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Horror and Mystery Old Time Radio Shows
Radio is the ideal medium for horror and mystery entertainment. In the minds eye, old time radio horror and mystery shows can conjure the most frightening of scary sensations. With sound effects, good timing, and the power of suggestion horror and mystery in classic old time radio created some of the scariest and most memorable horror productions in history.
 In many ways, horror radio shows differ from horror in film. In film, when the monster or antagonist is shown, it diminishes its veracity--especially if the monster suit looks fake or silly. Images that the listener pictures in his own mind-eye are often scarier than what a make-up artist or producer deems as visually frightening.
Another reason why radio is scarier than film is lighting and perspective. If we see the person stuck in a pitch black haunted house or stuck in a coffin, the fear is slightly diminished. If we picture ourselves stuck in a dark room or coffin, the intensity of the fright is much more genuine.
Macabre Excerpt (1932): Buried Alive in a Coffin (1:30 min)
The boundaries of horror blur with other genres including drama, crime, science fiction, and even comedy known as black humor. Any topic was made available and spooky, building suspense and danger in the listener's ear. Topics of the horror genre vary widely including monsters and ghouls, noir horror, and the scariest of them all: man.
Introduction and Hosts
 As characters week to week were slashed, murdered, killed, and/or driven insane among other atrocities, we could count on the host returning week to week. This allowed the audience to form an attachment to the show.
Much credit is due to the use of a host in Witch's Tale, one of the earliest old time radio horror shows. Cackling Old Nancy and her cat, Satan (meows provided by producer Alonzo Dean Cole), introduced each show and ended with a tongue and cheek epilogue. Old Nancy was originally played by the 75 year old Adelaide Fitz-Allen. Upon her death, the very young 13-year-old Miriam Wolfe, whose previous experience until that time was on the children's show Let's Pretend, assumed the role of Old Nancy:
Witch's Tale excerpt (1932):
Old Nancy Introduction (0:30 min)
The introductions on many of the horror radio shows featured tongue and cheek narrations with ghoulish hosts including Ernest Chappell on Quiet, Please, and Maurice Tarplin on The Mysterious Traveler, the Hermit on Hermit's Dave, and the Keeper on Sealed Book. Opening with a creaking door and organ rifts, Inner Sanctum featured Host Raymond Johnson with a tongue and cheek introductions filled with macabre puns. Your Host Raymond ended with "Pleasant dreaaaams, hmm?"
Excerpt from ending of Inner Sanctum Mysteries (1946): "Pleasant dreaaaams, hmm?" (0:12 min)
Other horror old time radio shows feature a more serious host such as The Man in Black on Suspense and The Whistler. Orson Welles ended Black Museum with: "Now until we meet again in the same place and I tell you another tale of the Black Museum", his signature phrase, "I remain, as always, obediently yours."
Excerpt from ending of Black Museum (138): "I remain, as always, obediently yours." (0:15 min)
Both Wyllis Cooper and Arch Oboler opened the show Lights Out with a warning those with "timid soul" to turn off their radios.
Horror film stars also appeared in old time radio show including Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, Bela Lugosi and Vincent Price. Peter Lorre hosted show Mystery House and Mystery in the Air.
Sponsorship
 Orson Welles was against interrupting horror shows with sponsor ads. In Mercury Theater, producers omitted advertisements for Pabst Blue Ribbon during the show so the suspense could be built "from spooky start to spooky finish." Vincent Price also disagreed with interrupting horror shows with advertisements, saying it was the over commercialization of radio.
How could horror and mystery show integrate sponsors with the heightened drama of a scary show? In Lights Out and among other shows the host would welcome you back, and give a quick recap of the show.
One show that weaved its sponsorship with the show was Inner Sanctum. The drama was interrupted with conversations between macabre "Your Host Raymond" and cheerful Lipton Tea Lady Mary Bennett. These quick skits are amusing, as Mary attempts to steer the conversation back to Lipton Tea or Lipton Soup and Raymond makes puns and light jokes about the characters in the story.
Lipton Commercial exceprt from Inner Sanctum (1946):
Mary and "Your Host Raymond" banter (1:15 min)
After directing a seven-part radio serial adaptation of Victor Hugo's Les Misérables, the Mutual network approached Orson Welles to make an hour long dramatic radio program for the summer on 1938.  Welles insisted on including the Mercury Theatre troupe included Joseph Cotten, Martin Gabel, Agnes Moorehead, Ray Collins, Hans Conreid, Paul Stewart, Will Geer, George Coulouris, Olive Stanton, and Everett Sloane. Under Orson Welles complete creative control, Mercury Theater run was extended beyond the summer months.
Orson Welles based the scripts of the shows on literary works such as "A Tale of Two Cities," "Heart of Darkness," "Dracula,' "The Count of Monte Cristo," and most famously "War of the Worlds." The October 30, 1938 adaptation of H. G. Wells' "The War of the Worlds" or "Halloween hoax" episode sent people into the streets in panic that the Martians were invading. The show forever changed broadcast history because of its realism and highlighted the broad cultural impact of the radio medium.
Mercury Theater (1938): War of the Worlds (60 min)
The "War of the Worlds Broadcast" made Orson Welles into a household name and attracted the sponsorship of Campbell's Soup. Mercury Theater was renamed Campbell's Playhouse and the theater troupe moved to Hollywood.
Black museum is a crime drama hosted by Chief Superintendent John Davidson, the pretend curator of the Black Museum at Scotland Yard. The show featured stories inspired by artifacts held by the real London crime museum, nickname "Black Museum." The real Black Museum features gruesome exhibits from famous cases, including Jack the Ripper, dating back to 1875 and is not open to the public.
 Like Dragnet and other shows based on true events, Black museum is based on real crimes. In the Black museum collection, there is a log of the real crime committed that each show was based on.
Orson Welles, with his usual theatrical flare opened the show with:
"This is Orson Welles speaking from London." [Big Ben starts chiming in the background]. "The Black Museum, repository of death... Here, in this grim stone structure on the Thames which houses Scotland Yard, is a warehouse of homicide, where everyday objects, a piece of wire, a chemist's flask, a silver shilling, all are touched by murder." [dramatic music]
Black Museum (1938): Introduction by Orson Welles (0:35 min)
The brainchild of Wyllis Cooper, Lights Out was first produced out of Chicago in the fall of 1933. Wyllis Cooper wanted Lights Out to be "a midnight mystery serial to catch the attention of the listeners at the witching hour." The show was innovative and Cooper developed some of the first sound effects. When Wyllis Cooper's workload from other writing commitments gave him less time to work on Lights Out, a young ambitious writer named Arch Oboler filled his shoes.
  Arch Oboler wrote scripts while still in high school in Chicago, Ill. He was made famous with the Mae West and Don Ameche Garden of Eden sketch on Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy that resulted in Mae West being banned from radio. Arch Oboler took the reigns of Lights Out when Wyllis Cooper left the show for Hollywood. Lights Out aficionados often separate between Wyllis Cooper reign and Arch Oboler.
Arch Oboler continued with innovative sound effect used by Wyllis Cooper and invented his own including the much sited wet rubber glove for the sound of a man turning inside out. Arch Oboler also kept the same gruesome stories, but unlike Cooper Oboler insinuated that the stories could be true.
Wyllis Cooper already set the standard for Lights Out as the most gruesome and notorious radio show on air, Arch Oboler looked to spook audience even more. His first broadcast was the horrifying "Burial Service" about a paralyzed girl buried alive. The show sparked outrage and letters flooded the station.
Arch Oboler sprinkled Lights Out with occasionally drama shows that focused on political themes. This interest in anti-Nazi and social radio shows led to Arch Oboler Plays , an anthology created during WWII. Arch Oboler Plays (1939-1940) was a platform for Oboler's anti-facist beliefs and stars clamored to get in including Ingrid Bergman, James Cagney, Joan Crawford, Katharine Hepburn, Peter Lorre, Frank Lovejoy, and many more. Arch Oboler eventually left radio to write for the big screen.
 Suspense is a classic horror and mystery old time radio show. One of the longest running radio drama, Suspense broadcast ran between 1942-1962. The show also had a brief run on television from 1949-1954 and there was a Suspense Magazine tied with the show from 1946-1947. During it's twenty-year run, Suspense changed hosts, sponsors, directors, and producers. Originally hosted by "the man in black" first Joseph Kearns and then Ted Osborne. Roma Wines (R-O-M-A Roma Wines!) first sponsored the show and then Autolite Spark Plugs sponsored the Suspense. Agnes Moorehead best known for her performance on Suspense's "Sorry, Wrong Number."
Suspense (1948): Sorry Wrong Number(30 min)
Alfred Hitchcock directed the audition episode of Suspense, presented on the show Forecast. The show was a version of Hitchcock film "The Lodger." Mystery writer John Dickson Carr wrote many episodes.
With a large budget Suspense had many well-known performers on the show including Orson Welles, Agnes Moorehead, Gene Kelly, Alan Ladd, Jack Webb, Jimmy Stewart, Henry Fonda, Humphrey Bogart, Ronald Colman and Cary Grant. Even comedians like Jack Benny and Jim and Marian Jordan (Fibber McGee and Molly). Musicians Phil Harris and Alice Faye guest starred in "Death on My Hands."
Conclusion
Like all old time radio shows, horrors show had to stick to time constraints, sponsor's demands, and the regular foibles of putting on a production. The old time radio horror shows attracted big name stars, big budgets, and creative people. In old time radio horror shows, producers used sound effects, plot, actor's performances, and the human imagination to strike fear in the listening audience. It's in the mind's eye where the most terrifying of all images are created. In this way, radio is the ideal medium to enjoy horror genre.
Highlighted OTRCAT Mystery-Horror Special Collections
 OTRCAT has created special spooky compilations of handpicked Horror and Mystery Old Time Radio Shows:
- Comedians in Suspense - Hear your favorite comedians in ways that you would never expect!
- Creepiest Radio Shows Collection - Turn the lights down low and sit as close as you can to your Sweetheart when this scary collection plays!
- Boogeymen in Comedy - Shudder and Laugh! Our favorite Screen Scream stars (Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, Bela Lugosi, and Vincent Price) having fun with our favorite Comics.
- Boo Broadcasts includes shows specifically about ghosts, haunted houses, and eerie sounds in the night.
- Halloween Scary Sampler has some of the greatest spooky radio shows for the festive season listening.
- Halloween Variety Specials Collection is a fang-tastic compilations comedic radio Halloween special shows.
- Haunted House Collection - Haunted houses are a common theme in horror old time radio shows. Radio is the perfect medium for a good haunting story because not seeing the ghost is almost equally as frightening as seeing one.
 Aliens, Martians, and UFOs is awonderful Science Fiction collection with little green men, Martians, and flying saucers. The most memorable in this sub-genre is Orson Welles' radio adaptation of H.G. Wells "War of the Worlds" in Mercury Theater- Best of Suspense collection contains the hand-picked favorites of OTRCAT. Suspense ran for twenty years and this collection includes over 980 of the classic broadcasts! The Best of Suspense collection is great for people new to the show or long time fans looking for a "greatest hits" of the series.
- Monster Collection featuring monsters of all shapes and sizes from Dracula, Frankenstein's, zombies, and swamp monsters. There is a long literary and cinematic, and radio history featuring monsters.
- Robots Collection features another horror sub-genre focusing on Robots and other artificially intelligent creatures.
OTRCAT also has many wonderful Personality Collections including many horror stars:
 Agnes Moorehead: This marvelous actress was much more than Samantha's mom on Bewtcihed; she was part of the backbone of Orson Welles' Mercury Theater and one of the most talented and versatile voices Suspense's and the Golden Age of Radio.- Boris Karloff: The original Frankenstein's Monster, Karloff was one of Radio's great Horror and Comic voices.
- Bela Lugosi: Consistently type cast as The Vampire, Lugosi was an enduring talent who was an entertaining guest on many radio projects.
- Vincent Pricee: Mr. Price was one our most prolific native Horror Men, but also an incredible comic talent. And one of Radio's best Soft-boiled Detecties, The Saint.
- Orson Welles: Responsible for one of Radio's Great Halloween Pranks, Welles career was on of the most creative and prolific in Radio.
- Peter Lorre: The Hungarian Lisp is one that means Terror for listeners. Lorre became a talented and versatile comic and dramatic Radio Actor.
For more online listening, see also: Scary Halloween Old Time Radio Shows.
Return to Full List of Mystery - Horror Old Time Radio Series
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