I’ve got a few more radio play recommendations for you — the two programmes below specialise in horror and suspense stories. Again, these are all freely available on the Archive.org thanks to the Old Time Radio Researchers Group.
Quiet, Please (1947 – 1949)
The Thing on the Fourble Board: This is legit the creepiest radio play I’ve listened to, and is widely regarded as not only one of the best horror radio plays around, but one of the best radio plays ever. The title is a bit of oil worker argot: the “fourble board” of an oil derrick is a narrow catwalk that is as high up as four lengths of drilling pipe (two lengths are a “double”, three a “thribble” and four a “fourble”, much to my housemate’s consternation).
Whence Came You: About an archaeologist who, on the way to a dig, meets a strange woman in the lobby of Shepherd’s Hotel in Cairo. The excavation finds a hidden city beneath the one they were already working on, and once they descend into a tomb that had been sealed off by an enormous block of sandstone, they find… something.
Lights Out (1934 – 1947)
Death Robbery: Boris Karloff stars in this one 🙂 it’s about a scientist who’s been working on a way to bring the death back to life. His wife dies and, well… you get where this is going. This radio play succeeds well in being both incredibly cheesy at times (“We’re going to rob Old Man Death himself!”) but also legitimately creepy.
Murder Castle: This one is based on the real-life case of H. H. Holmes, a notorious serial killer who opened a hotel which he had designed and built for himself specifically with murder in mind. I encourage you to read his wikipedia page if you’re at all morbidly interested in serial killers.
Valse Triste: Another one starring Boris Karloff, about a mad, violin-playing hermit who imprisons a pair of women, threatening to murder one and marry the other. This one sticks out in my mind as one of the few radio plays I’ve heard so far that has a predominantly female main cast.
