Dramatized creepy stories

In 1931 Alonzo Dean Cole brought tales of horror to the listening public in his radio plays, The Witch's Tale. According to David Siegel's introduction to Cole's book of scripts, Deen Cole convinced the management at WOR that "a series of dramatized creepy stories in the late evening hours would attract listeners away from some of the more traditional musical interludes being broadcast by rival stations at that hour." Deen Cole played the lead in every episode while his wife Marie O'Flynn played the primary female roles. Several other actors filled out the script, but the role of Old Nancy, the Salem witch belonged to stage actress Adelaide Fitz-Allen. Satan the cat was performed by Cole himself.

The Witch's Tale continued the tradition begun with Detective Story Hour of using a creepy-voiced narrator to introduce the story. This tradtion would continue with other suspenseful series such as The Whistler, The Strange Dr. Weird, Hermit's Cave, Inner Sanctum Mysteries, and the Mysterious Traveler.

A variation from the creepy-voice narrator appeared in a radio series from the early thirties called Majestic's Master of Mystery. The narrator, Maurice Joachim, told the mysterious story in dramatic fashion with sound effects. There were no other actors as he acted all the parts. The series was sponsored by Majestic Radio and the opening was very effective even today evoking a distant exotic feel that seems to transport you from your home and into the story. Close your eyes and imagine strangely exotic violin music and the distant tinkling of a piano flowing from your radio in the cool evening dark of some small town or isolated home as the the voice of the announcer proudly recites

"In the majesty of motion, from the boundless everywhere, comes the magic name - Majestic...mighty monarch of the air!"

The only complete plays from that series were about mysterious characters of death called "Phantom Spoilers."

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