The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society

After our long run of listener recommendations and Patreon rewards, we’re back to picking out a few episodes for ourselves! In this case, we’re listening to “Treasure Hunt” from The Whistler! A scoundrel endears himself to one of two sisters once he discovers that their grandfather left behind a hidden fortune. Can he decipher the verse that leads to the money’s location? How dysfunctional could his relationship with this sister possibly get? If we keep rearranging atoms are we going to explode? Listen for yourself and find out!

As a reward for our listeners whose support pushed our Patreon page above $150 per month, we’re finally presenting our most requested episode, “Three Skeleton Key” from Escape! Vincent Price stars in James Poe’s adaptation of a short story by George Toudouze about three men maintaining a lighthouse off the coast of French Guiana. When deadly invaders descend on this isolated island, who will survive? Will this recording live up to its sterling reputation? Is The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis superior to Gilligan’s Island? Listen for yourself and find out!

We’ve reached our 100th episode and as a thank you to those listeners whose support pushed our Patreon page above $100 per month, we’ve prepared a special giant-sized recording for Mercury Theatre on the Air’s legendary version of The War of the Worlds, an adaptation of H.G Wells’ novel about the invasion of Earth by deadly Martians! Does Orson Welles’ mad plan to tell this story via realistic news bulletins still pack a punch? When you strip away the myth and hyperbole surrounding this recording, how good is the actual story? Wait, Orson Welles and H.G. Wells were interviewed together? Listen for yourself and find out!

We’ve got time for one more visit to our Listener Library before our 100th episode! After our first foray into Murder at Midnight, Bob suggested another installment from the same series, “The Ape Song!” In this tale, a big game hunter returns home from safari to his estranged wife, vowing to never hunt again. Nonetheless, this man has brought home a caged ape with whom he has struck a peculiar bond. Can you imagine Raymond from Inner Sanctum as a big game hunter?  Would Alfred Hitchcock films be improved with the addition of gorillas?  Are there any YouTube clips of singing gorillas? Listen for yourself and find out!

Our Listener Library series continues this week as we listen to “The Screaming Woman” from Suspense, recommended to us by our Robert. Thanks, Robert! Based on a short story by Ray Bradbury, the episode tells the tale of a young girl whose Thanksgiving is interrupted by the disembodied cries of a woman buried alive. It features a performance by acclaimed child star Margaret O’ Brien, who won an Academy Juvenile Award in 1944 for the role of Tootie in the movie Meet Me in St. Louis. Can this girl convince her friends or family to help rescue the woman in time? Can you guess the uncredited identity of the actress who plays the screaming woman? Have we been celebrating Thanksgiving wrong? Terribly, terribly wrong? Listen for yourself and find out!

Our thanks to David and Colleen for recommending this week’s episode! This installment from our Listener Library is an episode of Quiet Please entitled “Let the Lilies Consider,” in which a man accused of murdering his wife insists that she has become a large lily. Wyllis Cooper wrote this surreal tale of love and strange botany. Will the man’s story exonerate him? What truly happened? Is this story halfway between scripture and Star Trek? Listen for yourself and find out!