Horror On The Air

Horror On The AirFrom the earliest days of radio drama, horror stories were well represented. The genre continued to be popular all through the golden age of radio, leaving us with a huge catalog of performances. From the first episodes of The Witch's Tale in 1931, to the strange tales of Theater Five in 1965, there is much to explore and listen to!

Horror on the radio didn't end in 1965. Many more shows were produced, mostly by the BBC, like the Price Of Fear in the 1970's, and Fear On Four in the late 1980's running off and on until 1999.

We'll clear the cobwebs on each of these old time radio horror shows here, and blow the dust off the history behind the screams.

Just A Note:

It may be some time before I'll consider the information in the pages below "complete." As I learn new information the pages will be updated. Also, I'm removing the "The" from some show titles.

Beyond Midnight

About The Series

Beyond Midnight was a South African radio series, focused of course on the horror genre, produced between 1968 and 1969. The series was produced by Michael McCabe. Though an exact number of episodes produced seems to be unknown, one source lists 43.

 

Listen

The Man Who Sold His Soul

 

 

Episode Log

...coming soon?...

Dark Fantasy

About The Series

Dark Fantasy first aired November 14, 1941. Written by Scott Bishop, the show originated from WKY radio in Oklahoma City. 31 episodes were produced before the show ended on June 19, 1942. During its short run, Dark Fantasy featured stories about horror, science fiction, and murder.

Dark Fantasy aired Fridays on NBC stations.

 

Listen

The Headless Dead
The Thing From The Darkness
The Curse Of The Neanderthal
The Demon Tree

 

Episode Log

Date Day Num Title Avail.

------------ --- --- ---------------------------------------- -------
Nov 14, 1941 Fri   1 "The Man Who Came Back"                  yes
Nov 21, 1941 Fri   2 "Soul of Shan Hai Huan"
Nov 28, 1941 Fri   3 "The Thing From The Sea"                 yes
Dec 05, 1941 Fri   4 "The Demon Tree"                         yes
Dec 12, 1941 Fri     pre-empted due to Pearl Harbor reporting
Dec 19, 1941 Fri   5 "Men Call Me Mad"                        yes
Dec 26, 1941 Fri   6 "The House Of Bread" (Christmas Show)    yes
Jan 02, 1942 Fri   7 "Resolution 1841"                        yes
Jan 09, 1942 Fri   8 "The Curse of the Neanderthal"           yes
Jan 16, 1942 Fri   9 "Debt From The Past"                     yes
Jan 23, 1942 Fri  10 "The Headless Dead"                      yes
Jan 30, 1942 Fri  11 "Death Is A Savage Deity"                yes
Feb 06, 1942 Fri  12 "Sea Phantom"                            yes
Feb 13, 1942 Fri  13 "W Is For Werewolf"                      yes
Feb 20, 1942 Fri  14 "A Delicate Case Of Murder"              yes
Feb 27, 1942 Fri  15 "Spawn Of The Sub-Human"                 yes
Mar 06, 1942 Fri  16 "The Man With The Scarlet Satchel"       yes
Mar 13, 1942 Fri  17 "Superstition Be Hanged"                 yes
Mar 20, 1942 Fri  18 "Pennsylvania Turnpike"                  yes
Mar 27, 1942 Fri  19 "Convoy For Atlantis"                    yes
Apr 03, 1942 Fri  20 "The Thing From The Darkness"            yes
Apr 10, 1942 Fri  21 "Edge Of The Shadow"                     yes
Apr 17, 1942 Fri  22 "Curare"
Apr 24, 1942 Fri  23 "Screaming Skulls"
May 01, 1942 Fri  24 "The Letter From Yesterday"              yes
May 08, 1942 Fri  25 "The Cup Of Gold"                        yes
May 15, 1942 Fri  26 "Funeral Arrangements Complete"          yes
Aks: Coffin For Two
May 22, 1942 Fri  27 "Dead Hands Reaching"                    yes
May 29, 1942 Fri  28 "Rendezvous With Satan"                  yes
Jun 05, 1942 Fri  29 "I Am Your Brother"                      yes
Jun 12, 1942 Fri  30 "Sleeping Death"                         partial
Jun 19, 1942 Fri  31 "Seance"                                 partial

Inner Sanctum Mysteries

About The Series

Mystery? Terror? Suspense? Himan Brown brought radio all of these in his series titled Inner Sanctum Mysteries. The show began in January 1941, and ran until October 1952 producing 526 episodes according to this article, though some episodes used the same script with minor changes over the life of the series.

The beginning of each episode was marked with the eerie creak of a door. Or so the audience thought. The "door" was actually an old desk chair in need of some oil! Once, when someone oiled the chair accidentally, the squeak had to be done by a sound mans voice.

The mystery, suspense, and terror seem to live on for those collecting or researching this show. You can read more about the unfolding saga of Inner Sanctum Mysteries on this page, where the episode list below came from.

 

Listen

Make Ready My Grave
Death Demon
Corridor Of Doom

 

Episode Log

 

Quiet Please

About The Series

Willis Cooper brought Quiet Please to air in June of 1947. He continued his stories of horror and the supernatural that he first brought to Lights Out years earlier. Each of the 106 episodes was written in first person and starred Ernest Chappell, until its end in June of 1949.

 

Listen

The Thing On The Fourble Board

 

 

Episode Log 

Date          Day  Num  Title
------------  ---  ---  -----------------------------------------
......... Mutual, Summer Series .........
Jun 08, 1947  Sun    1  "Nothing Behind the Door"
Jun 15, 1947  Sun    2  "I've Been Looking For You"
Jun 22, 1947  Sun    3  "We Were Here First"
Jun 29, 1947  Sun    4  "The Ticket Taker"
Jul 06, 1947  Sun       ... no show ...
Jul 13, 1947  Sun       ... no show ...
Jul 20, 1947  Sun    5  "Cornelia"
Jul 27, 1947  Sun    6  "I Remember Tomorrow"
Aug 03, 1947  Sun    7  "Inquest"
Aug 10, 1947  Sun    8  "Bring Me To Life"
Aug 17, 1947  Sun    9  "A Mile High and a Mile Deep"   (missing)
Aug 24, 1947  Sun   10  "Mirror, Mirror on the Wall"    (missing)
Aug 31, 1947  Sun   11  "A Ribbon of Lincoln Green"     (missing)
Sep 03, 1947  Wed   12  "Retreat at Dunkerque"          (missing)
Sep 07, 1947  Sun   13  "Three Sides to a Story"        (missing)
Sep 10, 1947  Wed   14  "How Are You, Pal?"
Sep 14, 1947  Sun   15  "The Big Box"                   (missing)
...... Mutual 1947 regular season .......
Sep 22, 1947  Mon   16  "Be a Good Dog, Darling"        (partial)
Sep 29, 1947  Mon   17  "The Low Road"                  (missing)
Oct 06, 1947  Mon   18  "Not Enough Time"
Oct 13, 1947  Mon   19  "Camera Obscura"
Oct 20, 1947  Mon   20  "The Girl With the Flaxen Hair" (missing)
Oct 27, 1947  Mon   21  "Don't Tell Me About Halloween"
Nov 03, 1947  Mon   22  "Take Me Out to the Graveyard"
Nov 10, 1947  Mon   23  "Three"
Nov 17, 1947  Mon   24  "Kill Me Again"
Nov 24, 1947  Mon   25  "In Memory of Bernadine"
Dec 01, 1947  Mon   26  "Come In, Eddie"
Dec 08, 1947  Mon   27  "Some People Don't Die"
Dec 15, 1947  Mon   28  "Little Fellow"
Dec 22, 1947  Mon   29  "Berlin 1945"                   (missing)
Dec 29, 1947  Mon   30  "Rain on New Years Eve"
Jan 05, 1948  Mon   31  "Little Visitor"
Jan 12, 1948  Mon   32  "The Room Where the Ghosts Live"
Jan 19, 1948  Mon   33  "Baker's Dozen"
Jan 26, 1948  Mon   34  "Green Light"
Feb 02, 1948  Mon   35  "The Pathetic Fallacy"
Feb 09, 1948  Mon   36  "A Red and White Guidon"
Feb 16, 1948  Mon   37  "Whence Came You ?"
Feb 23, 1948  Mon   38  "Wear the Dead Man's Coat"
Mar 01, 1948  Mon   39  "Sketch for a Screenplay"
Mar 08, 1948  Mon   40  "Never Send To Know"
Mar 15, 1948  Mon   41  "Meeting at Ticonderoga"        (missing)
Mar 22, 1948  Mon   42  "A Night to Forget"
Mar 29, 1948  Mon   43  "Quiet Please"                  (missing)
Apr 05, 1948  Mon   44  "I Always Marry Juliet"
Apr 12, 1948  Mon   45  "12 to 5"
Apr 19, 1948  Mon   46  "Clarissa"
Apr 26, 1948  Mon   47  "13 and 8"
May 03, 1948  Mon   48  "How Beautiful Upon the Mountain"
May 10, 1948  Mon   49  "There Are Shadows Here"
May 17, 1948  Mon   50  "Gem of the Purest Ray"
May 24, 1948  Mon   51  "In the House Where I Was Born"
May 31, 1948  Mon   52  "Below 5th Avenue"              (missing)
Jun 07, 1948  Mon   53  "100,000 Diameters"             (missing)
Jun 14, 1948  Mon   54  "Not Responsible After 30 Years"
Jun 21, 1948  Mon       ... no show ...
Jun 28, 1948  Mon   55  "Let the Lillies Consider"
Jul 05, 1948  Mon   56  "Wahine Tahiti"
Jul 12, 1948  Mon       ... no show ...
Jul 19, 1948  Mon   57  "As Long As I Live"
Jul 26, 1948  Mon   58  "The Man Who Stole a Planet"
Aug 02, 1948  Mon   59  "It Is Later Than You Think"
Aug 09, 1948  Mon   60  "The Thing on the Fourble Board"
Aug 16, 1948  Mon   61  "Presto, Change-O, I'm Sure"
Aug 23, 1948  Mon   62  "3000 Words"
Aug 30, 1948  Mon   63  "Motive"                        (missing)
Sep 06, 1948  Mon   64  "The Third Man's Story"
Sep 13, 1948  Mon   65  "Symphony in D Minor"
.............. Moves to ABC ..............
Sep 19, 1948  Sun   66  "Anonymous"
Sep 26, 1948  Sun   67  "Light the Lamp for Me"
Oct 03, 1948  Sun   68  "Meet John Smith, John"
Oct 10, 1948  Sun   69  "Beazer's Cellar"
Oct 17, 1948  Sun   70  "And Jeannie Dreams of Me"
Oct 24, 1948  Sun   71  "Good Ghost"
Oct 31, 1948  Sun   72  "Calling All Souls"
Nov 07, 1948  Sun   73  "Adam and the Darkest Day"
Nov 14, 1948  Sun   74  "The Evening and the Morning"
Nov 21, 1948  Sun   75  "One for the Book"
Nov 28, 1948  Sun   76  "My Son John"
Dec 05, 1948  Sun   77  "Very Unimportant Person"
Dec 12, 1948  Sun   78  "Read Me This Riddle"           (missing)
Dec 19, 1948  Sun   79  "Gothic Tale"                   (missing)
Dec 26, 1948  Sun   80  "Berlin 1945"                    (repeat)
Jan 02, 1949  Sun   81  "The Time of the Big Snow"
Jan 09, 1949  Sun   82  "Portrait of a Character"
Jan 16, 1949  Sun   83  "Is This Murder?"
Jan 23, 1949  Sun   84  "Summer, Good-bye"
Jan 30, 1949  Sun   85  "Northern Lights"
Feb 06, 1949  Sun   86  "Tap the Heat, Bogdan"
Feb 13, 1949  Sun   87  "Valentine"
Feb 20, 1949  Sun   88  "Where Do You Get Your Ideas?"
Feb 27, 1949  Sun   89  "If I Should Wake Before I Die"
Mar 06, 1949  Sun   90  "The Man Who Knew Everything"
Mar 13, 1949  Sun   91  "Dark Rosaline"
Mar 20, 1949  Sun   92  "The Smell of High Wines"
Mar 27, 1949  Sun   93  "A Time to Be Born and a Time to Die"
Apr 03, 1949  Sun   94  "The Venetian Blind Man"        (missing)
Apr 10, 1949  Sun   95  "Dialogue for a Tragedy"
Apr 17, 1949  Sun   96  "Shadow of the Wings"
Apr 24, 1949  Sun   97  "The Veil of Glen Cove"
May 01, 1949  Sun   98  "Dark Grey Magic"
May 08, 1949  Sun   99  "The Other Side of the Stars"
May 15, 1949  Sun  100  "The Little Morning"
May 21, 1949  Sun  101  "The Oldest Man in the World"
May 28, 1949  Sun  102  "In the House Where I Was Born"
Jun 04, 1949  Sun  103  "Tanglefoot"
Jun 11, 1949  Sun  104  "The Hat, the Bed, and John J. Catherine"
Jun 18, 1949  Sun  105  "Pavanne"   (Repeat of "The Girl With the
Flaxen Hair")
Jun 25, 1949  Sun  106  "Quiet Please"                (last show)

 

Weird Circle


About The Series


"In this cave by the restless sea, we are met to call
from out of the past, stories strange and weird. Bell keeper, toll the
bell, so that all may know that we are gathered again in the Weird
Circle".

The Weird Circle began its brand of horror stories in November 1943. It often featured stories borrowed from authors like Edgar Allen Poe, Guy de Maupassant, Honore de Balzac, and Charles Dickens. Each show was around 30 minutes long, and 78 were produced before the series ended in October of 1947.

 


Listen

Mad Monkton
The Ghosts Touch
What Was It?

 

Episode Log 

Num  Title                                Author
---  -----------------------------------  ---------------------------
1  "The Fall Of The House Of Usher"     Edgar Allen Poe
2  "The House And The Brain"            Edward Bulwer-Lytton
3  "The Vendetta"
4  "Narrative Of Arthur. Gordon Pym"    Edgar Allen Poe
5  "Declared Insane"
6  "A Terribly Strange Bed"             Wilkie Collins
7  "What Was It"                        Fitz-James O'Brien
8  "The Knightsbridge Mystery"          Charles Reade
9  "The Horla"                          Guy de Maupassant
10  "William Wilson"                     Edgar Allen Poe
11  "Passion In The Desert"              Honore de Balzac
12  "Mateo Falcone"                      Prosper Merimee
13  "The Man Without A Country"          Edward Everett Hale
14  "Dr. Manette's Manuscript"           Charles Dickens
15  "The Great Plague"                   Thomas Hood (?)
16  "Expectations Of An Heir"
17  "The Hand"                           Guy de Maupassant (?)
18  "Jane Eyre"                          Charlotte Bronte
19  "The Murders In The Rue Morgue"      Edgar Allen Poe
20  "The Lifted Veil"                    George Eliot
21  "The 4:15 Express"                   Amelia B. Edwards
22  "A Terrible Night"                   William Clark Russell (?)
23  "The Tell-Tale Heart"                Edgar Allen Poe
24  "The Niche Of Doom"
25  "The Heart Of Ethan Brand"           Nathanial  Hawthorne
based on "Ethan Brand"
26  "Frankenstein"                       Mary Shelley
27  "The Feast Of The Redgauntlet"       Sir Walter Scott
28  "The Murder Of The Little Pig"
29  "The Spectre Of Tappington"          Richard Harris Barham
from 'The Ingoldsby Legends'
30  "Strange Judgment"
31  "Wuthering Heights"                  Emily Bronte
32  "The Curse Of The Mantle" ("Mantle")
33  "The Cask Of Amontillado"            Edgar Allen Poe
34  "The Rope Of Hair"                   Guy de Maupassant
Based on the story "Apparition"
35  "Falkland"                           Edward Bulwer-Lytton
36  "The Trial For Murder"               Charles Allston Collins & 
Charles Dickens
37  "The Werewolf"                       Frederick Marryat
38  "The Old Nurse's Story"              Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
The announcer calls it "The Old
Nurse's Tale", the host calls
it "The Old Nurse's Story".
39  "The Middle Toe Of The Right Foot"   Ambrose Bierce
40  "The Dream Woman"                    Wilkie Collins
41  "The Phantom Picture"
42  "The Ghost's Touch"                  Wilkie Collins
43  "The Bell-Tower"                     Herman Melville
44  "The Evil Eye"                       Theophile Gautier (?)
45  "The Mark Of The Plague"             Mary W. Shelly (?)
46  "The Queer Client"
47  "The Burial of Roger Malvin"         Nathanial Hawthorne
From "Roger Malvin's Burial"
48  "The Fatal Love Potion"
49  "Mad Monkton"                        Wilkie Collins
50  "The Returned"                       Neville Brand
51  "The Executioner"                    Honore de Balzac
52  "Rappaccini's Daughter"              Nathaniel Hawthorne
53  "The Wooden Ghost"
54  "The Last Days Of A Condemned Man"   Victor Hugo
55  "The Warning"                        Lord Dunsany (?)
56  "The Doll"                           Algernon Blackwood (?)
57  "The Diamond Lens"                   Fitz-James O'Brian
58  "The History of Dr. John Faust"
59  "The Duel Without Honor"
60  "The Specter Bride"                  Washington Irving (?)
61  "The Tapestry Horse"
62  "The River Man"
63  "The Ancient Mariner"                Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Based on "The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner"
64  "The Oblong Box"                     Edgar Allen Poe
65  "The Mysterious Bride"               James Hogg (?)
66  "The Thing in the Tunnel"
67  "The Moonstone"                      Wilkie Collins
68  "The Pistol Shot"                    Aleksandr S. Pushkin (?)
69  "The Possessive Dead"
70  "The Goblet"
71  "The Case of Monsieur Valdemar"      Edgar Allen Poe
72  "The Shadow"                         Jeffery Farnol (?)
73  "The Bride of Death"
74  "Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde"            Robert Louis Stevenson
75  "The Red Hand"                       Arthur Machen (?)
76  "The Haunted Hotel"                  Wilkie Collins
77  "Markheim"                           Robert Louis Stevenson
78  "The Black Parchment"
(last show)