This article appears in the Art of Manliness website.
Before folks sat around the TV watching American Horror Story or classic movies like The Shining and Friday the 13th, they gathered around the radio to listen to their favorite weekly programs. Many of them were comedies or dramas, just like today’s television programs, but there were also shows dedicated to the creepy crawly — that made goosebumps rise and sent shivers down the spine. It’s often said that what you can’t see is scarier than what you can, and radio programs can sweep you up and create a whole spooky world in your imagination.
With Halloween coming this weekend, there’s no better time to visit some of the scariest shows and episodes that old time radio has to offer. They’re all available for free online, making for quality, affordable entertainment. If you’re interested in more, I strongly suggest checking out both RadioHorrorHosts.com and www.escape-suspense.com; both were immensely helpful in my research for this piece. I’ve broken it down by radio show, then given a few suggestions of episodes to listen to from each show. To up your experience, convert an old-time radio into a mp3 speaker and huddle around it with your family or friends with the lights dimmed.
Functioning as a multimedia publisher, The Mysterious Traveler broadcast a radio show, printed a magazine, and created a comic book — all of them telling tales that ran the gamut from mystery to sci-fi to pure drama. The radio show ran for over 370 episodes, from 1943-1952. Unfortunately, only 75 or so of those episodes still exist today for the public to enjoy. A couple of the most scareworthy are highlighted below:
“The Good Die Young” — This episode could perhaps be the most unnerving of this list (and in fact was voted as such in a popular old time radio forum). A father brings home a new wife, much to the surprise and chagrin of his teenage daughter. The new stepmother is loving, caring, even doting — but, she’s taken some of the father’s attention that used to be for his daughter only. So, the daughter contrives all sorts of ways to get rid of the new wife, only to be met with understanding and compassion. One day, though, the daughter raises the stakes of her game and makes a terrible error in judgment. What makes this episode so unsettling is that the villain is but a child…does she turn her conniving ways around? You’ll have to listen.
“Behind the Locked Door” — This episode of The Mysterious Traveler was the show’s most popular, and was repeated several times. Two archaeologists and a guide, exploring caves near Lake Mead in the Southwestern US, come upon an old wagon train that had been buried under a rock slide a hundred years prior. When the guide is attacked, the other two men must figure out what happened, and also find a way to escape the cave of horrors. Could it be that the members of the long-gone wagon train are haunting the place they perished in?