The Haunting Hour

Here is a more complete and much better quality version of an episode of The Haunting Hour. The usual sources I could find on the web were all the same poor quality version and had the opening clipped. I know this was an upgrade from what I had. It came from a cassette tape I have from an OTR vendor.

The Haunting Hour - "The Two Mr. Brandts"

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Seeing this posting reminded me of HAUNTING HOUR shows I had put on MediaFire eight years ago.

In the early 1970's, during the resurgance of old time radio, twenty-six of THE HAUNTING HOUR shows were re-syndicated. I was privileged to borrow the station master tapes from KEX general manager Vic Ives, and was able to copy the entire set.  Here is that complete set of 26 syndicated HAUNTING HOUR shows, taken from my open-reel tapes.

THE HAUNTING HOUR, for those of you who aren't familiar with it, was originally syndicated in 1945 in the usual package of 52 episodes.  It was a series of mystery-thrillers with mostly original scripts.  A few (like "The Thought") appear to be recycled scripts, but for the most part I don't recognize them as being retreads.  The set's contents:

Program  #1  Murder Wears A Strange Mask
Program  #2  Bird of Death
Program  #3  The Old, Old Men
Program  #4  Ptolomy's Grave
Program  #5  A Corpse There Was
Program  #6  If The Shoe Fits
Program  #7  Breakdown
Program  #8  The Case of the Lonesome Corpse
Program  #9  The Hands of Mr. Smith
Program #10  Homicide House
Program #11  Date in the Dark
Program #12  The Thought
Program #13  The Uptown Express
Program #14  Unidentified Body
Program #15  Second Chance
Program #16  Revenge
Program #17  People in the House
Program #18  Occupation: Murder
Program #19  No Escape
Program #20  Death By Request
Program #21  Nocturne
Program #22  The Skyscraper Mystery
Program #23  The Mystery of the Southern Star
Program #24  Murder Is My Business
Program #25  The Cat Man
Program #26  The Devil's Deep

Listen especially to programs #17 and #18.  You'll recognize the host/narrator's voice.  It's "The Shadow!"  Brett Morrison had a short stint as the voice of mystery who introduces the story, during his one-year hiatus from The Shadow, when John Archer was playing the role.  Pretty cool!

When I checked MediaFire, I found that most of the episodes were still on-line... pretty good after eight years.  Only three were missing, and I just replaced them.

Also on MediaFire are three more episodes of THE HAUNTING HOUR that weren't part of the 70s syndicated set.  All are available at:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]


John

Thank you both!

Thanks for the Information John! I remember downloading your set of Haunting Hour episodes several years back.

Here is another upgrade. This has the complete opening and the sound quality is much better.

The Haunting Hour - "Destination Unknown"

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Excellent addition to my collection.  Thanks a a lot!

John

Again, thanks to all the 'Cobaltians' out here who provides these various show upgrades.
Phil

Thanks guys for these quality episodes of The Haunting Hour. I well remember listening to OTR on KEX hosted by Vic Ives. Vic Ives was a major influence in developing my interest in old time radio.

Thanks for posting these! Does anyone have a copy of the episodes:

The Best Laid Plans
A Date With Destiny
The Way of the Transgressor
Out of the Night
Ecclesiastes First Chapter, Second Verse
The Dead Strike Back
The Briefcase
Key To A Murder

According to RadioGOLDINdex, these episodes are out there, but I haven't been able to track them down. Any idea if they're out there?

nickp57 wrote:Thanks for posting these! Does anyone have a copy of the episodes:

The Best Laid Plans
A Date With Destiny
The Way of the Transgressor
Out of the Night
Ecclesiastes First Chapter, Second Verse
The Dead Strike Back
The Briefcase
Key To A Murder

According to RadioGOLDINdex, these episodes are out there, but I haven't been able to track them down. Any idea if they're out there?

here are three files  

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Amazing! Thanks so much kdmarket.

Thanks from me too kdmarket. - Tom

Thanks kd!

THANKS ALL another show added to the collection , think i had some bad copies years ago but they were lost
Thanks

here are the files

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

When I was a college man and had the patience for running discs before I was traumatized by recording 14 Boston Blackie episodes in one day, I made transfers of these Haunting Hour episodes from the actual 1940s NBC Orthacoustic syndication discs
HauntingHour_Date_In_The_Dark.mp3
HauntingHour_Occupation_Murder.mp3
HauntingHour_Revenge.mp3
HauntingHour_Second_Chance.mp3
HauntingHour_The_Dark_Tower.mp3
HauntingHour_The_People_In_The_House.mp3
HauntingHour_The_Thought.mp3
HauntingHour_Till_Murder_Do_Us_Part.mp3

They are at this WeTransfer link for the next few days...
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

REQUEST
Harlow's link to Two Mr Brandts and Destination are no longer working.
Can someone re-post? I think I lost track of things for the episodes that supplement the 26 episodes that were posted.

NOTE!
I can't get to the link posted above for the big set
mediafire.com folder/m66s1uj9s3lub/
without a barrage of pop-up ads
When I changed it to the slash in the address (noted in bold red)
mediafire.com/folder/m66s1uj9s3lub/
it worked just fine!

Here is a link to the folder with those two episodes in it:

The Haunting Hour (41) 45-XX-XX Destination Unknown

The Haunting Hour (42) 45-XX-XX The Two Mr. Brandts


[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I love this series. If anyone has any fills and/or upgrades by all means post them. There are episodes that could use an upgrade.

Thank you!

THANKS Harlow!

Is there a "master" list of what's been posted and what's missing based on this thread?

No. I don't have one.
I'm In the midst of working on another series right now but If someone would like to help out and compile one please feel free.

Thanks so much kd!

Thanks KD, Harlow, Greybelt and everyone! I downloaded everything from the page that is available today (12/12/19) and wile there are some duplicates of varying quality, and the numbers don't match between the logs,the ones according to the 2nd Log that we're still missing are:

Date with Destiny
Best Laid Plans
Reprieve to Death
Way of the Transgressor
Key to a Murder
The Briefcase
Labyrinth
No Hiding Place
Stand-in for Death

There are two numbering systems -- one for the 1940s syndication and a different one for the 1970s syndication. I have not seen them reconciled anywhere.

The 1970s syndication which we have 26 consecutive episodes (I believe there were 52) are numbered correctly for that release.

The Haunting Hour log below includes all 52 episodes of this series. It was compiled from several sources including scripts, transcription disc labels, additional primary material from various collections and press releases as published in trade periodicals and newspapers. The chronological order is the original, 1944-45, as the episodes were recorded at the NBC Radio-Recording Division in New York. The numbers in parentheses were culled from the 1970s syndicated version as noted in the previous post above.

1 (7) Breakdown
2 ( The Case of the Lonesome Corpse
3 (9) The Hands of Mr. Smith
4 (10) Homicide House (was not the audition for the series)
5 (5) A Corpse There Was
6 (6) If The Shoe Fits
7 (3) The Old, Old Men
8 (4) Ptolemy's Grave
9 (11) Date in the Dark
10 (12) The Thought
11 A Date With Destiny
12 The Best Laid Plans
13 Sinister Estate
14 Out of the Night
15 The Sixth Button
16 Double Threat
17 Reprieve to Death
18 A Likely Murder Story
19 The Way of the Transgressor
20 Ecclesiastes, First Chapter, Second Verse
21 (1) Murder Wears a Strange Mask
22 (2) Bird of Death
23 (13) The Uptown Express
24 (14) Unidentified Body
25 (15) Second Chance
26 (16) Revenge
27 (17) The People in the House
28 (18) Occupation: Murder
29 (19) No Escape
30 (20) Death by Request
31 (21) Nocturne
32 (22) The Skyscraper Mystery
33 (23) The Mystery of the Southern Star
34 (24) Murder Is My Business
35 (25) The Cat Man
36 (26) The Devils' Deep
37 Tale of Darkness
38 Tapping on the Window
39 Assignment Death
40 Pale Hands That Kill
41 Destination Unknown
42 The Two Mr. Brandts
43 Perfect Crime
44 Dressed to Kill
45 Key to a Murder
46 The Briefcase
47 The Labyrinth
48 No Hiding Place
49 The Dead Strike Back
50 Stand-In for Death
51 Till Murder Do Us Part
52 The Dark Tower