The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society

Our thanks to Dawn who recommended this week’s visit to the Listener Library, “Where Do We Go From Here?” from Nightfall! This episode of the beloved series tells the tale of a man who has been left completely immobilized in a death-like state after a car crash. Can he find a way to communicate that he is awake and alert? What fate awaits him if he fails? Are Canadian ambulances better than those in the U.S.? Listen for yourself and find out!

Our Valentine’s Day celebration is over a month late and still not what we intended, but we won’t let that stop us! As a gift for his wife Adrienne, Joshua chose an adaptation of a story by one of her favorite authors, Dorothy Sayers. “The Cave of Ali Baba,” was an early episode of Suspense that tells the story of an infiltration into a secret cabal of thieves. The tale is notable for featuring a fantastical invention that would someday become reality. (Learn more about this at https://blog.oup.com/2016/03/dorothy-sayers-voice-print-vsi/) Will the intruder’s deception be discovered? Why is there so much dancing? Would Adrienne have liked this? Listen for yourself and find out!

When the world has turned upside down and nothing makes any sense, it’s time for Dark Fantasy! This week’s episode, “Cup of Gold,” features a golf tournament where the winner has been murdered! The prime suspect is a woman who can recall neither why she was there nor why she presented the winner with a counterfeit trophy. What secret drove her to this dire situation? What past crime was being avenged by this death? What … whoa, Dark Fantasy, what…what are you doing there? Listen for yourself and find out!

This month marks 100 years since the birth of actor/writer/director/ producer Antony Ellis! Our listener Mark suggested we celebrate Ellis’ remarkable career and we have chosen an episode of Escape to do just that! The Abominable Snowman was written and directed by Ellis and it tells the tale of a hunting expedition in the Himalayas determined to track down the legendary yeti. What do the local guides know about this creature that the hunters do not? Just who is really hunting who? Will we at any point successfully say the word abubinuble…amunabubble…bunimumable—dang it! Listen for yourself and find out!

Our thanks to Mark for sending us to the Listener Library this week for a special treat, “The Case of the Flaming Skull,” an episode of The Shadow that was rebroadcast as part of Mystery Playhouse. It’s a treat because we get Peter Lorre serving as host to the Shadow! In this particular episode, our masked hero squares off against a glowing skeletal thief who may have abducted a scientist! What has driven this creature to pursue its thefts? Is the entity a supernatural horror, a product of aberrant science, or a clever fraud? Just how many Batman villains did this episode inspire? Listen for yourself and find out!

There’s been a murder and we’re joining San Francisco P.I. Candy Matson to find the solution to “The Cable Car Case!” When a shopping trip puts Candy on the same cable car as a murder victim, our sharp-witted heroine sees a chance to earn a few bucks if she can solve the crime before the police. How was the murder even possible in such a crowded space? Will Candy’s investigation put her in the killer’s crosshairs? Will anyone in San Francisco still be sober enough to care about the solution? Listen for yourself and find out!

This week is the second of two episodes in which we check out the beginning of Suspense and its end! “Devilstone” was the last episode of the classic series to be broadcast and it features the tale of a haunted Irish manor that has a peculiar effect on the dead. What secret drove the previous tenant mad? Will this story serve as the ideal finale for the famous series? What sound does a peahen make? Listen for yourself and find out!

We keep surpassing Patreon goals! This week, we are cerebrating with episodes featuring the beginning and end of Suspense! For the first part, we listen to the (sort-of) audition episode presented as part of the Forecast series in July of 1940. Alfred Hitchcock (sort of, not really) presented this adaptation of the short story and novel by Marie Belloc Lowndes, the same source material he adapted for his 1927 silent film, The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog. Based on the Jack the Ripper murders, this story depicts a mysterious zealot who who rents a room from a working class London couple. Could this stranger be the murderous figure known as the Avenger? Why did this episode receive so many complaints? Are we being stalked by Bromo-Seltzer? Listen for yourself and find out!

We have passed another Patreon goal and to celebrate we are exploring strange new territory: classic radio comedies! This week we listen to three different comedic takes on our usual suspense and horror diet. First, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis get the creeps with Peter Lorre! Then Stan Freberg parodies a beloved crime drama! And finally, Jack Benny puts his own spin on a classic horror anthology! Can these jokes still be funny after all these years? Are visual gags better when you can’t see them? Which comedy icon threatens to tear this podcast apart? Listen for yourself and find out!

It’s time to look back over the last year and choose which of the episodes we listened to stood above the rest and which sank to the bottom! Based on listener polls, the learned opinions of esteemed special guests, and our own unfocused rambling, one episode shall be declared champion and another shall be declared the worst. Which episode will bask in glory? Which will wallow in shame? Do we actually remember all of what we listened to last year? Listen for yourself and find out! Plus, we have some announcements about the coming year and other fun surprises!