The Weird Circle
Volume 1



A good story is a good story, whether it was written two weeks ago, two decades ago, or even two centuries ago. And nowhere is that truer than in "The Weird Circle", a half-hour anthology series that was first aired back in 1943.

The stories offered by "The Weird Circle" were generally adapted from popular fiction - popular fiction of the 19th century, that is. And since the focus was on horror and suspense, the macabre, atmospheric, and often ironic tales of such writers as Edgar Allan Poe and Honore de Balzac were a staple of its success. Also included were such familiar chestnuts as "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Bronte, Charles Dickens' "The Queer Client", Charlotte Bronte's novel "Jane Eyre" (also a particular favorite of Orson Welles and his Mercury Theater company), and "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" by Robert Louis Stevenson. Stories of this vintage, rooted in the Victorian attitudes and morality of the 1800s, generally made for good radio drama; they were, after all, classics, familiar to anyone with a public school education. The primarily first-person narrative of most of the stories chosen made them relatively easy to convert into script form: introduce a narrator, establish the scene, and then carry on with the plot. And, of course, since they were out of copyright, there were no literary rights to be paid -- a sizeable cost savings for any producer looking to budget a weekly series, then or now.

"The Weird Circle" was produced in New York City by the National Broadcasting Company, under the auspices of its Radio-Recording Division. Though best known for live programs over its Red and Blue Networks, NBC produced and recorded a great many shows for syndication to local stations, including such diverse dramatic programs as "Playhouse of Favorites", "Five Minute Mysteries", "Destiny Trails", and "Betty and Bob" (a five-a-week daily "soap opera" featuring Arlene Francis), as well as quarter-hour musical programs starring performers ranging from Carson Robison and his Buckaroos to Ferde Grofe and his Orchestra. The quality of these syndicated shows was, for the most part, consistent with NBC's regular prime-time fare and, a result, were often aired by local stations as either special features or programmed between other shows on the network at the time.

Compared with other syndicated thriller/mystery series produced at the same time, it's clear that the producers of "The Weird Circle" aimed a little higher than the norm. The budgets for the series, though no more generous than any similar series produced for the syndication market, benefitted greatly from the technical staff and state-of-the-art facilities which NBC maintained at their Rockefeller Center headquarters. The series featured no stars but, instead, drew upon the adept, adaptable, and professional performers who regularly appeared in supporting roles on live network broadcasts - actors like Audrey Totter, Lawson Zerbe, Chester Stratton, Walter Vaughn, Eleanor Audley, and Arnold Moss, to name just a few. And, rather than relying on contracted writers to grind out inexpensive "pulp" stories in a contemporary vein, this series relied instead upon tried and true material from well-known and well-read authors, giving "The Weird Circle" a definite touch of class.

Heard today, it's interesting to note how contemporary many of these stories still sound to modern listeners. George Eliot's novella "The Lifted Veil", a horror story first published in 1859, deals with such timeless topics as the nature of fate, extrasensory perception, the mystery of life, and life after death. When it first appeared in 1859, Fitz-James O'Brien's story "What Was It?" was the first to deal with the notion of an invisible creature - a plot that later became a staple of the science-fiction story, written at a time when the term "Sci-Fi" had not yet been coined. Stories such as de Maupassant's "The Horla" and "The Man Without a Country" by Edward Everett Hale would later be adapted for radio for such popular anthology series as "Suspense" and "Escape", along with the horrifying tales of Edgar Allan Poe, heard here in no less than four separate adaptations.

In this Radio Archives collection, you'll hear twenty consecutive broadcasts from "The Weird Circle", just as originally aired in 1943 and 1944. As an extra bonus, we've uncovered the transcription disc containing the original openings and closings of the shows, allowing you to hear these programs in their original as-broadcast format for the first time in decades. If you're familiar with some or all of the stories offered in this series, Radio Archives is sure you'll enjoy revisiting your favorites in a different form. If you've read only a few of these stories - or, better still, if you've never read any of them - we promise that you're in for a real treat.

So, bell keeper! Toll the bell, so that all may know that we are gathered again in...the Weird Circle!

#1 The Fall of the House of Usher
Based on the story by Edgar Allan Poe
Sunday, August 29, 1943 - 30:00 - NBC Syndication

#2 The House and the Brain
Based on the story by Edward George Bulwer-Lytton
Sunday, September 5, 1943 - 30:00 - NBC Syndication

#3 The Vendetta
Based on the story by Honore de Balzac
Sunday, September 12, 1943 - 30:00 - NBC Syndication

#4 The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym
Based on Edgar Allan Poe's unfinished novel
Sunday, September 19, 1943 - 30:00 - NBC Syndication

#5 Declared Insane
Based on the story "Interdiction" by Honore de Balzac
Sunday, September 26, 1943 - 30:00 - NBC Syndication

#6 The Terribly Strange Bed
Based on the story by Wilkie Collins
Sunday, October 3, 1943 - 30:00 - NBC Syndication

#7 What Was It?
Based on the story by Fitz-James O'Brien
Sunday, October 10, 1943 - 30:00 - NBC Syndication

#8 The Knightsbridge Mystery
Based on the story by Charles Reade
Sunday, October 17, 1943 - 30:00 - NBC Syndication

#9 The Horla
Based on the story by Guy de Maupassant
Sunday, October 24, 1943 - 30:00 - NBC Syndication

#10 William Wilson
Based on the story by Edgar Allan Poe
Sunday, October 31, 1943 - 30:00 - NBC Syndication

#11 A Passion in the Desert
Based on the story by Honore de Balzac
Sunday, November 7, 1943 - 30:00 - NBC Syndication

#12 Mateo Falcone
Based on the story by Prosper Merimee
Sunday, November 14, 1943 - 30:00 - NBC Syndication

#13 The Man Without a Country
Based on the story by Edward Everett Hale
Sunday, November 21, 1943 - 30:00 - NBC Syndication

#14 Dr. Manette's Manuscript
Based on an excerpt from "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens
Sunday, November 28, 1943 - 30:00 - NBC Syndication

#15 The Great Plague
Based on the story by Thomas Hood
Sunday, December 5, 1943 - 30:00 - NBC Syndication

#16 Expectations of an Heir
Based on the story by Samuel Johnson
Sunday, December 12, 1943 - 30:00 - NBC Syndication

#17 The Hand
Based on the story by Guy de Maupassant
Sunday, December 19, 1943 - 30:00 - NBC Syndication

#18 Jane Eyre
Based on the novel by Charlotte Bronte
Sunday, December 26, 1943 - 30:00 - NBC Syndication

#19 The Murders in the Rue Morgue
Based on the story by Edgar Allan Poe
Sunday, January 2, 1944 - 30:00 - NBC Syndication

#20 The Lifted Veil
Based on the novella by George Eliot
Sunday, January 9, 1944 - 30:00 - NBC Syndication