I love old time radio dramas.
I really do.
I love how the writing there is king and acting is the prince and the sound effects and music are the royal court. There’s really nothing else that is half as entertaining when it’s good.
I love movies, too. Love, love, love them. But they are a pale shadow compared to the drama of radio.
Which is to say, nothing is more sensational to the mind when words are spoken and your brain has to piece the images together. Can you guess which images it picks? Yours, naturally - not the filmmaker’s. Now there’s nothing inherently bad about images. They are powerful and meaningful when presented correctly. It’s just that they don’t have the same meaning as the ones you are familiar with. That old staircase they talk about? It’s not the one with the noir lighting shot by the famous DP. It’s one you remember your grandmother having a tumble down one hot summer afternoon. That’s the one that stays with you.
It was radio and not TV or the movies that made me want to be an actor.
Back in the late 70’s the proud and defiant death-throws of the radio drama were being heard on the air as the CBS Radio Mystery Theater show, hosted by E.G. Marshall
The show was created to appeal to folks who were then in their 40’s 50’s and 60’s who grew up listening to radio as their evening entertainment and who may not have been entirely comfortable with TV.
As a boy then, tucked under the covers in my bedroom in Detroit, I remember old E.G. starting every show with his deep and creaky voice entering… “ WELLLCOMME!”
It’s was frightening and it was thrilling. I hope you’ll find my show the same.
Now that I’m E.G’s age, I wanted to continue that tradition of horror show hosting. Of course, I’m not E. G. Marshall. I’m me. And Ted Raimi can’t help add a gag or two to the deal.
Welcome to Deathly Spirits and thanks for watching it.
Morbidly Yours,
Ted Raimi