The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society

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 When Wet to understand the plot? Listen for yourself and find out! 

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 what playing on the radio? What is the secret behind the music’s beauty and heartbreak? Is Citizen Kane any good? Listen for yourself and find out!

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 disappearance? Is Slip Crane actually involved in the theft? Uhh…Eugor? Listen for yourself and find out! 

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 What outdated legal obscurities will we become obsessed with this time? Listen for yourself and find out!

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 Rico? Who can answer all your questions about the Planet of the Apes television show? Listen for yourself and find out!

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 illusion. Is he imagining her infidelity? Why did his eye doctor write a letter to the man’s wife? Who are the people in your neighborhood? Listen for yourself and find out!

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? Was this a mere nightmare or did these horrors really happen? Is college really that important? Listen for yourself and find out!

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 these ghosts have gotten away with it if it weren’t for those meddling kids? Listen for yourself and find out!

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. But he will anyway! Why is this narrator so drawn to this story that is so horrible to him? Is this story in the tradition of Grand Guignol? Why are those slippers making that sound? Listen for yourself and find out!

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 years later, he finds some unseen power is making his friend behave strangely. What mysterious force is behind this transformation? What cost might there be to save this friend? Did all of your hosts actually do some research for this episode? Listen for yourself and find out!

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 little further down the road? Are they on their way to a Renaissance Festival? Listen for yourself and find out!

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 both of the robbers? What do they mean, “obvious reasons”? Listen for yourself and find out!

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? Listen for yourself and find out!

The Society delves into a gem from the Arch Oboler era of Lights Out! In the story, Edna, Florence, and Kay take a sleigh ride through the country and cross paths with a very ill-tempered supernatural force. Will this story still send a chill down your spine? How long will it take to go from cabaret to prayer?  What can ironized yeast do for you? Listen for yourself and find out!