Inner Sanctum Mysteries was a horror anthology series with a
unique sound and unique host. For the first four years of the show
'Raymond' greeted guests after an incredibly squeaky door slowly
opened at the beginning of each show. The stories themselves were
directed by Himan Brown, who was one of the most prolific writers
of all time. The stories took many twists and turns and the death
count was always high, with Brown himself stating 'we've killed
our characters every way. we've knifed them, garroted them, burned
them, poisoned them, bashed their heads, given them rare and fantastic
diseases, pushed them out of windows and over cliffs.' These programme's
also included some top stars, including Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre,
Mercedes McCambridge, Richard Widmark, Santos Ortega, Simone Simon,
Raymond Massey and countless others. However another key aspect
of the success of this show was the sound effects, and according
to Brown 'in a programme like Inner Sanctum, where mood is of the
essence, I believe in a minimum of writing. The sound really gives
the picture so let the sound carry it,'
Raymond Edward Johnson's last show on Inner Sanctum was
on May 15th 1945, when he left to serve in the Army. The reason
he did not return to the show after his service was due, according
to some, to money. His replacement was Paul McGrath, who was a Broadway
actor who turned to radio to pay the bills! He stayed with the show
until its end, and even did the off screen narration for the Inner
Sanctum TV series in 1953–4, however unlike his predecessor (who
was known as Raymond on air) McGrath was simply known as 'your host.'
It is also worth noting that of the 535 original episodes, only
around 1/5 have survived. Below is the shows log - but as stated
many of the shows cannot be found.
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