THE CITY OF THE DEAD
[RADIO-SERIAL]
“Spooky, weird detective stories are becoming quite popular with the radio audience. It sets the
hair a-tingle like no amount of reading matter can. ‘The City of the Dead,’ just started over NBC’s
Pacific coast network, is just that type of story.”
The third Carlton Morse mystery serial and the first one written solely by him.
“The mournful tolling of a church bell in an old cemetery will introduce listeners to one of the
weirdest radio thrillers yet…”
In 1944-45 Morse produced a 52-episode transcription series entitled Adventures by Morse. For
40 of these episodes he revamped four of his ten-chapter serials from the 1930-1931 era: The City
of the Dead, Dead Men Prowl, The Dragon in the Sun (which became "The Land of the Living
Dead"), 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).
CAST: Bernice Berwin (Phyllis Carroll), Thomas Kelly (Jimmy Parker), George Rand (Dr. Tooner), Fred
Thomas (“Mayor” Josiah Long/“Old Clawfoot”), Barton Yarborough (Sergeant Jack Long).
SPONSOR: Utah Fuel Company (Castle Gate Coal—KSL, Salt Lake City).
EXTANT RECORDINGS: None.
[Program log]
THE CITY OF THE DEAD (KGO, SAN FRANCISCO—NBC-PACIFIC COAST)
[Friday—10:00-10:30 PM]
September 26, 1930 [PART 1] “The Old Haunted Church”
[“…It is harvest Friday—‘the night when almost anything can happen’—
and a full moon is shining whitely into the cemetery whose caretaker,
Joshua Long, calls himself ‘Mayor of the City of the Dead,’ as the drama
opens. A boy and a girl in their early twenties, escaping from an auto
hold-up, seek refuge in the deserted cemetery. A quaint old retired
doctor, all of whose patients are buried in the ‘City of the Dead,’ and who
comes to ‘visit with them’ frequently, is one of the characters tangled in
the gruesome web of murder and horror which holds Phyllis and Jim, the
girl and boy, virtual prisoners in the city of ancient tombs…”]
October 3, 1930 [PART 2] “I’ve Dug Up Something Ghastly”
[“…Following a series of strange events, the ‘mayor’s’ son, a young police
detective, arrives on the scene to investigate. No one is allowed to leave
the scene, he declares, until the mystery is solved. When he and Jim
discover a grave which has been tampered with, they stumble upon a
gruesome find that implicates the boy and girl in a murder…”]
October 10, 1930 [PART 3] “The Body That Walked Off”
[“…Further developments in tonight’s episode confirm the presence of a
definite menace in the graveyard… Jack Long is strangled by the mystery
killer…”]
October 17, 1930 [PART 4] “Old Clawfoot Again”
[“…The murder mystery grows deeper and more strange incidents take
place, binding still tighter the principal characters of the play in a net of
terror… Jimmy Parker and his girl friend, Phyllis, are still being held
prisoners in the abandoned graveyard, while Sergeant Jack Long
attempts to untangle the mystery of several murders, grave robbings and
other gruesome happenings. Three bodies are found in an old cabin.
Before they can be removed for identification someone sets the cabin on
fire. A visit to the old church discloses the hiding place of the claw-footed
man who has been leading the sergeant and the others a merry chase
among the gravestones during the past episodes. Phyllis is stabbed in the
back, but it is only a flesh wound. Everyone, including Phyllis, suspects
Parker…”]
October 24, 1930 [PART 5] “The Skeleton Walked In”
[“…The curtain rises tonight upon the group as they are seeking to unveil
the causes behind the stabbing of Phyllis. Jimmy suddenly discloses the
real reason of their presence in the cemetery… It is learned that Jimmy
and Phyllis are in the old graveyard to find half a million dollars worth of
black pearls, willed to Phyllis by her grandfather, Dr. Theodore Arnold.
Suspicion shifts temporaily from Phyllis and Jimmy to the old doctor and
the mayor of the City of the Dead as the ‘mayor’s’ son, Detective Jack
Long, continues his investigations…”]
October 31, 1930 [PART 6] “The Ghoul in the Grave”
[“…A little group of persons held virtually prisoners in a deserted church
yard where a creeping terror threatens the lives of all of them—this is the
situation upon which the curtain rises tonight… The sixth episode of this
bloodcurdling mystery serial is filled with new horrors and new
mysteries. The phantom church-bell whose tolling prefaces each strange
and terrifying incident in the cemetery appears in a new light in this
episode and the problem of where its strange sound emanates is partially
explained…”]
November 7, 1930 [PART 7] “Sergeant Long Vanishes”
[“…Whoever the Clawfoot phantom is, his sympathies seem to be with
Phyllis Carol…Although he broke into the cottage of ‘Mayor’ Long of the
City of the Dead, he did not harm her… Subsequently it is learned that he
has left a huge black pearl for her… The disappearance of Sergeant Jack
Long and the suspicious actions of the Sergeant’s father ‘Mayor’ Long
add another touch of mystery to the episode…”]
November 14, 1930 [PART 8] “The Kidnapping of Clawfoot”
[“…Young Parker accuses ‘Mayor’ Long of having something to do with
the mysterious happenings… On his side, ‘Mayor’ Long accuses Parker of
killing Sergeant Jack Long… The stolen skeleton is returned to the
mayor’s cottage, and the ‘Clawfoot Phantom’ is kidnapped…”]
Noember. 21, 1930 [PART 9] “The Trail of the Phantom Church Bell”
[“…Jimmy Parker and ‘Doc’ Tuner go down into the abandoned
graveyard after hearing the church bell ring in the daytime… They go to
the old abandoned church and Jimmy falls through the rotting flooring
and lands in the basement. He discovers that the bell is hanging in the
basement a few inches clear of the floor. He also finds a man bound and
gagged in the basement. The prisoner had been lashing out with his feet
and striking the bell in the hope of calling someone to his rescue. Just as
Jimmy and ‘Doc’ Tuner are preparing to carry the bound man back to the
cottage, they hear the shrill of the police whistle which Jimmy had left
with Phyllis in the cottage…”]
November 28, 1930 [PART 10] “Where the Pearls Were Hidden”
[“…The Clawfoot Phantom is in reality Robert, the son of Theodore
Arnold… Arnold had buried the pearls originally in the City of the Dead
and had later deposited them in a safe deposit box in a San Francisco
bank… Subsequently, due to an attack of amnesia he lost all memory of
digging up the pearls and putting them in the bank… The secret of
Clawfoot’s footprints is revealed to be a pair of moccasins made from the
skin off the feet of a claw-footed animal…”]
THE CITY OF THE DEAD
[RADIO-SERIAL EPISODE]
When is a radio serial not a radio serial?...
[Middletown Times Herald, April 7, 1933—“Cruising the Dial with Raymond J. Dulye”] “A new
page was written in the history of Orange County amateur dramatics Sunday night when a group
from the Middletown Players Club under direction of Dr. Stanley N. Holt, sent delicious chills and
shivers up and down the vertabrae of WGNY's audience with a splendid presentation of The
Haunted Church, an episode of a radio drama labeled The City of the Dead.
“The players were Beverly Stowell as Phyllis, O. S. Hathaway 'Jr as Dr. Tooner, William
Broadhead as Mayor Long, and William Hutt as Jlmmie. Their voices registered like sunshine in
Alaska as they swept the chill-thriller to a successful climax. And judging from the numerous
comments of gratified fans, they clicked topside for sheer entertainment value. Okay and well
done sez everybody, and let's have more of it, please. A shiny, new plaudit to Doc Holt and each
member of the cast.
“Sound effects had much to do with the success of the drama—and a big handshake is extended
to Dick Whitlock and Bob Austell for their proficiency, in manipulating gadgets and gee-gaws
(made of rope, oatmeal boxes, bit of metal and wood, etc.) so as to reproduce most cleverly the
noises of clanking chains, walling winds, tolling bells, creaking beams and stairways, and all the
other sounds one would expect to hear in a haunted church.
“All well done, m'lads, and you're the envy of every dramatic society within the sight of the
Shawangunks.”
[Program information]
ORIGINATION: WGNY, Middletown, New York.
DURATION: April 2, 1933.
PERSONNEL: Bob Austell (sound-effects), Dr. Stanley N. Holt (director), Carlton E. Morse
(scriptwriter), Dick Whitlock (sound-effects).
CAST: William Broadhead (Mayor Long), O. S. Hathaway Jr. (Dr. Tooner), William Hutt
(Jimmie), Beverly Stowell (Phyllis).
EXTANT RECORDINGS: None.
[Program log]
THE MIDDLETOWN PLAYERS CLUB (WGNY, MIDDLETOWN)
[Sunday—10:30-11:00 PM]
April 2, 1933 “The City of the Dead—[1] The Haunted Church”