THE ADVENTURE OF THE GERMAN STUDENT
[SHORT-STORY]
Story by Washington Irving…
“This story, one of a number of tales and sketches collected in Tales of a Traveller (1824), is
narrated by an old man to a group of listeners. The story concerns a young student from the
German university town of Gottingen. The student, Gottfried Wolfgang, is described as a man of
good family but also as one given to intense speculation on the dark, mystical side of existence.
Indeed, he is shown to have dedicated himself to these studies to such an extent that both his
physical health and his imagination have become ‘diseased.’ As the narrator tells his…”
[CHRONOLOGY]
THE WITCH’S TALE (WOR, NEW YORK)
[Thursday—10:15-10:45 PM]
June 18, 1931 “The Lady of the Guillotine”
PERSONNEL: Alonzo Deen Cole (scriptwriter, director).
CAST: Alonzo Deen Cole, Adelaide Fitz-Allen, Marie O’Flynn, Mark Smith, et al.
[Monday—9:30-10:00 PM]
June 13, 1932 “The Lady of the Guillotine”
TALES OF THE SUPERNATURAL (CJRC, WINNIPEG)
[Wednesday—10:30-11:00 PM]
Circa 1940 “The Lady with the Velvet Collar”
PERSONNEL: Neil LeRoy (producer), Mercer McLeod (narrator),
THE HERMIT’S CAVE (WORLD TRANSCRIPTION)
Circa 1940s “The Black Band” [EXTANT RECORDING]
WE KNOW A STORY (WONS, HARTFORD)
[???day—10:00-10:15 PM]
November 14, 1948 “The Lady with the Velvet Collar” [EXTANT RECORDING]
[RADIOGOLDINDEX: “The program was recorded November 10, 1948.”]
CAST: Guy Hedlund, Dolores Murphy, John Storm.
THE DIAL PLAYERS (WHMA, ANNISTON)
[Tuesday—4:15-4:30 PM]
January 11, 1949 “The Lady with a Velvet Collar”
[“…The Dial Players of the Masque and Wig Guild of Jacksonville State
Teachers College will present a series of 15-minute plays… Washington
Irving’s supernatural story is set in the time of the French Revolution…”]
PERSONNEL: Lawrence Miles (director).
CAST: John Cathey (The Gendarme), Harry Howell (The Narrator), Pat
Whisenant (The Lady).
THE CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATRE (WRVR, NEW YORK)
[???day—10:07-11:00 PM]
September 17, 1979 “The Guillotine” [EXTANT RECORDING]
[“…Gottfried, brooding and lonely, turns to his friend Karl for solace.
Karl suggests a trip to Paris. Gottfried agrees, arriving there at the start of
the Revolution when hundreds of people are being guillotined. In his
loneliness, he creates a woman he tells Karl ‘exists only in my mind.’
Nevertheless, he meets her one stormy night—in the flesh—when he is
inexplicably drawn to the site of the guillotine. He invites her to his
room, but the next morning finds her dead, a victim of the giant blade…”]
PERSONNEL: Himan Brown (producer-director), Elspeth Eric (scriptwriter).
CAST: Paul Hecht (Gottfried), Bryna Raeburn (The Woman), Don Scardino
(Karl).
RADIO TALES—“TALES OF AMERICAN MASTERS” (NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO)
October 6, 1998 “The German Student”
PERSONNEL: Winifred Phillips (reader, composer).
EXTANT RECORDING