The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society

Some time ago, we had a plan to celebrate our 400th episode with a live recording of ourselves revisiting the program featured on our very first episode “The House in Cypress Canyon” from Suspense! We wound up going with a different option for episode 400, but we still want to share this unused treat! Special guest Shanan Custer joined us at the Bryant-Lake Bowl to discover how time has or has not...

“Spider” is an episode of Lights Out recommended to us by our Patreon supporter Zachary. Thanks Zachary! The story features two down-on-their-luck rogues reduced to hunting for butterflies to fund their escape from a thick tropical jungle. But soon they discover something else among the trees that is more dangerous than anything they anticipated! What is it that makes the creature so deadly? Will...

This week, we’re enjoying a bit of Rocky Fortune with Frank Sinatra in a story entitled “Double Indemnity”! Rocky’s new job as a chauffeur turns out to be just a ruse that leaves him knocked unconscious. When he wakes up, he doesn’t know where he is and he may not know who he is! Why is he stepping into a new life so far from his home? Will he actually keep this job? Do you have to watch Dangerous...

Summer is the perfect time to check out an episode of The Mercury Summer Theatre of the Air! Lucille Fletcher penned this story, “The Search for Henri Le Fevre,” which features a composer who has just completed a masterful new work. But as soon as this composition is complete, he turns on the radio only to hear the exact same music playing! Who is the mysterious Henri Le Fevre, the man who wrote w...

This week marks our first visit to Rogue’s Gallery, featuring Dick Powell! In this episode, “The House of Fear,” detective Richard Rogue is hired to investigate Slip Crane’s theft of a diamond. But Roue’s efforts are immediately stymied by the family who own the diamond and who evidently have no interest in its recovery. Did one or more members of the family have a hand in the diamond’s disappeara...

This week we’re listening to “Blind Impulse” from The Whistler! The story features a man’s scheme to divorce his wife so that he can marry a woman set to inherit a fortune from her dying father. But things don’t go as planned and people prove to be very unpredictable! Will the former wife’s jealousy spoil the plan? Is the new wife as feckless and carefree as she seems? What outdated legal obscurit...

It’s time once again to find out what evil lurks in the hearts of men with a visit to The Shadow! This episode, “Death Pulls the Strings,” features a puppeteer whose employs human-sized marionettes to perform remarkably life-like dances. During one of his performances, a woman identifies one of the puppets as her sister! Is this performance as morbid as it seems? What is the truth behind Goro and...

This week’s visit to the Listener Library brings us to “Island of the Lost,” an episode of CBS Radio Mystery Theater recommended to us by our Patreon member Melanie! Thanks, Melanie! The story features a man suffering headaches, which may or may not be caused by his marriage to a much younger woman. When he surprises her during her tropical vacation, he begins to struggle to tell reality from illu...

We’re flipping through The Devil’s Scrapbook to learn the story of “The Conquest of David Rugg”! This episode features Sidney Trent, whose car stalls out after he gets lost driving in a storm. He is rescued by David Rugg, a man driving a horse-drawn carriage. Sidney accompanies Rugg back to his home, and before the night is over, madness and terror will reign. Will Rugg conquer or be conquered? Wa...

Close your eyes as this episode of Quiet Please guides you to “The Room Where the Ghosts Live”! In this story, a man slowly dying from a gunshot tells his tale to a doctor. According to this dying man, he’s opened a secret room in his historic home and released several ghosts who died there. How did this spectral encounter lead to his gunshot wound? Can he trust these messages from beyond? Would t...

Join us as we listen to a diabolical tale entitled, “A Horror Story,” from CBS Radio Mystery Theater! The story’s narrator guides us through an abandoned building to find a long lost journal hidden within a wall. This journal contains the tale of a chef tasked with preparing a meal for royalty. What follows is a series of events so monstrous, the narrator can barely bring himself to tell the tale....

We’re traveling boldly into our Listener Library for an episode of Escape recommended to us by Caden. Thanks, Caden! This story, “The Grove of Ashtaroth,” is adapted from a short story by John Buchan. It tells the story of two men who stumbled upon a strange grove of trees in Africa. One is so enchanted by the area, he decides to remain there and make it his new home. When the other returns three...

All rise for “The Incredible Trial of Laura D. Fair” from Crime Classics! We’re listening to this true crime tale of a woman who grows impatient waiting for a marriage proposal from her older gentleman caller. Why is this man hesitant to ask for her hand? How bizarre will her trial get? Why was there a post-shooting tooting? Listen for yourself and find out!

It’s time to listen to another episode of The Clock! This week we’re checking out an episode entitled “The Hitchhiker,” about a traveling salesman driving across Utah who agrees to help out a young woman looking for a ride. But along the way, unexpected complications may be putting one or both of them in deadly peril! Is either one of them hiding a secret from the other? What is waiting for them a...

Orson Welles stars in the “The Marvelous Barastro,” an episode of Suspense about a carnival magician who marries a blind but ill-omened woman. He also plays the role of a rival magician who becomes a companion to the couple. How extreme will their rivalry go? Is Welles an acting genius or an indulgent ham? Who among the hosts will win the title of First Dumb? Listen for yourself and find out!

This week, our Patreon supporter Ryan has sent us down to our Listener Library for a series we’ve never checked out before, Tales of the Texas Rangers! Based (to some degree) on true cases, the series stars Joel McCrea as Texas Ranger Jace Pearson and in this episode, “Double Edge,” he’s assigned the case of a brazen pair of bank robbers. How much like Dragnet is this show? Can Pearson track down...

All aboard for mystery, adventure, and romance with The Adventures of the Abbotts! In this episode, “The Blue Rocket Express,” Pat and Jean Abbott’s travel plans are interrupted by the sudden appearance of a dead body, leading them on a cross country race to find a bacterial weapon! Who killed this man? Why won’t Pat try to get help from the police or the FBI? Can old radio improve your love life?...

This week we’re listening to an episode of Inner Sanctum Mystery featuring Boris Karloff. “The Corridor of Doom,” features a man who wakes up after a medical procedure he doesn’t recall surrounded by a medical staff he doesn’t know. And even as he struggles to understand his surroundings, the strange medicine they prescribe him gives him nightmares of a hallway where each doorway has a name. How d...

It’s time for another stuggle with the enigmatic artistry of Scott Bishop’s Dark Fantasy, this time with an episode entitled “The Curse of the Neanderthal.” A painter is desperate to contact her sister after being rescued from a strange mishap. Was she saved by a ghost? Was it a swerf? Will any of that matter by the end? Listen for yourself and find out! 

Join us for Escape’s adaptation of Roald Dahl’s short story, “Poison.” William Conrad and Jack Webb star in this story of an encounter with a deadly krait snake. But one man’s chances of survival are diminished by his own prejudices! Will he survive the night? How does the adaptation compare to others? Why does this podcast smell like tires? What flavor of Slurpee requires a note from a parent or...

This week’s episode features a performance by Eva le Gallienne in an episode of Suspense entitled “Phobia.” She plays a wealthy woman with a strange and severe phobia. Between caring for her shoplifting sister and appeasing her maid, this woman becomes targeted by blackmail and theft. Can she navigate these threats despite her condition? Does something seem off about the story’s conclusion? Why do...

Once again, we’re checking out a series we haven’t listened to before. This time it’s The Adventures of the Falcon! This episode, “The Widow’s Gorilla,” features private detective Michael Waring’s hunt for a suicide note that might or might not exist which could prove or disprove a murder that may or may not have happened. How much money could this note be worth? Who or what is the widow’s gorilla...

There’s an episode of The Shadow that’s been waiting for us in the Listener Library and this week our Patreon supporter James has sent us to go get it! Thanks, James! “Hypnotic Death” features Lamont Cranston stumbling on to a madman’s plot to combine hypnotism, murder, and insurance fraud. But even the Shadow might be overwhelmed by this opponent. Can Lamont save an innocent man from an accusatio...

This week is a double-feature exploration of Anthony Boucher’s story, “They Bite,” featuring a reading of the original by our own Joshua and the adaptation produced by Nightfall! The story features a mysterious loner in the desert camped out by an adobe ruin. The locals claim this ruin is the home to some mysterious entity that kills those who come to close. Folks cannot give this threat a name, b...

This week, we’re listening to an episode of Suspense entitled “Fragile Contents Death,” recommended to us by our Patreon supporter Cole! Thanks, Cole! The story features a postmaster who receives word that a time bomb is hidden somewhere in all the items passing through his post office. He and his staff only have a few hours to find the explosive, and it will detonate if the package is opened! How...