Legendary radio collector John Tefteller presents the best of mystery, comedy, horror, and adventure stories, produced by the greatest writers, directors, composers, and stars.
Episodes
Thursday Aug 28, 2025
Thursday Aug 28, 2025
Today’s creature feature is Revolt of the Worms, written by Arch Oboler and first broadcast on October 13, 1942, as part of the Lights Out series. It’s the tale of a chemist (played by Lou Merrill, a regular on the series) whose attempt to grow giant roses goes horribly wrong, resulting in monstrously large worms. The version you’ll hear comes from Oboler’s later revival series The Devil and Mr. O, where he reused some of his best Lights Out scripts. In this episode of More Monsters, we dig into the story’s themes of scientific overreach and environmental fallout, and touch on Oboler’s famously tight grip on his copyrights.
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Tuesday Aug 26, 2025
Tuesday Aug 26, 2025
Today we have The Judy Canova Show from October 19, 1945, brought to you by Colgate-Palmolive. Judy was one of radio’s great “hillbilly comedy” stars, backed by a top-notch cast that included Mel Blanc and Verna Felton, and writers like Fred Fox. In this episode, Judy sets her sights on Brentwood high society by entering her decidedly unconventional dog in a fancy dog show. Along the way there are musical numbers, lots of jokes, and those classic ads for Colgate Tooth Powder and Palmolive Soap. We wrap things up with a few thoughts on the show’s place in radio history and where some of its stars went from there.
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Our theme music is "Why Am I So Romantic?" from Animal Crackers: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01KHJKAKS/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_MK8MVCY4DVBAM8ZK39WD
Thursday Aug 21, 2025
Thursday Aug 21, 2025
Today on “More Monsters” we’re tuning in to a 1947 episode of Mystery in the Air, starring the incomparable Peter Lorre, master of “the creep.” This week’s story is The Horla, adapted from Guy de Maupassant’s classic tale of a Frenchman slowly losing his grip on reality thanks to an invisible presence. Lorre had a reputation for his intense performances on this series. During one episode he supposedly threw his script. To calm you down, you’ll also hear a few vintage ads for Camel cigarettes and Prince Albert pipe tobacco.
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Our theme music is "Why Am I So Romantic?" from Animal Crackers: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01KHJKAKS/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_MK8MVCY4DVBAM8ZK39WD
Tuesday Aug 19, 2025
Tuesday Aug 19, 2025
Today we have The Abbott and Costello Show from February 15, 1945, from Armed Forces Radio, with special guest Rudy Vallee. This is a typical slapstick radio comedy, with lots of hysterical Abbott and Costello wordplay and wacky characters popping in and out (notably Mel Blanc as Vallee’s personal assistant and Sid Fields as Professor Melonhead). They make plenty of jokes about Vallee’s reputation as a supreme megalomaniac, and do a radio version of Jack and the Beanstalk, a bit of a foreshadowing of the Abbott and Costello film from 1952.
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Our theme music is "Why Am I So Romantic?" from Animal Crackers: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01KHJKAKS/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_MK8MVCY4DVBAM8ZK39WD
Thursday Aug 14, 2025
Thursday Aug 14, 2025
Today we’re going back to the classics. It’s an adaptation of H.G. Wells' classic story, The Time Machine. The episode, originally broadcast on CBS's "Escape" series in 1948, follows the protagonist, Fowler, and his inventor friend, Dudley, as they journey over 100,000 years into the future. They discover a world inhabited by two distinct human species: the gentle, childlike Eloi who live above ground, and the subterranean, cannibalistic Morlocks who prey on them. This may be the only version you ever hear that features two time travelers together, a sharp departure from Wells' original story. But it’s an adaptation that allows more dialogue, something they probably felt was needed for the dramatized version.
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Our theme music is "Why Am I So Romantic?" from Animal Crackers: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01KHJKAKS/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_MK8MVCY4DVBAM8ZK39WD
Tuesday Aug 12, 2025
Tuesday Aug 12, 2025
It’s been a bit since we’ve featured "The Adventures of Sam Spade Detective" on the show, but it’s one of our favorite unconventional detective series from vintage radio, and we have a lot of these in sourced from original transcription discs once owned by the show's producer, William Spier. So we’re bringing you one originally broadcast on September 19, 1948, over CBS Radio. The program, a mystery and crime drama, was brought to air by Wildroot Cream Oil Hair Tonic. In this episode Sam Spade investigates Leonard Kilcourse's suspicious gambling losses, which ultimately reveal a deeper plot involving blackmail and a crooked gambling operation.
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Thursday Aug 07, 2025
Thursday Aug 07, 2025
Continuing our “August Monster Madness" we have an unusual science fiction radio drama titled "Student Body" from the X Minus One series, originally broadcast in 1956. This is a highly unusual monster story, not concerned so much with scares as venturing into the territory of wondrous curiosity. The story is about a colonial expedition to a planet called Glade, where the scientific team encounters a unique and rapidly evolving indigenous species. To tell you any more than that would go into spoilers, which would be unforgivable with this story. Suffice it to say, it asks “what if,” and what would you do if faced with the strange and the unknown.
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Our theme music is "Why Am I So Romantic?" from Animal Crackers: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01KHJKAKS/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_MK8MVCY4DVBAM8ZK39WD
Tuesday Aug 05, 2025
Tuesday Aug 05, 2025
Today we are featuring comedy, with a rare chance to hear this episode of The Henry Morgan Show in better sound quality. This is a later episode from the series from March 28, 1950, originally broadcast on NBC and later rebroadcast by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The show includes performances by Art Carney, Arnold Stang, and the Billy Williams Quartet. Again Morgan’s absurdist observations contrast societal norms and everyday occurrences, such as introductions, phone calls, and serving food, with their often-exaggerated radio portrayals. The host, Henry Morgan, known as the "bad boy of radio," frequently deviates from popular conventions of the period, one of the reasons we can appreciate this show's unpredictable and ahead-of-its-time comedic style so many years later.
Visit our website: https://goodolddaysofradio.com/
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Our theme music is "Why Am I So Romantic?" from Animal Crackers: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01KHJKAKS/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_MK8MVCY4DVBAM8ZK39WD
Thursday Jul 31, 2025
Thursday Jul 31, 2025
It’s our second in a series of summer “monster movies.” This episode of the horror anthology "Lights Out" is called "Superfeature," written by Arch Oboler. It describes a bizarre scenario where a movie monster steps off the screen into the audience, a concept Oboler uses to explore the frightening potential of the familiar becoming unfamiliar. This horror story bears a lot of resemblance to modern horror, where the plot is minimal, but you get the satisfaction of watching the usual despicable suspects get taken out one-by-one in typical grisly “Lights Out” style.
Visit our website: https://goodolddaysofradio.com/
Subscribe to our Facebook Group for news, discussions, and the latest podcast: https://www.facebook.com/groups/881779245938297
Our theme music is "Why Am I So Romantic?" from Animal Crackers: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01KHJKAKS/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_MK8MVCY4DVBAM8ZK39WD
Tuesday Jul 29, 2025
Tuesday Jul 29, 2025
Today we are once again pulling transcription discs off the shelves, and we have another "lost" Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy Show AFRS disc from January 16th, 1944. The show includes the comedic banter between ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his dummy Charlie McCarthy, a skit where Charlie blackmails his principal, and a performance by guest Carmen Miranda, who also participates in a comedic opera sketch. The episode concludes with additional musical numbers, which John notes were added to fill the time void created by the removal of original advertisements.
Visit our website: https://goodolddaysofradio.com/
Subscribe to our Facebook Group for news, discussions, and the latest podcast: https://www.facebook.com/groups/881779245938297
Our theme music is "Why Am I So Romantic?" from Animal Crackers: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01KHJKAKS/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_MK8MVCY4DVBAM8ZK39WD