Exploring the Unknown (1945-48) aired “Dark Curtain” on December 20, 1947. I could find little information about this program, some sites listing only 3 episodes, others 6, with only one site supplying all 6 extant episodes available (at a small price) for the curious listener, “Dark Curtain” being one of them.
What is known about this program is that it was billed and promoted as an educational science program, each episode examining a specific field of science or industry. One show dealt with how the scientific community tracks down the source of a smallpox epidemic, while another has a newspaper reporter starving himself (under a doctor’s care) to discover the effects of hunger in post-WW II Europe. And then there’s this hair-raising episode about mental disease and how science was beginning to discover its causes and experiment with untested cures. “Dark Curtain” stars 1940’s film heart-throb Veronica Lake (1922-1973, photo at top) who portrays the unfortunate woman with a mental disorder, willing to go along with her doctor’s wishes, trusting in his expertise and judgment, but ultimately helpless as she undergoes what science has deemed a last ditch “treatment.” Her performance is at once a riveting and agonizing experience for the listener. In its own way, I believe this is one of the scariest radio episodes I have ever heard, and it stems from real life and not from any science fiction, fantasy, or horror script. The closer to the end of this “educational” dramatization, the closer I came to not believing what I was hearing. At story’s close I knew at once it was a singular old time radio show I would never forget. Next week I hope you will enjoy the Christmas Eve show I have yet to select, but until then…you have been warned.
Play Time: 23:50
{Airing just a few days before Christmas, “Dark Curtain” was hardly what the neighborhood gang expected to hear and it brought to the fore new emotions they had not yet felt in their young lives, or knew they had. Nevertheless, it wouldn’t quite deter them from meeting after church the next day to buy some of their current danger-laden pulps which brought out different but similar reactions to the radio episode they had heard the night before. Dime Mystery Magazine (1932-50) began as a fairly traditional pulp but after only ten issues it became apparent to the publisher that sales were not as hoped. The magazine then focused on stories of “weird menace” and this approach evidently hit the “sweet spot” with readers, that winning formula the publisher had sought, for the magazine had a successful run of nearly 18 years. In 1947 it saw 8 issues, the first 4 being bi-monthly, with the September-December issues going briefly monthly. Major pulp magazine publisher Street & Smith’s Detective Magazine (1915-49) was a major force on the scene for several generations of readers. From its inception through mid-1935 it was a bi-weekly, scaling down slightly in 1936 to a mere monthly schedule, one it held until mid-1948 when its schedule became so erratic it then managed only 3 issues in 1949, at which time it went on hiatus with no issues in 1950 or ’51. It returned in 1952 with a single issue but no longer with “Street & Smith” on the cover as publisher, after which it gave up the ghost with 5 issues in 1953, capping a remarkable run of over 35 years. Thrilling Detective (1931-53) was a reliable favorite on the detective pulp scene, able to procure some of the most popular and well regarded writers in the field. It held faithfully to a monthly schedule until late 1945, then went bi-monthly until near the very end of its lengthy life, and like Detective Magazine, saw only 5 issues in 1953.}
[Left: Dime Mystery, 12/47 – Center: S&S Detective, 12/47 – Right: Thrilling Detective, 12/47]
To view the entire list of weekly Old Time Radio episodes at Tangent Online, click here.