GHOST STORIES
[RADIO-SERIES]
The earliest ghost story series on radio? The stories were told by Fulton Oursler, who later edited
the MacFadden magazines, including Ghost Stories during its run from 1926 to 1932. He also
wrote a number of tales for Ghost Stories under his pen name Arnold Fountain.
ORIGINATION: WJZ, New York City, New York.
DURATION: August 19-?????, 1922.
PERSONNEL: Fulton Oursler.
CHRONOLOGY
GHOST STORIES (WJZ, NEW YORK)
[???day---10:00-10:52 PM]
August 19, 1922
[NEW YORK TIMES: “…by Fulton Oursler, editor of the Ghost Department
of the National Pictorial Magazine…”]
GHOST STORIES
[RADIO-SUBSERIES]
The 1929 series…
CHRONOLOGY
THE MACFADDEN RED SEAL HOUR—“GHOST STORIES” (WABC, NEW YORK)
[Wednesday—9:00-9:30 PM]
September 4, 1929 “The Clue of the Black Dragon”
[MILWAUKEE JOURNAL: “…A cast of unusual excellence has been
assembled for the first Red Seal hour broadcast…when a mystery of
Chinatown will be given…”]
SCRIPT: Adapted from the story appearing in the ???? 1929 issue of Ghost
Stories.
October 2, 1929 “The Phantom of the Sawdust Ring”
[PITTSBURGH PRESS: “…Admittedly the most superstitious branch of the
show business, the circus furnishes the locale of the story to be broadcast
during the MacFadden Red Seal Hour… This presentation will be given
by a selected cast of Broadway players, with musical accompaniment by
an augmented orchestra, and is built about a true story of the big top.
The loving young couple and the vicious stepfather of fiction are found in
this true story, with the important addition of the spectre of Daddy de
Silva, for years a clown under the widespread circus tents. Nor is the
spectre a mere figment of imagination, for de Silva protected his loved
ones in death as he had in life and the avenging shade of the beloved
clown brings to a most unexpected and startling conclusion the career of
the villain of the piece…”]
November 6, 1929 “The Sign on the Throat”
[PITTSBURGH PRESS: “…A spooky, creepy tale of the dread shadows that
stalk abroad after dark… The superstitious peasants of Portugal crossed
themselves apprehensively when the master of the Castle de Menezes
appeared on the roads about the grim structure. Few braved the roads at
night, for many dead were found, and on their throats were three
symbolic gashes. Jennings Holt, cousin of the present lord, Luis Menezes,
attempted to discover the secret of the curse that hung over the house.
Thus, unwittingly, he inherited the family stigma and became a ghoulish
fiend, preying by night on the peaceful inhabitants of the sleepy
villages…”]
December 4, 1929 “
[ST. PETERSBURG TIMES: “…A weird and uncanny story of a ghost that
solves two puzzling murders will be broadcast tonight in the MacFadden
Red Seal Hour… Within a week two men were murdered in a peaceful
Illinois town with no clue to the mystery. After the local authorities had
exhausted every resource, a ghost, arising from a tomb in the dark of the
night, enacted a promise from the friend of one of the murdered men.
The promise, to keep a midnight tryst in the house of the Widow Jones,
resulted in a series of exciting events which reached an unexpected
climax…”]
GHOST STORIES (4QG, BRISBANE)
[Monday—9:30-9:45 PM]
September 9, 1935 “The African Night”
[BRISBANE COURIER-MAIL: “…told by Ion Maxwell…”]
GHOST STORIES
“As his 89th idea to go on the air in three years, Maurice Dreicer’s program of Ghost Stories is
presented five times weekly on WHOM, Jersey City. Dreicer, radio commentator, forum
conductor and one of the busiest men in radio with 24 programs a week, plays all the characters
himself, depending on voice projection entirely for his hair-raising results on the WHOM
program.” [Broadcasting, March 31, 1941]
Dreicer himself appears to have been a bit of a radio gadfly. By August he was working for New
York station WINS as a news commentator, and by December of the same year he had been
appointed educational director of WCNW in Brooklyn.
ORIGINATION: WHOM, Jersey City, New Jersey.
DURATION: March 25, 1941-????.
PERSONNEL: Maurice C. Dreicer (creator of series, all voices)
EXTANT RECORDINGS: None.
GHOST STORIES
Cited in Canadian National Theatre on the Air, 1925-1961; no further information is known.
Walter Winchell enthused: “ABC’s ‘Ghost Stories’ knows how to apply ice to the spine.
Imaginative scripting.”
ORIGINATION: CBL, Toronto, Ontario (CBC Trans-Canada Network).
DURATION: July 8-September 30, 1951.
[NOTE: Recordings of the series were re-broadcast in the United States over ABC from July 16 to
???.]
PERSONNEL: Alan Rossiter King (scriptwriter), Esse W. Ljungh (producer).
CAST: Paxley ?????, et al.
EXTANT RECORDINGS: None.
[NOTE: Five of the stories from this series are available from re-broadcasts in the 1960s and
1970s on the CBC anthology programs Theatre 10:30 and Mystery Theater. The five are “Ghost
Town Hermit,” “The Hitch Hiker,” “The Thing in the Hall,” “The Kitchen Table,” and “The
Vanishing Man.”]
GHOST STORIES (CBL, TORONTO—CBC)
[Sunday—9:00-9:30 PM]
July 8, 1951 “The Ghost Town Hermit”
[CCBS BIBLIOGRAPHY: “…Reporter and friend visit ghost town and
witness the eerie revenge of a dance hall belle on a hermit who once
killed his brother and her lover…”]
July 15, 1951 “Count Magnus” (by M. R.
James)
July 22, 1951 “The Ghost of the Black
Fingers”
[“…In a Cornish village, the ghost of
a dead sea captain lures to their
death the descendants of those who
lured his ship to the rocks…”]
(CCBS Bibliography)
July 29, 1951 “Rhapsody for a Lost Love”
[“…Workman with talent at the
piano dies, prompting heiress to
become dedicated patron of
pianists…”] (CCBS Bibliography)
Aug. 5, 1951 “The Reluctant Phantoms”
[“…Committee of the Festival of
Britain searching for an authentic
haunted house is unimpressed until
villagers assist the friendly
phantoms…”] (CCBS Bibliography)
Aug. 12, 1951 “The Hitch Hiker”
[“…After a number of unsuccessful
rides the ghost of a hitchhiker is
picked up by the motorist who killed
him and provokes his death in
revenge…”] (CCBS Bibliography)
Aug. 19, 1951 “The Cape Horn Pilot” (by
Jacland Marmur)
Aug. 26, 1951 “The Thing in the Hall” (by
E. F. Benson)
Sep. 2, 1951 “The De Noville Coach”
[“…During the Depression,
unemployed Canadian inherits an
estate in France, but his luck changes
again and he is killed by a phantom
coach…”] (CCBS Bibliography)
Sep. 9, 1951 “The Executioner of Caverley”
[“…Skeptical man passes night in
house haunted by ghost of beheaded
girl and axe falls, relieving him of his
doubts—and his head…”] (CCBS
Bibliography)
Sep. 16, 1951 “The Kitchen Table”
Sep. 23, 1951 “The Vanishing Man”
[“…Writer who has lost his ideals
catches glimpses of a man he knows
but can’t identify, the ghost of his
former self; when they meet, he
dies…”] (CCBS Bibliography)
Sep. 30, 1951 “The Torment of Mabel
Fossick”
[“…Woman who often provoked
laughter due to her clumsiness dies
and returns to haunt the man who
always laughed the loudest…”]
(CCBS Bibliography)
GHOST STORIES (ABC)
[Monday—9:30-10:00 PM]
July 16, 1951 “The Ghost Town Hermit”
July 23, 1951
July 30, 1951 “Count Magnus”
Aug. 6, 1951
Aug. 13, 1951
Aug. 20, 1951
Aug. 27, 1951 “The Kitchen Table”
Sources for log information:
GHOST STORIES
Listed in the radio pages of the Kingston Daily Gleaner. JBC was “The Voice of Jamaica.”
ORIGINATION: JBC, Kingston.
DURATION: [April 13]-July 20, 1961
PERSONNEL:
EXTANT RECORDINGS: Unknown.