War of the Worlds: Free Old Time Radio for Halloween

In the 1930s and 1940s, before television and the Internet, radio was the source of entertainment, not only music and news but also drama, comedy, and spooky stories. Although television effectively killed off the golden age of old time radio, the Internet has, strangely, brought it back to life.

In MP3, the compressed audio format, old time radio programs are streamed and downloaded quickly. What had been a rather esoteric hobby, collecting treasured old tapes of old time radio programs, has now become an easily accessible pleasure.

Old time radio: where to find it on the Internet

If you Google "old time radio," you will turn up quite a few sites that offer old time radio programs for free download or for sale on MP3 CDs. MP3 is an especially good format for old time radio and other spoken word recordings, because the deterioration of the quality of the sound is not as noticeable as on recordings of music.

The best single source for old time radio MP3s on the Internet is Archive.org , the grandmother's attic of the Internet. But, there is some method in the Archive's madness, with a special section devoted to old time radio (here).

A word of warning: once you get to that page, you may disappear for days on end. Oh, here is the poignant history of Command Performance (here), the Armed Forces radio program from World War II. There are the precursors of television programs such as Dragnet (here) and Gunsmoke (here). Oh, I've heard of George Burns and Gracie Allen, and here they are!

The most famous old time radio program was associated with Halloween, although it might have been more appropriate for April Fool's Day. Unlike my other articles on free Halloween treats on the Internet - classical music (here) and movies (here) - I am using this article to open your ears to year-round listening pleasure with old time radio on the Internet.

Old time radio: movies on the radio

One of the more unusual genres of old time radio is adaptations of films for radio. The best series of such adaptations that I know of is Screen Director's Playhouse, heard from 1949 to 1951 on the radio and still heard on the Internet (here).

Two Halloween-appropriate old time radio programs in this series are The Ghost Breakers (IMDB) and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (IMDB) . These hour long adaptations sometimes featured the original stars of the film. Bob Hope, for instance, repeated his role in The Ghost Breakers, but for The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Charles Boyer took the part that Rex Harrison played in the film.

The Ghost Breakers is a comedy - the announcer refers to it as a "comedy of terrors" - while The Ghost and Mrs. Muir is a love story between a live woman and a rather lively phantom. Other Halloween programs in this series include The Spiral Staircase (IMDB) and The Uninvited (IMDB).

IMDB refers to the Internet Movie DataBase, and the links are to the entries for these movies.

Old time radio: how to access it on Archive.org

If you look at the page for Screen Director's Playhouse (here), you will see the titles of the programs on a black background. On this player, if you click on a title, and you will access the streaming audio of that program. Also, at the bottom of the player, you will see a link to embed the whole player on your webpage (or blog). Then, below the player, you will see a list of the titles with links that you can right-click to download and save. Then, you can transfer them to your MP3 player, so you can shiver under your covers as you listen to them late at night.

Old time radio: X Minus 1

The series X Minus 1, 1955-1958, was dedicated to science fiction fantasy. Perhaps the most fantastic aspect of the series is that it was broadcast after television had become a threat to radio. In fact, X Minus 1 lasted until only a year before a television series similar in theme and quality, Twilight Zone (1959-1964). X Minus 1 can be found online here; notice that that is the first of three pages for X Minus 1.

The half-hour episodes of X Minus 1 are considered the best science fiction ever heard on old time radio. Some of the best science fiction writers of that time, such as Ray Bradbury and Robert A. Heinlein, are represented by X Minus 1 episodes. I have not listened to all the episodes, but of the ones I have heard, I especially like There Will Come Soft Rains and A Gun for Dinosaur.

Old time radio: Orson Welles

Probably the most creative mind and saddest story in the history of arts and entertainment in the United States belonged to Orson Welles (1915-1985). He left perhaps more unfinished films than completed ones, and when we look at the quality of the films we have, we realize just how much Welles and we lost because he had to spend so much time trying to raise money for his projects.

By the end of his life, he was terribly obese; even in Touch of Evil (IMDB), 1958, it is painful to watch him. He became known as a garrulous guest on television talk shows and a purveyor of no wine before its time, a sad end for the man who directed Citizen Kane (IMDB), "the best film of all time," according to the British Film Institute's polls (source ).

But, with one exception, Orson Welles is not so well remembered for his amazing work in old time radio. In 1937, Welles and John Houseman founded the Mercury Theater; after producing live stage performances for a year, they took the Mercury Theater to the airwaves. Mercury Theater on the Air and the later Campbell Playhouse (sponsored by Campbell Soups) were anthology series presenting dramatized radio adaptations of literary classics. You can find them all on the Old Time Radio section of Archive.org here. Notice that the first episode is the very Halloween appropriate Dracula. Then, there is... be patient, please! We are getting there.

Orson Welles also had two whole series that would be good for Halloween listening. The Black Museum (1952) was a collection of tales based on exhibits in Scotland Yard's Black Museum, each of which is associated with a murder. So, we have episodes such as The Open Ended Wrench, The Pink Powder Puff, and A French-English Dictionary. Find out the stories behind these objects and more in The Black Museum (here).

As intriguing as The Shadow is, with its weird ambiance and quasi-scientific explanations of its strange plot turns, it would be a prime candidate for Halloween listening. Unfortunately, copyright for all the various manifestations (books, radio, and video) of The Shadow is maintained by Condé Nast, so unless you wander into the shadowy world of other than legal downloads, you'll have to enjoy your Halloween without knowing "what evil lurks in the hearts of men." (Heh-heh-heh...) Console yourself with a few more pieces of trick or treat candy. (But, remember the fate and waistline of poor Orson Welles, and show some restraint.)

Old time radio: The War of the Worlds

On October 30, 1938, folks were settling in for an evening with the radio, when, for those listening to CBS, something went terribly wrong. A pleasant concert was interrupted by strange reports of...

You know the story by now. Orson Welles had adapted the story of The War of the Worlds by the similarly named but unrelated British socialist H.G. Wells. The concert was interrupted by a series of increasingly frantic news announcements about the invasion of Earth by Martians. About two-thirds through the program, the concert was forgotten entirely, for a chronicle of the triumphs and ultimate failure of the invaders from the red planet.

The good, anonymous contributors to Wikipedia have outdone themselves with an information-packed overview of matters related to this broadcast that are still controversial (here). I encourage you to enjoy it. I often think of this broadcast when I receive some bizarre email forward. Just this week, I was assured that I could receive a free laptop computer if I would only send that email to eight friends.

Things like that are so absurd that there is no need to consult Snopes, but the copy of the email I received had several hundred names and email addresses (which, if I were not such a fine, upstanding Associated Content source, I could share with online scammers and pornographers), apparently of people who would believe that Martians were invading if they only heard it on the radio... or read it in an email.

You can listen to this in/famous broadcast at several places on the Internet. But, since I took you to the Archive.org page for Mercury Theater and Campbell Playhouse, why don't you just stay there?

Old time radio: more treats than tricks

I have recently posted on Associated Content a list of fifty pieces of classical music for Halloween (here) and a hundred free movies for Halloween (here). Both articles emphasize Halloween. I hope this article on old time radio will get you interested in an amazing Internet resource that is of use, interest, and fun for so much more than Halloween.

You can turn back to this list for Christmas. Screen Director's Playhouse (here) has an adaptation of the film Miracle on 34th Street (IMDB), and the Campbell Playhouse has an adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic, A Christmas Carol (here ).

I have referred to adaptations of several works of literature. Teachers (in home school or other schools) could use these radio adaptations to present literary works. An extra treat is that copies can be found, free, at Project Gutenberg (here) and at Munseys (here).

Wikipedia reports that Orson Welles said of his War of the Worlds that it was the equivalent "of dressing up in a sheet and saying, 'Boo!'" But, carried over the airwaves, that boo had a power and intensity that can still add some goosebumps to our Halloweens decades later.