Old Radio

January 19: Happy Birthday, Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe ate a live raven on the air on this day in 1928. Oh, all right. It was Charlotte Bronte . But today is Poe's birthday (1809) and his contributions to old time radio should be celebrated. Poe may have died without hearing a single radio broadcast, much less without appearing in one, but his chilling tales have been widely adapted. One program, WGN's The Weird Circle loved putting Poe's work on the air. They broadcast "The Fall of the House of Usher" on Jul. 8, '43; "A Terrible Strange Bed," Jul. 29, '43; "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym," Aug. 5, '43, and "William Wilson," Sept. 9, '43, and "The Tell-Tale Heart," Jan. 30, '44. For the latter, "The Tell-Tale Heart," the WC crew had to lengthen Poe's original story. It was a task also undertaken when Inner Sanctum and The Hall of Fantasy adapted the work. Inner Sa

Today marks the 1943 debut of the thrilling crime show Molle Mystery Theater (later to be known simply as Mystery Theatre).  Its debut episode splashed onto the airwaves with some fanfare. Fans and media members alike were drawn to its premise and promise of skimming just the cream of classic mystery stories from the greatest authors. Airing an adaptation of Poe 's Tell-Tale Heart marked an auspicious beginning. Molle Mystery Theatre would go on to adapt the works of Raymond Chandler, W.W. Jackos, Sax Rohmer, Wier Mitchell and others.