OTR Halloween Day 15: Molle Mystery Theatre

As I mentioned before, pulp author Robert Bloch didn't have many of his works adapted in the days of old-time radio, but an exception is his story "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper," which was performed on the Molle Mystery Theatre on February 27, 1945.

Bloch seemed to have a great fascination for the subject of Jack the Ripper, as outside of this story the character figured in a number of other short stories, novels and even his Star Trek script "Wolf in the Fold." Bloch introduces some supernatural elements to the legend of Jack the Ripper, which will come as no great surprise to anyone who's read later works such as Alan Moore's From Hell.

The Molle Mystery Theatre ran from 1943-1948 on NBC. For most of its run it featured adaptations by famous mystery and crime authors, everyone from Sax Rohmer to Cornell Woolrich, from Agatha Christie to Aldous Huxley, along with many original scripts. The most famous original script from the program is "The Creeper," which I've blogged about at length. Molle Mystery Theatre lacked the polish of Suspense but still featured plenty of talented writers and performers.

You Can listen to "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper" at the Internet Archive. Unfortunately the surviving copy is from the series Mystery Playhouse so it's a bit truncated.