Night Transmissions

The Final Reckoning” – May the 2nd of 1944

Creeps by Night Was A 1944 horror series with two hosts, one for each coast. in New York it was hosted by the anonymous, “Dr. X” who, as near as I can find, is anonymous to this day. From Hollywood it was hosted by Boris Karloff.

Although, did often feature the conventions typical of horror, werewolves and the like. It often provided a twist ending that brought an unexpected buoyancy to otherwise common place yarns. Karloff himself once said that, “There is no greater mystery than the mystery of the mind.” And many of the episodes dealt in psychological, rather than literal, horror.
Then as now, excellence is not a guarantee of long life.

Creeps by Night did not, “Live long and prosper”. It was a short lived series and only a few episodes seem to have survived. Too common a story in the annals of old time radio.

“The Final Reckoning” an episode starring Boris Karloff which aired first on May the 2nd of 1944. This is the story of George Miller, who was played for a Patsy by an associate. For twenty long years Miller had only one dream... a dream of murder, only one aspiration, his revenge. Then one day Miller, through careful planning and unbelievable patients, finds his chance when he manages to take the place of a barber giving the villain a shave.This turn of events creates the chance to play out a fine scene with Miller carefully, almost lovingly, tracing the contours of his victims throat with the edge of a straight razor. It’s heady stuff.

Suspense – “Menace In Wax” from Nov. 11th of 1942.

Suspense is one of the classics of old time radio. Some fans have special favorites in the thriller/chiller/macabre genre, but most agree that Suspense is right at the top.

The guiding light of this show was William Spier, whose formula of human drama set in interesting situations attracted the best of Hollywood and radio actors. Orson Welles was in many episodes. Cary Grant said, “If I ever do any more radio work, I want to do it on Suspense, where I get a good chance to act.”

Spier’s method with actors was to keep them under-rehearsed, and there-by a bit uneasy. He got great performances, and the show gained great popularity.

All the production values were first class. With Bernard Hermann, who had worked with Orson Welles on the Mercury Theater and would work with Alfred Hitchcock, doing the musical scores.

“Menace In Wax”. This is a world war II drama set in the city of London involving... I’ll bet you already know... Nazis! Better yet despicable Nazi spies! Do I need to say anything else? Nazi spies! What more could you want?

X Minus One , “And the Moon Be Still as Bright” April the 22nd of 1955.

X Minus One is considered the finest science fiction drama ever produced for radio. It was not the first. That honor belongs to 2000+. It wasn’t the second, That would be Dimension X. In fact the first 15 episodes of it’s 1955 to 1958 run on NBC were new versions of Dimension X episodes. The remainder were all most entirely adaptations of recently published science fiction stories (Mostly from Galaxy Science Fiction Magazine) usually written by the leading writers of the time, including Philip K. Dick, Fritz Leiber, J.T. McIntosh, Robert A. Heinlein, Frederik Pohl and Theodore Sturgeon.
For all of us who were weaned on The Outer Limits and The Twilight Zone and for the Trekkies (er,Trekkers) among us, you should know that X Minus One is the forefather of the science fiction you grew up on. You will find that it still is some of the best Science Fiction ever aired.

X Minus One and Ray Bradbury with one of hi...

A spin off from Suspense, Escape ran on CBS from 1947 to 1954, and dealt in a wide variety of stories: science fiction, horror, murder.
You know,good fun for the whole family!
The program displayed a fondness for adventure tales set in the tropics or on the high seas. As far as I have been able to find out, there were a total of 194 stories.
Many of the episodes were taken from the classics, but not all. Often the writers and producers of Escape culled material from stories that were not then considered classics but have gained that status since. Not that the radio show had anything to do with that. This distinction was brought about by the excellence of the material itself and the garnishment of time.

“Bird of Paradise” was adapted from the short story of the same name by John Russell, first published in Colliers, August 19, 1916.

Andrew Harben, a want-a-be fortune hunter, arrives at one of the spice Islands. Once there he makes his way to a dealer in rare birds. Then with more muscle and ambition than good sense, attempts to muscle his way into the trade.

Success, after a fashion, he does find. While wandering the Solomon Sea he succumbs to an illness. Barely alive he and his boat make landfall. Uncertain of where he is, it is nevertheless here that he finds this opportunity and his nemesis. Oh, and the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. Well, there’s always a Dame. Ain’t there?

Held prisoner on the island by a huge man. He is nothing more than a slave.

This is not what he intended for himself. It does not fit in with his plans at all!

The story was adapted for radio by John Meston and produced/directed by Norman MacDonnell. John Dehner starred and the cast included Andrew Harbin and Lawrence Dobkin.

Inner Sanctum presents a marry tune, ” Song of the Slasher”; Which originally aired on April 24 of 1945.

Taking its name from a popular series of mystery novels, Inner Sanctum Mysteries debuted over NBC’s Blue Network in January 1941.

Inner Sanctum Mysteries featured one of the most iconic openings in radio history. First an organist hit’s a dissonant chord. Next a doorknob turns, and the “creaking door” slowly began to open. So impressive was this opening that when South African radio ran its own version of the show it was called The Creaking Door

Every week, Inner Sanctum told stories of ghosts, murderers and lunatics, with a cast consisting of veteran radio actors. Although Produced in New York, there were occasional guest appearances by Hollywood stars such as Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre and Claude Rains.

Raymond”, the host, had a droll sense of humor, and an appetite for ghoulish puns. Raymond’s influence can be seen among horror hosts everywhere, from The Crypt-Keeper to Elvira, and even more so among his contemporaries on radio .”Raymond” was played until 1945 by Raymond Edward Johnson. Then