The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society

This week’s visit to the Listener Library brings us to “Island of the Lost,” an episode of CBS Radio Mystery Theater recommended to us by our Patreon member Melanie! Thanks, Melanie! The story features a man suffering headaches, which may or may not be caused by his marriage to a much younger woman. When he surprises her during her tropical vacation, he begins to struggle to tell reality from illusion. Is he imagining her infidelity? Why did his eye doctor write a letter to the man’s wife? Who are the people in your neighborhood? Listen for yourself and find out!

We’re flipping through The Devil’s Scrapbook to learn the story of “The Conquest of David Rugg”! This episode features Sidney Trent, whose car stalls out after he gets lost driving in a storm. He is rescued by David Rugg, a man driving a horse-drawn carriage. Sidney accompanies Rugg back to his home, and before the night is over, madness and terror will reign. Will Rugg conquer or be conquered? Was this a mere nightmare or did these horrors really happen? Is college really that important? Listen for yourself and find out!

Close your eyes as this episode of Quiet Please guides you to “The Room Where the Ghosts Live”! In this story, a man slowly dying from a gunshot tells his tale to a doctor. According to this dying man, he’s opened a secret room in his historic home and released several ghosts who died there. How did this spectral encounter lead to his gunshot wound? Can he trust these messages from beyond? Would these ghosts have gotten away with it if it weren’t for those meddling kids? Listen for yourself and find out!

Join us as we listen to a diabolical tale entitled, “A Horror Story,” from CBS Radio Mystery Theater! The story’s narrator guides us through an abandoned building to find a long lost journal hidden within a wall. This journal contains the tale of a chef tasked with preparing a meal for royalty. What follows is a series of events so monstrous, the narrator can barely bring himself to tell the tale. But he will anyway! Why is this narrator so drawn to this story that is so horrible to him? Is this story in the tradition of Grand Guignol? Why are those slippers making that sound? Listen for yourself and find out!

We’re traveling boldly into our Listener Library for an episode of Escape recommended to us by Caden. Thanks, Caden! This story, “The Grove of Ashtaroth,” is adapted from a short story by John Buchan. It tells the story of two men who stumbled upon a strange grove of trees in Africa. One is so enchanted by the area, he decides to remain there and make it his new home. When the other returns three years later, he finds some unseen power is making his friend behave strangely. What mysterious force is behind this transformation? What cost might there be to save this friend? Did all of your hosts actually do some research for this episode? Listen for yourself and find out!