The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society

Special guest Laura Zabel joins us for this week’s episode recorded in front of a live audience at the Bryant-Lake Bowl! We’re listening to “A Thing of Beauty” from Suspense ! Angela Lansbury stars as a reclusive woman recounting the days of her youth to two clergymen. She tells them of her time as a renowned actress and the accusation of murder that led to her marriage. What happened to take her...

Boris Karloff stars in this week’s episode, “The Final Reckoning” from Creeps by Night ! After a convict has his life sentence commuted, his long-planned path of revenge can begin. Soon the man who put him in prison finds a dead rat on his doorstep and is looking for someplace to hide! Will this quest for vengeance be fulfilled? What is the plan? Would you be willing to stay longer in prison if th...

We’ve been compelled to revisit Obsession ! This time for a story entitled “Shadow of Huntley House” (also known as “On the Wild Seas”), a story about a woman reuniting with her estranged twin sister, who was recently widowed. But rather than familial support, the reunion is thick with jealousy and plotting that might result in murder! How could an obsession drive someone to such an extreme? Would...

This week we’re listening to “Wild Jack Rhett,” an episode of Escape set in a small frontier town in the Old West! When the town’s previous sheriff dies, the citizens need to decide what kind of man they want to hire to replace him. But electing to a hire a steely-eyed killer like Wild Jack Rhett may be more than the town can bear. Will Rhett bring order to this town? How does this compare with Gu...

This sci-fi themed episode of Quiet Please was recommended to us by our Patreon supporter Lance. Thanks, Lance! Appropriate to the story’s title, “The Pathetic Fallacy” is the story of a scientist who has created a machine capable of computing fantastically complex mathematical problems, but the device seems to willfully be making errors. Soon the public is more interested in the machine’s apparen...

Our Patreon supporter Simon recommended we make another Appointment with Fear for an episode entitled, “The Clock Strikes Eight”! Thanks, Simon! John Dickson Carr’s corpulent detective, Gideon Fell , is summoned to meet a woman about to be executed for murder. But this woman has lost all her memories, starting with the victim’s death! Can Fell uncover the truth before the fatal hour arrives? What...

The seas aren’t safe while a madman commands the crew of a submarine, sinking whatever ships it finds! But Lamont Cranston is on the case as The Shadow in this episode entitled “Death from the Deep!” But before he can stop this submarine, the Shadow will need to find it! What motivates the killer to do what he does? Will the Shadow be able to outwit his cunning opponent? Is this in any way appropr...

This episode was recorded live at the Bryant-Lake Bowl in Minneapolis with special guest, Shanan Custer! We’re listening to “The Wailing Wall” from Inner Sanctum Mystery , starring Boris Karloff ! The story features a murderous husband who can’t seem to escape his crimes! What is the source of the keening sound that haunts him? Is he truly being plagued by a ghost? Is that really how the police in...

A violent series of robberies have Joe Friday and the entire L.A. police force on high alert in this episode of Dragnet , “The Red Light Bandit”! According to his victims, the assailant approached them pretending to be a policeman. Even as a city-wide manhunt fails to stop him, his crimes grow more brutal by the day! How will the police track him down? Is the story you about to hear actually true?...

Philo Vance returns to the podcast! S.S. Van Dine’s classic detective pits his wits against a gang of robbers targeting upper class house parties in “The Cipher Murder Case.” When one of these robbers kills his own partner, a cipher is found on the dead man’s body that could unmask the mastermind behind the crimes! What key did Vance use to decrypt the cipher? Will this story adhere to Van Dine’s...

This week, we’re presenting one of our B Sides of the Mysterious Old Radio, an example of the sort of bonus content we make available to our supporters on Patreon ! Each B Side is a companion piece to an episode presented as part of our usual podcast. In this case we’re listening to “A Night to Forget” from Quiet Please as a supplement to our previous installment, “ The Coffin in Studio B, ” from...

It’s not just any episode of Lights Out this week, it’s a recreation of one of Wyllis Cooper’s scripts from the earliest days of the classic series! “The Coffin in Studio B” features the story of actors and a director struggling to get a production of Lights Out ready in time for its broadcast, but creative differences and an uninvited salesman threaten to derail the show. Can the actors and the d...

This week we meet The Man Called X ! Herbert Marsall starred as the title character in this series of espionage thrillers. During this episode, “Storm Over the Alps,” X’s investigation into a counterfeiting ring brings him to the Swiss Alps, specifically an area of the mountains with peculiar weather conditions. But instead of answers, he finds himself framed for murder! Will X learn which way the...

We’re revisiting the Australian series, The Key, about which not much is known. This episode, “Showgirl Murdered,” tells the story of a man seemingly framed for the murder of his former girlfriend. As the trial proceeds, a variety of circumstances align to prevent him from proving his innocence. Will the true killer be found? Will justice prevail? Do people in Australia often forget the names of f...

This week we’re listening to Barbara Stanwyck’s lone appearance on Suspense , “The Wages of Sin”! Stanwyck stars as a hard-boiled woman being used to help cover up a murder. But once the police become involved she comes up with a scheme to secure a sizeable payday for herself! Will she successfully get her payout? Or will she die trying? Can someone bowl so badly that isn’t funny to watch? Listen...

Our mysterious listener (and Patreon supporter and artist ) Tim sent us down to the Listener Library for an episode of Nightfall entitled, “Gerald”! Thanks, Tim! This story features a young boy who is drawn down a dark path by a mysterious figure, someone who can’t always be seen or heard. As the child’s actions grow more monstrous, the child’s father desperately searches for the source of these h...

We conclude our trio of inaugural episodes from classic radio series! This time we’re listening to “Milford Brooks III,” the audition episode of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar ! In this initial story, Johnny has to keep the holder of a two-million-dollar life insurance policy holder from committing suicide. Along the way he’ll try to get some quality time with a beautiful lady and figure out why this...

For the second of our trio of inaugural episodes from classic radio series, we present “Dead of Night,” the audition episode for Escape ! This story of a British ventriloquist plagued by paranoia and delusions was adapted from one section of the classic horror anthology film of the same name. When this entertainer encounters his American counterpart, jealousy drives him to bizarre and perhaps dang...

In the hopes of launching 2024 with some auspicious beginnings, we’re presenting a trio of first episodes from classic radio series! Our mysterious listener Glenn starts us out by celebrating 50 years of CBS Radio Mystery Theater with the series’ debut episode, “The Old Ones are Hard to Kill!” Agnes Moorehead stars as a kindly old woman whose lodger confesses to a murder on his deathbed, and tells...

Before we dive fully into 2024, we’d like to take a moment to share a sample from our Patreon page! Last October, our patrons were treated to a Halloween Special, “Spirits and Spooks Summoned for Halloween by William Conrad,” a 1973 children’s spoken word album! At the end of the year, our Patreon members declared this the second best bonus content from 2023! Now we’re sharing it with everyone as...

Happy New Year’s Eve! We cannot let the year pass without another adaptation of Charles Dickens’ other famous ghost story, “ The Signal-Man .” Unexpectedly, we learned of a version even more contemporary than last year’s, presented by Seeing Ear Theater from 1998! As before, this story depicts a curious stranger who encounters a rail worker beset by visions. Why does he seem to be receiving some o...

We’re spending this Christmas with Candy Matson ! This episode, entitled “Jack Frost,” features Candy on the case of a missing assistant to a department store Santa, Jack Frost! When the man who played Jack turns up dead, she needs to call in some festive help from her friend Rembrandt Watson! Who would want to kill Jack Frost? What important question will Detective Mallard ask Candy? Can Eric exp...

This week’s visit to the Listener Library is a gift for Tim from our mysterious listener, Hank. Thanks, Hank! “The Crisis of Dirk Diamond” is an episode of Suspense featuring a cartoonist who’s going to lose his job if he doesn’t come up with a new villain to challenge his protagonist, Dirk Diamond. But when he introduces Freddy, a character that haunted his own childhood, the danger begins to spi...

Join us in this celebratory toast to the peaks and valleys that we traveled through in 2022! Based on listener polls, the keen insights of esteemed special guests, and our own incoherent ramblings, one episode shall be declared the specialty of the house and another shall be declared a real punch to the groin. Who can outwit the chess master? Who will regret having followed a banjo act? Why does t...

This week’s episode is “The Man Who Stole a Planet,” from Quiet, Please ! Even for this idiosyncratic, and groundbreaking series, this story is one of the stranger ones, featuring tomb raiding, the undead, and natural disasters in the Iron Range! Who is this man? What planet did he steal? Who wrote the script for the Red-Headed Stepson of Frankenstein? Listen for yourself and find out!