Hall of Fantasy aired “The Wild Huntsman” on April 27, 1953. Hall of Fantasy (1946-47 from station KALL in Utah, and 1949-53 from station WGN in Chicago) aired an estimated 200+ scripts or (combined) broadcasts, yet only between 40-45 are thought to still exist, which is a shame, for creator, writer, director, and sometimes Hall of Fantasy actor Richard Thorne (1925-2007*, photo at right) was an extremely talented individual, and those episodes still surviving are held in high regard by OTR fans. The first two years airing in Utah (on those stations on the Intermountain Network) the show concentrated on straight mysteries or murder plots, but when the show ended up in Chicago and was subsequently revived due to a fortunate turn of fate, it shifted focus to the supernatural or straight horror story format for which it became famous, all but adaptations of the classics being written by Thorne. The show went national on the syndicated Mutual Network in 1952.
[*I would like to express my thanks to Old Time Radio historian Karl Schadow for supplying the birth and death dates for Richard Thorne after my own search came up empty.]
The network would run rebroadcasts from late 1953 into 1954, though because of the shoddiness of research and/or outright collusion on the part of a few commercial sellers attempting to fob off a number of rebroadcasts as originals to aid their sales, it is quite possible that many of their shows are broadcasts from years earlier, with no foreseeable hope of pinning down their first airings due to the incomplete and/or unverifiable historical record.
“The Wild Huntsman” features a recasting of the folktale and legend of the Wild Huntsman, a story with many different variations from many different cultures, most, if not all, with a dark or deadly ending. As you listen to this dramatization remind yourself not to carelessly dismiss certain myths that have a long-standing history, for that grain of truth that germinated their core truths may still haunt certain wild places or manifest themselves in the strangest (and/or most unassuming) places or hosts.
Play Time: 24:35
{Late April of 1953 found the weather pleasant enough for the neighborhood gang to make the trip to their nearby drugstore still with the traditional wall shelf showcasing their favorite pulp magazines. Famous Fantastic Mysteries (1939-53), as did several of its counterparts, featured colorful adventures in strange or lost lands, this issue reprinting H. Rider Haggard’s 1914 novel The Wanderer’s Necklace. It was a bi-monthly in 1953. Imagination (1950-58) also emphasized unfettered imagination coupled with action-oriented storytelling to capture young minds. It was a monthly in 1953. The venerable Weird Tales (1923-54) was nearing the end of its now fabled first run but still managed to fill its pages with strangely off-beat stories and twisted tales of supernatural horror and downright evil by some of the masters of the genre. And with covers from such sought-after artists as Virgil Finlay doing some of its covers (as the one below) it is no wonder why this magazine disappeared quickly from drug stores and newsstands around the country. It was a bi-monthly in 1953.]
[Left: Famous Fantastic Mysteries, April 1953 – Center: Imagination, April 1953 – Right: Weird Tales, March 1953]
To view the entire list of weekly Old Time Radio episodes at Tangent Online, click here.