for the snow! In this story, Marshal Dillon and his horse get caught in a blizzard and his only hope for survival is to find shelter in a small cabin in the middle of nowhere. But what he finds inside might be deadlier than the storm outside! What desperate situation awaits inside? How can Dillon escape? How long will it take Tim to Google the name of that movie he can’t remember? Listen for yourself and find out!

Happy Halloween! We conclude our Monster on the Air series with this adaptation Sheridan Le Fanu’s novella, “Carmilla,” from Nightfall! We previously listened to Lucille Fletcher’s adaptation for Columbia Workshop about the mysterious young girl named Carmilla who must suddenly be taken in by a kind man and his lonely daughter. As this daughter and Carmilla grow closer, strange deaths begin to plague the surrounding Black Forest of Germany. Is this new guest a threat to her host family? Can Nightfall capture the essence of the novella? Will Joshua’s trivial knowledge of the text impress his co-hosts? Listen for yourself and find out!

We continue with Monsters on the Air, our series of monster-themed episodes to celebrate the Halloween season! Our third installment features “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” from NBC Presents: Short Story! This adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s iconic novella features Victorian chemist Henry Jekyll, whose experiments transform him into a murderous new persona. Soon the compulsion to return to this dark side leads to blood in the streets and chaos in Jekyll’s own home. How similar is this radio version to the original? What metaphors and themes does this adaptation choose for its focus? What popular band from the 80s will be inevitably referenced in the post-episode discussion? Listen for yourself and find out!

This is our second installment in Monsters on the Air, a series of monster-themed episodes to celebrate the Halloween season! This time we’re listening to “No Grave Can Hold Me” from The Mysterious Traveler! The story features The Great Randolph, a magician sentenced to the death for murder. But Randolph threatens that if he dies he will return to take his vengeance on those who convicted him! What powers will he use to enact his revenge? Are his daughter and son-in-law involved? What illustration from the 1st Edition AD&D Fiend Folio inspired Tim to choose this episode? Listen for yourself and find out!