Strange As It Seems, is a radio program of strange and unusual tales, based on the daily publishings from cartoonist, John Hix.
As a radio program, I'd say it's pretty similar to Ripley's Believe It Or Not, but it was hosted by Gayne Whitman, produced and directed by Cyril Armbrister, with music composed by Felix Mills.
Strange As It Seems was first launched over eighty years ago on March 22nd 1935, with the fifteen minute shows scheduled for Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays at 7:45pm for the first six months, later dropping to twice per week, and then the following year changing the schedule again to Tuesday and Friday nights.
In 1939, the show began a half-hour broadcast, one day a week, and in 1946, the show was once again picked up as a 15 minute program, one day a week.
John Hix was the creator, and he had the stories appearing in comic strips as early as the 1920s as a staff artist at the Washington Herald. Each show featured two or three bizarre stories or events, such as the story of how Pennsylvania got its name, or the story of a man who had to eat a book he had written to avoid execution!
On RUSC, we currently have around 65 of the shows to add, but in the newspaper story about the death of John Hix on June 6, 1944, Ernest Hix stated there were over 600 radio programs produced, indicating there were other shows than those so far identified, so I'm holding out hope that more will turn up in the future!
Happy listening my friends,
