The Black Mass

was a horror/supernatural anthology produced by KPFA [US] which was the result of a successful collaboration between Erik Bauersfeld (producer, director, adaptor, actor) and John Whiting (Production Director), both at KPFA, Berkeley. The series ran irregularly from 1963 to 1970 and dramatized at least 43 stories. Episodes ranged from 3 to 42 minutes in length.

The Black Mass featured tales about the macabre, the bizarre, the supernatural, and the generally discomforting from outstanding, established authors—many of whom were not generally known for writing in those genres. Remarkably high production quality, chilling tales, and excellent pacing, all combine to make this one of the best series around. There is not much action here: no chase scenes, no explosions, few screams. This is a cerebral series where mood is created through language, pacing, dialogue, and subtle music.

Keep in mind, this series dramatizes a wide range of writing styles; there is something here for everybody, which is really just another way of saying that everybody will be able to find something to love... and something to hate. Don't feel bad about skipping a story in the middle and moving on to the next one!

In a (possible) nod to The Witch's Tale, the first episode in the series opens at a witch's black mass... an organ plays in the background... and you, the listener, are invited into the inner circle—the circle of empathy—so that the number might equal thirteen. The candles are lit... the shadows flicker across the wall... the mood is set.

In 1985, 16 of these stories were exhumed from a dank and dusty grave, given a new intro and effects by James McKee and Ken Heller, and then rebroadcast as

Tales from the Shadows

on KCRW [US], Santa Monica.

Sources used to create my own log and double-check titles, dates and cast members: Bay Area Radio Drama, John Whiting's KPFA History website, and Internet Speculative Fiction Database.

Currently this archive contains 43 of 43 plotlines and 41 reviews

Webmaster Recommends:
All Hallows | The Boarded Window | The Burrow | Esmé | An Evening's Entertainment | The Flies | The Imp of the Perverse | Nightmare | The Outsider | A Predicament | The Squaw | The Tell-Tale Heart

All Hallows

After a lengthy and tiresome journey a visitor finally arrives at the ancient, seaside cathedral of All Hallows. He is astonished, not by the age, austerity, or solitude of the cathedral, but by the sense of abandonment. Although visiting hours have just ended, the Verger agrees to give the visitor a brief tour through the gathering evening gloom. Brief, because there are, oddly, places where the cathedral seems to repairing itself.

With Erik Bauersfeld (the visitor and the Verger). Support by John Whiting (technical production).

Snippet: "I mean, sir, that there are devilish agencies at work here. Don't, I entreat you, dismiss what I'm saying as the wanderings of a foolish old man. I have heard them with these ears; I have seen them with these eyes. Though, whether they have any positive substance, sir, is beyond my small knowledge to declare. Devils are creatures made by God, and that, for vengeance." --- the Verger

The Ash Tree

Based largely on the testimony of Sir Matthew Fell of Castringham Hall, Mrs. Mothersole is convicted of witchcraft and hanged. He claims to have seen her at midnight, on three different occasions, gathering sprigs from the ash tree near his house. On each occasion Sir Matthew tried to capture her, but all he could see when he got down to the garden was a hare running across the park in the direction of the village. Her last words, repeated more than once in an undertone were, "There will be guests at the Hall".

With Erik Bauersfeld (voices). Support by John Whiting (sound production) and Maria Gilardin (production assistant).

Snippet: "A certain amount of interest was excited in the village, when it was known that the famous witch, still remembered by a few, was to be exhumed. And a feeling of surprise and, indeed, disquiet was very strong when it was found that though her coffin was fairly sound and unbroken, there was no trace whatever inside of it of body, bones, or dust." --- the narrator.

Atrophy

George and his wife are doing what they normally do in the evening—passively watching television—when George's foot falls asleep. He grunts and moans, boorishly bangs his foot on the ground, and hops up and down on it trying to wake it up. (George tends to exaggerate such things... much to the annoyance of his wife.) And then he loses all feeling in his foot and can't move it, as if it had been turned to stone! "A sleeping foot just doesn't go stiff!", he exclaims. "It does when it is very soundly asleep," his wife replies. She tries to comfort him as the atrophy continues upward.

Possibly based on a short story by John Anthony West called "George", published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, June 1961, but I won't know for sure until I can find a copy and read the original. UPDATE: Listener Denny Lien has a copy and has confirmed that "Atrophy" is indeed based on "George".

Adapted by Richard Rowland. With Bernard Mayes (George) and Pat Franklyn (Marjory). Support by Fred Seiden (technical production).

Snippet: "What DO you think you're doing?" "Can't I take off my shoes?" "Suppose someone comes?" "Well, suppose they do?" "You're sitting there with your shoe off." "Can't I take off my shoes in my own house?" "But you only took off one shoe." "I'm afraid I don't see the difference." "You're completely insensitive." "Alright, we'll watch the programme, then." ...bangs foot on floor again.

Bartleby, The Scrivener

Bartleby, a newly employed law copyist (scrivener), is extremely efficient, has a steady hand, a clear script, and is dedicated to his work. He seems a boon to his employer... except that he "prefers not" to do any work except copy law documents. His employer is quite taken aback and not sure how to handle him. Eventually, Bartleby "prefers not" to even copy documents and sits staring out the window at a brick wall, passively resisting all demands from the world around him.

With Erik Bauersfeld (Master of Chancery), Bernard Mayes (Bartleby), Ben Jaquepetti (Nippers) and Martin Ponch (officer). Support by John Whiting (technical production) and Lou Harrison & Douglas Leedy (music).

Snippet: "It was his passiveness that irritated me. Nothing so aggravates an earnest person as a passive resistance. I felt strangely goaded on to encounter him in ever new opposition." --- Master in Chancery

The Boarded Window

A single, melancholy guitar sets the mood. A lonely wind fades in and out. A down-home voice begins a quiet narrative about two graves, an abandoned house, and the mystery of a boarded-up window. Murlock and his wife, Janice, had settled the place so long ago nobody remembers exactly when it was. She died shortly thereafter, but Murlock stayed and eked out a living through trapping. They lived in a small cabin—one door, one window. Now the door is gone, and nobody can remember a time when the window wasn't boarded up.

With Erik Bauersfeld (Murlock), Ben Jaquepetti (narrator), and Amanda Folger (Janice). Support by John Whiting (engineer), Carl Shrager (music).

Snippet: "Grief is an artist of powers as various as the instruments upon which he plays his dirges for the dead, evoking from some the sharpest, shrillest notes, from others the low, grave chords that throb recurrent like the slow beating of a distant drum. Some natures it startles; some it stupefies. To one it comes like the stroke of an arrow, stinging all the sensibilities to a keener life; to another as the blow of a bludgeon, which in crushing, benumbs." --- from the intro

The Burrow

In this excerpt from Kafka's story, a creature (man-like? mole-like?) has just finished sealing his underground burrow... his underground fortress to isolate and protect himself from all that is outside. But danger still exists. There is one small weakness in the construction that could be exploited by an enemy with uncommon abilities. This vulnerability gnaws at his mind, reminding him that he can never be truly safe from his countless enemies.

With Erik Bauersfeld.

Snippet: "Still in all, someone could step on the moss covering by accident and break through it. And then the entrance to the burrow would be revealed and anybody, ANYBODY... anybody intelligent enough... could enter—could enter the burrow and destroy everything, EVERYTHING. Ach, Knowing that, I could NEVER rest! Not for a single hour! At that one spot in the layer of moss I am vulnerable." --- the burrower

The Charm against Thirst

This story was originally published in The Travel Tales of Mr. Joseph Jorkens, a series of tall tales told at a London adventurer's club by Mr. Jorkens. Each tale typically began with a member of the club telling of an adventure. His memory jostled, Jorkens would then embark on a telling one of his adventures. In this adaptation, Jorkens is walking down the street when he is met by an old friend who enquires about the token Jorkens is idly caressing. Jorkens replies it is a charm against thirst, and that for a whiskey-and-soda he'll tell him the tragic tale.

With Erik Bauersfeld and Bernard Mayes. Support by John Whiting (technical production).

Snippet: "Well, there's one thing about Jorkens, and that is that he'll always tell you a story; whether you believe it or not it's your own affair, but he's always good for a story. And another thing about him is that he likes to be offered a drink." --- Jorken's drinking companion

Charon

Charon, a daemon of the underworld, has been ferrying souls across the river Styx for longer than he can remember. He doesn't smile; he doesn't weep. He just rows. Sometimes the gods send him hundreds of spirits, sometimes thousands. It is neither Charon's duty nor his wont to question why. The gods know best.

With Erik Bauersfeld and Bernard Mayes. Support by John Whiting (technical production).

Snippet: "I... I lean forward and row... row... all things are one in my weariness... weariness not of years, not of centuries, but of wide floods of time... eons... eons... the heaviness... the pain in my arms... the part of the scheme made by the gods and all of a piece with Eternity."

A Country Doctor

A surrealistic tale about a bitter doctor who must make an urgent house call to a patient 10 miles away during the middle of a blizzard. Full of incongruity and random events.

With Erik Bauersfeld (the doctor), Larry Madin (the patient), Pat Franklyn (Rose) and Bernard Mayes (the groom). Support by John Whiting (technical production) and Peter Winkler (music).

Snippet: "What a perplexity. What a perplexity. I-I should be starting on an urgent journey. A seriously ill patient is waiting for me in a village ten miles away. But, between him and me, a thick blizzard fills all the wide spaces. I have a gig—a light gig with big wheels, exactly right for our country roads. Muffled in furs. My bag of instruments in my hand. I am in the courtyard all ready for the journey, but there is no horse to be had. No horse! My own horse died in the night, worn out by the fatigues of this icy winter." the Doctor

The Death of Halpin Frayser

A frame story in which the tale of a mother and her child are both told... Sheriff Holker and Detective Jaralson, while setting a trap for a murderer in a graveyard, discover the corpse of a strangled hunter... Alternately, a tale of a mother's devoted love for her favorite child and what happens when that child grows up and leaves the nest.

With Erik Bauersfeld (Halpin Frayser, Sheriff Holker), Pat Franklyn (Catharine Larue), Ben Jaquepetti (Detective Jaralson), and Bernard Mayes (narrator). Support by John Whiting (technical production) and Peter Winkler (music).

Snippet: "Whereas the spirit that removed itself cometh back upon occasion, and is sometimes seen as appearing in the form of the body it bore, yet it hath happened that the body without the spirit hath walked. And it is attested that a corpse so raised hath no natural love, nor remembrance thereof, but only hate. Also, it is known that some spirits which in life were benign become by death evil altogether." --- Hall

Diary of a Madman

A short story which follows the descent into madness of a middle-aged civil servant, Poprishchin, who yearns for the love of a high-ranking official's daughter, but despairs that she is outside his social class and will never notice him. Presented as a stream-of-consciousness dialogue between the servant and his alter ego.

With Erik Bauersfeld (madman), Bernard Mayes (alter ego), and Pat Franklyn (Marva, dogs). Support by John Whiting (technical production).

Snippet: "Ah there's the mutt. There's the mutt.... Ow, you repulsive little creature, bite ME will you? Ah, ah there's your basket, there's your basket. Just what I'm looking for. Ha! And underneath, ah, underneath in the straw, what do I find, what do I find? Ahahaha. The letters. The letters! I knew it, I knew it, I knew it. Ah... ah, the letters, the letters, the letters.... Now at last, NOW at last, I'll find everything out, all about these intrigues and plots, oh plots, plots. I'll find all the little wheels and springs at the bottom of the [?]. These letters, these letters will explain everything. Everything. Oh dogs are a clever race. They know all about intrigues. Everything is bound to be in the letters." --- the madman

Disillusionment

At Florian's Café on the Piazza de San Marco in Venice, Italy, a stranger strikes up a conversation with another patron, in which he details a lifetime of frustration, disappointment, and disillusion.

With Bernard Mayes (man 1) and Erik Bauersfeld (man 2).

Many of the lyrics of the popular song "Is That All There Is" by Peggy Lee, are drawn from this story. The song was arranged by Randy Newman and hit #1 on the U.S. Adult Contemporary chart in 1969.

Snippet: "I remember that I went rushing through the house shouting over and over: 'Fire! Fire! Fire!' I know exactly what I said and what feeling underlay the words, though at the time it could scarcely have come to the surface of my consciousness. 'So. So, this is a fire,' I thought. 'This is what it is like to have the house on fire. Is this all there is to it?'" --- man in the café

The Dream of a Ridiculous Man

A man who considers himself ridiculous and for whom nothing in life matters, decides to kill himself. He lights a candle, takes the gun out of a drawer and... falls asleep... and dreams. He is taken to another star, far out in space, where he finds a sister Earth which has evolved into a paradise. His despair, however, influences the paradise in unexpected ways... which in turn affects how he sees himself and his role in life.

With Erik Bauersfeld (ridiculous man), Nancy Ponch, Martin Ponch, Conlon Bradley, Chris Lighthill, Shirley Jones, and Toby Halpern. Support by Warren Van Orden (technical production), James McKee (additional sound production), Ian Underwood (horn improv).

Snippet: "I corrupted them! I destroyed them all. All! I like some horrible trichina, the plague germ, I infected with myself that entire happy, sinless planet. I can't remember how it happened, some joke, some innocent and playful laugh, the germ of it had penetrated their hearts, and they-they liked it! And then everything else followed. Voluptuousness, jealousy, cruelty, shame—oh, they made shame into a virtue—separation, the struggle for isolation." --- the dreamer

The Dream of King Karna-Vootra

King Karna-Vootra recounts the dream of his queen, Vava-Nyria, in this short, beautiful tale of life... and death.

With Erik Bauersfeld and Bernard Mayes. Support by John Whiting (technical production).

Snippet: "I, Karna-Vootra, very clearly saw last night the queenly Vava-Nyria. Though partly she was hidden by great clouds that swept continually by her, rolling over and over, yet her face was unhidden and shone, being full of moonlight. Vava-Nyria. Walk with me."

Esmé

Constance Broddle and the Baroness, while at a hunting meet, become separated from the others and stumble across a stray hyena which, because she can't determine its sex, the Baroness decides to name Esmé. The three travel together for a short while, with the Baroness becoming increasingly exasperated at Esmé's complete lack of obedience.

With Erik Bauersfeld (Esmé), Pat Franklyn (Baroness, Constance), and Bernard Mayes (motorist). Support by John Whiting (technical production).

Snippet: "There was a sequel to the adventure, though. I got through the post a charming little diamond broach, with the name Esmé set in a sprig of rosemary. Incidentally, too, I lost the friendship of Constance Broddle. You see, when I sold the brooch I quite properly refused to give her any share of the proceeds. I pointed out that the Esmé part of the affair was my own invention, and the hyena part of it belonged to Lord Pabham, if it really was his hyena, of which, of course, I've no proof." --- the Baroness

Evening Primrose

Charles Snell, a poet, turns his back on the bourgeois world that is contaminating his poetry. He hides himself away in Bracy's Giant Emporium, emerging each evening to write his poetry in peace and quiet, unhampered by such mundane problems as trying to earn a living. Food, clothing, furniture? All are close at hand. What he doesn't count on, however, is that others may have had a similar idea... and they may not want their secret revealed.

With Erik Bauersfeld and Jan Dawson (Ella). Support by John Whiting (technical production).

Three earlier versions were produced for Escape [1947, 1948, 1949].

Snippet: "I was looking straight into another pair of eyes, human eyes. But large. Flat. Luminous. I-I had seen such eyes among the nocturnal creatures which creep out under the artificial red moonlight in the zoo. The owner was only a dozen feet away from me.... He was as pale as a creature found under a stone. His long thin arms ended in hands that hung flowingly more like trailing transparent fins, or wisps of chiffon... than ordinary hands."

An Evening's Entertainment

On a dark and stormy night, children gather around a large stone fireplace and listen to Granny tells ghostly tales... tales intended to scare the bejesus out of them and encourage adolescent obedience.

Based, more or less, on the Montague Rhodes James story.

With Pat Franklyn (Granny), Arlene Sagen and Marion Winch (children), Don le Page (Mr. Davis), and Bernard Mayes (narrator). Support by John Whiting (technical production).

Snippet: "Beside one of those rocks... no one believed me when I told the story later, or made out they didn't believe me... well, what I saw was a hand... a whole arm, reaching up from out of the Earth. Now, they say that the hill had once been a burial place in ancient times and that a skeleton arm could very well be unearthed by the rain. Humph. But that was no skeleton arm. There was flesh on it, dark and old, and long nails, more like claws. Now you can believe me or not, but I say I saw that arm reaching up out of the Earth..." --- Granny telling a bedtime story

The Feeder

A surrealistic, stream-of-consciousness montage of thoughts, fears, dreams, madness and despair, from a man who is being kept artificially alive. Written especially for The Black Mass.

With With Erik Bauersfeld (man). Support by Christine Stone (technical production).

Snippet: "I've been dead for quite a while, but my cognisance of it comes in little clumps. A day or two together, a year of dead feeling, or no feeling. Time is associated with events. Heh. Associated. The skin on my fingers has turned rubbery. I think about my impatience [?] to come alive. When will it be? When will it be? Yeah, seeps under the door, rakes over my chest, plays with my legs. Will it be gradual? The coming. [Creeping] Filling? Replacing the bones with [tallow]. I-I have those things to wonder about." --- the man

The Flies

A starving old tramp breaks into an abandoned house to escape a gathering storm. He discovers the house has been lived in fairly recently... in a style 300 years out of date. Worried that he might disturb the inhabitants, he cautiously explores the ground floor... and becomes rather disturbed, himself, at what he finds.

With Erik Bauersfeld. Support by Fred Seiden (sound effects and technical production) and Maria Gilardin (production assistant).

Snippet: "And then... then I first heard it. It-it seemed to come from within my brain... a low-pitched buzzing. And I began to wonder what new trick my failing strength was playing me. But the sound droned on, sometimes increasing, sometimes decreasing. I-I became conscious that the room was growing warmer. I-I swayed a little and stretched out my hand to the door. It opened easily. And a moment later I stood in the hall. Almost immediately I realized that the buzzing had stopped." --- the old tramp

A Haunted House

A short, impressionistic tale of two ghosts who haunt a house, not with fear or hatred, but with love. They wander the house remembering their most treasured moments together.

With Erik Bauersfeld (the house), Pat Franklyn (she) and Bernard Mayes (he). Support by John Whiting (technical production) and Peter Winkler (music).

Snippet: "Whatever hour you woke there was a door shutting. From room to room they went, hand in hand, lifting here, opening there, making sure—a ghostly couple."

How the Enemy Came upon Thlunrana

The magicians, the deputy-magicians, and the great arch-wizard of the secret lamaserai, that chief cathedral of wizardry, have waited for centuries for their doom. It has arrived.

With Erik Bauersfeld and Bernard Mayes. Support by John Whiting (technical production).

Snippet: "It had been prophesied of old and foreseen from the ancient days that its enemy would come upon Thlunrana. And the date of its doom was known and the gate by which it would enter, yet none had prophesied of the enemy who he was, save that he was of the gods though he dwelt with men." --- from the intro

The Imp of the Perverse

A man explains how, after committing the perfect murder and leaving absolutely no evidence linking himself to the crime, he finds himself in chains awaiting execution.

See also: The Tell-Tale Heart

With Erik Bauersfeld (man). Support by John Whiting (technical production).

Snippet: "We have a task before us which must be speedily performed. We know that it will be ruinous to make delay. The most important crisis of our life calls, trumpet-tongued, for immediate energy and action. We glow, we are consumed with eagerness to commence the work. It must, it shall be undertaken to-day, and yet we put it off until to-morrow, and why? There is no answer, except that we feel perverse. Tomorrow arrives, and with it a more impatient anxiety to do our duty, but with this very increase of anxiety arrives, also, a nameless, a positively fearful, because unfathomable, craving for delay. This craving gathers strength as the moments fly. The last hour for action is at hand. We tremble with the violence of the conflict before us—of the definite with the indefinite—of the substance with the shadow. But it is the shadow which prevails—we struggle in vain. The clock strikes, and is the knell of our welfare. And the ghost that so long overawed us flies—ah, it disappears—we are free. The old energy returns. Ah we will labour now! Alas. Alas, it is too late!" --- the man in chains

The Jolly Corner

Spencer Brydon returns to America after 33 years abroad to handle some family business—renovating an apartment house and looking in on his childhood home on the "jolly corner". Over the next fortnight, Brydon feels compelled to visit his old home frequently, sometimes in the company of his friend, Alice Staverton, sometimes not. Increasingly he has the feeling that the house might be haunted... by the spectre of what he might have become had he stayed in America.

With Erik Bauersfeld (Spencer Brydon), and Pat Franklyn (Alice Staverton, Mrs. Muldoon). Support by John Whiting (technical production), Peter Winkler (music), and Bill Kaufmann (bassoon).

Snippet: "I sometimes came twice in the twenty-four hours.... The moments I liked best were those of gathering dusk, of the short autumn twilight; the time which, again and again, I found myself hoping most. Listening. Feeling my attention, never before so fine on the pulse of the great vague place." --- Spencer

The Judgement

A young man working in his father's business writes a letter to his friend, absent these past three years in Russia, with news from home and an invitation to his wedding. Upon discussing the letter with his father, much is revealed about the recursive relationships between son-father, father-friend, and friend-son.

With Erik Bauersfeld (the father), Don Le Page (Georg), Pat Franklyn (Frieda), and Bernard Mayes (the friend). Support by John Whiting (technical production).

Snippet: "Georg. Georg, listen to me, you've come to talk this business over with me and that certainly does you honour. But it's nothing. It's less than nothing if you don't tell me the whole truth. Now, I don't want to start up matters that shouldn't be mentioned here. Since the death of your dear mother certain things have been done that, that really aren't right. Maybe the time will come for mentioning them, maybe sooner than we think. Many a thing in the business I'm not aware of. Maybe it's not done behind my back. I'm not going to say that it's done behind my back." --- father to Georg

The Legend of the Island of Falles    *LOST*

"Long long ago there was an Island that disappeared into the mists of the sea. Some say it never existed at all. Some say it was witchcraft that did it." --- Bay Area Radio Drama

With Audrey Robinson (Meg), Bill Wilson (Pedraic Killane), Pat Franklyn (Ellen Killane), Cyril Clayton (Uncle Dooley), Beryl Grafton (Mrs. Ryan), Marsha Frendel (Mary Dougherty) and Gary Goren (Father Kullen). Support by John Whiting (producer) and Warren Van Orden (technical production).

Lobster Salad

A man struggles to climb the shear face of the Palace of Colquonhombros, pursued by sable apes that have been bred on the wall specifically to thwart such attempts. It is a dream brought on by eating lobster salad, but if the possibility of death is real, then the fear and pain are real, too, and must be dealt with.

With Erik Bauersfeld and Bernard Mayes. Support by John Whiting (technical production). An entirely new performance with sound design and original music composed by Ken Heller was later produced for the series Tales from the Shadows.

Snippet: "That the thing was all in a dream is beside the point. We have fallen in dreams before, but it is well known that if in one of those falls you ever hit the ground... you die. I-I had looked at those menacing mountaintops below me and knew well that such a fall as the one I feared would have such a termination. Then I went on." --- the dreamer

The Man in the Crowd

A 'people watcher' in a London coffee house eyes the throng of humanity rushing past the smoky bay window and finds his attention drawn to one man in particular. Suddenly, he is overcome by a craving to keep the man in sight and learn as much as he can about him! He races out of the coffee house and spends the rest of the night in pursuit...

"The writer Henry James at first dismissed Poe's work, but later his interest grew. He based several of his own stories on Poe's originals; this one may be a source for his story The Private Life, in which an accomplished raconteur ceases to exist once he loses his listeners." --- Bay Area Radio Drama

With Bernard Mayes (man). Support by John Whiting (technical production).

Snippet: "With my brow to the glass, I was thus occupied in scrutinizing the mob, when suddenly there came into view a countenance (that of a decrepit old man, some sixty-five or seventy years of age)—a countenance which at once arrested and absorbed my whole attention. There arose within my mind, the ideas of vast mental power, of caution, of penuriousness, of avarice, coolness, malice, of blood-thirstiness, of triumph, of merriment, of excess terror, of intense-of extreme despair. I felt singularly aroused and fascinated. Then came a craving desire to keep the man in view." --- the watcher

Manuscript Found in a Bottle

A bored, well-to-do traveller books passage on a merchant ship ferrying cargo from Batavia [Jakarta] along the archipelago to the Sunda Islands. The ship is overcome by a supernatural storm which destroys everyone on-board except the narrator and one crew member. After that, the situation takes a turn for the worse...

With Erik Bauersfeld (traveller). Support by John Whiting (technical production).

Snippet: "The swell surpassed anything I had imagined possible, the swelling of the black stupendous seas became more dismally appalling. At times we gasped for breath at an elevation beyond the Albatross—at times became dizzy with the velocity of our descent into some watery hell. We were at the bottom of one of these abysses, when... a dull, sullen glare of red light streamed down the sides of the vast chasm where we lay... at a terrific height above us, and on the very verge of the precipitous descent, hovered a gigantic ship... Her huge hull was of a deep dingy black... and she bore up under a press of sail in the very teeth of that supernatural sea. For a moment of intense terror she paused upon the giddy pinnacle, as if in contemplation of our own sublimity, then, then trembled and tottered, and came dooooooown, Ahhhhhh." --- the traveller

The Moonlit Road

The murder mystery of a devoted wife, Julia Hetman, told in three mini-tales from the perspectives of ghost Julia, her husband Joel, and their son Stephen. [In the book, the son's name is Joel Hetman, Jr.] None of the three know the entire story, but taking their tales together, the truth emerges.

With Erik Bauersfeld (Joel), Norma Jean Wanvig (Julia), Martin Ponch (Stephen), and Nancy Ponch (Ellen). Support by John Whiting (technical production) and James McKee (additional sound design).

Snippet: "Murdered. Barbarously murdered.... I had gone to Nashville. I didn't expect to be back before the following afternoon. There was a complication, and I returned home the same night. It was late, nearly dawn. I found I had no latchkey. I didn't want to wake the servants, so I walked around to the back. I don't know why, the doors are always locked, but to my surprise, the backdoor was open. It was standing open as if someone had just used it. I entered and went upstairs to your mother's room. In the darkness, I stumbled over her. I'll spare you the details, save to say that she was already dead. Strangulation." --- Joel Hetman

Nightmare

A tale of madness told from the point of view of a timid man tormented by paranoia. The man tells of his lifelong persecution... of the derisive cruelty he has endured... of his mental collapse... and of his cure at the hands of Dr Fraser. He finds, however, that being cured requires a different type of endurance. While the old paranoia is gone, new challenges arise which must be overcome. This time, Dr Fraser might not be able to help.

"This was first published in England in The [First] Pan Book of Horror in 1959. Most of the contents of the anthology were reprints (and are credited as such with previous publication info and copyright info etc. in my copy), but this one was apparently an original. (Mike Ashley's Supernatural Index also has it as an original in that 1959 anthology.)

"Incidentally, The [First] Pan Book of Horror also contained reprints of 'The Squaw' and of 'Flies', so I suspect the radio people had a copy of it (there was a US as well as a UK edition). Stoker's 'The Squaw' of course has been reprinted several times, but 'Flies' had apparently appeared before only in two scarce UK hardback anthologies ed. C.C. Thompson: Grim Death in 1932 (where it was an original) and the reprint Not at Night Omnibus in 1937. After the Pan reprint, it also appeared in a common 1969 US pb, 11 Great Horror Stories, ed. Betty Owen, from Scholastic.

Anyway, 1959 is the date for the print version of Wykes' 'Nightmare'. " --- Denny Lien

With Erik Bauersfeld. Support by John Whiting (technical production).

Snippet: "That, then, was how it was with me. I was slowly edging forward over the borderline of insanity. I dared not go out, but it came to the point where it was not sufficient to lock my door—they would get in. They would get in somehow. Barricades were useless. Indeed, they proved so. For finally I was taken... taken, cringing in a corner of the room that was my last retreat from the world."

O, Mirror, Mirror

"Auntie" gives little Judith an interminable, guilt-ridden lecture about proper behaviour around the house and garden. Judy is orphaned and hideously deformed, but Auntie takes special care of her... spending hours each day doing anything she can for her little girl.

With Erik Bauersfeld (auntie). Support by John Whiting (technical production).

Snippet: "I'm going to talk to you dear. Yes, it's about what happened yesterday afternoon. Won't you tell me why you did it, Judith? You may as well, because I know anyway. More than you do! No, no. Don't hide your face like that. It hurts your Auntie more than you can tell when her little girl won't speak to her." --- Auntie

Oil of Dog

Boffer Bings has helped out with the family businesses for many years—procuring raw material for his father's business and discarding the waste from his mother's. One day, purely by accident, he discovers a way to merge the two businesses and inadvertently brings ruin upon them all.

With Erik Bauersfeld (all voices). Support by John Whiting (technical production).

Snippet: "My name is Boffer Bings. I was born of honest parents in one of the humbler walks of life, my father being a manufacturer of dog-oil and my mother having a small studio in the shadow of the village church, where she disposed of unwelcome babies. In my boyhood I was trained to habits of industry; I not only assisted my father in procuring dogs for his vats, but was frequently employed by my mother to carry away the debris of her work in the studio. In performance of this duty I sometimes had need of all my natural intelligence for all the law officers of the vicinity were opposed to my mother's business. They were not elected on an opposition ticket, and the matter had never been made a political issue; it just happened so." --- Boffer Bings

On the Harmful Effects of Tobacco

A nervous, hen-pecked smoker is ordered by his wife to give a charity lecture on the harmfulness of tobacco, which he does. Except he never quite gets around to the subject, repeatedly digressing to his less-than-perfect relationship with his wife and children...

With Erik Bauersfeld. Support by Yan Paul Vent (sound production) and Jim McKey (additional technical production).

Snippet: "I am miserable. I have become a fool, a non-entity. But after all, you hear before you the happiest of fathers. After all, it ought to be like that and I dare say it is not, but if only you knew. If only you knew, I've lived with my wife for thirty-three years. And I can say those were the best years of my life. I mean, not precisely the best, but generally speaking." --- the lecturer

The Outsider

He grew up in an isolated castle, surrounded by an impenetrable forest, everything a uniform, dull grey. No sunshine. No moonlight. A single black tower extended through the trees into the unknown outer sky, but was partly ruined and could only be ascended by a nearly impossible climb up the sheer wall, stone by stone. At last, he resolves to scale the wall, thinking it best to glimpse the sky and perish, than to live without ever beholding day.

With Erik Bauersfeld. Support by John Whiting (technical support).

Snippet: "My first conception of a living person was of something distorted... shrivelled... decaying. I remember there was such a corpse. I often went to it with a feeling of reverence and attachment. It was a woman... ancient... lying as she had died, partly eaten around the throat and chest... the terrible gesture of horror in her sprawled position and opened mouth. I would sometimes roam the passage where she lay. I seem to be drawn there. I wanted to kneel before it. To lie my head against it." --- the narrator

A Predicament

Signora Psyche Zenobia visits a Gothic cathedral in the city of Edina (Edinburgh) and feels an uncontrollable urge to ascend the clock tower and survey the city. Accompanied by Diana, her poodle, and Pompey, her dwarf Negro, Psyche climbs the seemingly endless stairway, contemplates it as a metaphor for human life, and eventually pops her head through a small opening in the clock face so she can appreciate the view... an opening disconcertingly between the hands of the giant clock.

A later production of A Predicament was produced by Erik Bauersfeld at radio station KQED-FM with the same cast and additional technical production by Clay Grillo, with assistance by Wayne Wagner. It can be heard in the series Tales from the Shadows.

With Erik Bauersfeld (Pompey) and Pat Franklyn (Signora Psyche Zenobia). Support by John Whiting (technical production).

Snippet: "Why did I rush upon my fate? I was seized with an uncontrollable desire to ascend the giddy pinnacle. The door of the cathedral stood invitingly open. My destiny prevailed. I entered the ominous archway.... One step remained. One step! One little step. Upon one such little step in the great staircase of human life how vast a sum of human happiness or misery depends!" --- Signora Psyche Zenobia

Proof Positive

Major Philip Weaver, Indian Army, retired, gives an urgent talk before the Psychical Society proving, with absolute certainty, that the spirit does not die when the body dies.

With Erik Bauersfeld (Major Philip Weaver), Pat Franklyn (Doctor Brown) and Bernard Mayes (Mr. Crashaw). Support by John Whiting (technical production).

See also: "The Case of Monsieur Valdemar" (The Weird Circle).

Snippet: "As president of the local Psychical Society, I had received a note from our speaker a little more than a week before. Written by a hand which trembled with sickness, age or drunkenness, it asked urgently for a special meeting of the society. An extraordinary, a really impressive experience, was to be described while still fresh in the mind, though what the experience had been was left vague." --- Colonel Crashaw

The Rats in the Walls

Delapoer returns to his ancestral home of Exham Priory, purchases the ruins from the current owner, and rebuilds the estate which was last inhabited by his ancestor, the Eleventh Baron, Walter de la Poer. During the renovation Delapoer discovers from the locals many disconcerting facts regarding his family history and the priory, but presses on. Later, while inhabiting the estate, Delapoer follows the sound of ghostly rats into the deepest levels and uncovers the horrifying truth about his family.

With Erik Bauersfeld (Delapoer) and Bernard Mayes (Captain Edward Norrys). Support by John Whiting (technical production).

Snippet: "One of the foremost writers of pure horror and the supernatural is H.P. Lovecraft. He regarded all his work as based on the idea that the world was inhabited at one time by another race which, in practising black magic, lost its foothold and was expelled, yet lives on, outside, ever ready to take possession of this Earth again." --- from the intro

The Renegade    *LOST*

"It was the cruelty of the savages that struck him: "I dreamed about the House of the Fetish—the tortures—could anything more barbarous, more exciting be imagined?" Tongue-less and imprisoned in the salt, he awaits the coming of his master, the Sorcerer." --- Bay Area Radio Drama

With Erik Bauersfeld. Support by John Whiting (technical production) and Maria Gilardin (production assistant).

Shiddah and Kuziba

Shiddah and her little boy, Kuziba, live safely underground with 9 yards of solid rock protecting them from the light and noise of the surface. They like it dark. They like it quiet. And most of all, they like it where there are no human beings—those evil mixtures of flesh, love, dung, and lust. Shiddah and Kuziba are demons, or, perhaps, spirits, whose lives change when a drill bit from above rips through their sanctuary and they must escape to the surface.

With Erik Bauersfeld (Kuziba), Pat Franklyn (Shiddah) and Bernard Mayes (narrator). Support by John Whiting (technical production).

Snippet: "Little Kuziba. Ah, getting to look so much like your mother. Our bodies made entirely of cobwebs. Hair already nearly to your ankle bones. Lovely, yellow, chicken-claw feet, and your wings, dear... Oh... they're going to be great, beautiful bat wings, just like mine! Of course, you do have your father's donkey ears and wax horns, but then..." --- Shiddah

Six Tales by Lord Dunsany

• Lobster Salad
• The Workman
• The Charm Against Thirst
• How the Enemy Came upon Thlunrana
• The Dream of King Karna-Vootra
• Charon

With Erik Bauersfeld and Bernard Mayes. Support by John Whiting (technical production).

The Squaw

When Elias P. Hutcheson visits Nurnberg's famous Torture Tower to view an exhibit of the Iron Virgin, he inadvertently kills a small black kitten. The kitten's mother is not amused; in fact, she feels downright murderous. As Hutcheson walks from room to room, captivated by the torture devices, the cat stalks quietly, barely out of sight, appearing and disappearing, waiting... and waiting... and waiting.

With Erik Bauersfeld and Jan Dawson (Amelia). Support by John Whiting (technical production).

Snippet: "It may be that there is some attractive force which draws lesser matters to greater, or more probably that the wall was not straight but sloped to its base, and that we could not see the inclination from above. But the stone fell with a sickening thud, that came up to us through the hot air, right on the kitten's head, and shattered out its little brains then and there." --- the narrator

The Tell-Tale Heart

A psychological tale of guilt. A servant becomes obsessed with his master's "vulture" eye and decides, calmly and deliberately, to murder the old man. When the police come to visit, he confidently invites them in, for he knows they will never find the body. As he sits chatting with the officers, however, he hears the heart of the corpse begin beating... It grows louder and louder.

With Erik Bauersfeld (man). Support by Fred Seiden (technical production).

One of the most popular horror stories ever told. Other versions were produced by BBC, CBC Mystery Theatre, CBS Radio Mystery Theater, Columbia Workshop, The Hall of Fantasy, Inner Sanctum Mysteries, Mercury Summer Theatre of the Air, Mystery in the Air, NBC Presents: Short Story, Nightfall, Seeing Ear Theatre, Tales from the Shadows, and The Weird Circle.

Snippet: "How, then, am I mad? Harken and observe how healthily... how calmly I can tell you the whole story. It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain, but, once conceived, it haunted me day and night. Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me; he had never given me insult. For his gold, I had no desire. I... think it was his eye. Yes. It was this: one of his eyes resembled that of a vulture, a pale blue eye with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold. And so, by degrees, very gradually, I made up my mind to take the life of the old man and thus rid myself of the eye forever." --- the servant

The Witch of the Willows

A man (Jorkens), seeking mystery and magic, stumbles upon marshland bordered by a willow forest. The witch that is haunting the willows comes forth and warns Jorkens "if there is a warning put on a place, it is for folks to heed the warning, not to go bothering those that have other things to do, with the Way, and the Why, and the Wherefore. A Warning's a Warning! And that's all there is to it." This seems to be what Jorkens is looking for. Or is it?

With Erik Bauersfeld (Major Weaver), Pat Franklyn (the witch) and Bernard Mayes (Mr. Jorkens). Support by John Whiting (technical production) and Peter Winkler (music).

Snippet: "I wandered about the country, always alone. Not caring, really, where I went. One day, I came to the Willow Wood, a haunted sort of place—marsh floating all through it. Ideal for a lonely and aimless man. I was tired of ordinary things and ordinary people... what they said and did, the everyday things. Everything lacking in wonder, surprise, magic. Mystery. And there was a mystery in the woods." --- Jorkens

The Workman

A short story about Futility with a broader meaning for us all. A workman falls to his death, and in the few seconds available to him, tries to carve his name on a scaffold pole falling with him.

With Erik Bauersfeld and Bernard Mayes. Support by John Whiting (technical production).

Snippet: "I saw the workman fall with his scaffolding right from the summit of that hotel. As he came down I saw him holding a knife and trying to cut his name on the scaffold. He had time to try and do this for he must have had nearly three hundred feet to fall." --- a witness

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