Mystery House - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - April 22, 1946

Mystery House was a syndicated anthology show produced by "that strange publishing firm owned by Dan and Barbara Glenn, where each new novel is acted out by the Mystery House staff before it is accepted for publication."

What an odd and seemingly unethical business model for a publishing company to undertake. Perform adaptations of a submitted work, which may or may not even be accepted for publication? Even worse, Dan and Barbara never seem to cite the episode's source material. You know, the actual book that they may or may not accept for publication. Who wrote it? Where can the books they did publish be found? Or ordered? Listeners would need to be told these things, if you want to, you know, sell actual books.

But none of that matters, because "that strange publishing firm" did not exist, of course. Neither did Dan and Barbara Glenn. It was all just a nifty little framing device for the show.

Only 15 or so episodes of Mystery House seem to have survived. One of those might feature a performance by Bela Lugosi. You can listen to the show here, or here, or here.

According to the archives, the episode that might correspond with the publication date for this posted ad might be Murder Takes Practice. Enjoy.