Posted on 10/31/2017 4:48:47 AM PDT by NewJerseyJoe
Want to listen to something creepy tonight? I have the answer for you....
Back in 1948, radios in American homes outnumbered televisions by about 900 to 1. Radio programs were very popular and covered every genre ... including horror. In August 1948, the radio program "Quiet, Please" broadcast an episode titled "The Thing on the Fourble Board." Many people familiar with the history of radio describe this episode as one of the best radio horror programs ever broadcast; some cite it as one of the best examples of radio drama as a whole.
It isn't gory or explicitly violent -- or particularly scary by today's standards. But the quiet voice and dialogue delivery of the main performer, Ernest Chappell -- along with minimal musical accompaniment, some periods of silence, and one guest voice which I won't spoil here -- make for a very creepy, unsettling presentation, with a twist ending that you won't see coming. This is worth 23 minutes of your time.
You can listen through the player on this page (https://www.quietplease.org/index.php?section=episode&id=60), or download the MP3 from the link there.
ping
Bookmark. Old time radio is great stuff!
Definition of fourble board
:a platform at a height of 80 feet or more above the floor of an oil derrick
The Things That Would Not Fall Down!!!"
bkmk
“Old time radio is great stuff!”
Ditto!! When I was in W. Germany in the US Army, Armed Forces Radio used to run old-time radio shows of every kind around 1:30pm every afternoon. Nothing like a little Jack Benny to lighten up an afternoon.
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When I was in high school, we listened to Orson Wells reading the War of the Worlds. Awesome.
You beat me to the mention but I have got the link to the broadcast IF this is what you mean by 'reading'. I say that because it really was a ensemble radio-play by a very good group of voice and sound actors. Glad we both remembered it.
Creepy Stories Ping!
I acutally won a trivia contest by knowing what a fourble board was. And it was because I had listened to that old radio show. It was pretty scary at that time for a 12 year-old.
I had to look it up.
thnaks Joe- will give a listen tonight- Radio was a tough medium- so were silent movies- but at least they could express emotions liek grief, fear, anger etc with their wonky makeup lol- they eyes have it lol- loved lon chaney=- old stone face buster keaton- harold loyd- Mary Pickford etc- but never really listened to radio shows-
Thanks. Never knew that was what the part of the derrick was called.
When I was in high school, I had a class where we would recreate classic radio show episodes...War of The Worlds too...and then we would write and produce our own show.
The school had an FCC licensed radio station on the premises so we had full use of the facilities and equipment. I caught the bug and almost went into radio engineering. But then the computer age came along and that interested me far more.
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