CBS Radio Mystery Theater - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - January 20, 1974

At one point in the late-seventies the family television started emitting smoke, resulting in my mother calling the fire department. Turns out our only television had become an electrical fire hazard and needed disposing of.

How long we were without a television is everybody's guess. But it was a long enough period of time to allow my mom and dad to introduce my brother and I to the glories of Old Time Radio.

One of our local AM stations, KSFO, broadcast a complete line-up of 'prime time' radio programming. The eight o' clock hour would feature shows like Lum n' Abner, Boston Blackie, The Shadow, The Whistler, Our Miss Brooks, Burns and Allen, and many, many more. 

The nine o' clock time slot was taken by an all-new Old Time Radio show, The CBS Radio Mystery Theater, which fast became a fascination and addiction of mine. Fueling that fascination and addiction was how the program's use of the descriptive mystery in its title was both literal and figurative. 

Because each and every night was a delightful and frustrating coin toss as to what that particular episode would or could be. Yes, there were lots of mysteries. But there were also a lot of gothic melodramas, comedies, spy stories, ghost stories, monster stories, historical dramas, and even quite a few science fiction and fantasy stories. There was no way of knowing unless you listened.

My all time favorite episode remains Hickory, Dickory, Doom. You can give it a listen here.

The remainder of KSFO's evening line-up was a ten o' clock comedy hour, which played selections from stand-up or skit comedy albums. The eleven o' clock hour offered the likes of Lights Out, Inner Sanctum, Suspense, or Escape.

The witching hour featured a repeat of the CBS Radio Mystery Theater. Good times and wonderful memories.

The Whistler - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - December 26, 1943

"I am The Whistler and I know many things, for I walk by night..."

The Whistler was more Inner Sanctum than The Shadow, as he was more of a commentator/host for the episode's story than a recurring character.

I do remember seeing an album containing two episodes of The Whistler in the Old Time Radio LP section at, I believe, Gemco. That would have been the late 70s or the first year or so of the 1980s. When I was really into listening to OTR. I had a collection of Lum and Abner cassettes, a Burns and Allen LP, as well as one for The Shadow. No idea why I passed on nabbing The Whistler, but it was a decision I came to regret. So it goes.

While there are a great many episodes of The Whistler archived on various websites, this particular episode appears to be one of those that was lost to the ravages of time and circumstance. I could not find it anywhere...

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.