The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society

It’s time to take another walk down the Hall of Fantasy ! This time we’re listening to an episode entitled “The Perfect Script”! An eccentric radio producer has brought a young writer to his seaside home to create the perfect tale of horror. How does this producer motivate such vivid tales of terror? Why have none of the previous authors ever written a second script for this show? Is milk really t...

Happy Valentine’s Day! To celebrate, we are joined this year by Tim’s wife, Wendy! Wendy has brought us Mercedes McCambridge in an episode of Defense Attorney entitled “Client Mike Pelley!” In this story, an innocent man faces the death penalty based on the eyewitness testimony of a respected housewife. But his attorney, Martha Ellis Barrett, is determined to uncover the truth and save her client....

February is the perfect time to share some love, and we’re sharing our love of Boris Karloff ! Join us for “The Hunt” from Creeps by Night ! In this story, a pair of siblings live on a remote farm where an unknown beast has been killing sheep. But when this creature claims a human victim, a curious professor arrives to investigate a disturbing theory. Can the younger sister escape from the farm an...

January may be over, but we’re making one more trip to our Listener Library before getting back to choosing our own episodes. This week, we listen to “Cat Wife” from Lights Out ! Our thanks to Darrell, who requested this story of a husband whose marriage is so cat astrophic, he somehow transforms her into a yowling, scratching feline. Boris Karloff stars in this truly bizarre tale by Arch Oboler ....

We continue to spend January in the Listener Library catching up on suggestions sent to us by you, our Mysterious Listeners! Our thanks to Gary for recommending “Flesh Peddler” from Suspense ! The story features DeForest Kelley as a talent agent determined to take a mysterious ventriloquist on as a client. Why are the other carnival acts so determined to prevent this? What secret haunts this uniqu...

It’s time again to visit The Clock ! We’re spending January going through our Listener Library, catching up on suggestions sent to us by you, our Mysterious Listeners! “Aunt Emmy” was recommended to us by Cole (thanks, Cole!) and it features a young girl visiting her aunt in the country. But there are mysteries and madness in this remote home as well! What happened to the tie salesman who disappea...

We’re back and this month we are returning to our Listener Library! A listener named Joshua (not our Joshua) suggested that we listen to “The Young Man with the Cream Tarts” from Escape ! This episode is an adaptation of a short story , the first of three stories collectively known as The Suicide Club , by Robert Louis Stevenson . It tells the tale of two men who encounter a desperate youth, tryin...

It’s Christmas and we’re celebrating the things we love, and that includes classic holiday episodes from great radio series such as CBS Radio Mystery Theater ! In honor of the day, we’re presenting CBSRMT’s adaptation of a Christmas Carol without any poll or post-show critique. It’s just a yuletide treat for everyone to enjoy. Happy Holidays to our wonderful listeners and thank you for sharing a g...

It’s almost Christmas and we’re celebrating the season with CBS Radio Mystery Theater ! In this episode, entitled “A Holiday Visit,” a couple on their way to visit family find themselves stranded in a strange, nearly-abandoned town called Taylortown. If this strange old woman is the only inhabitant, where is that singing coming from? Can Skip and Joan escape this mysterious place and make it home...

As part of our run of Christmas episodes last year, we listened to one of the Suspense versions of “The Signal-Man,” based on Charles Dickens ’ other famous ghost story . The Signal-Man has been adapted by so many different series, we’re revisiting the tale, this time listening to the Columbia Workshop version of the story of an isolated rail worker whose strange visions foretell terrible tragedie...

This December we’re checking out holiday-themed episodes starting with “A Study in Wax” from Escape ! William Conrad and Stacy Harris star in this tale of two men working together in a remote Arctic outpost. As the isolation and bitter cold erode their spirits, they begin to turn on each other. How much worse is life without listening to radio shows? Can opening Christmas presents restore the peac...

We have one more episode dedicated to saying thanks to our listeners! This time we are joined by Brent, a Patreon supporter at the highest tier! He’s brought us “The Long Wait” from Suspense featuring Burt Lancaster ! Lancaster plays Dan, a man fresh out of prison for a crime he didn’t commit. When he goes to take revenge on Lois, the woman responsible for his incarceration and the death of his br...

Happy Thanksgiving! We asked listeners to vote for an episode from a list of titles originally broadcast during the week of Thanksgiving. The results are in and we are listening to “The Thing from the Sea” from Dark Fantasy ! Originally aired in 1941 (although according to The Digital Deli , it was broadcast December 5th rather than November 28th), this is the story of a lost ship stumbling upon a...

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...

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...

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 j...

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 li...

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...

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!

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 Ch...

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...

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 su...

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 ne...

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 bo...

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...