OTR Halloween Day 19: Mystery in the Air

Mystery in the Air was one of the absolute best mystery/horror anthology series in all of old-time radio - but it was very short-lived! Sponsored by Camel Cigarettes as a summer replaacement for Abbott and Costello, it aired July-September, 1947... and never again. There were only 13 episodes of Mystery in the Air and we have 8 of them still in existence.

What makes me think Mystery in the Air stands out? Simple: Peter Lorre. Lorre was the star of the show and appeared as the lead performer each week in a great mystery/horror story. Lorre always brought 110% more intensity to his roles than any other actor and the highlight of each episode is the moment(moments) in which Lorre breaks out his loudest, most deranged outburst!

The episode I'd like to feature is titled "the Mask of Medusa" from September 4, 1947. It's based on a short story from 1945 by writer Nelson S. Bond. An escaped criminal hides in a waxworks and discovers the curator possesses Medusa's head. And those figures aren't wax...

Bond's original story is covered in the first half of the radio drama. The rest of the drama was written to fill the half hour but it's a pretty great expansion of what Bond set up in his tale. You can hear "The Mask of Medusa" at the Internet Archive.

Radio Recap: The Black Book

The Black Book is an unusually brief but well-made radio program. According to all the research available on the internet, only three episodes were ever broadcast in 1952 - all of which still exist. However, there are two other recordings which were apparently never aired that suggest a lot was going on behind-the-scenes of the program.

The most important factoid about the Black Book is that it starred Paul Frees. Frees was simply one of the best voices on radio; he was sometimes an announcer on Suspense, sometimes the announcer and/or lead role on Escape. He was adept at drama and comedy, could speak with the neat mannerisms of Orson Welles, the rough voice of a butcher or the twang of a southerner.

The Black Book, then, was a vehicle for Frees to show off his abilities. The Old-Time Radio Researchers Library has a recording from 1951 called "Different Readings" which is apparently the Black Book's pilot. Frees is presented as "the Man in Black," who had been the host of Suspense in its earliest days (I'm pretty sure John Dickson Carr owned the character which is why he disappeared from Suspense with Carr). "Different Readings" is basically a five-minute "perfect crime" story told by Frees - and then re-told. You get to hear different takes on Frees trying out the story. This alone is pretty fascinating as we have all-too-few examples of multiple takes on the same works by the same creators. At first, Frees is simply narrating a story; in other takes, he adopts different voices; conversations are played out in full instead of being alluded to. You get the sense that someone thought it wasn't quite gelling and wanted a different approach. In one version Frees gets a bit tongue-tied and has to take a section over again. "Different Readings" was never meant for public consumption but it's a neat peek behind the curtain.

A year later it seems they tried another pilot for the Black Book. This time it was the story "The Price of the Head" by John Russell, which was also dramatized on Escape. The Escape version has some patchy audio so it's nice that the Black Book version is so crisp. This time instead of a five-minute narrated drama, the Black Book is a 15-minute program; instead of Frees running the show solo, he's joined by actor John Dehner. Between Frees, Dehner and the source material it sounds pretty much like a lost episode of Escape and small wonder - pretty much everyone working on it was an Escape alumni, from director Norman Macdonnell to composer Leith Stevens.

So I guess this 2nd pilot impressed CBS enough to grant the Black Book a spot in the schedule, but maybe they changed their minds because we only received 3 actual programs: "On Schedule," "My Favorite Corpse," and "Vagabond Murder." The casts in these shows are minimal but very strong, with Frees joined primarily with John Dehner (again). "On Schedule" is also interesting as it's a crime story by Nelson S. Bond, who was better-known as a science fiction author.

The Black Book would have been a crime show, based on the three episodes that actually aired. With all the talented people from Escape working on it, it could've become a classic of old-time radio. But, sadly, for whatever reason, it didn't pan out.

You can hear the three broadcast episodes on the Internet Archive, here. I've only seen the other two at the Old-Time Radio Researchers Library.

"There is a world within the cool shadows." The Thirty-First of February

Earlier I looked back at sci-fi/fantasy author Nelson S. Bond's Mr. Mergenthwirker's Lobblies and the Far Side of Nowhere. Completing my look at Bond (for now), I recently finished reading his second short story collection, the Thirty-First of February (1949), published in softcover by Gnome Press; the stories collected date from 1938-1946.

Cover obtained via ISFDB

As before, these stories usually have a humourous bend and delve into light fantasy; it's gentle fiction and quite enjoyable.

"The Sportsman": I don't think this story can truly be called fantasy - it concerns a crippled hunter who befriends the able-bodied hunters at his club and how his presence enriches their lives. It's a sedate, sentimental story.

"The Mask of Medusa": I first heard this tale adapted on the radio program Mystery in the Air with Peter Lorre (go hear it at archive.org via this link). This story concerns a waxworks whose owner turns real people into displays. How does he do it? Say, have you ever seen the Medusa's head before...? It's interesting to discover the original text is quite brief - the radio version padded it out considerably, but both are good stories.

"My Nephew Norvell": An average mechanic meets his great-grandnephew from the future who's come back to get first-hand information for a biography he's writing. And yet, the mechanic couldn't possibly create the inventions his "nephew" credits him with, so he attempts to fashion by a paradox by suggesting his nephew simply give him the schematics!

"The Ring": A mystical ring grants its bearer dominion over others but carries with it a terrible doom; it's been worn by many men over the ages and as this story is set in Weimar Republic Germany... you can guess who it's owner turns out to be.

"The Gripes of Wraith": Beyond the very cute title lies a cute story about a drinker whose new drinking buddy is a ghost; he concocts a plan to get his good buddy out of eternal purgatory.

"The Cunning of the Beast": A dull story which tells the story of the Garden of Eden through the lens of science fiction. The parallels are so instantly obvious and it goes on for so long that, no, you can't redeem your story by revealing the "beasts" were named Adam & Eve - you have to either do a better job of distracting the reader from recognizing the parallels or insert a very clever dodge from the reader's expectations.

"The Five Lives of Robert Jordan": A somewhat Rod Serling-ish tale; Robert Jordan purchases a most unusual timepiece and finds his life jetting off into five different directions as he becomes different men, but pretty soon the five of us are... er, five of them are dying.

"Take My Drum to England...": During the retreat of Dunkirk, Sir Francis Drake helps spare the crew of a boat; sorry to ruin the twist ending for you, but it ain't one of Bond's best.

"Saint Mulligan": A humourous story about a police officer who helps out an angel; the angel insists on rewarding Mulligan and upon learning the cop wants a promotion, misunderstands this and turns Mulligan into an angel. Many complications insist, not the least of which is a fellow who goes by either "Abe Addon" or "B.L. Zeebub."

"The Monster From Nowhere": Here's an interesting curve - true horror story, quite unlike the other tales, although it does delve into the fourth dimension, one of Bond's favourite subjects. An explorer in Peru capture a 4-dimensional creature - or at least, part of the creature. Problems ensue when he decides to introduce the scientific community to the monster. The story notably invokes Ambrose Bierce's "the Damned Thing" and is definitely more in Bierce's line than Bond's usual fare.

"The Man Who Walked Through Glass": Speaking of the fourth dimension, here we have a man who discovers he can travel through glass, provided he's naked. It starts out seeming very whimsical, but it seems the sensation of traveling through glass is a little too addictive to the man...

"The Enchanted Pencil": A fun story about a pulp author whose pencil can write terrific stories, but without it he's as hopeless as, well, me. There is a clever solution to the problem of how he can continue being a writer after the pencil is used up: go work for Hollywood!

"Pilgrimage": This tale features Meg & Daiv, characters of Bond's I first encountered in "the Magic City" (the Far Side of Nowhere), but this is the first of his Meg & Daiv tales, telling of a post-apocalyptic world where the history of humanity has been corrupted by time and legend. Meg is introduced here as a very fine protagonist, easily the best female character of Bond's I've read - although the story's implication that Meg's matriarchy is inferior to Daiv's patriarchy raises other problems. Still, a good story - I'd like to read the other Meg & Daiv tales.

Once again, I'm very pleased to have explored Bond's writing more closely. Perhaps I'll unearth more of his anthologies in the future.

"Nowhere is that tiny spot of space between now and here." The Far Side of Nowhere review

Having previously spoken to you about Nelson S. Bond's great book Mr. Mergenthwirker's Lobblies, I felt I might as well continue with a look at another of Bond's short story anthologies - this one from late in his life: the Far Side of Nowhere, published in 2002 by Arkham House and featuring short introductions from Bond himself.

Image from ISFDB

Many of the stories in the Far Side of Nowhere were first published in magazines during World War II, although the book's contents include stories from the 1950s and even 1990s. I would say this book belongs to the hardcore fans of Nelson S. Bond - the completists. I don't think the Far Side of Nowhere is as good as Mr. Mergenthwirker's Lobblies, but the stories are very similar; therein lies the problem: Bond's stories involve so many familiar ideas and approaches, especially where time travel is involved. For this reason, I won't bother going through the stories one at a time; instead, here are my arbitrarily-chosen most interesting stories from the Far Side of Nowhere:

• "Command Performance" Perhaps the most interesting thing about this story of an analyst attempting to uncover the meaning behind a man's nightmares is that he employs Dianetics to do so. I experienced a very brief panic as I wondered whether Bond converted to Hubbardology, but this story seems to be Bond's only foray into it.
• "Time Exposure" Like the previous book's "Johnny Cartwright's Camera," this concerns a camera with temporal powers - it can take pictures of the past or the future, but pictures of the future can't be developed until the moment reaches the present.
• "Private Line to Tomorrow" Concerns a man who accidentally "fixes" his telephone so that it receives calls 24 hours in advance; it takes him a while to catch on to what's happened and even then, it's difficult to sort out your personal life when all of your messages arrive 24 hours after you send them.
• "The Battle of Blue Trout Basin" is a brief, odd story about a fisherman who finds a place where the fish are so eager to die they crowd up for the opportunity!
• "The Unusual Romance of Ferdinand Pratt" features a shabby, wanna-be djinn who offers to make Ferdinand's typist fall in love with him via magic; instead, he makes Ferdinand's typewriter fall in love with him. It only gets worse when the typewriter becomes jealous!
• "Herman and the Mermaid" tells the story of a man who falls in love with a mermaid and convinces her people to enter the War on behalf of the Allies to sink German submarines. For a moment, it's like reading a wartime Sub-Mariner comic book!
• "Double, Double, Toil and Trouble" features Nelson S. Bond himself - twice over! Due to an unfortunate experiment, there are two Nelson S. Bonds, which gets to be very irritating to editor John W. Campbell as both Bonds are trying to sell him the same stories!
• "Magic City" The protagonist of this story, Meg, has appeared in other Bond stories which I've yet to read. It's a post-apocalyptic world where a new matriarchal society has arisen with only dim memories of what had been; it's pretty well-told and often very subtle, leaving it to the audience to decipher the scrambled-up elements of contemporary times for themselves.
• "The Masked Marvel" A sequel to the earlier "Bacular Clock." Pat Pending is back, his dialogue more wonderiferous than before. Sample: "My inventulation is stupendically importulant. One of the greatest things ever discoverized by man. It hasn't even been patentated yet." This time, Pat's built a robot golfer and sends it out to win big at a tournament, but an unfortunate downpour throws the robot off its game.
• "The Scientific Pioneer Returns" brings back Horse-Sense Hank from "Socrates of the South Forty," but this time it's as a crossover with Bond's other character Lancelot Biggs and after a pretty good set-up, it becomes a lot of goofy technobabble.
• "Miracles Made Easy" The Lobblies themselves are back!!! However, this story is a fairly typical Bondian time travel story; men try to use the Lobblies' knowledge of the future so they can bet on a football game. It has a neat enough solution, but it's not as special as the original Lobblies story.
• "The Amazing Invention of Wilberforce Weems" Wilberforce invents a chemical which can impart all the knowledge of a book to one's mind by simply tapping the book against your head. This works well in giving Wilberforce the confidence and data he needs for work, but unfortunately his sister has absorbed a text on nudism, his brother-in-law absorbed "Mein Kampf" and his little nephew struck his head on a ribald men's magazine.
• "The Man Who Weighed Minus Twelve" features exactly what the title says; a horse owner realizes that with a man who weighs -12, you could have a second jockey on your racehorse and still come in under weight. Sounds like a good plan...
• "Occupation: Demigod" Finally, this is a charming story of a jazz musician who picks up an ancient horn which connects him to the Greek pantheon, causing some question as to whether or not they'll admit him into their ranks as a demigod.

"Things like pwidgeting and rikking trilks" Mr. Mergenthwirker's Lobblies and Other Fantastic Tales

Some time ago I happened upon a 1950s radio series titled Sleep No More; performed on an extremely low budget, it consisted of Nelson Omstead reading short fiction. Although some of the tales he visited were familiar to me, others proved delightfully unfamiliar. Amongst these were three tales by Nelson S. Bond: "Mr. Mergenthwirker's Lobblies," "the Bookshop," and "Conqueror's Isle" (I had only heard of the last title before). I became interested in reading more of Bond's short fiction and it transpired that all three stories were part of a collection from 1946: Mr. Mergenthwirker's Lobblies and Other Fantastic Tales.

It took me some time to acquire a copy of the book on the second-hand market; due to an inexplicable mishap, the book which the first dealer provided photographic evidence to me of having mailed, never materialized. Overcoming that early discouragement, I finally obtained my copy last year. I doubt Bond is too widely known these days, so would you mind it too terribly if I indulged in discussing the contents of the book? You don't mind? Let us begin:

• "Mr. Mergenthwirker's Lobblies" This uniquely-titled story involves a curious man who can see into the future - or, rather, his invisible companions the Lobblies can see the future and occasionally share information. It's a gentle fantasy with a touch of darkness, like most of the stories in this tome. Also, it concerns things from another reality intruding upon Earth's affairs, which was clearly one of Bond's favourite concepts, although it plays out differently amongst his stories.
• "The Magic Staircase" This is the first tale in the collection where Bond's characters verbalize his ideas about parallel worlds and interdimensional mathematics; this time, it concerns a newly-fashioned staircase which (on occasions) leads its owner into the forest of an alternate Earth where Nazi Germany bested Europe and began a land invasion of North America; neatly enough, this meek, reality-displaced traveler wants nothing more than to stay in this world and help save it!
• "The Remarkable Talent of Egbert Haw" A broadly comedic tale reminiscent of Stephen Vincent Benet, this concerns a talent agent who discovers a horse which can talk and is absolutely certain said creature will be his ticket to fortune. Of course, speech doesn't equal talent...
• "Johnny Cartwright's Camera" Returning to the subject of unseen worlds, this concerns a damaged newsman's camera which begins displaying images from 24 hours into the future; it's a brief and humourous tale.
• "The Master of Cotswold" Written as a series of letters, this one is a true horror story; the new owner of a cottage hears strange noises in the woods, uncovers an unused well and discovers curious bloodstains on the floor. It takes some time to get rolling, but delivers a fine sense of paranoia.
• "The Einstein Inshoot" Getting back to Bond's particular fancy, we have a baseball pitcher whose fastballs break into the fourth dimension; he creates a sensation by striking out batters who are unable to perceive his pitches, but what happens when the balls leave the fourth dimension?
• "The Fountain" One of those Fountain of Youth tales; an aged businessman thinks aging backwards will solve his problems, but he doesn't reckon what effect this has on his mind, nor how to stop the process once it's begun. It runs perhaps a little too long, but this story does a great job of getting inside the protagonist's head as he constantly struggles to retain his fading memories.
• "Dr. Fuddle's Fingers" A scientist has the odd ability to reach inside the fourth dimension, from which he can procure seemingly any item. It should be a great scientific breakthrough, but people view him as little more than a sleight-of-hand artist!
• "Conquerors' Isle" An oft-repeated and imitated tale (mainly because of the power of the final line of text) in which an air crew are taken prisoner by advanced beings, mutants with phenomenal psychic powers who intend to quietly assert their dominance over the rest of humanity; one of the pilots escapes their island prison, but sounds like a madman when he recounts the story.
• "Socrates of the South Forty" A rural hick proves to be the most intelligent man on Earth, possessing undreamed-of abilities of sorting out scientific quandries through "horse sense" - but having no actual scientific background, he explains these problems in his own vernacular with copious amounts of "thingamajig" and "whatchamaycallit."
• "The Bacular Clock" One Pat Pending attempts to patent his new invention: the bacular clock, which has the power to cause time to flow in reverse, "most certainaceously." But as in "the Fountain," when time begins to reverse, how do you make it move forward again?
• "Union in Gehenna" A union organizer is sent to Hell; seeing how terrible the conditions are on both the tormented and the demons who torment them, he suggests they unionize against the Devil. Highly comedic with a bright finish.
• "The Bookshop" A sad tale for anyone who aspires to writing; an author finds a bookshop which carries all the great works which were never written - and his own rest among them.