Tonight I wrap up this year’s Spooktacular with one of my favorite scary radio tales of all time. It’s Donovan’s Brain, starring Orson Welles, on Suspense.
The tale is a horror classic with not only a stellar performance by Welles but also the supporting cast of Hans Conried, Jerry Hausner, John McIntire, and Jeannette Nolan. This was the first Suspense foray into what would be considered science fiction as well as the first time the series aired a two part cliffhanger; in other words the pulled out all the stops for the Curt Siodmak novel. In fact when the two episodes were released on a single LP in 1981, it won the Grammy for best Spoken Word album. Thirty seven years after they originally hit the airwaves.
Without further ado let’s wrap up the Spooktacular with a radio adaptation I personally feel is far scarier than the novel it’s based upon.
Turn out the lights and give a listen to Donovan’s Brain on Suspense as the episodes aired on May 18th and May 25th, 1944.
Download the show to take on the go right here.
On a quick side note, most visitors to TGG probably don’t know I ran an old time radio website quite a few years back and I have tens of thousands of radio shows in my collection. Each of the programs I’ll share during the Spooktacular have had their audio personally cleaned up by me to remove many of the pops, crackles, and hisses so common with old time radio recordings. These aren’t pristine by any means but keep in mind the original broadcasts you’ll be hearing are anywhere from fifty to eighty years old…
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