The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society

It’s another trip to our Listener Library! This time we’re checking out “First Contact” from X Minus One, recommended to us by our Patreon support, Mark. Thanks, Mark! The story features the initial meeting between Earthlings and aliens, who find themselves trapped in a détente, each unable to understand or trust the other. Can their mutual destruction be avoided? Can they understand each other’s jokes? Why does this episode seem so familiar to us? Listen for yourself and find out!

We’ve returned to The Chase! In this episode, an American reporter who has made himself unwelcome in Russia finds himself traveling by train to Nuremberg, sharing a car with an important figure in Soviet politics. After speaking together, the reporter soon finds himself in the custody of Russian agents. What information did he learn from that conversation? Will the Russians be able to keep him on the train until it reaches the Czech frontier? Was this guy in Negativeland? Listen for yourself and find out!

For our first proper episode of the new year, we left the decision to fate! We chose at random from a collection of New Years’ themed episodes and wound up listening to “The First Year,” from The Whistler! The story features a wedded couple whose marriage began on New Year’s Eve and ended with murder exactly one year later. What legal machinations turned the wife against her husband? Is a random selection as good as our otherwise carefully curated choices? What was the original title of 101 Dalmations? Listen for yourself and find out!

We’re starting the new year off with a sneak peek at what awaits listeners when they become one of our Patreon supporters! Our current members voted on their favorite bonus content in the past year and this episode of Frontier Gentleman, “Random Notes,” tied for the top selection! Our supporters on Patreon already know what the other bonus episode was and if you want to find out, go to patreon.com/themorls and join! But for now, please enjoy this tale of a journalist in the Old West collecting small bit and pieces of stories filled with pathos and absurdity. Can this collage of character studies come together to make a satisfying whole? Will this discussion settle the hosts ongoing feud about Frontier Gentleman? Has someone salted this Sonuvagun Stew?

Happy New Year’s Eve! It’s that heartwarming time of year when we gather around the tunnel and try to discern the ghostly message being relayed from beyond. It’s another adaptation of Charles Dickens’ other famous ghost story, “The Signal-Man”! This year we gather in The Weird Circle for their version which they retitled, “The Thing in the Tunnel.” As before, this story depicts a curious stranger who encounters a rail worker beset by visions. Why does he seem to be receiving some otherworldly warning? How will this version compare to those we have already heard? What hat leads to the most successful military career? Listen for yourself and find out!

We’re spending Boxing Day with Lurene Tuttle in this Suspense episode, “The Tip”! In this production, she plays a devoted wife being held at gunpoint by a desperate man. This intruder intends to kill her husband as revenge for crimes unknown to her. As the two wait for his intended victim to come home, she engages her captor in a battle of wills. Can she outwit this man to escape? Has her husband really done something wrong? Has Joshua successfully atoned for bringing so many ape-themed episodes? Listen for yourself and find out!

Thanksgiving has passed but it’s too soon for Christmas, and that means it’s time for leftovers! Specifically, it means another live Q&A at the Bryant-Lake Bowl in which special guest Shanan Custer asks your Mysterious Old Hosts all the leftover questions from our previous Q&A! Tim, Eric, and Joshua share their opinions about classic monster movies and their earliest stage performances. What well-mannered historical figure caused their biggest argument? Who dressed as Not Batman for Halloween? Why does Tim have to pay licensing fees each year for a blank piece of paper? Listen for yourself and find out!

We were joined by Shanan Custer for this live recording of our podcast at the Bryant-Lake Bowl! She brought a couple episodes of Ceiling Unlimited for us to check out! The series features Orson Welles in patriotic tales of flight sponsored by Lockheed-Vega! The first of these two scripts was written by Lucille Fletcher and features the military’s response to the endless variety of gremlins that bedevil our pilots. The second depicts a vision of the future when everyone has easy access to air travel. What do these gremlins really want? How do events in the future so quickly erase our memories? How did this series get stuck with this name? Listen for yourself and find out!

This week’s episode, “The Target” was the penultimate episode of Escape and featured Whitfield Connor as Vic Kennedy, a hard-boiled insurance investigator scouring South America to track down a man named Arthur Matson. Soon the case leads Vic to a dead body and a femme fatale, as well as deceptions and accusations. Will he track down his target? Was Vic complicit in Matson’s escape? Is this guy worse than all the other terrible men in the noir genre? Listen for yourself and find out!

And with this, Joshua finally concludes his trilogy of ape-themed episodes of The Shadow with “The House of Horror”! The story features a kidnapped gorilla, a fortune teller, and a series of wealthy young socialites who vanish in a taxidermist’s shop! And a plot happens! What will young women be willing to do to find a piece of lost jewelry? How does a scientist reach this point in his career? How will this episode stack up against the previous ape episodes? Listen for yourself and find out!