October 2015

On this day in fictional history – October 27, 1938

October 27, 2015 by Cheryl Honigford Leave a Comment

Up and coming radio star, Vivian Witchell, finds the dead body of Marjorie Fox in the station’s lounge. And Vivian may be the killer’s next victim…

I couldn’t resist.

Other (real) things happening in October 1938:

Passports of German Jews are declared invalid and they are required to have the letter “J” stamped onto their passports for them to become valid again.
The Munich Agreement was signed Sept 30 allowing Hitler to annex the Sudetenland (part of ethnically German Czechoslovakia) and prompting British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain declaring “peace in our time”. It would be less than a year before Germany invaded Poland starting WWII.
Top radio shows are Jack Benny, Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy, Burns and Allen, Lux Radio Theatre, Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor, Bing Crosby, Fibber McGee and Molly, and Amos & Andy.
Filming has just started on The Wizard of Oz and will soon start on Gone with the Wind (though the part of Scarlett O’Hara will remain uncast until December).

Finally, here are some ads pulled from the October 27, 1938 edition of The Chicago Tribune ($1 in 1938 is worth about $16 today).

Where It All Started (For Me, Anyway) – War of the Worlds

October 21, 2015 by Cheryl Honigford Leave a Comment

I first heard the original War of the Worlds broadcast in Sister Barbara Jean’s 8^th grade reading class. The first ten minutes or so gave me goose bumps and sparked my love of old time radio. It made such an impression on me that I set my first mystery, The Darkness Knows, in October 1938 to coincide with the original Mercury Theatre of the Air broadcast on October 30, 1938 (a character is actually listening to the live broadcast near the end of the book).

Do yourself a favor and listen to the original (It’s brilliant and so far ahead of its time.): Orson Welles Mercury Theater of the Air broadcast on YouTube

One of my current favorite radio shows, Radiolab, did a fascinating episode around the psychology of the broadcast – why it worked so well and what happened when it was repeated: Radiolab War of the Worlds Live Episode

There’s also a PBS documentary on the subject: American Experience War of the Worlds