The Strange Dr. Weird
Encyclopedia
Mutual Broadcasting System
The Mutual Broadcasting System was an American radio network, in operation from 1934 to 1999. In the golden age of U.S. radio drama, MBS was best known as the original network home of The Lone Ranger and The Adventures of Superman and as the long-time radio residence of The Shadow...
from 1944 to 1945.
Sponsored by Adam Hats, the drama is notable in part because it was a sister series to The Mysterious Traveler
The Mysterious Traveler
The Mysterious Traveler was an anthology radio series, a magazine and a comic book. All three featured stories which ran the gamut from fantasy and science fiction to straight crime dramas of mystery and suspense.-Radio:...
, both in theme and its narrator. Maurice Tarplin
Maurice Tarplin
Maurice Tarplin was a novelist and a radio actor best known as the narrator of The Mysterious Traveler, employing a voice once described as "eerily sardonic."-Biography:...
, who was also the creepy voice of The Mysterious Traveler. Many of the scripts were condensed 15-minute versions of scripts originally broadcast on The Mysterious Traveler.
To the accompaniment of an organ
Organ (music)
The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
's spooky strains, Tarplin introduced each episode:
- Good evening. Come in, won't you? Why, what's the matter? You seem a bit nervous. Perhaps the cemetery outside this house has upset you. But there are things far worse than cemeteries. For instance...
The closing line never changed:
- Perhaps you’ll drop in on me again soon. I’m always home. Just look for the house on the other side of the cemetery... the house of Dr Weird!
The 29 episodes were produced and directed by Jock McGregor and written by Robert A. Arthur
Robert Arthur (writer)
Robert Jay Arthur, Jr. was a mystery writer known for The Mysterious Traveler radio series and his Three Investigators series of novels...
, who also scripted for The Mysterious Traveler.