Dragnet episodes from 50s lost to time series#

Dragnet episodes from 50s lost to time series#

With one foot in mystery and the other placed firmly in horror, Inner Sanctum was an anthology series of strange and chilling tales that guest starred film greats like Bela Lugosi, Orson Welles, and Claude Rains.Ī crime anthology, The Whistler got its name from its sinister-voiced narrator, with each episode opening to the sound of footsteps and whistling. I’m so glad you came tonight” in a way that makes you wonder if it would have been safer to stay home. For most of its run it starred Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Watson, who went on to star in several Holmes movies together, and whose chemistry kept listeners coming back for more than a decade.Īn organ plays, a door creaks open, and a man with a baritone voice says, “Oh, hello there. Some were based on Arthur Conan Doyle’s original stories, while many were written specifically for radio. Watson in his study and was told a new, thrilling tale of the doctor’s adventures with the famous detective. Each week a representative of the show’s sponsor joined Dr. There is something about the heady mix of adventure and mystery with just a dash of horror that made Sherlock Holmes ripe for radio. The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939-1950) With the title character voiced by Orson Welles, The Shadow was must-listen entertainment during the 1940s and, likely thanks to the many vigilante heroes he inspired, has lingered in the public consciousness long after his pulp companions have faded. But while Batman’s powers are driven solely by rigorous training and his colossal wealth, Cranston has developed a set of strange mental abilities, including telepathy, hypnosis, and the ability to “cloud men’s minds” so they cannot see him. If the set-up sounds familiar that’s because The Shadow, along with Zorro, provided the foundation for Batman. Wealthy man about town Lamont Cranston fights a one-man war against crime as the caped vigilante, the Shadow. “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!”

In the meantime, here are a few of the discoveries I made as a child, sitting in a darkened car, waiting and listening.

I couldn’t be more excited to see what they create. And as theatre artists around the world wait for their industry to reopen, many are exploring the world of audio drama as a way to make work that’s inexpensive, easy to distribute, and whose limits are defined only by the listener’s imagination. My phone is filled with podcasts, episodic audio dramas like Welcome to Nightvale, and I just finished the Audible adaptation of The Sandman. In recent years audio-driven entertainment has once again carved out a corner of my internal landscape.

More often than not I chose the sound of ominous footsteps in the hall, doors creaking open, screams echoing in the night. I was no longer beholden to the whim of the AM station’s producers. They even found a mail-order company that sold cassette tapes of those old radio dramas. While I’m sure my parents would have preferred a child who was more interested in the content of the Sunday evening sermon rather than its brevity, they certainly didn’t dissuade me. So while my parents chatted and my deacon father waited for everyone to leave so he could lock up, I let voices from half a century before weave tales of suspense, crime, and the heroes and villains who rubbed shoulders in the shadows. Sometimes comedy, occasionally drama, but most often murder. But back then, for two hours each Sunday evening, that station would air old radio shows from the 30s, 40s, and 50s. These days that station is a toxic stew of right-wing talk radio. Because Sunday night was murder night.Īfter service, while my parents mingled with the rest of the congregation in the parking lot, I grabbed the car keys from my father, shut myself in our aging Buick, and turned the dial to an AM station out of Philadelphia. So were Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings, but Sunday nights were my favorite.