A creaking door and a chorus of haunting organ music. No radio show opening is more memorable for many fans than the one heard on Inner Sanctum Mysteries. This disturbing simple salvo led people into thirty minutes of suspense and horror sprinkled with puns from a creepy host, all of which can now be heard again in sparkling audio quality from Radio Archives.
Inner Sanctum Mysteries was the brainchild of producer Himan Brown, inspired by the unsettling creaking door in the basement of a studio where he once worked. Brown took that inspiration and built around it a formula that lived on beyond the show itself. Listeners tuned in every week to hear that door open and be welcomed by the sinister, yet often humorous host to join him in a chair near the fire inside the Inner Sanctum for a story sure to chill them to the bone.
Stories on Inner Sanctum Mysteries originally included both classic and original tales, the new stories taking center stage as the show continued. With writers like pulp scribes Emile Tepperman and Robert Newman, as well as Robert Sloan, Milton Lewis, and others, it is little surprise that Inner Sanctum is still beloved by fans today. Utilizing numerous clichés and literary devices, Inner Sanctum Mysteries carried listeners into the heart of horror, a liberal dose of camp often thrown in. Using voices ranging from star Boris Karloff to a veteran crew of New York radio actors, Inner Sanctum set the standard for horror programs both on radio and even inspired decades of horror hosts on television.
Inner Sanctum Mysteries, Volume 1 features the best of fright, terror, and fantastic storytelling the series has to offer! Ten hours, twenty shows of spine tingling fun.
Voice on the Wire
Tuesday, January 11, 1944 - 30:00 - CBS, sponsored by Colgate Tooth Powder commercials
Desert Death
Tuesday, January 9, 1945 - 30:00 - CBS, sponsored by Lipton Tea and Lipton Soup
Death Is An Artist
Tuesday, January 23, 1945 - 30:00 - CBS, sponsored by Lipton Tea and Lipton Soup
Death in the Depths
Tuesday, February 6, 1945 - 30:00 - CBS, sponsored by Lipton Tea and Lipton Soup
The Bog Oak Necklace
Tuesday, April 10, 1945 - 30:00 - CBS, sponsored by Lipton Tea and Lipton Soup
No Coffin for the Dead
Wednesday, May 2, 1945 - 30:00 - CBS, sponsored by Lipton Tea and Lipton Soup
The Black Art
Tuesday, May 15, 1945 - 30:00 - CBS, sponsored by Lipton Tea and Lipton Soup
Dead to Rights
Tuesday, May 22, 1945 - 30:00 - CBS, sponsored by Lipton Tea and Lipton Soup
Death Across The Board
Tuesday, June 5, 1945 - 30:00 - CBS, sponsored by Lipton Tea and Lipton Soup
Portrait of Death
Tuesday, June 12, 1945 - 30:00 - CBS, sponsored by Lipton Tea and Lipton Soup
Deadmans Deal
Tuesday, August 28, 1945 - 30:00 - CBS, sponsored by Lipton Tea and Lipton Soup
The Murder Profits
Tuesday, September 4, 1945 - 30:00 - CBS, sponsored by Lipton Tea and Lipton Soup
The Lonely Sleep
Tuesday, September 25, 1945 - 30:00 - CBS, sponsored by Lipton Tea and Lipton Soup
The Shadow Of Death
Tuesday, October 2, 1945 - 30:00 - CBS, sponsored by Lipton Tea and Lipton Soup
Til Death Do Us Part
Tuesday, October 16, 1945 - 30:00 - CBS, sponsored by Lipton Tea and Lipton Soup
The Wailing Wall
Tuesday, November 6, 1945 - 30:00 - CBS, sponsored by Lipton Tea and Lipton Soup
Boomerang
Tuesday, November 20, 1945 - 30:00 - CBS, sponsored by Lipton Tea and Lipton Soup
The Dark Chamber
Tuesday, December 11, 1945 - 30:00 - CBS, sponsored by Lipton Tea and Lipton Soup
The Edge Of Death
Tuesday, January 15, 1946 - 30:00 - CBS, sponsored by Lipton Tea and Lipton Soup
The Confession
Tuesday, January 22, 1946 - 30:00 - CBS, sponsored by Lipton Tea and Lipton Soup