Big Audio Wednesday - Special Guest Suspense

Racing to get this update done before the scheduled outage this afternoon.

Today's Big Audio Wednesday features the stunning 1957 radio debut of a "bright new luminary in the Hollywood firmament who is presently being seen as Morgan Earp in 'Gunfight at OK Corral.'" It also boasts one of the silliest twists I've ever heard in an 'adult' radio drama and a misleading title.

So sit back and enjoy "Flesh Peddler" (which has nothing to do with porn or slavery), the August 4, 1957 episode of Suspense, starring evil Speedy Alka-Seltzer, Huckleberry Hound, and a young Earp who would later end up on the wrong side of the same gunfight.

Halloween Lovecraft

Suspense was one of the long-running die-hards of radio, high-budget and high-profile. Most episodes (I hesitate to say all, since I haven't listened to them all) featured stars of stage and screen. Music cues were played by a small orchestra, rather than a simple organ like Dark Fantasy. Many episodes were based on popular stories of the day.

Most of the episodes I've listened to were simple mysteries or suspense stories. Even when it seems there's something uncanny going on, it usually turns out to be a plot or a hoax, much like Inner Sanctum Mysteries. But this Halloween episode from Nov. 1, 1945 is different. It's an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's "The Dunwich Horror."

All the Lovecraft elements are here--Miskatonic University, ancient copies of the Necronomicon, evil monsters from beyond (in this case, Yog Sothoth).

So enjoy Ronald Colman in the 1945 Suspense production of Lovecraft's "The Dunwich Horror."