{
  "title": "THE CITY OF THE DEAD",
  "category": "[RADIO-SERIAL]",
  "article": "“Spooky, weird detective stories are becoming quite popular with the radio audience. It sets the\nhair a-tingle like no amount of reading matter can. ‘The City of the Dead,’ just started over NBC’s\nPacific coast network, is just that type of story.”\nThe third Carlton Morse mystery serial and the first one written solely by him.\n“The mournful tolling of a church bell in an old cemetery will introduce listeners to one of the\nweirdest radio thrillers yet…”\nIn 1944-45 Morse produced a 52-episode transcription series entitled Adventures by Morse. For\n40 of these episodes he revamped four of his ten-chapter serials from the 1930-1931 era: The City\nof the Dead, Dead Men Prowl, The Dragon in the Sun (which became \"The Land of the Living\nDead\"), and The Return of Captain Post (which became \"The Cobra King Strikes Back\").]",
  "origination": "KGO, San Francisco, California.",
  "duration": "September 26-November 28, 1930.",
  "personnel": "Carlton E. Morse (scriptwriter), L. Scott Perkins (director).\nCAST: Bernice Berwin (Phyllis Carroll), Thomas Kelly (Jimmy Parker), George Rand (Dr. Tooner), Fred\nThomas (“Mayor” Josiah Long/“Old Clawfoot”), Barton Yarborough (Sergeant Jack Long).\nSPONSOR: Utah Fuel Company (Castle Gate Coal—KSL, Salt Lake City).",
  "extant_recordings": "None.\n[Program log]\nTHE CITY OF THE DEAD (KGO, SAN FRANCISCO—NBC-PACIFIC COAST)\n[Friday—10:00-10:30 PM]\nSeptember 26, 1930\n[PART 1] “The Old Haunted Church”\n[“…It is harvest Friday—‘the night when almost anything can happen’—\nand a full moon is shining whitely into the cemetery whose caretaker,\nJoshua Long, calls himself ‘Mayor of the City of the Dead,’ as the drama\nopens. A boy and a girl in their early twenties, escaping from an auto\nhold-up, seek refuge in the deserted cemetery. A quaint old retired\ndoctor, all of whose patients are buried in the ‘City of the Dead,’ and who\ncomes to ‘visit with them’ frequently, is one of the characters tangled in\nthe gruesome web of murder and horror which holds Phyllis and Jim, the\ngirl and boy, virtual prisoners in the city of ancient tombs…”]\nOctober 3, 1930\n[PART 2] “I’ve Dug Up Something Ghastly”\n[“…Following a series of strange events, the ‘mayor’s’ son, a young police\ndetective, arrives on the scene to investigate. No one is allowed to leave\nthe scene, he declares, until the mystery is solved. When he and Jim\ndiscover a grave which has been tampered with, they stumble upon a\ngruesome find that implicates the boy and girl in a murder…”]\nOctober 10, 1930\n[PART 3] “The Body That Walked Off”\n[“…Further developments in tonight’s episode confirm the presence of a\ndefinite menace in the graveyard… Jack Long is strangled by the mystery\nkiller…”]\nOctober 17, 1930\n[PART 4] “Old Clawfoot Again”\n[“…The murder mystery grows deeper and more strange incidents take\nplace, binding still tighter the principal characters of the play in a net of\nterror… Jimmy Parker and his girl friend, Phyllis, are still being held\nprisoners in the abandoned graveyard, while Sergeant Jack Long\nattempts to untangle the mystery of several murders, grave robbings and\nother gruesome happenings. Three bodies are found in an old cabin.\nBefore they can be removed for identification someone sets the cabin on\nfire. A visit to the old church discloses the hiding place of the claw-footed\nman who has been leading the sergeant and the others a merry chase\namong the gravestones during the past episodes. Phyllis is stabbed in the\nback, but it is only a flesh wound. Everyone, including Phyllis, suspects\nParker…”]\nOctober 24, 1930\n[PART 5] “The Skeleton Walked In”\n[“…The curtain rises tonight upon the group as they are seeking to unveil\nthe causes behind the stabbing of Phyllis. Jimmy suddenly discloses the\nreal reason of their presence in the cemetery… It is learned that Jimmy\nand Phyllis are in the old graveyard to find half a million dollars worth of\nblack pearls, willed to Phyllis by her grandfather, Dr. Theodore Arnold.\nSuspicion shifts temporaily from Phyllis and Jimmy to the old doctor and\nthe mayor of the City of the Dead as the ‘mayor’s’ son, Detective Jack\nLong, continues his investigations…”]\nOctober 31, 1930\n[PART 6] “The Ghoul in the Grave”\n[“…A little group of persons held virtually prisoners in a deserted church\nyard where a creeping terror threatens the lives of all of them—this is the\nsituation upon which the curtain rises tonight… The sixth episode of this\nbloodcurdling mystery serial is filled with new horrors and new\nmysteries. The phantom church-bell whose tolling prefaces each strange\nand terrifying incident in the cemetery appears in a new light in this\nepisode and the problem of where its strange sound emanates is partially\nexplained…”]\nNovember 7, 1930\n[PART 7] “Sergeant Long Vanishes”\n[“…Whoever the Clawfoot phantom is, his sympathies seem to be with\nPhyllis  Carol…Although he broke into the cottage of ‘Mayor’ Long of the\nCity of the Dead, he did not harm her… Subsequently it is learned that he\nhas left a huge black pearl for her… The disappearance of Sergeant Jack\nLong and the suspicious actions of the Sergeant’s father ‘Mayor’ Long\nadd another touch of mystery to the episode…”]\nNovember 14, 1930\n[PART 8] “The Kidnapping of Clawfoot”\n[“…Young Parker accuses ‘Mayor’ Long of having something to do with\nthe mysterious happenings… On his side, ‘Mayor’ Long accuses Parker of\nkilling Sergeant Jack Long… The stolen skeleton is returned to the\nmayor’s cottage, and the ‘Clawfoot Phantom’ is kidnapped…”]\nNoember. 21, 1930\n[PART 9] “The Trail of the Phantom Church Bell”\n[“…Jimmy Parker and ‘Doc’ Tuner go down into the abandoned\ngraveyard after hearing the church bell ring in the daytime… They go to\nthe old abandoned church and Jimmy falls through the rotting flooring\nand lands in the basement. He discovers that the bell is hanging in the\nbasement a few inches clear of the floor. He also finds a man bound and\ngagged in the basement. The prisoner had been lashing out with his feet\nand striking the bell in the hope of calling someone to his rescue. Just as\nJimmy and ‘Doc’ Tuner are preparing to carry the bound man back to the\ncottage, they hear the shrill of the police whistle which Jimmy had left\nwith Phyllis in the cottage…”]\nNovember 28, 1930\n[PART 10] “Where the Pearls Were Hidden”\n[“…The Clawfoot Phantom is in reality Robert, the son of Theodore\nArnold… Arnold had buried the pearls originally in the City of the Dead\nand had later deposited them in a safe deposit box in a San Francisco\nbank… Subsequently, due to an attack of amnesia he lost all memory of\ndigging up the pearls and putting them in the bank… The secret of\nClawfoot’s footprints is revealed to be a pair of moccasins made from the\nskin off the feet of a claw-footed animal…”]",
  "chronology": "",
  "sources": "",
  "gallery": "",
  "images": []
}