Horror Stars on OTR Part 2! [Re-Post, but whatcha gonna do...]

And for those of you who cried "Encore!" - here it is! If you are like me (there's a scary thought right there!), we all love to see the old Horror stars of the golden years of Hollywood strut their stuff and do their thang - so their radio performances are indeed an undiscovered treasure trove of more portrayals of murderers and madmen. Unfortunately, the same issues that haunted Bela Lugosi, and possible dificulties with working with him as PERCIEVED by the entertainment industry (ie the RUMOUR that Bela had a less than perfect grasp of English and was a hassle to work with) means that his radio performances seem to be few indeed.... so that's all we gots for ol' Bela, but we still have more stuff from Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, Vincent Price, John Carradine, and some-one not mentioned till now, Basil Rathbone. Allthough not stereo-typed as a "heavy" like the others mentioned (I must say that Vincent Prices' roles were much more diverse in the earlier part of his career, often as a heroic leading man - he was the best known radio version of "The Saint" after all), Basil Rathbone did play Wolf Frankenstein in "Son of Frankenstein" with Boris as well as tons of performances as Sherlock Holmes with Nigel Bruce on the screen AND radio and LOTS more cool stuff besides. So as i've said before, i'll watch ANYTHING with any of these actors, and i'll pretty much listen to any of their radio performances too. Here's another bunch of radio shows as a zip file on the Holloweenie tip -

Hollywood Playhouse starring Vincent Price as a bullfighter(!) in "Hour of Truth".

Vincent Price more true to form as a complete homicidal nutter in Hollywood Star Times' adaption of that classic meller, "The Lodger".

Plus Vincent in the EXCELLENT Suspense episode about ham actors (...oh yeah!) - "Rave Notice" from 1958!

John Carradine on the Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis Show!

John Carradine on an episode of the quiz program "Information Please" .

Basil Rathbone in the weird-oh TALES of FATIMA - "Time to Kill".

Boris Karloff(!) on SPOTLIGHT REVIEW with Spike Jones & the City Slickers.

More Boris on INNER SANCTUM in "Corridor of Doom", plus an episode of "Philco Radio" with him too!

Peter Lorre in a gem from "Mystery in the Air" - "The Queen of Spades" and also another ripping yarn from the same series - "Beyond Good and Evil".

PlusPeter Lorre on the Bob Hope Show from 1947 with a very funny "Inner Sanctum" parody by the two.

Peter Lorre in the May 25 1941 episode of INNER SANCTUM "Death is a Joker".

Horror Stars on OTR Part 2

You don't know Dick!

Or maybe you do... either way, you'll enjoy these 3 OTR SF episodes adapted from stories by Philip K Dick.



X Minus 1 - May 22nd 1956 "The Defenders",

I've been looking high and low for this issue of Galaxy for way too long.... and now it's ALL MINE! Bwah-hah-hah!
Sorry, that was most unbecoming of me. So here are the illustrations from the first printing of the story.





Plus these two -

X Minus 1 - October 10th 1956 "Colony",

Exploring Tomorrow - March 12th 1958 "Made In Avak"[aka "Fair Fight"]



More cool PKD audio stuff here and here, and if you think I would enjoy a blog called Infocult you'd probably be right.
And Remember - Wild new UBIK salad dressing, not Italian, not French, but an entirely NEW and different taste treat that's waking up the world! Wake up to UBIK and be wild! Safe when taken as directed.

8) Uniting SF OTR epiodes with their original publication illos!

Yet another reason why eight out of ten mothers wash their clothes with new DATAJUNKIE!


ESCAPE - 31st March 1951 Episode 116 - "Green Splotches"

Expedition 57

Here's some fine SF strangeness from CBC -
Expedition 57 - Parts 1 & 2

Since we were talking about the end of the world....

To my way of thinking, nobody quite does the whole "End of the World" thing as well as the British SF authors, including (but not limted to) J. G. Ballard (Wind From Nowhere, The Drowned World et al.), Fred Hoyle (The Black Cloud), H. G. Wells and of course John Wyndham.

I just love that "stiff upper lip" way the English confront the apocalypse - in such a nondescript, nonchalant, matter-of-fact way. Here in America, there's usually a lot of hysteria and carrying on when the cataclysm hits. Everybody panics and runs around, generally loosing their heads. To your average Brit, it's just a bit of a sticky wicket and no more...
Don't get me wrong, i'm not disparaging anything or anyone here, i'm just trying to say that the British SF authors have a certain knack for presenting "The End of The World" in such a believable and realistic manner that creates (for me anyway) an incredible suspension of disbelief. But that's just me.



This zip file contains -
DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS (1960's) Parts 1 - 6 and
DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS (1990's) Parts 1 & 2.

Since I had this up the sleeve as it were, i'll add some more Wyndham audio....
These illos come from Amazing March '63 -




This zip file contains -
Chocky (1960's version) and
Chocky (1990's version) Parts 1 & 2.

In other news, i'm still dealing with computer problems (hoo hah!) so i'm probably gonna be stuck with doing re-posts for another couple of weeks at least.
The good news is, I might try taking requests, since i'm at a bit of a loss for selections - so if you have something that you really want me to re-post, drop me a comment and i'll see what I can do. Just be polite and don't push your luck... OK?

End of The Moon, A Phoney Meteor and The Man From Planet X!

Vanishing Point - "Meteor" by John Benyon (AKA John Wyndham)




"Visions of world cataclysm constitute one of the most powerful and most mysterious of all categories of SF, and in their classic form predate modern Sf by 1000s of years. In many ways, i believe that SF is itself no more than a minor offshoot of the cataclysmic tale. From the deluge in the Babylonian zodiac myth of Gilgamesh to the contemporary fantasies of 20th century super-science, there has clearly been no limit to man's need to devise new means of destroying the world he inhabits. I would guess that from man's first inkling of this planet as a single entity existing independantly of himself came the determination to bring about its destruction, part of the same impulse we see in a placid infant who wakes alone in his cot and suddenly sets about wrecking his entire nursery.
Psychiatric studies of the fantasies and dream life of the insane show that ideas of world destruction are latent in the unconscious mind. The marvels of 20th century science & technology provide an anthology of destructive techniques unrivalled by even the most bizarre religions.
But are these deluges & droughts, whirlwinds & glaciations no more than overextended metaphors of some kind of suicidal self-hate, the expressions of deep internal conflicts resolvable only in a series of spasmic collisions with an ever yielding external reality?
On the contrary, I believe the catastrophe story, whoever may tell it, represents a constructive & positive act by the imagination rather than a negative one, an attempt to confront the patently meaningless universe by challenging it at its own game, to remake zero by provoking it in every concievable way." - J. G. Ballard

To that end, here is the most excellent article "The End Of The Moon" from the Hugo Gernsback publication SF plus, August 1953, illustrated by Frank R. Paul.

The End Of The Moon! Yow!

As an added bonus - The End of the World - 1920's style: From Hugo Gernsbacks' Science and Invention, October 1928.




Great art on this Fawcett Movie Comic ....and the script (by Otto Binder?) actually makes WAY MORE sense than the movie does - which I watched when I was scanning this book! This pdf comes from many and diverse materials, so you have my apologies for any "funkiness" with it... OK?
Man from Planet X!

Rocket Jockey Alert!

I have a real soft spot for that whole Rocket-jockey continuum thingy... and these Thrills Inc. (from Australia!) are just over the top in that regard.
50 pages of sheer atom-age nonsense!
The writing style is "ripping adventure" to the hilt, and the illustrations are just great... plus the covers are to die for!
THRILLS Inc. #2


Thrills Inc. #17 (compliments of some F. J. Ackerman guy.... now where have I heard that name before??? ....hmmm, don't tell me... it'll come to me....)
THRILLS INC. #17

More "Cowboys in Outer Space" action with seven episodes of "Challenge of Space" -
"Where Is Atlantis?", "Mission:Abort", "Screwy Satellite", "Climb Up To Safety", "Ten Miles To The Moon", "Far Centaurus" & "Another Galaxy".

For your convenience : 7 episodes of Challenge of Space as a zip file.

Plus, what the hell, some nice Charlton SF Covers....






PS. I know this stuff is all repost, but my computer is still kaput.....
Oh dear, how sad, never mind.....

SF OTR x 5!

Shaver, Shaver, allatime Shaver. Well, let's take a break from Mr. Shaver and Mr. Palmer and get from the ridiculous to the sublime with our long-running attempt to re-unite those great SF illustrations from the pulps with the radio show versions of the stories from X Minus 1 and Dimension X. There's some classics in here folks!


X Minus 1 - "Mr. Costello, Hero" by Ted Sturgeon



X Minus 1 - "Honeymoon In Hell" by Fred Brown


Dimension X - "Kaleidoscope" by Ray Bradbury





Dimension X - "Nightfall" by Isaac Asimov
Here's the X Minus 1 version of "Nightfall"

PS. I'm still REALLY steamed about the whole Captain America thing.....
I may never buy another Marvel comic again, and that's the truth!

PPS. Back to using Streamload (or Mediamax, or whatever they call it). It's fast and pretty reliable, and i'm OK with paying for it since it saves me time and woryy, and I get less complaints too!