Monthly Archives: November 2014

Horror and Suspense Old Time Radio

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Inner Sanctum Mysteries

Inner Sanctum Mysteries

Horror and suspense

The horror genre was very effective on radio because of the gruesome and frightening images that could be suggested by purely aural means. One of the earliest radio horrors was The Witch’s Tale, which debuted in May 1931 over WOR in New York and ran on the Mutual network starting in 1934. In that same year Lights Out, a true milestone in radio horror, was launched by producer-director Wyllis Cooper; in 1936 Cooper accepted a Hollywood screenwriting job and left the series to writer-director Arch Oboler. The show (which frequently aired at midnight so as not to be heard by the young and impressionable) became radio’s ultimate gore fest, filled with various grisly dismemberments accomplished by imaginative sound effects. Oboler tried to make some important points about society’s mores in his stories, balancing the gory with allegory.

A blend of the ghoulish and the murder mystery came with producer Himan Brown’s Inner Sanctum Mysteries (January 1941–October 1952), which almost always involved a murder and some supernatural element. An ironic finish was virtually a given; for example, in “”Elixer Number Four,”” an episode from 1945, a character played by Richard Widmark murders a scientist who has created a serum that gives immortality, only to be sentenced to prison for life. Weird characters abounded, their antics punctuated by the most uninhibited pipe-organ “stings” in the history of radio. The show’s best-remembered trademark was the ominous squeaking, creaking door that opened each episode and slammed shut at the episode’s conclusion.

Suspense (June 1942–September 1962) was certainly the longest-running horror-oriented show, as well as the most star-studded. As hinted by its title, the program was more suspenseful than horrific, and it was almost always rooted in contemporary everyday reality. The series’s best-remembered story, frequently reprised, was “”Sorry, Wrong Number, “” actress Agnes Moorehead’s tour-de-force portrayal of a bedridden woman who accidentally overhears a murder plot on her telephone, unaware that she is the intended victim. Despite shrinking budgets during its last years, Suspense continued to deliver first-rate programs until the final day of the series—and of network dramatic radio—on September 30, 1962.

Encyclopeadia Britannica

What is Old Time Radio?

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Old time radio often called “otr” refers to radio shows from the early days of radio broadcasting. The term usually applies to dramas, comedies, mystery shows, westerns and variety shows that were acted out by professional actors and sent out over the airwaves. In the golden age of radio families would sit around their radio listening to the exciting shows the way we sit around our television sets watching them today.

Old Time Radio Horror, Mystery & Suspense Shows

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2,000 Plus (Science fiction. 1950-52)

Adventures By Morse (Another Carlton Morse thriller)

Appointment With Fear (British version of Suspense)

BBC Productions (Modern radio dramas w/ sci-fi or horror themes)

Believe It Or Not (15 and 30 minute weird facts)

Beyond Midnight (South African horror w/ Michael McCabe)

Beyond Tomorrow (The first adult science fiction program from 1950)

Black Chapel (15 minute horror series with a host telling stories as he plays the organ. 1938)

Black Mass (A KPFA production from the 1960s)

Black Museum (Murder anthology w/ Orson Welles. 1951)

Black Night (30 minute horror series with Nelson Olmsted as host and characters. 1937)

Bradbury 13 (13 Ray Bradbury stories w/ Paul Frees. 1984)

CBS Mystery Theater (Murder/ Horror anthology w/ E.G Marshall. 1974-82)

Chet Chetters Tales From The Morgue (1990s NPR anthology)

Creeps By Night (Horror drama w/ Boris Karloff 1944)

Dark Destiny (Supernatural tales.)

Dark Fantasy (Horror drama w/ Keith Paynton. 1940-42)

Dark Venture (Psychological thriller 1946)

Detour (1950 Psychological dramas)

Devil’s Scrapbook (1936 Thriller)

Diary of Fate (Mystery/Horror anthology w/ “Fate”)

Dimension X (Science Fiction anthology w/ Norman Rose. 1950-51)

Dr. Satan (1936 series)

Escape (Adventure anthology including horror w/ Paul Frees, and William Conrad. 1947-54)

Exploring The Unknown (1945 Stories supposedly more “sci” than “fi”)

Exploring Tomorrow (Science Fiction w/ John W. Campbell, Jr. 1957-58)

Hall of Fantasy (1940s horror anthology)

Haunted (BBC series from 1980)

Horror, Inc., with Eva Le Gallienne (1943)

House of Mystery (Supernatural mysteries debunked by John Griggs. 1945-49)

I Love A Mystery

I Love Adventure

Illusion (aka The James and Pamela Mason Show. 1949 action anthology)

Incredible But True (15 and 3 minute tales of supernatural happenings.)

Inner Sanctum Mysteries (Horror anthology w/ Raymond Edward Johnson and then Paul McGrath. 1941-1952)

Lew Loyal (1941)

Lights Out (Horror anthology w/ Arch Oboler, then Boris Aplon, 1934-39, 1942-44, 1945-46)

Macabre (1960s Armed Forces Radio horror anthology)

Mercury Theater On The Air (Adventure anthology, including horror. 1938)

Midnight (A SPERVAC production from the 1982)

Mind Webs (1976-1984 Sci-fi anthology)

Moon Over Africa (South African adventure series with supernatural themes)

Murder at Midnight (Horror anthology. 1946-50)

Mysterious Traveler (Horror anthology w/ Maurice Tarplin, 1943-52)

Mystery House (Horror anthology w/ Bela Lugosi)

Mystery In The Air (Horror anthology w/ Peter Lorre, 1947)

Mystery Playhouse (1944 AFRS series with Peter Lorre)

Mystery Playhouse (1986-1991 Horror & sci-fi series w/ “The Count”, then Dr. Morgan)

Mystery Theater (Horror/ detective anthology w/ Christopher Lee. 2009-?)

NBC Mystery Serial (Eight different ten-part supernatural thrillers by Carton Morse, 1932.)

Nightfall (1980s horror anthology series from Canada.)

Nightmare (The 30 minute series with Peter Lorre, and a three minute version from John Norman.)

Nightmare Theater (1953)

Obsession (Psychological horror series)

Origin of Superstition (1935 series dispelling superstitious beliefs)

Out of the Night (Aussy and US anthology series of weird happenings)

Passing Parade (John Nesbitt’s strange happenings)

Quiet Please (Dark fantasy w/ Ernest Chappel, 1947-49)

Radio City Playhouse (Suspense thrillers)

Ripley’s Believe It Or Not

Satan’s Waitin’ (1950)

Secrets of Scotland Yard (1949-51 Murder anthology)

SF68 (Science Fiction series from South Africa, 1968)

Sleep No More (Thriller anthology. 1956-57)

Stand By For Adventure (Macabre anthology. 1950)

Starring Boris Karloff

Stay Tuned For Terror

Strange (1955 Supernatural anthology series)

Strange Adventure ( 3 1/2 minute tales told by Pat McGeehan)

Strange As It Seems (3 1/2 minute spooky stories told by an unknown narrator)

Strange Dr. Karnac (1943 Mutual series by Scott Bishop)

Strangest of All (1961 series retellling strange historical events)

Studio X, aka The Player (1948 anthology 15 min series with Paul Frees)

Supernaturally Yours (Spooky stories from 1947)

Superstition/ aka, Superstition On The Air (1948 anthology with Ralph Bell dramatizing familiar fetishes)

Suspense (Thriller anthology w/ Joseph Kearns as “The Man in Black.” 1942-1962.)

Tales of the Supernatural (South African or South African horror show)

Tales of Tomorrow (Science fiction w/ Raymond Edward Johnson. 1953)

Teller of Hawaiin Tales (Strange Legends and ghost stories from America’s most Exotic state)

Terror (Possible series? Date unknown. Only one recording known “Grave yard Rats”)

Terror By Night (Ghost dramas, 1936)

The Black Book (starring Paul Frees)

The Black Castle (15 minute horror series with Don Douglas as host and characters. 1942)

The Chase (Dramatic adventure anthology, 1952-1953)

The Clock (Suspense anthology w/ “Father Time”. 1946-48)

The Creaking Door (1950s Australian, then 1960 South African version of Inner Sanctum Mysteries)

The Croupier (Tales of fate, sometimes supernatural. 1949)

The Devil and Mr. O (Horror anthology w/ Arch Obler. 1970–73)

The Eleventh Hour (South African Horror Adventure)

The Frightened (5 minute series featuring Boris Karloff)

The Haunting Hour (Mystery/ Horror melodrama. 1944-46)

The Hermit’s Cave (Horror anthology, w/ John Kent and Mel Johnson. 1934-43)

The Man In Black (The British 1949 spin-off of Appointment With Fear, a knock off of Suspense)

The Price of Fear (Vincent Price’s 1973-75 & 1983 radio series)

The Sealed Book (Horror anthology w/ Philip Clarke, 1945)

The Shadow (previously host of The Detective Story Hour. Horror/Crime series. 1931-1954)

The Strange Dr. Weird (Horror anthology w/ Maurice Tarplin. 1944-45)

The Teller of Tales (Thriller type anthology, 1950)

The Unexpected (15 min. Terror anthology. 1948)

The Uninvited (“True tales of the supernatural” from Australia)

The Weird Circle (Horror anthology. 1943-47)

The Whistler (Murder anthology w/ Bill Forman and also Gale Gordon, Joseph Kearns, Marvin Miller and Bill Johnstone. 1942-55)

The Witch of Endor (1932 spooky serial by Carton Morse. See NBC Mystery Serial)

The Witching Hour (Wyllis Cooper horror anthology, 1932)

Theater Five (ABC’s Sci-fi radio drama revival from 1964)

Theatre 10:30 (later series?)

Think (aka, The ABC Radio Workshop. Experimental drama, usually sci-fi)

Unsolved Mysteries (15 minute documented mysteries with Stanley Peyton, 1937 – 1949)

Whitehall 1212 (1951 Murder Anthology by Wyllis Cooper)

Witch’s Tale (Horror anthology w/ Nancy, the old Witch. 1931-38)

X Minus 1 (Science fiction w/ Fred Collins. 1955-58)

Zero Hour (Mystery/ adventure anthology w/ Rod Serling. 1973-74)