The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society

This week we continue our month of saying thank you to our listeners! For this episode, we are joined by Aimee! Not only is Aimee the creator of the fantastic Twelve Chimes It’s Midnight podcast, she’s also a Patreon supporter at the highest tier! She invited us to listen to “The Big Confession” from Dragnet! A troubled young man wanders into the police office to confess to a murder, but Sergeant Joe Friday suspects something about his story doesn’t add up. Will the facts establish a murder happened as the man said? What reasons would he give to justify such a crime? What bit of trivia does Aimee provide to top references to Magilla Gorilla and the Pentateuch? Listen for yourself and find out! Then vote and let us know what you think!

Throughout November we will be saying thank you to our listeners! This week we are joined by Chip, a Patreon supporter at the highest tier.  Chip has invited us to listen to an episode of The Shadow entitled “The Face!” A famous actor suffers a disfiguring accident that drives him to kill. Will the Shadow be able to put an end to his crimes? What will it take to make the Shadow afraid? Do you have the same dark, grisly taste in radio as Chip? Listen for yourself and find out! Then vote and let us know what you think!

It’s Halloween and we’ve got one more ghost story to share before the end of the night! Our final haunted tale for the month is “The Three Ghosts” from The Shadow! Orson Welles stars in this tale of a wealthy wife tormented by a spectral presence. However, the Shadow suspects the alleged ghost hides a plot to murder her for her money!  How will this earlier incarnation of the character deal out justice? Will Eric’s love of the Shadow outweigh his aversion to Orson? Why do prisoners need a library card? Listen for yourself and find out! Then vote and let us know what you think!

Happy Halloween! We're celebrating this spooky time of year by listening to ghost stories. Aimee Pavy from Twelve Chimes It’s Midnight recommended this one, “Good Ghost” by Wyllis Cooper from Quiet Please. Thanks, Aimee! It’s the story of an everyday sort of guy who suffers a wrongful death, but he’s in no rush to become a vengeful spirit. Why would he want to help out his murderer? Is there a limit to his patience and good nature? How awkward would Hogan’s Heroes be without a laugh track? Listen for yourself and find out! Then vote and let us know what you think!

We’re celebrating October with a series of ghost stories, and this week we check out “Lanceford House” (also known as “The Green Vase”) from Beyond Midnight! Based on a short story by Dennis Roidt, it’s the tale of a novelist who moves into an old house with a dark history. What lies in the locked attic? Why has he become so fascinated by the green vase left behind by a former occupant? Are angry mobs just more polite in the country? Listen for yourself and find out! Then vote and let us know what you think!

We continue our ghost-filled celebration of Halloween with an episode of BBC’s Fear on Four entitled “Tapping.” It tells the story of a wife trying to convince her husband to open up about a childhood trauma that still haunts him. What threat can a memory really hold? Do Scottish dialects inherently make ghost stories better? How much is 2018 minus 1997? Listen for yourself and find out! Then vote and let us know what you think!

It’s almost Halloween and to celebrate, we’re listening to ghost stories! The first haunting tale is Arch Oboler’s “Knock at the Door” from Lights Out. A woman’s resentment toward her new husband’s mother turns homicidal, but being murdered doesn't improve the mother’s mood. Does the young wife have enough upper body strength to survive? Does her husband sound more like Lennie or more like Lon Chaney, Jr.? What all is in Charles Fort’s Book of the Damned? Listen for yourself and find out! Then vote and let us know what you think!

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! Then vote and let us know what you think!

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! Then vote and let us know what you think!

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! Then vote and let us know what you think!

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! Then vote and let us know what you think!

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! Then vote and let us know what you think!

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! Then vote and let us know what you think!

This week we feature another episode from our Listener Library, this time a story entitled “Hands of Death” from The Sealed Book, recommended to us by Jill. Many thanks, Jill! It’s the story of two brothers, one driven to murder by his monstrous hands and the other obsessed with collecting murder-related memorabilia. After a disputed inheritance has driven them apart, their reunion is a macabre blend of blackmail, revenge, and milk. Which brother is the true monster? In their deadly rivalry, which of the two will gain the upper hand? Did you see what I did there? Listen for yourself and find out! Then vote and let us know what you think!

We’re running a little late this week—out humblest apologies! Our Listener Library is again featured in this week. This time, we’re listening to “It Happened” from Lights Out, recommended to us from a fan on Instagram! The recording tells the story of a young girl, eager to explore her own freedom, runs away from her tour group in Paris. Her quest for fun and adventure soon takes a dark turn as she finds that beneath the city of lights exists a gruesome world of eternal night. Is this the worst vacation/etsy shop idea ever endured? What is the true nature of suspense? Why did no one tell Tim that Sadako vs. Kayako has been out in North America for more than a year? Listen for yourself and find out! Then vote and let us know what you think!