Something You May Not Know About Me...

The Tradition of Living Beautifully, Issue #70

Jan 09, 2025

I love old time radio shows. Yup, shows from the days when people sat around big wooden boxes and threaded the whole story together in their minds without any moving pictures in front of them. The muffled sounding analogue warmth of the audio gives me old timey feels, and some show or another from this era is usually playing in the background when I’m driving the kids around, or sewing, or cleaning up the kitchen. As a lover of stories, these old radio shows scratch the itch with that added vintage magic. Also, many episodes featured stars of the time, “on loan” from some of the major studios of the day like MGM and Warner Brothers. It’s not uncommon to hear Peter Lorre or Jimmy Stewart performing in one of these serials, so if you’re into old Hollywood, these shows can be a real treat.

Library of Congress image of a farm family listening to the radio together.

I dare admit that I’ve been listening to these shows for so long that when I first began I had to go to the library and check them out on CD. They have a classy, long-gone feel to them, because of course they are long gone. Very little, if anything at all, is created these days with the same restraint you can find in old radio. Now, entertainment is grossly graphic, even pornographic, riddled with heinous, violent images and the sound effects to go with them. These old shows entertain without overwhelming and bring into whatever space you’re listening to them a coziness that’s hard to find on the television set. For the twenty minutes or so you’re immersed in an episode, the world feels a little lighter—the noise is less noisy than it is today, the sounds a little less eardrum splitting. It’s tasteful in a way few things are nowadays.

I thought you might be interested in joining me in this passion, so I’m sharing some of my favorite shows and also where I listen to them (and how you can, too.)

And if you want to call me a dork for this passion, go ahead, you’re probably right and I couldn’t blame you for it. :)

Some shows I like:

Suspense—This show ran on CBS Radio from 1940 through 1962. Wikipedia calls it, “One of the premier drama programs of the Golden Age of Radio [and it] was subtitled ‘radio's outstanding theater of thrills’ and focused on suspense thriller-type scripts, usually featuring leading Hollywood actors of the era.”

The Shadow—With its signature tagline, “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?…” this show began in the early 1930’s and ran through to the mid ‘50s. A classic detective story series, with a bit of a science fiction tinge, the show features Lamont Cranston who uses “hypnotic power to cloud men’s minds so that they cannot see him” as he fights crime. The great Orson Welles assumed the role of Cranston for a span of time.

The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes—This show originally featured the classic duo of Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson, and it ran here in the States from 1939 to 1947. With great British accents and excellent stories culled from the famous detective series of the same name, this is a delightful series well worth listening to.

X Minus One—This popular Science Fiction show ran from 1955 to 1958 and pulled its stories from great science fiction writers of the time, among them my favorite, Ray Bradbury. Wikipedia describes it as “one of the finest offerings of American radio drama and one of the best science fiction series in any medium.”

The CBS Radio Mystery Theater—Airing from 1974 to 1982, this is the “newest” show on my list. This show aimed to appeal to listeners who used to listen to radio shows, remembered them fondly, and longed for their return. Even though it was produced in a later era than the others, it still has a soft, analogue feel to it. The host, E. G. Marshall, starts off the show with a classic-old time radio sounding introduction.

The Whistler—This crime mystery show ran from 1942 to 1955 and was exceedingly popular. It opens with an eerie introduction where the Whistler, accompanied by the spooky sounds of footsteps, explains he knows “many things, for I walk by night. I know many strange tales, many secrets hidden in the hearts of men and women who have stepped into the shadows. I know the nameless terrors of which they dare not speak.”

Some of the podcast channels I listen to: