The Strange Dr. Weird (1944-45) aired “The Devil’s Cavern” on April 3, 1945 as the 22nd of its 29 episodes. We have run only ten earlier episodes of this show since 2018, the last earlier this year in May of 2025. The show ran from November of 1944 through May of 1945 in short 15-minute episodes (a few minutes shorter without commercials), and was dubbed by some as a poor man’s Mysterious Traveler. Indeed, there are similarities between the shows, though MT had a much longer run of nine years (1943-52) and was a full half-hour program. Maurice Tarplin (photo at right, 1911-1975) was the host/narrator for both shows, and one of the writers for MT, Robert A. Arthur (photo lower right, 1909-1969), also penned the scripts for The Strange Dr. Weird. While MT’s shows included tales of mystery and suspense along with SF and the supernatural, The Strange Dr. Weird concentrated mostly on the supernatural. Both shows opened with the narrator setting the stage with a tease for what was to follow, but where MT stories were told in conversation while on a train and ended with the narrator beginning another story only to stop when the unnamed passenger to whom the story was being told had to get off, The Strange Dr. Weird ends with a variation on the same gimmick, the narrator beginning a story just as his “guest” has to leave. As you might imagine, with actual story lengths running to around a scant 12 minutes, there’s not much room for characterization or extraneous detail, so only the essentials are conveyed—the idea or dilemma takes center stage and remains front and center. And there is always an unexpected twist at the end, providing the moral comeuppance knife in the heart for the bad guy or evil doer. Short and to the creepy point, there’s no lavish musical score or expensive production values here, only the quintessential organ riffs manipulating and accentuating listener emotion at the proper moments in conjunction with the plights of the actors.

“The Devil’s Cavern” takes us to the mountainous, desolate corners of New Mexico. A couple of grown men, brothers, arrive at their wealthy naturalist uncle’s home to ask more money of him, for the stipend he has generously granted them regularly over the years is now not enough. They talk it over as the uncle takes them on a walk to an immense cavern he has discovered. Things take a decidedly dark and unexpected series of turns inside the cave, including swarms of rats, faltering candlelight, deep, dark pits, and murder. But whose murder and how? Two secrets withheld and only revealed for those brave enough to listen to this short “flash” episode of The Strange Dr. Weird appropriately titled “The Devil’s Cavern.”

Play Time: 12:17

{Airing on a Tuesday in their particular market, the neighborhood gang made their way to the corner newsstand the next day after school to find stories to get their blood moving much as the episode of The Strange Dr. Weird had done the night before. Detective Tales (1935-53) was one of Popular Publications’ most successful detective pulps. All but the final 3 years of its run it was a monthly, including 1945. New Detective (1941-55) promised the newest in crime fiction written by many of the most popular authors, with an emphasis on police detectives. It was a bi-monthly throughout its run. Private Detective (1937-50) appeared a few years after the advent of the “Spicy” magazines (Spicy Detective Stories, Spicy Mystery Stories, Spicy Adventure Stories, etc.). It watered down some of its racier covers and cut back (not by much) on some of the psychopathology characterizing a noticeable percentage of its stories. It was a monthly for most of its run (including 1945), with a hit and miss schedule for its last 5 years.}

[Left: Detective Tales, 4/45 – Center: New Detective, 5/45 – Right: Private Detective, 4/45]

To view the entire list of weekly Old Time Radio episodes at Tangent Online, click here.