The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society

It’s been more than five years since the last time we checked out an episode of Macabre. This week, we return for a story titled “Final Resting Place!” This installment of the series recorded by members of the Far East Network features a pair of young newlyweds who take up a bizarre challenge at a small-town carnival that could potentially prove fatal! Can hypnotism sustain life for a week? Does this stunt have anything to do with the escaped lunatic in the area? Why might you want to bring a Mountain Dew bottle to South Dakota? Listen for yourself and find out!

Our Mysterious Listener Anna has sent us to the Listener Library for “Clarissa,” an episode of Quiet Please! Thanks, Anna! This story features a young mathematician who befriends the elderly man who rents a room to him. Soon, the younger man begins to hear the singing of an unseen child. The landlord claims that it is his daughter, but he prefer to keep her out of sight. Why does he insist on this seclusion? Is this house haunted? Where do your hosts stand on the issue of goats versus sheep? Listen for yourself and find out!

This week features Appointment with Fear’s adaptation of a classic tale of torment and despair by Edgar Allen Poe! “The Pit and the Pendulum” tells the story of a soldier in Napoleon’s army who is captured and then sentenced by the Spanish Inquisition to a horrific fate. What torture awaits him in this diabolical prison? Does he have any hope of survival or rescue? What series did Eric start exploring that eventually led him to Appointment with Fear? Listen for yourself and find out!

We’ve had many requests for this particular installment from the Listener Library, “Specialty of the House” from The Price of Fear! As was always the case with the series, Vincent Price stars as a fictionalized version of himself, relating diabolical tales from his adventures as a globe-trotting gourmand. This particular script is actually an adaptation of a short story by Stanley Ellin about a small obscure restaurant that caters to a limited but devoted clientele. Yet behind the delicious cuisine and eccentric quirks, something sinister seems to be happening in the kitchen. How long will it be before the restaurant has its famed house special back? Is there any amount of sinister subtext that will get Vincent Price to abandon a good meal? Does this soup taste a little bland to you? Listen for yourself and find out!

This week we go way back for an episode of The Witch’s Tale, “The Statue of Thor”! The story features a hedonistic sculptor who constantly ridicules the brawny model posing for him. As the artist grows more cruel and self-indulgent, he may incur the wrath of the gods! Will the the model catch on to the artist’s true intentions? What will the statue look like when it is complete? Can we remember the details of any of our past episodes? Listen for yourself and find out!

Our thanks to our mysterious listener Jessica for sending us back to our Listener Library for “Never Pester Chester” from Gunsmoke! This episode features Marshal Dillon on the trail of two cruel men who made the mistake of attacking his friend Chester. But given Dillon’s anger and sense of responsibility, it isn’t clear if he intends to deliver justice or revenge! How will he track these men down? Will his feelings overpower his obligations as a lawman? Would our discussion afterward be better if we had beers and steak? Listen for yourself and find out!

For our 250th episode we listen to an adaptation of a landmark detective story, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Final Problem,” presented by The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes! In this broadcast, Sir John Gielgud’s Sherlock Holmes attempts to once and for all put an end to the criminal machinations of Orson Welles’ James Moriarty! Will the World’s Greatest Detective be able to outsmart the Napoleon of Crime? How far will Holmes go to succeed? Which of your hosts didn’t know how this story would end the first time he encountered it? Listen for yourself and find out!

Join us this week for an adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s short story, “Kaleidoscope,” presented by Suspense! A group of astronauts suddenly find themselves in a hopeless situation, one that forces them to confront how they’ve lived their lives. Some are content, others bitter. But does any of that matter when facing death? Are we all just floating through life, isolated and scared? Are we going to listen to every different adaptation of this story ever recorded? Listen for yourself and find out!

It’s been almost 250 episodes and we are still discovering shows we’ve never listened to before! This week, we check out Up for Parole! Based on real cases, the show presents stories as told by convicts addressing a parole board. This installment, “The Case of Clarence Hogan,” features a ranch hand whose hard life led him to being jailed as a cattle rustler and an accessory to murder. What path can lead a man to commit such an unusual crime? Will the parole board grant him his freedom? What’s the famous Billy Martin “Cow Story”? Listen for yourself and find out!

We’re paying another visit to our Listener Library for an episode of Suspense recommended to us by our Patreon supporter, Marc. Thanks, Marc! This production adapts A.M. Burrage’s story, “The Waxwork,” and features a one-man performance by William Conrad! In this story, a journalist in need of cash bargains to pass the night in a room inside a wax museum. In this hall, each figure depicts a notorious killer, and as the hours pass, a creeping terror begins to invade the journalist’s thoughts. Is this fear a product of his own imagination or is something more going on? Is William Conrad up to the task of a solo performance? Why does our discussion include Doctor Who and puppet blood? Listen for yourself and find out!