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Post by dem bones on Oct 28, 2016 17:16:14 GMT
Peter Haining (ed.) - Tune In For Fear (William Kimber, 1985) ionicus Peter Haining - Introduction
H. G. Wells - The Invasion from Mars Eden Phillpotts - Terror from the Sea A. J. Alan - The Diver Edgar Allan Poe - The Tell-Tale Heart Marjorie Bowen - Incubus Nelson Bond - Mr. Mergenthwirker's Lobblies Alonzo Deen Cole - Mrs. Hawker's Will Robert Bloch - The Bat Is My Brother Ray Bradbury - The Screaming Woman John Dickson Carr - The Other Hangman Algernon Blackwood - A Haunted Island Gustav Meyrink - The Golem [Excerpt] Mrs. Gaskell - The Old Nurse's Story Blurb: For many people the radio still provides more genuine thrills when it broadcasts tales of mystery and the supernatural than the television. After all, while TV struggles to make the frightening look real, radio can conjure up the most terrifying images in the mind.
Over the years some quite superb stories have been adapted for radio, and those who listened to them remember each with affection to this day. In this collection the editor has brought together for the first time in one volume the very best of the broadcast tales of the supernatural.. Am hoping the commentary is outrageous because, for the most part, this selection finds Mr. Haining on auto-pilot. Kimber's target audience was the public libraries (R.I.P.) but even so, those who took this down from the shelves like as not put it straight back when they realised "It's that bloody old nurse and the pulsating heart under the floorboards yet again." Need you ask, Gustav Meyrick's contribution is the obligatory extract.
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Post by ripper on Nov 1, 2016 9:53:14 GMT
Alonzo Deen Cole was creator, director and writer of the early horror radio anthology series 'The Witch's Tale'. I wasn't aware that he had also written short stories. Does Haining mention if this story by Cole was adapted into a script for the show (or vice-versa)?
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Post by ripper on Nov 1, 2016 10:06:37 GMT
It seems that Cole edited a very short-lived 'Witch's Tale' magazine in the mid-30s, for which he also provided the lead story, so possibly that publication is the source for Haining's selection for the writer?
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Post by conjuredoll on Nov 2, 2016 1:34:26 GMT
In the mid 1930s, Alonzo Deen Cole wrote a handful of prose adaptations of stories which had previously been dramatized on his radio series THE WITCH'S TALE. The first, "Snake House", appeared in the July 1935 issue of MYSTERY NOVELS MAGAZINE. Soon afterward, "The Madman" and "Mrs. Hawker's Will" appeared the only two published issues of THE WITCH'S TALES magazine, in 1936. After that venture failed, four stories by Cole appeared in a pamphlet given away as a premium in boxes of Tom Moore Cigars. Those tales were "The Gipsy's Hand", "The Spirits of the Lake", "The Werewolf" and "Graveyard Mansion". Later, "The Spirits of the Lake" and "The Gipsy's Hand" saw more legitimate publication in early 1940s issues of WEIRD TALES.
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Post by ripper on Nov 2, 2016 11:26:29 GMT
In the mid 1930s, Alonzo Deen Cole wrote a handful of prose adaptations of stories which had previously been dramatized on his radio series THE WITCH'S TALE. The first, "Snake House", appeared in the July 1935 issue of MYSTERY NOVELS MAGAZINE. Soon afterward, "The Madman" and "Mrs. Hawker's Will" appeared the only two published issues of THE WITCH'S TALES magazine, in 1936. After that venture failed, four stories by Cole appeared in a pamphlet given away as a premium in boxes of Tom Moore Cigars. Those tales were "The Gipsy's Hand", "The Spirits of the Lake", "The Werewolf" and "Graveyard Mansion". Later, "The Spirits of the Lake" and "The Gipsy's Hand" saw more legitimate publication in early 1940s issues of WEIRD TALES. Thank you for clearing that up and for the additional information. I am quite fond of 'The Witch's Tale' and it's a shame that comparitively few episodes are available. Several of the episodes you mentioned I recognise and it was interesting to find out that they were turned into stories. As well as being the driving force behind the series, didn't Cole also "voice" Satan, Nancy's cat?
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Post by dem bones on Aug 28, 2018 8:31:09 GMT
Eden Phillpotts - The Terror From The Sea: (The Owl Of The Athene, 1936). Man-eating giant crabs on the rampage! After initial foray off the Devon coast, the crustaceans - each "the size of a tank" - attack the shipping lines. Samoa is overrun, thousands killed. Soon entire continents fall to Crab. The body armour of these Brychura Gigantea is impenetrable to all but the most powerful explosives, and a 'gasometer,' situated between the stalks of their eyes, releases a toxic cloud.
Three years into the war, America has fallen. The plucky Brits alone have repealed the invaders, but how long can they hold out? Arthur Mugg, an obscure chemist's assistant from Weston-Super-Mare, develops a serum which proves fatal when sprayed directly into the eyes of the enemy. He takes the battle to the King Crab who has grown to the height of St. Paul's Cathedral.
Nelson S. Bond - Mr. Mergenthwirker's Lobblies: (Scribners, Nov. 1937). A newspaper editor gets lucky when he meets timid Mr. Mergenthwirker whose invisible friends, Japheth and Henry, will unerringly divine the future on a beer-for-disclosure basis.
Marjorie Bowen - Incubus: (My Grimmest Nightmare, 1935). Brief mood piece. Narrator visits a monastery to seek out the demon lover of her wild dreams.
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Post by dem bones on Aug 30, 2018 9:56:42 GMT
Alonzo Deen Cole was creator, director and writer of the early horror radio anthology series 'The Witch's Tale'. I wasn't aware that he had also written short stories. Does Haining mention if this story by Cole was adapted into a script for the show (or vice-versa)? It seems that Cole edited a very short-lived 'Witch's Tale' magazine in the mid-30s, for which he also provided the lead story, so possibly that publication is the source for Haining's selection for the writer? In the mid 1930s, Alonzo Deen Cole wrote a handful of prose adaptations of stories which had previously been dramatized on his radio series THE WITCH'S TALE. The first, "Snake House", appeared in the July 1935 issue of MYSTERY NOVELS MAGAZINE. Soon afterward, "The Madman" and "Mrs. Hawker's Will" appeared the only two published issues of THE WITCH'S TALES magazine, in 1936. After that venture failed, four stories by Cole appeared in a pamphlet given away as a premium in boxes of Tom Moore Cigars. Those tales were "The Gipsy's Hand", "The Spirits of the Lake", "The Werewolf" and "Graveyard Mansion". Later, "The Spirits of the Lake" and "The Gipsy's Hand" saw more legitimate publication in early 1940s issues of WEIRD TALES. Thank you for clearing that up and for the additional information. I am quite fond of 'The Witch's Tale' and it's a shame that comparitively few episodes are available. Several of the episodes you mentioned I recognise and it was interesting to find out that they were turned into stories. As well as being the driving force behind the series, didn't Cole also "voice" Satan, Nancy's cat? Elmer Stoner Alonzo Deen Cole - Mrs. Hawker's Will: Young nurse Barbara Turner is persecuted by the animated corpse of her benefactor, the late Rachel Hawker, a lifelong student of Eastern Occultism. By the terms of her will, Mrs. Hawker stipulated that her remains be laid to rest in the small purpose-built marble mausoleum she had erected in the grounds of her home, and no embalming required. No date provided. Apparently adapted (by Haining?) from an episode of Cole's radio show, The Witch's Tales, first broadcast 20th June 1935. Read it on the Alonzo Deen Cole blogspot. On the strength of this, The Werewolf and Graveyard Mansion, ADC had a flair for bloody brilliant trad pulp horrors. More on The Witch's Tales at Radio Horror Hosts.
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Post by ripper on Sept 1, 2018 9:26:54 GMT
I'm not sure if Mrs Hawker's Will still exists as an audio recording, or at least I have not yet come upon it as an episode of The Witch's Tale. One thing about the show was that the stories were not Scoobies, i.e. there were no revelations that it was the janitor who was behind it all, as opposed to a lot of weird menace stories of the time that would come up with a non-supernatural explanation for all the strange goings-on.
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Post by helrunar on Sept 3, 2018 12:55:57 GMT
Hey Kev, thanks for the nice post about The Witch's Tale--always a good time. The short stories were written by Alonzo Deen Cole himself. My friend who posts here under the handle ConjureDoll has collected an impressive amount of info about Cole's career, and was able to find some stories by Cole that had a very limited circulation.
I'll let ConjureDoll know that this thread has been revived, in case he wishes to comment.
cheers, Steve
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Sept 3, 2018 19:36:53 GMT
My friend who posts here under the handle ConjureDoll What? Who? When?
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Post by helrunar on Sept 3, 2018 21:39:33 GMT
ConjureDoll commented in this thread on Nov. 1, 2016. I thought he had posted in a couple of other threads, but his profile says he only ever did the one post. Maybe he wound up creating a second profile somehow. He's also a huge fan of the Seabury Quinn Jules de Grandin stories, a passion he shares with his good wife (who is a lady of flair and discrimination).
cheers, H.
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Post by dem bones on Sept 4, 2018 11:20:06 GMT
Hey Kev, thanks for the nice post about The Witch's Tale--always a good time. The short stories were written by Alonzo Deen Cole himself. My friend who posts here under the handle ConjureDoll has collected an impressive amount of info about Cole's career, and was able to find some stories by Cole that had a very limited circulation. I'll let ConjureDoll know that this thread has been revived, in case he wishes to comment. I'm guessing ConjureDoll is behind the wonderful resource that is the Alonzo Deen Cole blog? Had a great time reading through that. Am particularly grateful for the opportunity to read the stories from The Witch's Tales promo booklet. I love the photo of ACD and cast in action, too. Recently read another of the stories featured in The Witch's Tales #1: John Campbell Hayward's haunted golf course offering, Phantom Of The Links (aka The Gray People, originally Pearsons, March 1906). The Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Weird Fiction Magazine Index lists Mrs Hawker's Will ( Witch's Tales #2, Dec. 1936 as by Laurence D. Smith "from a radio script by Alonzo Deen Cole."
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Post by conjuredoll on Sept 6, 2018 2:42:26 GMT
Actually, I can't take credit for that Alonzo Deen Cole blog. Am impressed that the blogger managed acquire a copy of that WITCH'S TALES pamphlet from Tom Moore Cigars. It's a real rarity, and I've only ever managed a photocopy of it. A few years ago, I was working on compiling a collection tentatively titled THE WITCH'S TALES: THE PULP HORRORS OF ALONZO DEEN COLE, which would have presented all seven WT stories that Cole adapted for the pulp magazine market. Unfortunately, things fell through with the publisher, and I've let the project lie dormant for far too long. Perhaps I can investigate bringing it to press myself sometime in the not too distant future.
BTW, the story "Mrs. Hawker's Will" was presented on the radio version of THE WITCH'S TALE as "The Hairy Monster" (a recording of which IS in circulation).
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Post by dem bones on Sept 6, 2018 8:11:20 GMT
Wish you well with the book. Would definitely be interested in a hard copy. What's the story with this Laurence D. Smith character: An Alonzo Deen Cole pseudonym or a flesh and blood entity in his own right? Other than Castle Of Death (The Witch’s Tales #1, Nov 1936) and the Mrs. Hawker's Will co-credit, his only other published story seems to be Call Of The Claw (Eerie Mysteries #4, April-May 1939).
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Post by conjuredoll on Sept 7, 2018 2:25:24 GMT
To be honest, I've never really gone chasing after Laurence D. Smith, but I suspect this is the same fellow: www.philsp.com/homeville/cfi/z38.htm#A3639Smith, Laurence Dwight (1895-1952) (stories) Born in New York City; graduated from Yale and went into the real estate business, then into writing novels and true crime books; died in the Veterans Hospital in Albany, New York. If Laurence D. Smith and Laurence Dwight Smith are indeed the same writer (which seems highly probable), then he published a smattering of stories in the pulps around the mid 1930s. Along with his work in THE WITCH'S TALES, the Cook-Miller index says he appeared in THE UNDERWORLD MAGAZINE and TEN DETECTIVE ACES circa 1934 - 35. The most intriguing title I spot among those is "The Ghoul of Longwood Cemetery." But despite the creepy title, I suspect the yarn is more mystery/detective than horror. From roughly 1936 to 1941, Laurence Dwight Smith published hardcover mysteries with houses such as Lippincott and Mystery House (according to Alan J. Hubin's index). He also had a short story, "Seesaw," in a 1942 issue of ELLERY QUEEN'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE. A quick Google search also indicates he wrote books on true crime and cryptography. Seems to have mostly gotten out of the fiction market in the early 1940s. I have no clue how he got tied up with THE WITCH'S TALES, nor how he wound up adapting "Mrs. Hawker's Will." He was almost a ghost writer on that one, as the magazine declares in large type that the story is by Alonzo Deen Cole, and then practically hides "adapted by Laurence D. Smith" in much smaller print on a completely different portion of the page. I do notice that both THE WITCH'S TALES and THE UNDERWORLD MAGAZINE were from Carwood Publishing, so I'd guess that LDS got the gig writing for WITCH'S TALES through his acquaintance with one of Carwood's editors. Interesting that issue #2 of WITCH'S TALES would hire someone to adapt Cole's story, when all of the other WT pulp magazine entries purport to be from the pen of Alonzo Deen Cole himself. Thanks, BTW, for your interest in my proposed WITCH'S TALES collection. I did a lot of work on it back in 2012, but a setback has left it on the back-burner since then. Corresponding with Helrunar is what inspired me to compile the stories in the first place, and he owns one of only four dummy editions of the volume I produced. Hopefully, I can get that project back on track sometime soon. Or at the very least, I can post the introduction I wrote for it here on the forum.
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