Welcome weirdos, I'm Darren Marlar and this is Retro Radio Sunday on Weird Darkness.
Each week I bring you a show from the Golden Age of Radio but still in the genre of Weird Darkness.
I'll have stories of the Macabre and horror, mysteries and crime and even some dark science fiction.
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Coming up it's an episode from Inner Sanctum Mysteries.
Inner Sanctum Mysteries was also known for a time as simply Inner Sanctum.
The show aired from January 7, 1941 to October 5, 1952, with a total of 526 episodes produced in total.
The show is based on a series of mystery novels of the same name published by Simon and Schuster.
A January 7, 1941, the InterSankdom Radio program premiered. The name licensed by Simon and Schuster on condition that at the end of each broadcast, the announcer would promote the latest book title published in the Inner Sanctum book series, which you will hear in this episode.
This radio anthology series featured stories of mystery, terror and suspense, and its tongue-in-cheek introductions were in sharp contrast to shows like suspense and the Whistler.
The early 1940s programs, including the one that you're about to hear, opened with Raymond Edward Johnson introducing himself at a "mockingly" sardonic voice.
If you love horror hosts from television, the Lyca Raymond makes numerous more big jokes and terrible puns with a striking organ almost acting like a rimshot.
Raymond's closing was an elongated pleasant dream song. The Stung-in-cheek style and Goulish relish of his own tales became distattered for many such horror narrators to follow, from fellow radio host, like Ernest Chapel on Willis Cooper's series Quiet Please, and Maurice Turblin on the Mysterious Traveller.
A humorous note, Inner Sanctum's familiar and famed audio trademark was the eerie, creaking door which opened and closed to the broadcasts.
Raymond Brown got the idea from a door in the basement that he said, "Squeaked like hell." The door sound was actually though made by a rusty desk chair.
The program did originally intend to use a squeaky door, but on its first use, the door just refused to creak.
Well, on dented, Brown grabbed a nearby chair sat in it and turned, causing a hair-raising squeak. The chair was used from then on as the sound prop.
On at least one memorable occasion, though a staffer innocently repaired and oiled the chair thus forcing the sound man to mimic the squeak orally.
Now, bolt your doors, lock your windows, turn off your lights, and come with me into the weird darkness.
Lifting here and Lifting so present in a Samsung mystery.
The first time I've seen a Samsung story, it's been a long time since I've seen a Samsung story.
It's been a long time since I've seen a Samsung story.
This is a whole stream and I'm inviting you to once again to join our scary company.
Please come in, won't you? We have a full quiver of shivers this evening.
What? You say it's rather cold in here.
We held some of the chills of our story must have leaked out.
Why don't you all cuddle together? There's so much comfort in having someone else beside you instead of being designed yourself.
Now Mr Raymond, let's know where to welcome people. You're after chasing away talking so scary like...
Well, hello Mary Bennett. So you don't think I'm good host, don't you? Maybe I should say...
...that you little hair down the pillow. Are you comfy?
Now Uncle Raymond will join you to sleep for the bedtime story. And when you wake up,
Mary will give you a nice heart-play of lips and smile to sleep.
Oh dear, there's just no talking to you. Folks please don't listen to the way he talks about lips and smile to sleep.
Try it for yourself. You just don't know how good noodle soup can be until you've tasted the lips.
It's got to check in the flavor. It really tastes homemade.
And then of course, lips and smile to sleep comes in a package, so it's no work to prepare.
You just emptied it in the boiling water and in a juicy soup sound.
And another thing, lips makes lots more and costs less than can soups.
Well thanks for the hot facts, Mary. And here's the fact for you.
Did you know that more than two thirds of the earth's entire surface is unknown.
The salty waste of the sea.
Only a short distance under the surface death lurks in a hundred different shapes.
And that's where we're going to take it tonight in Robert Newman's strange story of death in the death.
A four from a small seaside town a few minutes before midnight.
More to the dock just barely visible through the thick fog.
He's a stubby broad bean ship. Suddenly out of the swelling missed a man and woman appear.
He's tall, every set carries a sea bag over shoulder. She's slim and attractive.
He reached the end of the dock and he stops.
Space.
I can't do it with little. I just can't. That's all this to us.
I'm not arguing and get on board there.
I'm telling you I can't.
Or you've been thinking about it. The way the water looks down under.
Feel a bit pressing against you.
I'm telling you the jar going, but the like it. I'm not two years of living in crummy second-rate rooming houses.
That's plenty. See? Too much.
You're going back to doing something that really pays off.
I told you to shut up. Now stop squawking. Let's go aboard.
I'm going to have a gas cup.
Step them, bro. You're on.
I'm going to be coming aboard.
Here we captain. My name is Faro. It's my wife.
I know. I understand you're going off on a job and you're looking for divers.
I hear say, "I am. We've got a selfish job off the keys. It's a tough one. Twenty fathoms.
Only use real deep water, man."
What did you say? Your name was again.
Faro. Steve Faro. You mean big Steve Faro?
Orange and say so. Sure I can use you.
We right there. I'll go get the paper.
Okay, captain.
Well, was that so tough?
I haven't said so. Don't make me do it.
You don't know what you're asking me to do it.
It's like a ceremony.
There.
Did I?
Nine bells.
What happened?
What are they?
There's no such thing as nine bells.
It's like a clutch.
I can take dinner cup. That means bad.
The only other time I ever heard it was when...
I'm getting sick of this sea.
You don't want to do any more diving because you've lost your nerve.
Because of bell rings and nine times instead of eight, you say it means something.
What do you think it would mean if I told the police a couple of things I know?
Artelia.
It would mean the chair.
Now, how do you like that?
I don't know.
You don't know.
Take care of yourself.
Steve, boy.
I'll be seeing you in a couple of weeks.
Really, really good, aren't you?
I think you're getting just what you want.
Well, maybe...
First, when I sign those papers,
I won't be signing on as a diver.
I'll be signing my own death certificate.
I won't set up any instructions before they close me up.
I understand you can't expect much on the first dive,
but see if you can determine the extent of the damage.
Well, we know about her now, is that she's about 1500 tons.
The name was the Santa Lina. She went down the collision.
All right, come on.
Okay, close them up.
Start the pumps.
All the way.
[Music]
I'm scared.
Scared.
I'm scared.
I never been down again.
Here I am.
So, just where I'm, I don't know, that it's fresh but quite quiet.
Just a punch like that all of your heart beating.
From the light-padons you're good down.
If you darken from the cold,
pressure filling up, pressing harder and harder.
Gripping your tighter and tighter as if you're being swallowed by something alive.
Always down below where you can't see it.
Something wavy, something that...
Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it.
If it was a term when it really used to like diamond,
what did it all begin?
It's super air.
I said like in the bar in Tampa, she told me she might call me.
Well, this is certainly quite an evening you're giving me Steve.
It's more like awake than a celebration.
Why are you looking at me like that?
I wonder whether I should give you.
There's you talk to curly and let him do it.
What do you mean?
You know what I mean. You know curly.
You've found out of things what would you want me?
She's just young enough in crazy enough about you to put your weight for keep.
I can handle curly with my little finger.
Besides, you wouldn't do anything like that.
Wouldn't I?
Let you meet me here tonight.
You know it's because you wish we were married to me instead of him.
So what? What are you going to do about it?
You know, down well, he'll never let me go.
Oh, I guess he won't, but...
We've got to do something.
Yeah, but what?
After all, he wakes for me.
Diving's kind of dangerous.
It's a matter of fact we get no fun of job tomorrow that's pretty tricky.
Steve.
You want something badly enough.
There's always a way you're getting it.
[music playing]
That was a beginning. That wasn't when I was afraid for the first time.
I came later, two days later on the reefs.
Two days have been with Crayon talking to him.
And when all the time when it was going to do,
and that last dive, late the afternoon,
standing under the ground, man, watching the curly through the clear water,
watching a move across the deck of the heart.
That's cool that she was.
[music playing]
You're going down, too, Steve.
Yeah, Andy. Maybe we can wind up today and start on the mar.
You can handle both of this. Sure.
When they watch the coral on the poor side there,
sharp as a razor.
Almost took Crayon's boot off this morning.
If you get in any trouble, I'm all alone up here.
Oh, watch it. You're about to be up. Yeah, sure.
[music playing]
Come down in.
Just a little going down now.
I still wasn't afraid. Not yet.
It was too busy figuring out just how I was going to do it.
And then, and on the bottom, and starting to wake me up,
we'd do the hope over the coral.
There was Crayon, he said, "It was in safety line."
And on the coral, snicker that's way to the heart,
where he was working.
Didn't have to look up.
He told me the shadow was under the heart of my ship,
so when he couldn't see me.
And I came to a place where Crayon's line was lying right next to a coral's square.
And I know that was it.
I bent down, looked it around the sparse and whey
he couldn't pull him up.
Hello, Crayon. Crayon, I think it's small.
And I did.
Took out my knife and cut Crayon's eyes.
And he must have known it even before Crayon.
Someone's above us started pouring out of the end of the hose.
Hello, Crayon. Can you still hear me? I think you're in trouble.
Your airline's cut.
Hold it and say whatever you got.
Steve's on the bottom, do you? He'll get over to you.
Did you hear Steve?
I heard. I'm going to space as I can.
Steve, you got to hurry.
Why?
I just hit the deck, but it's crowded up when I can't see him.
Oh, it's girly.
I'm forward to the ship's bow. Listen to him. He's going to ring it,
so you can follow the sound of her heaven's sake, hurry.
I'm going to the sound of him.
So if I didn't know where he was, straight forward,
I could see him now as my flight towards. We couldn't move.
Quirters airhorsed with one hand and ring the bell with the other.
He was swaying back and forth.
And I started counting the strokes.
Five, six, seven, eight, nine.
Then he stood down onto the deck.
Yeah, I'd probably out of his helmet, and I knew he was dead.
I remember thinking, nine bells.
One bell after midnight.
Then suddenly came over near that. This was something I'd have.
I was never going to be able to forget.
Never.
But every time I went down, I was going to see him swaying there, hanging on at the bell.
Weed and forth. Weed. Weed.
That's why Steve Fair wouldn't go back to his all-profession of deep sea diving.
And I should think it would lose some of its peel.
If you're expecting me that dead man, every time you go down.
And I bought that, Mary.
Fine board and tell us what to think.
Well, Mr. Raymond, I certainly wouldn't like to be a deep sea diver.
It'd be all alone down there in the cold water with fishes and all sorts of things swimming around you.
That's not for me.
Oh, but just think, Mary, when you come up, you could have a nice, hot plate of lift and soup.
I think you really got something there.
Leptons, noodle soup, which would be welcome at a time like that.
It's such a hard warming dish.
It perks you up just looking at it, looking at those tender noodles floating in that golden broth.
I'm getting the top fancy, but really, folks.
Leptons does taste sort of special.
It's got a chickeny flavor.
And what I just taste homemade, like the old fashioned noodles soup you used to make yourself.
But haven't I don't want to be interrupting Mr. Raymond's story.
So I'll just say, try Leptons real soon.
Won't you folks?
I'll show you how to go on with the story of death and the depths of the sea.
That strange underwater world where dead men ring their own death nail on the bell, the sun can ship.
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
It's just a moment later now.
And Steve Farrell is still standing at the deck of the sun-computer Santa Lina.
Oh, Steve, Steve, Steve, didn't you matter?
No, no.
I'm sorry.
I thought I ate something funny today.
I guess it was been out for a minute.
I had to do all this as my first time in quite a while.
I'm okay now.
Sure, we can hold you up and send Mike down.
No, no, no, no. I'm okay. I'm going to stay.
All right, but don't forget, we can't see you from up here.
So he talked it all the time, so we're going exactly where you are and what you're going.
Check.
I'm up forward now on a put side of the deck. I'm just going inside.
Thank you, my daughter's jam, shut up.
I'm taking on it.
It's just...
No, I'm inside in the card or it's pretty dark.
I'm switching on my light.
You can see now, the way I head at me at least.
It's so kind of clear.
We're all.
I just...
Funny, strange.
She's carried over on her stop at sides, so the card is tipped over at an angle.
It's a little like a dream where everything's set around.
Kind of a different and still familiar.
I think does it seem so familiar.
Seems to remind me of something else.
That's it.
The card of the hotel right after we will marry.
Walk and down with her, Lila.
Not onto the terrace.
Why should you feel the cigarette I gave her?
Smile at me.
Very sure of her, son.
Thanks, Steve. Thanks a lot.
Are the smart, baby?
I should not smile.
Young, healthy, and I'm married to a guy like the guy who's going to take real good care of me.
I'm sure, baby.
And only that.
Now, on things are going to be different.
You never chance to tell you before, but I'm thrilled with diamond.
What keeps?
What do you mean?
Just that.
I'm sorry about just an ain't only equipment.
A lot of that rack is for good.
You shouldn't have done that, Steve.
That's without talking to me about it first.
What do you expect to do from now on?
I'm not certain that.
I got a job as a second.
I'm in a fray to the outdoors.
Well, I guess that'll be all right for a while anyway.
What do you mean for a while?
You think you're going to tell me what kind of work I should do and what kind of shouldn't it?
But of course, Steve.
Like I said, I'm your wife.
And besides, if I wanted to, I could tell you the you or anyone else,
a lot of other things like fire decided to give up diving.
What are you talking about?
Give up because I was sick of it.
Is that the reason?
Or is it because you're afraid that if you did do any more diving,
you might start seeing things.
See and why?
Well, after all, you were right there when curly head is accident,
not wrong.
The funny thing is you were talking about how he might have an accident just before you went
off on that trip.
I've been thinking I really ought to talk to Andy about it since he was there too
and find out just how it happened.
And that is not around anymore.
You left time right after I paid him off.
Oh, I see.
Well, remember that the police could probably find him Steve if they should ever
want to ask him any questions.
[Music]
Steve, Steve, what's the matter? What's your answer?
Where are you?
Hello.
Oh, I'm sorry, Captain.
Nothing's a matter.
I guess I was just thinking about something else.
I'm at the end of the car though now.
I'm just going to go out to the engine.
I'm going across the gratings now on the stairs.
What the?
Something kind of familiar about it on his pattern of grills.
Which of the stairs?
Hey, Captain.
What did you say the name of this tub was?
The saddle liner.
How many registered I think?
Why?
She kind of reminded me of another ship.
The acturist.
I may be the guy.
I know why.
You're in a half much else, we got about curly.
What happened down there in the deck of the school?
You're in a half much else, almost happy even with little.
And that night the canry came up to me.
I was on watch in the engine room.
Thanks for listening to this week's Retro Radio Sunday episode of Weird Darkness.
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Weird Darkness is a production and trade bark of Marlar house productions.
Copyright Weird Darkness 2020-3
I'm Darren Marlar and I'll see you next week for Weird Darkness's Retro Radio Sunday.
[Music]