THE HALL OF FANTASY
[RADIO-SERIES]
Years before the more famous run of this series on WGN in Chicago.
Richard Thorne and Carl Greyson were both announcers at KALL in Salt Lake City, and they put
on this show (with very barebones production) for several months in late ’46 and early ’47. They
then went their separate professional ways, but when by pure coincidence they re-encountered
each other working at WGN in Chicago a couple of years later, they decided to revive the program.
There are in circulation six of the KALL original Hall of Fantasy broadcasts (sponsored by the
Granite Furniture Company, but missing the commercials, which were inserted live).
CHICAGO TRIBUNE: “A Chicago product, Thorne is an alumnus of Amundsen High, Central
Y.M.C.A., and the University of Illinois. In 1946 he worked at WBEZ, Chicago’s board of education
station, adapting numerous Shakespeare plays for radio.
He wrote his first suspense play “just to see if I could scare people.”
Greyson was born in Milwaukee and educated at the University of Wisconsin and the University
of Utah. In 1947 he worked in a New York straw hat circuit as an actor, then moved to WSM in
Nashville, Tenn., where he was a news commentator.
Both Thorne and Greyson landed at KALL in Salt Lake City, Utah, where Hall of Fantasy was
first tried on the air for size.
“We operated shoe string style in those days,” Greyson recalled. “As we read the scripts we had
to provide our own sound effects. Many a time I held a fishbowl for Dick to talk into. I got 3
dollars for a show then, and Dick got $10.”
[Deseret News, March 28, 1949] “Beth may never enter the field professionally, but she has
enjoyed a great deal of experience in the world of drama… Back in Salt Lake, Beth enrolled at the
University of Utah where she chalked up a record of activity. It included her first play, ‘Peter
Pan’… Betwixt and between she had her own radio program on KALL, entitled ‘Elizabeth Calder
Presents--,’ and worked in the station’s Sunday scheduled ‘Hall of Fantasy’.”
ORIGINATION: KALL, Salt Lake City, Utah (Inter-Mountain Network).
DURATION: November 20, 1946-June 1, 1947.
PERSONNEL: Earl Donaldson (organist), Bob Olsen (scriptwriter), Nephi Sorenson (technical
supervisor), Richard Thorne (director), Mal Wyman (announcer).
CASTS: Michael Bruce, Beth Calder, Carl Greyson, Nelson Hall, Richard Harcourt, June
Hayworth, Archie Hugely, Ken Jensen, Mike LaRogo, Carol Moser, Phyllis Perry, Richard Thorne,
Mal Wyman.
SPONSOR: Granite Furniture Company.
EXTANT RECORDINGS: “The Perfect Script” (2/16/47), “Death in the Bayous” (3/9/47), “The
Judge’s House” (4/6/47), “Man-size in Marble” (4/13/47), “Markheim” (4/27/47), “The Mark of
Shame” (5/4/47).
[NOTE: Most collectors’ catalogs list the dates of recording for these episodes rather than—as
indicated above—the actual broadcast dates.]
THE HALL OF FANTASY (KALL, SALT LAKE CITY)
[Wednesday—11:30 PM-12:00 MIDNIGHT]
Nov. 20, 1946
[Wednesday—9:00-9:30 PM]
Nov. 27, 1946
Dec. 4, 1946
Dec. 11, 1946
Dec. 18, 1946
Dec. 25, 1946
Jan. 1, 1947
Jan. 8, 1947
[Sunday—8:30-9:00 PM]
Jan. 12, 1947
Jan. 19, 1947
Jan. 26, 1947
Feb. 2, 1947
Feb. 9, 1947
Feb. 16, 1947 “The Perfect Script”
Feb. 23, 1947 “The Cask of Amontillado”
March 2, 1947
March 9, 1947 “Death in the Bayous”
March 16, 1947 “The Doctor of Terror”
March 23, 1947
March 30, 1947
April 6, 1947 “The Judge’s House”
April 13, 1947 “Man-Size in Marble”
April 20, 1947
[Sunday—9:30-10:00 PM]
April 27, 1947 “Markheim”
May 4, 1947 “The Mark of Shame”
[Sunday—7:30-8:00 PM]
May 11, 1947
May 18, 1947
May 25, 1947
June 1, 1947
THE HALL OF FANTASY
[RADIO-SERIES]
“…where the veil of time is lifted and the supernatural reigns as king…”
Among the titles broadcast during the early run of the series on WGN…
ORIGINATION: WGN, Chicago, Illinois (MBS).
DURATION: December 10, 1949-February 25, 1952 (first series), August 22-September 26, 1952
(second series), January 5-September 28, 1953 (third series).
[NOTE: Between the second and third series, episodes of The Hall of Fantasy appear to have run
sporadically in the fall of 1952 on a Mutual multi-series program entitled Parade of Mysteries.]
PERSONNEL: Bob Cline (sound effects), Wayne Dickinson (sound effects), Lloyd Knight (sound
effects), Leroy Olliger (director), Glenn Ransom (director), Richard Thorne (scriptwriter,
producer), Harold Turner (organist).
CASTS: Jim Ameche, Muriel Bremner, Maurice Copeland, Harry Elders, Carl Greyson, Doris
Grundy, Richard Gulla, Jerry Kaufherr, Eloise Kummer, Bob McKee, Arthur Peterson, Sam Siegel,
Richard Thorne.
EXTANT RECORDINGS: “The Castle of Lavoca” (8/22/52; #26), “The Shadow People”
(9/5/52; #10), “Steps That Follow Me” (9/19/52; #4—retitled “He Who Follows Me”), “The
Hangman’s Rope” (1/5/53; #21), “The Cask of Amontillado” (1/19/53; #14), “The Black Figurine
of Death” (1/26/53; #13), “The Silver Flask” (2/2/53; #11), “The Dance of the Devil Dolls”
(2/9/53; #1), “The Masks of Ashor” (3/9/53; #8), “The Night the Fog Came” (3/23/53; #12), “The
Beast with Red Eyes” (3/30/53), “The Return from Death” (4/6/53; #3), “The Demon of the
Night” (4/13/53), “Out of the Sky” (4/20/53), “The Wild Huntsman” (4/27/53; #17), “The Idol of
Crom Croc” (5/4/53), “The Crawling Thing” (5/18/53; #7), “The Twisting Weeds of Death”
(5/25/53; #18), “The Tell-Tale Heart” (6/1/53; #6), “The Hand of Botar” (6/8/53; #23), “The
Jewels of Kali” (6/15/53; #25), “The Marquise of Death” (6/22/53; #15), “The Temple of
Huitzilopochtli” (6/29/53; #5), “The Man in Black” (7/6/53; #16), “The Treasure of Kublai Khan”
(7/20/53; #20), “The Automaton” (7/27/53; #19), “The Golden Bracelet of Amoniris” (8/3/53;
#22), “The Man from Second Earth” (8/10/53), “Stone’s Revenge” (8/17/53; #24), “The Sea
Phantom” (8/24/53; #2), “The Diamonds of Death” (8/31/53; #9).
[OG-NOTE: 26 episodes from this series were re-released in the 1970s with new openings and closings. Most of the
extant recordings listed above have the 1970s-version intros and outros. The 26 are listed with the 1970s series
numbering following the original broadcast date.]
Eloise Kummer
THE HALL OF FANTASY
[Saturday—2:30-3:00 PM]
December 10, 1949 “The Cask of Amontillado”
December 17, 1949 “The Passing Seconds”
December 24, 1949 “Markheim”
January 7, 1950 “The Man Who Returned”
January 14, 1950 “The Tell-Tale Heart”
January 21, 1950 “The Curse of Amoaton”
January 28, 1950 “It Lives by Night”
Feb. 4, 1950 “The Painting in the Cellar”
Feb. 11, 1950 “The Black Cat”
Feb 18, 1950
Feb. 25, 1950 “Death Is Close By”
Mar. 4, 1950 “The Thing in the House”
Mar. 11, 1950 “He Who Follows Me”
Mar. 18, 1950 “The Beast with Red Eyes”
Mar. 25, 1950 “You Shall Be Avenged”
April 1, 1950 “The River of the Moon”
April 8, 1950 “Creatures in the Darkness”
April 15, 1950 “The Gold Bug”
April 22, 1950 “Eyes in the Dark”
April 29, 1950 “The Woman Who Lived Again”
[Monday—9:00-9:30 PM]
May 1, 1950 “The Cask of Amontillado”
May 8, 1950 “The Passing Seconds”
May 15, 1950 “Spirit of the Dead”
May 22, 1950
May 29, 1950 “The Dream Woman”
June 5, 1950 “The Tell-Tale Heart”
June 12, 1950 “The Green Hand”
June 19, 1950 “The Mechanical Brain”
June 26, 1950
July 3, 1950 “The Tomb of Carmilla”
July 10, 1950 “The Signalman”
July 17, 1950 “Sound in the Night”
July 24, 1950 “The Four Candles”
July 31, 1950
Aug. 7, 1950
Aug. 14, 1950
Aug. 21, 1950 “One of Us in This Room”
Aug. 28, 1950 “The Knight’s Room”
Sep. 4, 1950 “From Beyond Space”
Sep. 11, 1950
September 18, 1950 “The Red Cloth”
September 25, 1950 “No Death for Me”
[“…a tale of a man’s search for immortality…”]
October 2, 1950 “One by One You Shall Die”
October 9, 1950 “Murder Follows Diamonds”
October 16, 1950 “He Who Defiles My Tomb”
October 23, 1950
October 30, 1950 “The Eyes of Doom”
[“…a Halloween night in a haunted house…”]
November 13, 1950 “The Crawling Thing”
November 20, 1950 “The Right Index Finger”
November 27, 1950 “Yellow Is the Color of Death”
Dec. 4, 1950 “Death Walks with a Limp”
Dec. 11, 1950 “The Man in Black”
Dec. 18, 1950 “Footprints in the Snow”
Dec. 25, 1950
Jan. 1, 1951 “The Gold Medallion”
Jan. 8, 1951 “The Time Machine”
Jan. 15, 1951 “The Dolls of Satan”
Jan. 22, 1951 “The Moonpaw”
Jan. 29, 1951 “The Wild Huntsman”
Feb. 5, 1951 “And Not the Hunter”
Feb. 12, 1951 “Strike Back in Anger”
Feb. 19, 1951 “The Room Upstairs”
Feb. 26, 1951 “The Night the Fog Came”
Mar. 5, 1951 “Island of the Dead”
Mar. 12, 1951 “And Death Was Here”
Mar. 19, 1951 “There Is No Return”
Mar. 26, 1951 “Death in the Night”
April 2, 1951 “Death Has the Voice of Thunder”
April 9, 1951 “Mirror of the Past”
April 16, 1951 “A Game of Death”
April 23, 1951 “The Hangman’s Rope”
April 30, 1951 “The Dream Kingdom”
May 7, 1951 “The Lost Valley”
May 14, 1951 “To Attack and Destroy”
May 21, 1951 “The Music of Death”
May 28, 1951 “Until I Need Another”
June 4, 1951 “The Blood Red Eyes of Durga”
June 11, 1951 “The Visitor”
June 18, 1951 “The Man Who Was Death”
June 25, 1951 “And the Shadows Are Here”
July 2, 1951 “Cry in the Night”
July 9, 1951 “The Thing in the Picture”
July 16, 1951 “The Judas Coin”
July 23, 1951 “Iron Key to Terror”
July 30, 1951 “The Girl in the Storm”
Aug. 6, 1951 “Fear Is a Fragile Mirror”
Aug. 13, 1951 “The Black Plain”
Aug. 20, 1951 “The Day That Time Ended”
Aug. 27, 1951 “They Follow My Steps”
Sep. 3, 1951 “The Twisted Mind”
Sep. 10, 1951 “The Little Wax Image”
Sep. 17, 1951 “He Who Lives by Night”
Sep. 24, 1951 “The Face of Death”
Oct. 1, 1951 “The Mask of Gold”
Oct. 8, 1951 “The House of Fear”
Oct. 15, 1951 “Judge of the Dead”
Oct. 22, 1951 “The Fires of Hate”
Oct. 29, 1951 “The Thing in the Fog”
Nov. 5, 1951 “The Black Circle”
[Monday—9:30-10:00 PM]
Nov. 12, 1951 “So Soon You Die”
Nov. 19, 1951 “The Dark Power”
Nov. 26, 1951 “The Grey Killer”
Dec. 3, 1951 “The Jade Dagger of Yu Chuan”
Dec. 10, 1951 “Man with the Face of Death”
Dec. 17, 1951 “The Castle of Lavoca”
Dec. 24, 1951 “The Haunted Man”
Jan. 14, 1952 “The Devil’s Hand”
Jan. 21, 1952 “The Voice of the Wind”
Feb. 4, 1952 “The Man with the Cloak”
Feb. 11, 1952 “The Book of Thoth”
Feb. 25, 1952 “He Returned from Death”
[Friday—8:30-9:00 PM]
August 22, 1952 “The Castle of Lavoca”
[The Chicago Tribune announced as “The Legend of Drago”]
August 29, 1952 “The Brown Plague”
[“…Two fishermen in the Wisconsin lake area are startled by a strange
object that lands on a nearby shore…”]
September 5, 1952 “The Shadow People”
September 12, 1952 “The Black Book of the Raven”
September 19, 1952 “Steps That Follow Me”
September 26, 1952 “The Crimson Hands of Kali”
[Thursday—
October 2, 1952 KGO [Modesto Bee]
[Friday—9:30-10:00 PM]
October 10, 1952 “The Shadow People”
[Monday—7:30-8:00 PM]
January 5, 1953 “The Hangman’s Rope”
January 12, 1953 “The Day That Time Ended”
January 19, 1953 “The Cask of Amontillado”
[“…Edgar Allan Poe’s eerie tale of hate and revenge…”
January 26, 1953 “The Black Figurine of Death”
February 2, 1953 “The Silver Flask”
[“…An unusual container ordered years ago by Chinese emperor Yu
Chuam from the sorcerer Chou Ming eventually makes its way to
America. Henry Stebbins obtains the cursed flask and becomes involve in
a game of death…”]
February 9, 1953 “Dance of the Devil Dolls”
[“…Voodoo’s strange use of dolls to transmit injury to marked persons is
the subject of the story…”]
February 16, 1953 “The Mummy’s Scarab”
[“…An archaeological expedition journeys to Egypt to find the tomb of
Ammonra, one of the richest of Egyptian rulers…”]
February 23, 1953 “The Stairway to Doom”
[“…tale of four men who, believing in the legend of Atlantis, take the
‘Stairway to Doom’…”]
March 2, 1953 “The Balaci Treasure”
March 9, 1953 “The Mask of Ashor”
[“…Ancient mythology reveals that Ashor was the messenger between life
and death. The story deals with the disappearance of the messenger’s
mask…”]
March 16, 1953 “Saladin’s Mind”
[“…A magician uses only the power of his mind and no mechanical effects
to pursue his studies…”]
March 23, 1953 “The Night the Fog Came”
[“…A new form of water life on the northwestern tip of Lake Superior is
discovered…”]
March 30, 1953 “The Beast with Red Eyes”
April 6, 1953 “The Return from Death”
[“…Two scientists experiment with the natural laws of life and death, and
terror results…”]
April 13, 1953 “Demon of the Night”
[“…Rafael Sebastian stretched out the arm of an animal for a handshake
with the sheriff and a newspaperman…”]
April 20, 1953 “Out of the Sky”
[“…Some unusual air accidents occur up and down the American
coastline…”]
April 27, 1953 “The Wild Huntsman”
[“…The old legend of the mad huntsman is part of many countries’
folklore. A group of people are taken to a forbidden hunting area to bag
all the game they can, but are told to pay no attention to a wild
huntsman…”]
May 4, 1953 “The Idol of Crom Croc”
[“…A young couple find a map that leads them to a hidden village
occupied by a sect practicing human sacrifices to appease the gods. The
couple learn that they are to be so honored…”]
May 11, 1953 “The Specter of Denston Castle”
[“…A young man is informed he’s heir to a large estate with the title of
Earl of Harcourt, but when he arrives to claim his inheritance, he is
greeted by an apparition of a woman in white who tells him about the
Denston curse…”]
May 18, 1953 “The Crawling Thing”
May 25, 1953 “The Twisting Weeds of Death”
[“…A girl returns from the dead to avenge her own murder…”]
June 1, 1953 “The Tell-Tale Heart”
June 8, 1953 “The Hand of Botar”
[“…A learned man so overly develops the capabilities of his right hand
that it appears to have intelligence of its own…”]
June 15, 1953 “The Jewels of Kali”
[“…A macabre tale of a grotesque four-armed body clawing the air and
searching the continents for four rubies…”]
June 22, 1953 “The Marquise of Death”
June 29, 1953 “The Man in Black”
July 6, 1953 “The Temple of Huitzilipochli”
July 13, 1953 “The Snow Monster”
[“…An eerie ‘thing’ causes much damage up in snowy mountains…”]
July 20, 1953 “The Treasure of Kublai Khan”
July 27, 1953 “The Automaton”
[“…a machine that looks and thinks like a man…”]
August 3, 1953 “The Golden Bracelet of Amoniris”
August 10, 1953 “The Man from Second Earth”
August 17, 1953 “Stone’s Revenge”
[“…The eerie tale of a man who seeks and is refused refuge from a
blizzard in the cabin of his enemy.”]
August 24, 1953 “The Sea Phantom”
[“…No one ever saw the Sea Phantom, but all could hear her cries for
help and see the ghost ship anchored in the bay, a skeleton lashed to the
wheel…”]
August 31, 1953 “The Diamonds of Death”
[“…A thief dies mysteriously and a stolen diamond gleams strangely…”]
September 7, 1953 “The Room Beyond”
[“…A man grows younger rather than older, and visitors to his abode
always vanish…”]
September 14, 1953 “A Summons from Death”
September 21, 1953 “Creatures in the Shadows”
September 28, 1953 “The Night the Others Returned”