Retro Radio Memories: Dark Fantasy – W Is For Werewolf (1942)

Friends, it has been a little while since we’ve last had a Retro Radio Memories offering and since the Sun is starting to set – it felt like a bit of Old Time Radio horror was in order. For this week we are going to be listening to an episode of the Dark Fantasy radio series – one entitled W Is For Werewolf. Interestingly enough this show was originally broadcast on Friday the 13th back in February of 1942 – something that the cast and crew of Dark Fantasy pushed in the media with humorous newspaper photographs invoking the superstitions for the date. The show was popular it seems – having been created by George Marion Hamaker who used the pseudonym of Scott Bishop. The episodes of Dark Fantasy were performed and recorded at WKY in Oklahoma City and were aired on Friday nights on NBC affiliate radio stations. The series itself debuted on November the 14th of 1941 and would last until June 19th of ’42 – broadcasting a total of 31 episodes.

The story for W Is For Werewolf not only was first broadcast on Friday the 13th but it also just so happened to be the 13th episode of the series. It involves the arrival of Jim Howard to Cape Howe – to meet his old friend Bill Andrews who happens to be a Doctor. On arriving he is startled to find out that Bill owns a private island of his own, a little place where he and John, his Son who has become something of a recluse, now call home. Apparently Jim has a Wife and small child who will be arriving in a couple of days to join them on the island – although Bill sent a rather odd letter before he arrived – requesting his friend bring a variety of books on lycanthropy. If the fact that Bill now owns his own island was a bit of a shock for Jim, imagine when he meets young John after so many years to find that his hands are overgrown with thick amounts of hair. I can’t quite put my finger on it but I feel like those are signs of something dangerous… I want to say I’ve seen something like that in a film before.

So turn down the lights if you are able and join us on Retro Radio Memories as we learn why W Is For Werewolf!