H.G. Wells’ “THE REMARKABLE CASE OF DAVIDSON’S EYES” #WeirdDarkness

IN THIS EPISODE: When you think of monsters in America, you probably think of Bigfoot in the American Northwest – or perhaps the Chupacabra in the South. Maybe you think of Dogman in the upper Midwest. But people don’t typically think of the American lakes and shores, where we have our own collection of monsters and sea serpents. (American Sea Monsters) *** As the saying goes – don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time. But once in a while the punishment goes far beyond what the crime calls for. (Cruel and Unusual Punishments) *** Marilyn Monroe was found dead of a drug overdose on August 5, 1962. And while the facts of her death are shocking, her troubling childhood wasn’t pretty either. We’ll look at the life and death of this Hollywood bombshell. (The Troubled Life And Shocking Death of Marilyn Monroe) *** We’ll take a look at, not the very first serial killer - but the first serial killer FAMILY in America! The bloody Benders! (America’s First Serial Killer Family) SOURCES AND REFERENCES FROM THE EPISODE… “American Sea Monsters” by Charles M. Skinner, posted at LegendsOfAmerica.com:https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/ycy9tdes “Cruel and Unusual Punishments” by Jonathan Hastad for ListVerse.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/y994jmsf “The Troubled Life And Shocking Death of Marilyn Monroe” by Margarita Hirapetian: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/55bv7naw, and Kelly Kreiss: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/432bykfc for Ranker.com “America’s First Serial Killer Family” by Miss Celania for MentalFloss.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/yz7mbn7v Weird Darkness theme by Alibi Music Library. = = = = = (Over time links seen above may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.) = = = = = "I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness." — John 12:46 = = = = = WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2024, Weird Darkness. = = = = = Originally aired: January, 2021 PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT: https://weirddarkness.com/american-sea-monsters/

Get full-length pulp audiobooks, pulp eBooks, and old-time radio shows ABSOLUTELY FREE FOR IMMEDIATE DOWNLOAD by emailing WeirdDarkness@RadioArchives.com! After September 30, 1962, commercial radio drama was as dead as the doornail described in the opening pages of Dickens' A Christmas Carol (1843), and everyone understood that television killed it. People who worked in both mediums realized that working in radio was a much better overall experience than television could ever be. Sure, TV had pictures to go along with the stories, but putting those pictures on the air involved a highly technical and expensive technology, and by the time those images reached the audience they were grainy, blurry, and sometimes nearly impossible to see. One actor could play different parts on several different radio programs, even in a single episode, but once they were seen in a TV show their face was recognizable enough that they had a hard time working on another show, and even a twenty-second appearance meant hours in makeup and wardrobe. Appearing in a radio drama required just a couple rehearsals and then remaining as quiet as possible in the studio, following along in the script until time to perform your lines, which you also read from the script. There was one important thing that television could offer over radio work; money. The accounting in TV and radio was fundamentally different. A radio program was usually paid for by a single sponsor while commercial time on TV shows was sold piecemeal, but there was still a phenomenal amount of money involved in TV production and the networks and sponsors were happy to pay it. Unable to compete with the huge amount of money being spread around by TV, after the final broadcasts of Suspense and Yours Truly Johnny Dollar on September 30, 1960, the Golden Age of Radio came to an end. Or did it? In the decade after the end of the Golden Age of Radio, TV matured artistically and technically. There had been a rejection by the networks of "rural" programming which helped launch a nostalgia craze. This craze began with the release of George Lucas's American Graffiti (1973), and suddenly everything old seemed new again. One of the genres which were best suited to radio was the horror shows which made listeners sit up in bed and pull the sheets over their heads. This sort of program had been pioneered Wyliss Cooper and Arch Oboler on Lights Out as well as The Whistler, Suspense, and Inner Sanctum Mysteries. This was the type of show creators decided upon for his radio nostalgia project, which became The CBS Radio Mystery Theater. They were convinced that there was enough interest from those who had heard similar shows growing up during the Golden Age, but the show built a following of younger fans for whom radio drama was a new and exciting experience. In many ways, CBSRMT was more like a TV program on the radio than a typical Old Time Radio show. The shows were taped rather than broadcast live, which allowed for greater post-production editing and creative control. The scripts generally ran 45 minutes, and the action was broken at points to allow for separately produced commercials and news bulletins to be inserted. The opening featured the "creaking door" effect which had been part of The Inner Sanctum. Host E.G. Marshall was never as campily creepy earlier horror hosts, but his closing, "Until next time, pleasant… dreams?" was sure to inspire nightmares. Production of CBSRMT was efficient almost to the point of cheapness. Creators drew upon radio row veterans working in New York as well as up-and-coming television personalities. The show used original stories from a wide variety of genres as well as literary classics. Writers were paid a flat $350 for each recorded script, and actors received union scale rates of $73.92 per episode. The actors would come into the studio for an initial script reading at...

IN THIS EPISODE: Los Angeles is one of the world's most famous cities. It’s known for being the home of the rich and famous, the film and music industries, theme parks, beautiful warm weather, gorgeous beaches, and an active nightlife… but it’s also known for smog, skid row, and bad traffic. But one thing most people don’t immediately think of is the almost overwhelming number of ghosts and the city’s history of the occult. In this episode we’re going to look at L.A.’s haunted locations and famous ghosts, as well as look at how prevalent the occult was and possibly still is in the City of Angels. SOURCES AND REFERENCES FROM THE EPISODE… “Hollywood’s Haunted Magic Castle” by Christina Sanza for Graveyard Shift: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/nhdf2f29 “Los Angeles’ Haunted Hotels” by Andy Miller from Weird History: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/mvbdcwac “L.A. Ghosts” by Jen Lennon for Graveyard Shift: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/39xypc6c “Los Angeles: City Of The Occult” by Christine Aprile for Weird History: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/4y9rj77r Weird Darkness theme by Alibi Music Library. = = = = = (Over time links seen above may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.) = = = = = "I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness." — John 12:46 = = = = = WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2024, Weird Darkness. = = = = = Originally aired: April, 2021 PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT: https://weirddarkness.com/los-angeles-hauntings/

Get full-length pulp audiobooks, pulp eBooks, and old-time radio shows ABSOLUTELY FREE FOR IMMEDIATE DOWNLOAD by emailing WeirdDarkness@RadioArchives.com! When the dramatic anthology series "Suspense" premiered over CBS Radio on June 17, 1942, it did so as both a summer series and as a sustaining program. The network had no idea how well the series would perform - its only previous showcase was as an hour-long audition on the 1940 series "Forecast" - so running out and getting a sponsor didn’t seem to be important at that particular stage. Besides, in the show’s salad days, the guest stars that did appear were of considerably low wattage. But as "Suspense" grew in popularity and began to attract a more upscale acting clientele anxious to participate in “radio’s outstanding theater of thrills,” finding someone to pick up the weekly tab became a top priority for CBS. Luckily, in December 2, 1943, the series found its 'angel' in the sponsorship of Roma Wines. "Suspense’s" long association with Roma (and co-branded Cresta Blanca) was good for both the series and the company; a bigger budget attracted bigger guest stars and, as the program began to climb in the ratings, the company began to enjoy substantial profits. This fruitful arrangement came to an end on November 20, 1947. Roma had been admittedly seeing other programs behind "Suspense’s" back and the bright array of top Hollywood talent began to dim a bit as many of the stars began to tire of the program. CBS rolled the dice and took one heck of a chance in keeping "Suspense" on the air; the network still felt that the series was popular with audiences and they agreed to sustain the program until another sponsor could be found.How serious was CBS about keeping its prestige show? Beginning January 3, 1948, "Suspense" was moved to Saturday nights and was broadcast from 8:00 to 9:00 PM Eastern Standard Time. That’s right: a full hour of “Suspense.” Hour-long dramatic shows were a gamble at best; many stars tended to shun these programs - a half-hour show was grueling enough to get through - and only a few, "The Lux Radio Theater" being the best example, managed to continue on the air for very long. But Lux had a sponsor all too willing to write checks on a weekly basis...while CBS, without a sponsor to back them up, was still the sole support of "Suspense." What's more, the network learned soon enough that by doubling the show from half-hour to hour-long status, they had to double the pay of the individuals working on the show as well. (Networks, as a rule, cringe at the thought of giving money away.) To jazz up "Suspense," CBS hired actor Robert Montgomery to be the host and occasional performer, figuring that on the weeks when they had to resort to a less-than "A" list of guest stars, at least Montgomery would be around to provide a certain degree of glitter. Montgomery, at it turned out, made appearances in quite a few of the hour-long shows, including both the premiere, “The Black Curtain”, and most notably in “Night Must Fall”, which allowed him to reprise the role he had created in the 1937 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer motion picture of the same name. "Suspense’s" hour-long experiment closed up shop on May 15, 1948 and the show moved back to Thursday night in its familiar half-hour form through September 1962. 00:00:00.000 = INTRODUCTION 00:01:54.350 = You Were Wonderful (November 09, 1944) 00:31:35.737 = The Dead Of The Night (November 16, 1944) 01:01:04.638 = The Fountain Plays (November 23, 1944) 01:30:44.758 = The Black Curtain (November 30, 1944) 02:00:14.326 = The Lodger (December 14, 1944) 02:29:43.507 = The Brighton Strangler (December 21, 1944) 02:59:12.634 = A Thing of Beauty (December 28, 1944) 03:28:39.963 = I Had An Alibi (January 04, 1945) 03:57:57.876 = Drive-In (January 11, 1945) 04:27:27.459 = Death Went Along For...

IN THIS EPISODE: Conspiracy theories, while often dark, can also be kind of humorous due to being so outlandishly unbelievable. For example… is the Earth’s moon artificial, and actually an extraterrestrial spaceship? We’ll look at the strange theory. (Could Our Moon Be An Alien Spaceship?) *** In 1912 one of the most brutal slayings in America took place in the small town of Villisca, Iowa… a murder so brutal that numerous documentaries have been made about it, books have been written, and amateur detectives have poured over the facts and suspects still trying to find out who the murderer was that swung the bloody axe. (The Unsolved Villisca Ax Murders) *** The President of the United States, no matter who is in the position at the time, is always in danger from those who would like to see someone else in office. We’ll hear on the news of the assassination attempts that came close, but we more often than not are completely unaware of the attempts and plans that have been thwarted – and some of those attempts to kill a sitting U.S. President have been extremely bizarre. (Bizarre Assassination Attempts on U.S. Presidents) *** Some Biblical accounts seem unbelievable and we tend to dismiss them as fantasies, or dreams of the person writing the events down. But what if some of the strange creatures described in the bible are actually real – but come from another dimension, or even outer space? (Are Extraterrestrials in the Bible?) *** If you are told there is a city that has been built specifically for the dead, you probably think of some ancient culture that worshipped their ancestors. Personally, I think of pyramids in Egypt… but I never would’ve thought of the suburbs in California, USA. (California’s City of the Dead) SOURCES AND REFERENCES FROM THE EPISODE… “Could Our Moon Be An Alien Spaceship?” posted at Anomalien.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/bdhz5563 “The Unsolved Villisca Ax Murders” by Joe Turner for HistoricMysteries.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p8mnfp6, and from HauntedRoom.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/36b6k2h4 “California’s City of the Dead” by Hugh Landman for Ranker.com’s Graveyard Shift:https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/yckrxjzd “Are Extraterrestrials in the Bible?” by Ellen Lloyd for AncientPages.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/mr3d8dpk “Bizarre Assassination Attempts on U.S. Presidents” by Richard Stockton for AllThatsInteresting.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/26avtuhr Weird Darkness theme by Alibi Music Library. = = = = = (Over time links seen above may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.) = = = = = "I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness." — John 12:46 = = = = = WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2024, Weird Darkness. = = = = = Originally aired: January, 2022 PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT: