“No… No… stay where you are. Do not break the stillness of this moment. For this is a time of mystery. A time when imagination is free, and moves forward swiftly, silently…. This is — The Haunting Hour!”
The Haunting Hour (originally transcribed 1944-45) aired “The Mystery of the Southern Star” on September 29, 1945 (the date provided by one resource, rightly or wrongly). Only 52 episodes were produced, of which it is estimated 41 have survived. Frustrated by not being able to pin down a definite date for this episode, I turned to Old Time Radio historian and friend of this weekly OTR feature Karl Schadow for help. Karl explains:
“As to dates and program numbers, The Haunting Hour was a transcribed, syndicated program which was available to stations and sponsors for some 15 years. There are no official broadcast dates for these episodes. I realize that some logs and vendors have to put dates on their products, but this may cause confusion down the road if an episode ends up with two different dates. My suggestion is that you state it was first broadcast in 1945 and could still be heard on various markets into the early 1960s.” … “Moreover, there were no official seasons of The Haunting Hour. Not all of the 52 episodes have extant audio.”
I would like to thank Karl for his help with his extensive historian’s background in such matters, as much OTR misinformation still floods both print and internet sources, some of which makes the phrase caveat emptor more relevant than ever for the unwary, novice buyer.
This is only the 7th The Haunting Hour episode we have showcased since the first in 2012 and the first since last October, so we felt with the Halloween season close upon us it was high time for another, this time focusing on murder and greed, two perennial evils ripe for this season, or any other.
While The Haunting Hour is thought of as featuring primarily supernatural fare it often, as in the present episode, deals in mystery and suspense. “The Mystery of the Southern Star” involves a sea voyage from South Africa to the United States, a world renowned gem worth a fortune, a corpse, and one man’s weakness (common to many, alas) which unites them all.
Play Time: 25:00
{This episode of The Haunting Hour was broadcast on a Saturday evening, which meant that after changing their clothes after church the neighborhood gang headed straight for the nearby newsstand to find more tales of murder, mayhem, and evil goings on in some of their favorite magazines. Black Mask (1920-1951) owned the well-deserved crown as the undisputed king of detective magazines, featuring many of the now legendary early names in detective/crime fiction, and in 1945 was still going strong, witness a new Brett Halliday story featured on the cover. (Halliday was one of the many pen names of Davis Dresser and no doubt the most famous, as under the Halliday byline Dresser would write the Michael Shayne detective novels.) Black Mask was a bi-monthly in 1945. Speed Detective (1934-1947) and its sister Speed Mystery (1934-1946) began as the two “Spicy” titled magazines (i.e., Spicy Detective and Spicy Mystery) whose stories were action-oriented detective or crime stories liberally laced with sex. The “Spicy” was changed to “Speed” for both magazines in early 1943 due to societal pressure to tone down the racier elements peppering the stories. Both magazines were bi-monthlies in 1945 with Speed Mystery managing only 5 of its 6 scheduled issues.}
[Left: Black Mask, 9/45 – Center: Speed Detective, 10/45 – Right: Speed Mystery, 9/45]
To view the entire list of weekly Old Time Radio episodes at Tangent Online, click here.