Mad and Insane in Old Time Radio

The most common example of insanity is someone who thought to be "not normal". The term sane comes from the Latin sanus for health, which also gives us the word sanitary. Therefore, we can see that to be insane is to be fundamentally unhealthy.

"Sound mind, sound body" is an ancient concept, but bodies can become sick or injured. The same is true of the mind. Hurts to the body can be identified and often cured, the mind is a little more tricky. Many people can be diagnosed as being crazy or insane, and live happy, even fruitful lives. To them, their craziness is little more bother than a blemish on the skin, and although those around them may not appreciate it. Some who are insane do suffer and may be a danger to others.

• On Adventures by Morse, Captain Friday and Skip delve into the mystery of the temples of Angkor in Cambodia which in ancient times were ruled by the Cobra King. In modern times the ruins are watched over by "The Mad King of Angkor", an English hermit who lost his mind in the War and now haunts the temples.
• From the viewpoint of folks back East, you have to be a little insane to live out West, but things are just beginning to get crazy when the Riders of the Purple Sage go up against Loco Louie, a nutty old codger who sees the spirit of Kit Carson on All-Star Western Theater.
• A man has been stabbed in the park but the police cannot find him, the best description they can get is from "The Looker", the insane crippled woman who lives on the eighth floor in an apartment across from the park. It can seem crazy in the city, but that is life when Broadway is My Beat.
• Blackstone the Magic Detective specializes in illusion but is he any match for the crooks who are determined to drive a man with a fortune in rubies insane by making him see strange faces in the mirror.
• Many insane people are almost harmless, and we can laugh at their eccentricities, but sometimes the cops run up against a mad-dog killer, the most dangerous because even the police on Calling All Cars cannot know what the killer will do next.
• Command Performance presents an evening of classic literature in the form of Superman going up against a mad scientist named Bikini and his insane assistant Atoll. They got Bob Hope to play the part of Superman, which certainly sounds like a definition of insanity.
• Many of the insane people we meet in OTR are almost funny in their craziness but Crime Classics reminds that sometimes there is danger in madness. Henrietta was 17 but still talked to her doll like she was a real person, and had to drown her for what she had seen. Murdering the doll would be far from her last killing.
• By our usual definition, insane people are under the influence of an illness, therefore they are not responsible for crimes they commit. Sometimes the insanity defense is the result of an act but other times all but the closest observers. The only way they can prove their innocence is with the help of experts, even if it means Danger Dr. Danfield!
• Mad scientists are not always mad because they are insane, but their projects certainly can be mad. Dark Fantasy brings us the story of a scientist who has found a way to shrink himself to the size of an atom and discovers another world in a moonbeam. When he goes there, not only does he face the expected dangers, but there is plague as well.
• Often insane people are committed to a sanitorium to protect themselves and others, and hopefully find a cure for their madness. Sometimes these institutions hide a more nefarious purpose. Dimension X presents the example of "Dr. Grimshaw's Sanitorium" where an ex-Nazi scientist is performing evil experiments.
• Sometimes a person might snap in reaction to what they think everyone else thinks about them. In Dragnet, Sgt Joe Friday faces "The Big Crazy" when a woman goes missing for three months while her milquetoast husband never reports it. The woman's sister reports the case. She also tells how the husband has been acting uncharacteristically tough, and even admits that he might have killed his wife. If only it was not so hard to believe.
• "Escape into madness" means that when life becomes too confusing it is easier to be insane. On Escape!, we hear the story of a merchant sailor who thought he was waiting for his ship in Calais but finds out that he has awakened in Dover across the Channel. He must keep reminding himself that "Two and Two Make Four".
• Great Scenes From Great Plays gives us "The World We Make", the story a young woman who has been sheltered for years in an insane asylum. When she escapes she discovers that she is stronger than she believed she was, and she also finds that she is able to find more happiness than she ever thought possible.
• Sometimes weather conditions can become so intense as to drive a person insane. The Kansas prairie dust on Gunsmoke is just the sort of thing to put someone out of their head, and what could Chester, Doc, and Marshall Dillon help but think when they find a man who wakes up spouting Shakespeare. Things can only get worse when they find the man's wagon with a body hidden inside.
• A man is convinced that his wife is dying, so he takes her to the beach cabin where they spent their honeymoon. In "Flood Tide, Ebb Tide" we see that he calls the doctor when he thinks that the end is near, even though a sudden storm threatens to wash the shack into the Atlantic. Dealing with insanity and death is a recipe for High Adventure.

See also: Mad Scientists in Old Time Radio.