TGG Old Time Radio Double Dip #1: Cat Wife & Mars is Heaven

Aug 31, 2013

As I mentioned in the latest notes, I’m a fan of old time radio shows (and new time audio shows too!) and every Friday I’m going to share a couple of programs for our visitors to enjoy. The main focus is on chills and thrills which I think might help gamers out there (those playing RPGs especially) to get their juices flowing. I’ll point out these episodes have been personally remastered so I don’t think you’ll find better sound quality of these programs anywhere.

First up we’ve got a bit of horror and then one of my favorite SF episodes…

Lights Out – Cat Wife (Aired April 6th, 1938)

Back in the day, Chicago was a hotbed of radio broadcasting and in the spring of 1938 Boris Karloff spent the season in the Windy City appearing on five consecutive episodes of Lights Out for NBC. The Cat Wife script had aired previously in 1936 but was voted the most popular episode of the series to date so Karloff was tagged to take on the role of John Taylor in a new production. This episode was the third of the five consecutive Lights Out episodes featuring Karloff.

Cat Wife has a very EC Comics feel to it as the Taylor’s marriage takes a strange turn. A turn which is a boon for the milkman but for everyone else? Not so much…

You can download the episode here.

Dimension X – Mars is Heaven (Aired July 7th, 1950)

Ray Bradbury’s short story Mars is Heaven may be one of the most reproduced SF tales in history as not only was it broadcast on radio no fewer than six times, appeared in EC Comics’ Weird Science, and turned into a television episode of Ray Bradbury Theater in 1990. The tale is no doubt one of the best written in the 1940s and comprises the sixth chapter of Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles (although retitled as “The Third Expedition”).

It is the 1960’s and the first spaceship from Earth is about to land on Mars. Rather than an alien landscape the crew is stunned to find a small town, just as they would back on Earth, in which the inhabitants believe the year to be 1926. Could Mars really be Heaven? Oh… I don’t think so…

You can download the episode here.

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Jeff McAleer

Founder/Editor-in-chief of The Gaming Gang website and host of The Gaming Gang Dispatch and other TGG media, Jeff tackles any and all sorts of games but has a special fondness for strategy, conflict sims, and roleplaying games. Plus, he's certainly never at a loss for an opinion...