Let’s enter the Black Museum once again and listen to Orson Welles as he unveils another tale of murder and suspense.
Tune into my special YouTube playlist featuring five episodes of The Black Museum. Next up…The Bloodstained Brick Bat from 1952!
“Now until we meet again in the same place and I tell you another tale of the Black Museum, I remain, as always, obediently yours.”
It’s time once again to enter the Black Museum and listen to Orson Welles as he unveils another tale of murder and suspense.
Tune into my special YouTube playlist featuring five episodes of The Black Museum. Next up…The Gladstone Bag from 1952!
“Now until we meet again in the same place and I tell you another tale of the Black Museum, I remain, as always, obediently yours.”
In episode 92 of the Classic Horrors Club Podcast, Jeff and I welcome award-winning writer, illustrator, and pop culture historian, Rob Kelly, from the Fire & Water Podcast Network! Rob recently provided the commentary track for the VCI Entertainment Blu-ray release of Horrors of the Black Museum (1959).
Besides the fact-filled discussion of that film, we also take a look at Black Zoo (1963). Both are dark and twisted… both feature Michael Gough… both are Herman Cohen productions. It’s just a coincidence they both have the word “black” in their titles… or is it?
Be sure to check out the video companion on our YouTube channel. Put faces to the words… if you dare!
Tell us what you think… about the movies, about the podcast, about classic horror! Call us at (616) 649-2582 (CLUB), email or send a recording to classichorrors.club@gmail.com or join our Facebook group page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/classichorrors.club/!
We’d also appreciate if you’d give us an honest rating on Apple Podcasts or SoundCloud. Thank you!
We now have an Instagram account! Look for us at classichorrorsclubpodcast. We look forward to adding more content and connecting with all of you there!
A very special thank you to our guest Rob Kelly! You can also find Rob at:
The Fire and Water Podcast Network
The Film and Water Podcast
Fade Out
13th Dimension
You can also find Jeff at:
Classic Horrors Club
Codex Omniversa
Next month on episode 93, it’s time once again for some hagsploitation! We’ll be watching Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1963) and Hammer’s Die! Die! My Darling! (1965). Join us!
It’s time once again to enter the Black Museum and listen to Orson Welles as he unveils another tale of murder and suspense.
Tune into my special YouTube playlist featuring five episodes of The Black Museum. Next up…The Bathtub from 1952!
“Now until we meet again in the same place and I tell you another tale of the Black Museum, I remain, as always, obediently yours.”
On Thursday, January 11, 2024, the horror community learned the shocking news that film historian, critic and writer David J. Skal was killed in a tragic car accident on January 1 at the age of 71. Monster kids everywhere were stunned to hear that he was suddenly gone. Thankfully, he has left behind a legacy of written works and documentaries that we can continue to enjoy today and future generations will discover for many years to come.
Some of his most celebrated works include Hollywood Gothic: The Tangled Web of Dracula from Novel to Stage to Screen, now available in audio format as read by David himself, The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror, Dark Carnival: The Secret World of Tod Browning and Something in the Blood: The Untold Story of Bram Stoker, the Man Who Wrote Dracula.
In the fall of 2020, David released Fright Favorites: 31 Movies to Haunt Your Halloween and Beyond. He began a virtual media tour to promote the book in those dark days of the pandemic. Jeff Owens and I were lucky enough to have him as a guest on episode 49 of the Classic Horrors Club Podcast. The conversation begins at the 16 minute mark and over the course of an hour you’ll hear him talk about the book and engage in what three monster kids love to talk about…monster movies! And David was truly a monster kid just like us but he was also much more. He was a scholar and an educator to those of us who are always eager to learn more about the movies we love. We only had the pleasure to meet him via Zoom but our feelings echo those expressed by everyone since the news of his death was announced. He was an incredible human being and his loss will be felt for many years to come. However, his legacy will live on forever.
Rest in peace David J. Skal!
On September 30, 1962, the Golden Age of Radio came to an end with the final broadcasts of Suspense and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar on the CBS Radio Network. All of the other classic radio shows had already left the airways and many of their TV counterparts were already gone as well. But before the bodies of these last two shows went cold, a revival of old time radio had already started. Collectors began seeking out the original transcription discs and recording old shows on reel-to-reel tapes when local radio stations started to replay some of the classic programs. By the late 60s and early 70s, vinyl records were being released from such companies as Mark56 and Murray Hill. The older generation still enjoyed those glorious sounds of yesteryear and a new generation was eager to discover them.
In 1979, my dad introduced me to old time radio when he brought home a Radio Reruns cassette tape of The Abbott and Costello Show which featured the classic “Who’s on First” routine. I was already a fan of their films and TV show, so it was the perfect way to introduce me to those wonderful old programs. I was instantly hooked and started collecting cassettes and records. I discovered the local library had hundreds of shows and I soon began checking them out with great fervor. I fondly remember hearing the 1938 broadcast of “Dracula” on the Mercury Theatre on the Air with Orson Welles for the first time. I still listen to it every Halloween season. My dad would also introduce me to The Shadow, which is still my all-time favorite radio show. It featured some truly terrifying episodes, including “The Creeper” from 1938. It had everything you could ask for in a horror story…an abandoned sewer system, underground dwelling and chained victims. Close your eyes in a darkened room and there’s no way you aren’t getting the chills.
As my passion was growing, my dad came home from work one day to tell me about a show he had just heard about…the CBS Radio Mystery Theater. It played locally on KFH radio AM 1330 in Wichita, Kansas at 11:05 pm after the CBS news break. I was only allowed to stay up late and listen on Friday and Saturday nights. However, I would often go to bed, get out my blue transistor radio and listen under the sheets. Sometimes, I fell asleep or I’d get caught if Mom and Dad went to bed earlier than normal. But most of the time, I was wide awake and intently listening to every exciting and terrifying minute.
By 1979, the CBS Radio Mystery Theater had already been on the air for more than five years, having launched on January 6, 1974. However, the radio show revival in the United States really started in 1971 with a program called Earplay on National Public Radio. Produced by Karl Schmidt, it was more of a traditional drama with modern recording techniques but it proved successful enough for a ten-year run with usually 26 episodes per year. After a decade of highs and lows, funding would cease in 1981 and the show went off the air but it continued to be repeated and re-edited for another decade or so.
In 1973, the legendary Rod Serling brought his name recognition to a mystery and suspense radio show entitled The Zero Hour. Serling had just left Night Gallery and returned to teaching when he received the opportunity to host and even write some of the episodes. Initially, it was a serialized format, which would ultimately play a big part in the show failing to find an audience. With lackluster marketing from the Mutual Broadcasting System, it was cancelled after its second season ended in July 1974 after a total of 130 episodes. Considering Rod Serling’s involvement, it’s not as classic as it one would think but it’s definitely worth checking out despite some obvious flaws.
Throughout the 70s, there were other programs such as the General Mills Adventure Radio Theater and the Sears Radio Theater. However, the CBS Radio Mystery Theater was the real cornerstone and most successful show of the 70s radio show revival. As The Zero Hour was nearing the end, the CBS Radio Mystery Theater was finding its audience due to an aggressive marketing campaign that clearly paid off. Airing seven nights a week with a new hour-long story every night, it was the true successor to those wonderful shows of the Golden Age of Radio. Not surprising when you discover that the creator, producer and director was Himan Brown. He had a hit in the 40s with Inner Sanctum Mysteries and he brought that same style to life once again in the modern edge. Each episode would open with the creaking door and an ominous voice saying, “Come in…welcome. I’m E.G. Marshall.” He would introduce us to the show and return throughout with the commercial breaks to enhance the episode by offering his personal insight as the story would continue to unravel.
Despite the title of the show, the episodes would focus on much more than mysteries. There was horror and science fiction, as well as historical adventures and light-hearted fare. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes would pop up with regularity and “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens would delight audiences every holiday season. And of course, a never-ending array of tales of the macabre would always send a chill on a dark and stormy night. With legendary radio actors such as Agnes Moorehead, Santos Ortega and Les Tremayne working alongside contemporary actors like Mason Adams, John Lithgow and Fred Gwynne, it was the perfect marriage of old meets new. Himan Brown recorded the episodes in the style of the old radio shows, with everyone in the studio at the same time as if there was a live audience watching them perform the story. From a script reading through the actual recording and signing off, the production would take about three hours. The performers would walk out the door with a check in hand, getting paid union scale, which was approximately $75. The writers faired a little better, receiving $350 per episode. It was an incredibly smooth process that is clearly evident in the final product. Older listeners would enjoy the classic style of the past and new listeners could enjoy hearing familiar voices in this “new” radio drama.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the soundtrack. The opening and closing theme originated from The Twilight Zone episode “Two” as composed by Nathan Van Cleave. All of the music used in the show came from the CBS music library, some of which dated back to the 50s and 60s radio and television shows. A good score always enhances any production and it’s very evident here. The CBS Radio Mystery Theater theme sets the perfect tone for the stories that would follow. While none of it was original, it all worked perfectly for the show and successfully enhances every episode.
Some of the scariest episodes of the series were truly radio masterpieces. On October 31, 1974, “The Demon Spirit” by Milt Wisoff offered up a tale of demonic possession and exorcism. On December 11, 1978, Elspeth Eric’s “A Horror Story” dealt with a restaurant and shoe shop with questionable raw materials. “The Crack in the Wall” from writer Sidney Sloan was about the death of a young girl and a mysterious crack in a basement wall emitting a crying voice. And of course, there were adaptations of “The Premature Burial” by Edgar Allan Poe and “The Horla” by Guy de Maupassant.
The CBS Radio Mystery Theater would end its run in 1982 after 1,399 episodes. For the final season, Tammy Grimes assumed the hosting duties and I must admit, it just didn’t sound the same without E.G. Marshall. Sadly, these wonderful shows have never been released commercially. Himan Brown held on to the master tapes in hopes of replaying the series for another generation of listeners. It resurfaced on at least one radio station in 1988, WQBK-AM out of Albany, and briefly in 1998 with a selection of old episodes. In 2000, some NPR radio stations aired a “new” version featuring Brown as the host, who had re-recorded the introductions of E.G. Marshall and Tammy Grimes. Unfortunately, neither rebroadcast run was successful and the show once again slipped into obscurity as far as the mainstream radio audience was concerned. Brown would not make a third attempt to revive the show before he died on June 4, 2010 at the age of 99.
While the window of opportunity for a profitable physical media release of the CBS Radio Mystery Theater may have passed, thankfully all 1,399 of these episodes are available today in digital formats. All of them were recorded off-air and many are a window into another time courtesy of local and national news updates, as well as now vintage commercials. Sure, some of the episodes may have static or even the faint remnants of another radio station bleeding through from time to time, but I think that adds to the overall charm. They can be found from a variety of sources, including a website created by fans (cbsrmt.com), as well as YouTube uploads and archive.org. These shows were part of a second Golden Age of Radio and are still just as entertaining today. With so many episodes to choose from, you’re guaranteed to find something to terrify you. Now, as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of this amazing program, it’s the perfect time to turn out the lights, open the doorway to the theatre of your imagination and embrace the chilling sounds of the fear you can hear.
“Until next time, pleasant…dreams?”
Suggested reading: The CBS Radio Mystery Theater: An Episode Guide and Handbook to Nine Years of Broadcasting, 1974-1982 written by Gordon Payton and Martin Grams, Jr.
After watching Horrors of the Black Museum (1959), it’s hard to imagine Orson Welles in the lead role as Michael Gough does so well as Edmond Bancroft. However, Welles had in fact already been associated with the infamous museum in a short-lived radio program in 1952.
The Black Museum was produced by Harry Alan Towers for the Mutual Network in 1952. Towers is remembered by old time radio fans for his other programs, such as The Lives of Harry Lime, also starring Orson Welles, and Sherlock Holmes, starring Sir John Gielgud and Sir Ralph Richardson as Holmes and Watson. Welles would appear as Dr. Moriarty in that production as well.
The Black Museum was actually recorded in Australia in 1951 with Welles recording his introductions in London. He would then be flown to Australia for additional sequences. The weekly stories were based on real life cases from Scotland Yard’s infamous Black Museum.
In the upcoming 92nd episode of the Classic Horrors Club Podcast, Jeff Owens and I will be reviewing Horrors of the Black Museum (1959) and Black Zoo (1963), so it’s only appropriate to highlight The Black Museum over the course of the next five weeks.
As always, turn out the lights, take a seat by the fire and let the theatre of your mind explore The Black Museum.
Tune into my special YouTube playlist featuring the first five episodes of The Black Museum. First up, episode 1 and a tale of The .22 Caliber Pistol.
“Now until we meet again in the same place and I tell you another tale of the Black Museum, I remain, as always, obediently yours.”
Monster Movie Kid 