Back For Christmas

Halloween is over (sigh), but here's a little pre-Christmastime tale for you.

Escape's "Back for Christmas" was adapted from the short story of the same name by John Collier. Both Escape and Suspense presented this tale but without the gruesome elements of the original work. The radio dramatizations also added extra scenes to fill the half-hour format.

The story begins in England, inside the house of a professor of botany named Herbert Carpenter. He and his wife, Hermione, are soon to leave for an extended trip to America, where he will be lecturing.

Hermione is a shrew who keeps her husband under her constant control. She has planned every detail of their trip with precision and, to her annoyance, Herbert is not conforming with her plan. Instead, he is wasting time on a botanical project in their cellar. He is also lingering too long at the bookshop to chat with the bookseller, Miss Markham.

Hermione has promised all of their friends that they will be back for Christmas, but if Herbert has his way -- she won't be.

The radioplay performed on Escape had originally aired on Suspense on December 23, 1943. Peter Lorre played the role of the professor and his rendition of the hen-pecked husband gone mad is classic. The name of the actress who played Hermione is not given, but it was probably Jeanette Nolan.

Listen to "Back for Christmas".

The story was also produced as an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents in 1956. You can watch the full episode in a popout window by clicking on the picture below.





Source for radio broadcast: Escape and Suspense!

70 Years Ago Tonight

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. From the Meridian Room in the Park Plaza in New York City, we bring you the music of Ramon Raquello and his orchestra."

The sounds of "La Cumparsita" began to fill the airwaves. But within moments, the performance was interrupted by a special bulletin from the Intercontinental Radio News, telling of strange explosions of incandescent gas occurring at regular intervals on the planet Mars.

This dramatic approach - a performance interrupted by periodic news bulletins - is how writer Howard Koch adapted H. G. Wells's classic novel The War of the Worlds for radio broadcast. On October 30, 1938, the actors of The Mercury Theatre on the Air, led by twenty-three-year old Orson Welles, presented the adaptation on the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS). Within the first forty minutes of the program, the actors had vividly described Martians landing in New Jersey and decimating the state.

It was Halloween Eve. As Welles explained at the end of the broadcast, the adaptation of The War of the Worlds was a holiday offering - "The Mercury Theatre's own radio version of dressing up in a sheet and jumping out of a bush and saying Boo!" But although CBS made four announcements during the broadcast identifying it as a dramatic performance, at least one million of the estimated nine to twelve million Americans who heard it were deeply scared by that "Boo" - scared into some sort of action.


You can listen to the broadcast by using the
POP-OUT PLAYER in the sidebar. The broadcast is the last item in the playlist. Happy Halloween Eve!


Source: About.com: 20th Century History