PODCAST · arts
Short Story Theater
by Bill Russo
Short Story Theater brings to life new classic tales for the 21st century, often based on science fiction, the paranormal, fantasy, or other subjects intended to promote thoughts and ideas that last far beyond the few minutes of the brief narrative.
Episodes
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The Treasure of Arinor
Fast forward many thousands of years into the future to a land where there hasn't been a crime for 3 millenna! But now that the stupidest man on Arinor is guarding the treasure, things may change.
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The Pale Man on the Second Floor
A tale of terror in a nearly empty Cape Cod hotel in the off-season.
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Hounds of Fate
The Hounds of Fate will follow you, no matter where you go. You cannot hide from them.
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My Treasure
In tropical South Florida, three thieves are preparing to steal the treasure of a retired director of a wildlife research program. They soon find that the treasure is much larger than they expected.
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The Phantom of the Carolina Queen
A retired fisherman on Boston's North Shore attempts to catch a ghost ship named The Carolina Queen.
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Planet Earth My Science Project
In a classroom, far away in a distant, advanced planet, a student presents his science project - a living, miniature planet that he calls Ear
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The Death Squad
Thou Shalt Not Kill. It is a commandment, perhaps the most important one. Thou Shalt Not Kill - but there is a caveat, an exception to the rule. In times of war, even your clergyman will slap you on the back, hand you a chocolate bar, and send you off to kill. Bill Russo's tale, The Death Squad…
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The Invasion of Ragged Mountain
In Bill Russo's new tale, the creatures of the Juns Federation - Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune, are poised to conquer earth, by capturing one human being at a time. They have chosen desolate Ragged Mountain in Northern Maine for the starting point of the invasion. A lone disc-jockey sits in a...
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TurnOnTheNews_Bravado_126_WaveFarm_WGXC_20230629_20230705
An irreverent, satirical look at the news from June/July 2023
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The Chicken Man of Leftover Main
In Hyannis on Cape Cod back in the 1950s, police would respond to a call from the Kennedy Compound in about 2 seconds. A business on busy Main Street could expect to see a response from a call to the police department in five or ten minutes. On Leftover Main, where the tourists don't go, the…
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Bill Russo's Shorr Story Theater - Cheese Please - Comedy and Music
A sample episode of an unusual comedy-music radio series called Cheese Please, with Snarfdude and Daffodil. If you like the episode, you can listen to the weekly shows on radio or on podcast sites.
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Letters of Evil - E I O A
The letters E, I, O, and sometimes A, are the last letters of the names of virtually all of the Italian people. Are these letters truly evil? Are the people who have these letters at the end of their name evil? Find out in Bill Russo's mostly true tale of the E, I, E, I, O and sometimes A, people.
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The Ghost of the 13 Churches
The true tale of Dr. Abner Hersey, the eccentric doctor, who willed a forturne to the 13 churches of Cape Cod, and vowed to come back and haunt them, if any 'scobberlochers' mishandled his money.
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News of the Past - From Rags to Riches and Back to Rags
Short Story Theater, News From the Past - a look at the sad life of one of the worlds' most successful authors. She was born in poverty in a small town, and amassed great wealth, but never found happiness.
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Gable Stone and 'The Boston Monster'
A young girl fless an abusive and violent stepfather and ends up on Leftover Main Street in Hyannis, the unofficial capital of Cape Cod. She finds refuge in the toy store of a kindly lady. But back in Boston, the horrid stepfather who raped and beat her, is bent on finding out where she is. He...
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From The 8 Ball to 26 Bullets
Journey back to Old Cape Cod in the 1950s where Gable Stone leaves a game of 8 ball, to hunt for the killer of a mob boss, on a trail that runs from Hyannis to Boston to New York.
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Sherlock Holmes - the Adventure of the Hanover Hospital
Millions of readers know the exploits of Sherlock Holmes from the stories of Doctor Watson. In this episode of Bill Russo's Short Story Theater, for the first time, Sherlock Holmes relates a narrative about Watson. The good doctor undertakes a risky mission to build a hospital and he ends up...
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3 Hours Beyond Midnight
Every night at three hours beyond midnight a man is awakened by a knock on his front door. He walks up to the door and there is no one there, even as the knocking continues. Under increasing strain he calls 'Hostile Haunts' in hopes they can scare off the invisible intruder.
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The 2nd life of Riley Adair
The Second Life of Riley Adair is a brief dramatized query into a consciousness below consciousness. Does it really exist? After you listen to the tale, you be the judge.
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Dodge City - Duel at Dawn
Dodge City - Duel at Dawn, is the sequel to "I Grew Up in Dodge City in 1875". Deputry Sheriff Chalky Jones tells about the most unlikely gunfight the "Wild West" ever witnessed.
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The Martian Express
The Martian Express. A tale of the first human expdition to land on the Red Planet. It is an event that has not yet happened. Or has it?
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Knotso Clanky Meets Bigfoot!
Knotso Clanky is a storyteller, who is sometimes accused of stretching a little tale into something as big as Sugarloaf Mountain. It is just possible that his account of meeting and becoming a friend of Bigfoot, is somewhat exaggerated!
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Inside The Chicken Coop Short Story Theater
Today's edition of Short Story Theater is not a fictional tale designed to frighten you but an audio documentary that will frighten you as we take you "Inside the Chicken Coop"
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Death House Rescue - Starring the Shadow
The Death House Rescue - featuring one of the earliest Superheroes - the mysterious and invisible Shadow. In reality The Shadow was a billionaire named Lamont Cranston who went abroad as a youth and learned the secrets of invisibility. As The Shadow he fights the forces of evil.
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The Secrets of Three Skeleton Key
Far off the coast of Florida, past the last inhabited island (Key West) there was at one time a tiny key, no larger than a big, flat rock. When a crew came to build a lighthouse there, they found the skeletal remains of three escaped convicts. They named the place, Three Skeleton Key. To unlock…
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The Damned Thing - Short Story Theater
Early Sci-Fi from the 1800s - The Damned Thing. A tale of invisibility written by Ambrose Bierce which may have been the inspiration for a work 50 years later by H P Lovecraft.
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I Cremated Sam McGhee
They went North to Alaska in 1897 to seek Gold. A few found it. Many others found only a frozen, hard death. Sam McGhee was one of those dying prospectors whose last wish was to be warm one final time.
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Welcome to the World of the Paranormal
Bill Russo, whose account of his meeting with a 'Puckwudgie' was one of the highlights of the Bridgewater Triangle Documentary, takes you on a ride through the unknown in, "Welcome to the World of the Paranormal"
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The Professor's Last Class
At a premier university in Northern New Hampshire, Professor Winslow is ready to deliver his first lecture of the new school year - he has no idea that his first class, will also be, his last class.
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Gable Stone - Services Rendered
On Leftover Main Street in Cape Cod, there is a sign above a stark storefront that says simply, "Gable Stone - Services Rendered". When something is too tough for the police, or perhaps too illegal for same, Cape Codders in the know, head for Gabe's little shop next to The Downtown Tap, for...
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My Last Confession
Not quite a death-bed confession, but at age 90 and knowing there will be no birthday cake with 91 candles for him, an old man reveals a dark secret that he has kept hidden in the deepest part of his mind for almost seven decades.
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X Minus One - The Martian Embassy
The greatest Sci Fi series ever seen, was viewed in the theater of the mind - old time radio - under the title of X-Minus-One. Here is a little-known episode of that series
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The Fifth Floor
The legendary Wampum Belt, a priceless Native American treasure, thought to be lost for centuries, was actually in a tepee on THE FIFTH FLOOR of a museum.
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Winnie The Pooh - Chapter Two - Pooh Gets Stuck in a Tight Place
Chapter two of the iconic, original Winnie the Pooh collection of stories, as enacted by Basil Nightingale of Short Story Theater. You can also view this episode on the Bill Russo YouTube channel to see the original illustrations.
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Winnie the Pooh, Chapter One, Read by Basil Nightingale
Chapter One of Winnie The Pooh, from the original book published nearly a century ago. Read by Basil Nightingale.
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The House of the Past
"The House of the Past" Notes by Bill Russo. Some dreams are more than dreams. So lifelike, they seem real. Such is the case with the surreal musings of Algernon Blackwood, as described by Chiquito Crasto of Australia for Episode 14 of Season 3 of Short Story Theater.
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The Name Game Murders, a tale from 'The 85 Year Old, Dot-to-Dot Detective', by Bill Russo
A deranged maniac is murdering people with a weapon that matches their name. Mr. Hammer was killed with a hammer. Mr. Gunn was shot with a pistol. Retired Cape Cod Police Chief Rick Bates is summoned from his barstool in Key West and asked to return to New England to use his 'Baits' to apprehend...
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Out of the Waves
A lonely, older woman standing by the edge of her private beach on Cape Cod, sees a young man emerge from the waves. He approaches her. Is he a fortune hunter, a serial killer, or the Fountain of Youth?
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Five Minutes of Wasted Words While Waiting for a Bus
Short Story Theater takes a page from the David/Seinfeld book and presents "Five Minutes of Wasted Talk While Waiting for a Bus"
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The KIller Had Five Fingers
In a tiny New Hampshire village, the hand of a mass murderer was chopped off at the wrist, after he was hanged. The body remained buried but the gruesome hand, finger-walks all around town trying to strangle everyone within reach!
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The Arms of Life and Death
The strangest tale you will hear this year. Two strangers meet at the very top of the United States in Maine and begin an adventure that takes them to the bottom of the U.S. near Miami - where the saga ends in both life and death.
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Life Begins at Ten!
Everyone needs a second chance. Sometimes it comes early, sometimes late, and sometimes not at all. For Jose Mendez, it came at TEN!
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The Midnight Express
A chilling tale of a middle-aged man who finally gets the courage to face his worst childhood fears, with an eerie result.
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My Two Weeks With the Red Sox
The Producer and Director of Short Story Theater, Bill Russo, tells about his two weeks as a player on the roster of the World Champion Boston Red Sox.
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The Judge's House
A retired "Yankee" from New England travels to "Old" England to research his family tree. Renting a long abandoned mansion for solitude, he soon finds that the rundown, eerie place is haunted.
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Hallo-Weird - Short Story Theater
For many people Halloween is not just one day in late October, but a whole season that begins as soon as summer fades away and lasts until the Jack-O-Lantern is replaced by a Christmas Tree - this story is for them!
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Hank Williams On The Inside - Cold Cold Heart
Hank Williams On The Inside takes you to back 1951, in the studios of WSM radio, where Hank Williams is about to premier his new song, Cold Cold Heart - but the story of the sad incident that led to him writing the song, is colder than the song itself - details on the inside...
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The American Crowbar Case
The amazing, true tale of Phineas P. Gage who survived having a 13 pound iron bar shot through his brain.
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Swilling's Mills - Will it Become the Largest City in the U.S.?
Season 3 of Short Story Theater kicks off with the story of Swilling's Mills which may soon become the biggest city in the United States.
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The Deadliest Place in the Bridgewater Triangle
A small 350 acre pond in Bridgewater, called The Nip, may be the deadliest place in the entire Bridgewater Triangle. Once, hundreds if not thousands of people swam in its quiet waters, before mysterious drownings forced swimming to be forever banned. Now the deadliest location in the Bridgewater...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Short Story Theater brings to life new classic tales for the 21st century, often based on science fiction, the paranormal, fantasy, or other subjects intended to promote thoughts and ideas that last far beyond the few minutes of the brief narrative.
HOSTED BY
Bill Russo
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Short Story Theater have?
Short Story Theater currently has 126 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Short Story Theater about?
Short Story Theater brings to life new classic tales for the 21st century, often based on science fiction, the paranormal, fantasy, or other subjects intended to promote thoughts and ideas that last far beyond the few minutes of the brief narrative.
How often does Short Story Theater release new episodes?
Short Story Theater publishes regularly with 126 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to Short Story Theater?
You can listen to Short Story Theater on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Short Story Theater?
Short Story Theater is created and hosted by Bill Russo.
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