Halloween
Yes, it's that time of year again, so Joy and I have been putting a collection of spooky radio shows together, which will be sure to send chills down your spine.
But first, I wanted to share something with you. Several years ago, one of our long-time members, Chuck, wrote a great review of a couple of shows he had celebrated Halloween with, in what he called "the smallest genre in radio drama."
The genre was Department Store Horror...
Yes, I hear you saying. Department Store Horror? Is that even a thing?
I decided to relive Chuck's trip into this genre for Halloween, and thought it would be great to share this idea with you, so that you could do the same.
The first of the shows, is called Sub-Basement, from Lights Out. Here's what Chuck had to say...
"I started with Sub-Basement from Lights Out, a typically subtle production from the series, with no music or sound effects. In the story Arnie takes wife Irma below street level to the service tunnels beneath the store where he works. His intention is to kill her but a chance encounter with a dinosaur causes him to lose his nerve.
The story has an unintentionally humorous angle in these days of big box retailers. As revenues continue to drop, large city-center department stores have become a lot like blind dinosaurs, groping around in the dark.
As I listened, I couldn't help but think of the so-called mole people – the folks who live in places like this under New York City. Manhattan’s subterranean world was under siege this week as Hurricane Sandy flooded the city’s tunnel network, shutting down the entire subway system.
A blind dinosaur seems pretty silly in the face of the real horror of a 14-foot storm surge.
Is it a bit of a spooky coincidence that today, 27th October, is also the date that the first underground section of the New York City subway opened for the first time in 1904?
On to the next of the shows... This one is called Evening Primrose from the series, Escape:
My next selection was Evening Primrose from Escape. This piece of dark fantasy was apparently considered by the show’s producers to be one of their best episodes. Three separate productions of the script were broadcast successively in ’47, ’48 & ’49, each time with a different cast.
The story is so good that I had no trouble listening to all three versions and enjoyed hearing the different performers read the parts in their own way.
It’s a haunting narrative that almost sounds more valid now than perhaps it did when the shows were broadcast. To anyone who’s had the displeasure of responding to an unexplained motion alarm on a decaying sales floor, this tale will have an eerie resonance.
The story concerns a man’s decent into the department store nether world where a secret culture of once-human wraiths reveal themselves in the dimly lit night-time. It’s the kind of story around which some authors today like Neil Gaiman and Glen Hirshberg have built intense cult followings.
All the characters are interesting, but the 18 year-old Ella is particularly sad and poignant. Unlike the others, she didn't seek out this world but rather was seized by it when she became lost in the store as a little girl.
This is a story particularly well-suited to radio. The shadowy atmosphere and diaphanous, nearly invisible characters could not be rendered better in any other medium. If I could give this more than five stars, I would. It’s among the best old time radio programs I've ever heard.
Can you remember listening to any other department store horror shows that might also fit into this genre?
I don't think we'll be making a RUSC radio station out of the Department Store genre, but I'm going to add these two shows to the special Halloween RUSC radio station which is now live, and if you think of any more, do let me know so that Joy or I can add those too.
Happy listening my friends,
