How I Halloween | #4 - Radio

Halloween OTR

As I said before, Holidays can be a good time to look back or in this case listen back. The term "Old Time Radio" doesn't always sound encouraging to people used to looking for 'what's new' or ' the latest thing'. If your feeling like that I'd ask you to try one episode of one show. You might find that it's not as archaic as you expect, you might even like it.

I find myself forgetting how long ago these things where made.  A joke is still a joke and a scare is still a scare. They can be a dated and and sometimes cheesy but,  they can also be "damn good".

Spooky Series

 They aren't specifically Halloween, but they fit the general theme of Horror & Paranormal. These shows (to me) are the sort of things where you skim through the episode list and try one that looks interesting. The only one I'm working through episode by episode is nightfall. Instead of me giving descriptions for these you can follow the link and get a description there & if you like it the episodes are there to download.

1) Nightfall
2) Lights Out

3) Suspense
4) The Shadow
5) The Weird Circle

Halloween Episodes of Popular  Shows

Just like TV today the popular Radio shows of the past liked to do holiday themed episodes.

Right-click on the links below an download them directly from here.

1) Fibber McGee & Molly
• 1953-10-30 Trick Or Treating With Teeny •

2) The Great Gildersleeve
• 1943 Halloween Party • 1947 Halloween Party  • 1951 Halloween Party- Lost Boy •

3) Jack Benny
• Costume Party (1938) • Party at Jack's (1939) •  Trick or Treating (1948) •

4) Baby Snooks
• Halloween Joke (1946) •

5) The Life of Riley
• Haunted House (1944) •

6) Father Knows Best
• Spooky Cemetery (1950) • Halloween Party at Home (1953) •

7) Ozzie & Harriot
• Haunted House (1948) •

Halloween-ish  episodes of anthology series. AKA: random episodes of random shows.

1) Don't tell me about Halloween - Obligatory Halloween Witch.
2) The Legend of Sleepy Hollow - One of my favourite versions.
3) The Dunwich Horror - Nothing like a little lovecraft.
4) On a Country Road - Stuck on a deserted road while a murderous lunatic is loose.
4) Dracula - Wouldn't be Halloween with out a Vampire.

*  * * Bonus * * * Bonus * * * Bonus * * *

What Do Aliens have to do with Halloween?

In the couch gag for 'treehouse of horror X' Lisa asks "What do aliens have to do with Halloween?". The answer; War of the worlds. HG Wells, Orson Welles & the (then) new medium of radio all combine to indelibly imprint aliens onto Halloween.

You can find the original Welles version here & the Episode of Charlie McCarthy (#19 in the list) that ran opposite on another channel.

Here you'll find  a 6 part Radio Doc about the original, reactions and a series of remakes that started in 1968, the 50th anniversary of the Ors0n Wells version.

The first time I heard one of these WKBW remakes (1973 version) I was hooked.  The story is reworked to take place in & around Buffalo. Like the original it starts off slowly as a story in the regular (& real) news report, and it grows and grows and they follow the 'news story'. I think it's the nostalgia that gets me hooked the most. The show is well made but,  hearing about places that are only minutes away, from regular DJ's and news people (hooray for Irv Wienstien!) that I heard as kid is really too cool.

1968 is WKBW's 30th anniversary Adaptation of the Orson Welles version.
         Like the original, it caused some concerns when broadcast that became a legend itself.
1971 is a slightly reworked version following the same basic format as 1968.
The 1973 Edition is in many ways my favourite. It has the whole of the Halloween night broadcast in multiple files starting with W.O.T.W. then moving on other stories or "radio dramas" and finishing with some "docu-drama" pieces on Halloween themes.  It has all the commercials, bumpers, station ids etc.  There is something about the whole package and the flow of the programming that really gets me. As cheesy as some of it is, I love it.

Apparently there is a poorly regarded 1975 version that I can't find and a 30th anniversary 1998 version* made by another station under the same ownership group.
I haven't been able to find either version so far. If anyone knows where I can find Please let me know. Even if they aren't that good I'd still like to have the whole set.

*30th anniversary of the 1968 version that was a 30th anniversary of the "Original" 1938 version, isn't that sort of a 60th anniversary version?

That's a lot of Radio for you. I hope you've found something you like and I hope you'll be back in a few days for the next batch of Halloween treats.
Local Events around Halloween is what's planned for next time.

How I Halloween or Sharing what I like about Halloween | #1 - An introduction

This is the first in a series of  posts about how I celebrate Halloween.  I'm hope to get a new Halloween post up a little more often than once a week. 

I love Halloween and have a a big store of media & info to help celebrate the season.

My plan is to share lots of media along with some more 'real world' stuff like local events, recipes and who knows what.

Virtually everything mentioned will be low to no cost. Mostly because I firmly believe that a home-made Halloween is the most fun.

Let's start with a bit of a sampler. Each Category should eventually get it's own post with more examples, suggestions & links.

Follow the links below to start getting into the Halloween mood.

1) Librivox Recording - Famous modern Ghost Stories

Librivox is a cool project (as they say) "To make all books in the public domain available, for free, in audio format on the internet." .   What that means to us is free audio books of anything that's not copyrighted.  One of the  cool things they do is create collections and anthologies around topics, genres & even seasons.

2) OTR Show - Nightfall - Info - Episodes

OTR stands for Old Time Radio. It usually covers radio broadcasts from a time it was the only game in town and into the the early years of TV when  some popular shows had both Radio and TV versions. 
Today's example isn't really old enough to be called OTR , but it's almost 40 years old & it's really cool.

Nightfall was made by CBC  starting in 1980 and aside from being a bit dated or "of the time" it's really well done and when I read the following review I was sold. "Holy wow, who knew Canadians could be so scary? Seriously, though - this is a very well done horror series from the early 80s. Really creepy stuff!"

3) Podcast - Jim Harolds Campfire

We have finally reach a point where almost everyone knows what a podcast is, so no explanations needed.  podcasts are great, everyone loves them and I'll share some of favorite spooky & Halloween casts.

Today's podcast is the campfire. The premise is that people call in in tell about their experiences, like they where sitting around a campfire. Due to the fact that everyone tells their own story some can be a little generic and others are so full of details it can be a bit hard to follow. Then you get the story you've been waiting for. Weather you can see yourself in the situation, or it super creepy or just really well told. You've heard a story that's going to stick with you, the kind of story you'll want to retell a friend.  Instead of retelling it, tell your friend where they can listen to it too.

4)Flickr Photo Group/Pool - The Vintage Halloween Pool

Halloween, & Christmas,  seem like a good opportunity to look into the past.  Some times our past & sometimes much father than that. I love the the old photos in this group. The decorations , ads and especially the costumes. They run the gambit from some old clothes and a paper bag mask to very elaborate costumes that are the antithesis of a store bought plastic mask and smock.  
There are more groups or photo pools from flickr coming up in another post. One thing about flickr, if someone has a topic they're interested in, someone else has gathered a group of photos about it.

5) Local Event - Fort George Ghost Tour

Of all the ghost and cemetery tours this is the one I like the best and the one I keep going back to.
Of all the categories I've set up for myself, I think this will be the hardest. There are ghost tours, cemetery tours, & fort tours. Once those are out of the way it gets a little harder to come up with events that aren't just another temporary fun house.

6) Recipe - Pumpkin Fudge

If there is any holiday that's synonymous with sweet treats Halloween is it. So it only makes sense to have pumpkin Fudge as the first recipe.  There are tons and tons of recipes for anything and everything. My plan is to keep the ones I pass on relatively simple and to have tried them before sharing them. There are some pumpkin pancakes & warming adult drink I'm really looking forward to.

Tune in Again

That's the sample pack of how I Halloween. I'm not sure if it will be representative of the rest of these posts, but hopefully you found something you enjoyed. If you did check back soon for more Halloween fun.