Nice! This show was so well written and acted. I recall reading a script through in simulated radio in grade school english lit. We had so much fun with the voices and drama. I love listening to this stuff, thanks.

As a little kid I had some of these old-time radio shows on record, like The Shadow and Captain Midnight. I thought they were great!

When I was in college, and we were discussing Greek Tragedy, my professor said something about how the violence was either described or offstage, but never seen, was because it would have been "distracting". It wasn't until several years later that it occurred to me that these plays were performed at a festival with the whole city present, in huge ampitheaters with actors standing on stilts with megaphones built into their masks. It seems obvious to me now that most spectators would be at such a distance that acting out murder on the stage would have been pretty ineffective, but allowing the audience to imagine the violence brings it so much closer.

Radio drama can capture that same power. I'll bet that somewhere on the vast internet, someone is experimenting with the form. It shouldn't be permitted to die. AFTER ALL, Greek Tragedy is still with us!

Incidentally, there really is a shitload of this stuff on YouTube, the internet archive etc. Some episodes of the Shadow star Orson Welles in his early 20s. Another classic is LIGHTS OUT.

My wife and I used to make out to The Shadow on tape in her dad's car when we were first dating. We still put them on in bed every now and again, but only to fall asleep to. My favourite is The Laughing Corpse.

Hipster OGs?

I have a few LPs of The Shadow I picked up someplace or other years ago, but I've never heard this one!