The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society

Summer is the perfect time to check out an episode of The Mercury Summer Theatre of the Air! Lucille Fletcher penned this story, “The Search for Henri Le Fevre,” which features a composer who has just completed a masterful new work. But as soon as this composition is complete, he turns on the radio only to hear the exact same music playing! Who is the mysterious Henri Le Fevre, the man who wrote what playing on the radio? What is the secret behind the music’s beauty and heartbreak? Is Citizen Kane any good? Listen for yourself and find out!

This week we’re listening to “Blind Impulse” from The Whistler! The story features a man’s scheme to divorce his wife so that he can marry a woman set to inherit a fortune from her dying father. But things don’t go as planned and people prove to be very unpredictable! Will the former wife’s jealousy spoil the plan? Is the new wife as feckless and carefree as she seems? What outdated legal obscurities will we become obsessed with this time? Listen for yourself and find out!

This week’s visit to the Listener Library brings us to “Island of the Lost,” an episode of CBS Radio Mystery Theater recommended to us by our Patreon member Melanie! Thanks, Melanie! The story features a man suffering headaches, which may or may not be caused by his marriage to a much younger woman. When he surprises her during her tropical vacation, he begins to struggle to tell reality from illusion. Is he imagining her infidelity? Why did his eye doctor write a letter to the man’s wife? Who are the people in your neighborhood? Listen for yourself and find out!

Close your eyes as this episode of Quiet Please guides you to “The Room Where the Ghosts Live”! In this story, a man slowly dying from a gunshot tells his tale to a doctor. According to this dying man, he’s opened a secret room in his historic home and released several ghosts who died there. How did this spectral encounter lead to his gunshot wound? Can he trust these messages from beyond? Would these ghosts have gotten away with it if it weren’t for those meddling kids? Listen for yourself and find out!

We’re traveling boldly into our Listener Library for an episode of Escape recommended to us by Caden. Thanks, Caden! This story, “The Grove of Ashtaroth,” is adapted from a short story by John Buchan. It tells the story of two men who stumbled upon a strange grove of trees in Africa. One is so enchanted by the area, he decides to remain there and make it his new home. When the other returns three years later, he finds some unseen power is making his friend behave strangely. What mysterious force is behind this transformation? What cost might there be to save this friend? Did all of your hosts actually do some research for this episode? Listen for yourself and find out!

It’s time to listen to another episode of The Clock! This week we’re checking out an episode entitled “The Hitchhiker,” about a traveling salesman driving across Utah who agrees to help out a young woman looking for a ride. But along the way, unexpected complications may be putting one or both of them in deadly peril! Is either one of them hiding a secret from the other? What is waiting for them a little further down the road? Are they on their way to a Renaissance Festival? Listen for yourself and find out!

This week, our Patreon supporter Ryan has sent us down to our Listener Library for a series we’ve never checked out before, Tales of the Texas Rangers! Based (to some degree) on true cases, the series stars Joel McCrea as Texas Ranger Jace Pearson and in this episode, “Double Edge,” he’s assigned the case of a brazen pair of bank robbers. How much like Dragnet is this show? Can Pearson track down both of the robbers? What do they mean, “obvious reasons”? Listen for yourself and find out!

This week we’re listening to an episode of Inner Sanctum Mystery featuring Boris Karloff. “The Corridor of Doom,” features a man who wakes up after a medical procedure he doesn’t recall surrounded by a medical staff he doesn’t know. And even as he struggles to understand his surroundings, the strange medicine they prescribe him gives him nightmares of a hallway where each doorway has a name. How did he end up in this bizarre place? What will happen when he reaches the door with his own name? Would Bartles and Jaymes wine coolers be a better sponsor for this series than Lipton Tea? Listen for yourself and find out!

Join us for Escape’s adaptation of Roald Dahl’s short story, “Poison.” William Conrad and Jack Webb star in this story of an encounter with a deadly krait snake. But one man’s chances of survival are diminished by his own prejudices! Will he survive the night? How does the adaptation compare to others? Why does this podcast smell like tires? What flavor of Slurpee requires a note from a parent or guardian? Listen for yourself and find out!

Once again, we’re checking out a series we haven’t listened to before. This time it’s The Adventures of the Falcon! This episode, “The Widow’s Gorilla,” features private detective Michael Waring’s hunt for a suicide note that might or might not exist which could prove or disprove a murder that may or may not have happened. How much money could this note be worth? Who or what is the widow’s gorilla? Does the pronunciation of Miracle Whip change depending on how it’s being served? Listen for yourself and find out!

This week is a double-feature exploration of Anthony Boucher’s story, “They Bite,” featuring a reading of the original by our own Joshua and the adaptation produced by Nightfall! The story features a mysterious loner in the desert camped out by an adobe ruin. The locals claim this ruin is the home to some mysterious entity that kills those who come to close. Folks cannot give this threat a name, but ominously warn, “They bite!” What is the cause of these strange deaths? How do these two different audio presentations compare in capturing the story? Will Joshua be reading to his co-hosts on a regular basis after this? Listen for yourself and find out!

As we discussed in episode 405, "The Hat, the Bed, and John J. Catherine," from Quiet Please, our first attempt at a secret episode for our Patreon supporters was featured “Hat on a Bed,” from the series Origin of Superstition. Unfortunately, the recording had a few sound issues (including Tim having a cold) so we redid our inaugural episode with a different show to discuss. For the curious who are willing to overlook these flaws, we offer this abandoned alternative which tells the tale of an uninvited guest, an accusation of murder, and a truly outlandish courtroom stunt. Thank you again for your support of the podcast and we hope you enjoy this strange cautionary tale!

This week we bravely check out an episode Dangerous Assignment entitled (arguably) “Investigate Missing Scientists”! Globetrotting adventurer Steve Mitchell is sent to Alaska to track down a former Nazi scientist and an American physicist who appear to have gone missing. Confronted by an unpaid hotel bill and a wide range of dialects, Mitchell will stop at nothing to solve this mystery! What happened to these scientists? What is that smell? Who made cartoon theme music so complicated? Listen for yourself and find out!