''Inner Sanctum Mystery'', also known as ''Inner Sanctum'', is a popular
old-time radio
The Golden Age of Radio, also known as the old-time radio (OTR) era, was an era of radio in the United States where it was the dominant electronic home entertainment medium. It began with the birth of commercial radio broadcasting in the earl ...
program that aired from January 7, 1941, to October 5, 1952. It was created by producer Himan Brown and was based on the
imprint
Imprint or imprinting may refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Imprint'' (TV series), Canadian television series
* "Imprint" (''Masters of Horror''), episode of TV show ''Masters of Horror''
* ''Imprint'' (film), a 2007 independent drama/thriller film
...
given to the mystery novels of
Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publi ...
. In all, 526 episodes were broadcast.
Simon & Schuster series
In 1930, the first title was published in Simon & Schuster's "Inner Sanctum" mystery series: ''I Am Jonathan Scrivener'' by
Claude Houghton
Claude Houghton Oldfield (May 1889 – 10 February 1961), who published under the name Claude Houghton, was a British writer, principally of novels that have been characterised as "psychological romances, often embodying personal mysticism and ...
. Although the imprint "Inner Sanctum" also included serious drama (published with blue covers) and romance (published with red covers), for the most part it was associated with mysteries (published in green covers). Lee Wright was the editor of the series, and over the years she introduced such authors as Craig Rice,
Gypsy Rose Lee
Gypsy Rose Lee (born Rose Louise Hovick, January 8, 1911 – April 26, 1970) was an American burlesque entertainer, stripper and vedette famous for her striptease act. Also an actress, author, and playwright, her 1957 memoir was adapted in ...
On January 7, 1941, the ''Inner Sanctum'' radio program premiered, the name licensed by Simon & Schuster on condition that at the end of each broadcast the announcer would promote the latest book title published in the series. The
anthology series
An anthology series is a radio, television, video game or film series that spans different genres and presents a different story and a different set of characters in each different episode, season, segment, or short. These usually have a dif ...
featured stories of mystery, terror and suspense, and its tongue-in-cheek introductions were in sharp contrast to shows like ''
Suspense
Suspense is a state of mental uncertainty, anxiety, being Decision-making, undecided, or being Doubt, doubtful. In a Drama, dramatic work, suspense is the anticipation of the wikt:outcome, outcome of a plot (narrative), plot or of the solution t ...
'' and '' The Whistler''. The early 1940s programs opened with
Raymond Edward Johnson
Raymond Edward Johnson (July 24, 1911 – August 15, 2001) was an American radio and stage actor best remembered for his work on ''Inner Sanctum Mysteries''.
Early years
Born in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Johnson started out as a bank teller, and la ...
introducing himself as "Your host, Raymond" in a mockingly sardonic voice. A spooky melodramatic organ score (played by Lew White) punctuated Raymond's many morbid jokes and playful puns. Raymond's closing was an elongated "Pleasant dreeeeaams, hmmmmm?" His tongue-in-cheek style and ghoulish relish of his own tales became the standard for many such horror narrators to follow, such as
Maurice Tarplin
Maurice Tarplin (April 1, 1911, Boston, Massachusetts – May 12, 1975) was a novelist and a radio actor best known as the narrator of '' The Mysterious Traveler'', employing a voice once described as "eerily sardonic."
Radio
Tarplin was a fami ...
(on ''
The Mysterious Traveler
''The Mysterious Traveler'' was an anthology radio series, a magazine, and a comic book. All three featured stories which ran the gamut from fantasy and science fiction to straight crime dramas of mystery and suspense.
Radio
Written and direct ...
'').
When Johnson left the series in May 1945 to serve in the Army, he was replaced by Paul McGrath, who did not keep the "Raymond" name and was known only as "Your Host" or "Mr. Host". (Berry Kroeger had substituted earlier for a total of four episodes.) McGrath was a Broadway actor who turned to radio for a regular income. Beginning in 1945, Lipton Tea sponsored the series, pairing first Raymond and then McGrath with cheery commercial spokeswoman Mary Bennett (aka the "Tea Lady"), whose blithesome pitches for Lipton Tea contrasted sharply with the macabre themes of the stories. She primly chided the host for his trademark dark humor and creepy manner.
The creaking door
The program's familiar and famed audio trademark was the eerie creaking door which opened and closed the broadcasts. Himan Brown got the idea from a door in the basement that "squeaked like Hell." The door sound was actually made by a rusty desk chair. The program did originally intend to use a door, but on its first use, the door did not creak. Undaunted, Brown grabbed a nearby chair, sat in it and turned, causing a hair-raising squeak. The chair was used from then on as the sound prop. On at least one memorable occasion, a staffer innocently repaired and oiled the chair, thus forcing the sound man to mimic the squeak orally.
Guest stars
The stories were effective little chillers, mixing horror and humor in equal doses. Memorable episodes included "Terror by Night" (September 18, 1945) and an adaptation of " The Tell-Tale Heart" (August 3, 1941). The latter starred
Boris Karloff
William Henry Pratt (23 November 1887 – 2 February 1969), better known by his stage name Boris Karloff (), was an English actor. His portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in the horror film ''Frankenstein'' (1931) (his 82nd film) established ...
, who was heard regularly in the first season, starring in more than 15 episodes and returning sporadically thereafter.
Other established film stars who appeared on the program in the early years included Bela Lugosi, Mary Astor,
Helen Hayes
Helen Hayes MacArthur ( Brown; October 10, 1900 – March 17, 1993) was an American actress whose career spanned 80 years. She eventually received the nickname "First Lady of American Theatre" and was the second person and first woman to have w ...
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the " Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular entertainers of the 1940s, 1950s, and ...
, and
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...
. Most of the lead and supporting players were stalwarts of New York radio. These included
Santos Ortega
Santos Edward Ortega (June 30, 1899 – April 10, 1976) was an American actor and comedian. He was best known for playing Will Hughes in ''As the World Turns'', taking over from Will Lee, who had played the role from the first episode on April 2, ...
,
Larry Haines
Larry Haines (born Larry Hecht; August 3, 1918 – July 17, 2008) was an American actor.
Early years
Haines was born on August 3, 1918 in Mount Vernon, New York. (Some sources say August 18, 1918, in the same city). He had been active in dramati ...
Stefan Schnabel
Stefan Artur Schnabel (February 2, 1912 – March 11, 1999) was a German-born American actor who worked in theatre, radio, films and television. After moving to the United States in 1937 he became one of the original members of Orson Welles's M ...
Everett Sloane
Everett H. Sloane (October 1, 1909 – August 6, 1965) was an American character actor who worked in radio, theatre, films, and television.
Early life
Sloane was born in Manhattan on October 1, 1909, to Nathaniel I. Sloane and Rose (Gerst ...
Sound effect: A door with squeaky hinges is slowly opened. Organ begins to play.
Raymond: Good evening, friends of the ''Inner Sanctum''. This is Raymond, your host. I'm glad you came tonight, because we have a very special guest of horror with us. I'd like you to meet the late Johnny Gravestone, the most celebrated member of the Inner Sanctum Ghost Society. He's the best haunter of them all. Johnny's the tall figure in the white sheet wearing the blue ribbon. He's haunted everything from a palace to a telephone booth. And uh, if you're very nice to him, he'll be glad to consider giving your house the once-over. Who knows? He might even haunt you! Ha-ha-ha-ha!
(Commercial)
Raymond: Well, we're about to begin our story. Oh, I forgot to warn you about the Trembliens. They're those pesky, invisible cousins of the gremlins. They uh, you, give quick little shoves, and give the false impression that you're trembling. If you're being troubled by a Tremblien, just grab him by his invisible little horns and stick him into the nearest pin cushion.
Films
In June 1943, Universal purchased the screen rights to the series from Simon and Schuster, Inc. The ''Inner Sanctum Mysteries'' feature a "stream of consciousness" voiceover which Edward Dein stated he incorporated into his script at Lon Chaney, Jr.'s insistence. With the exception of '' Pillow of Death'', each film is prefaced with a sequence featuring the bobbing head of actor David Hoffman staring out of a crystal ball, giving warnings to the audience about how each audience member is capable of murder.
Lon Chaney, Jr. was hopeful for the series, craving diversity in his roles after Universal had placed him in various monster roles in their horror films. Pivar planned to produced two ''Inner Sanctum'' mystery films a year with each film featuring Chaney and Gale Sondergaard in the lead roles. Sondergaard was dropped from the lead role shortly before the filming of '' Calling Dr. Death''.
The films in the series are ''Calling Dr. Death'' (1943), ''
Weird Woman
''Weird Woman'' is a 1944 Inner Sanctum film noir mystery and horror film directed by Reginald Le Borg and starring Lon Chaney Jr., Anne Gwynne, and Evelyn Ankers. The "Inner Sanctum" franchise originated with a popular radio series and all ...
'' (1944), '' Dead Man's Eyes'' (1944), '' The Frozen Ghost'' (1945), '' Strange Confession'' (1945) and ''Pillow of Death'' (1945).
From retrospective reviews, Kim Newman described the film series as "straddling whodunnit and horror" and that "the films vary in quality but mostly deliver as strange entertainment." Newman found that ''Weird Woman'' was the standout film in the ''Inner Sanctum'' series, being the sole entry in the series to have supernatural elements. The authors of the book ''Universal Horrors'' declared the series "feeble melodramas with little to recommend them beyond their camp qualities and the morose spectacle of seeing a badly miscast Chaney struggle his way through acting assignments that were painfully beyond his depth." They concluded that the series was "generally regarded by buffs and film historians as a missed cinematic opportunity."
Television
The 1954 syndicated television series featured Paul McGrath as the off-camera host/narrator. The TV shows were produced at the Himan Brown Production Center (now Chelsea Studios) in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
.
"Pleasant dreeeeaaams, hmmmmm?"
In the 1970s, with his '' CBS Radio Mystery Theater'' series, Himan Brown recycled both the creaking door opening and, to a lesser extent, the manner of Raymond. The hosts were
E. G. Marshall
E. G. Marshall (born Everett Eugene Grunz;Everett Eugene Grunz in Minnesota, U.S., Birth Index, 1900-1934, Ancestry.comEverett Eugene Grunz in the U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007, accessed via Ancestry.com June 18, ...
and during the final season, Tammy Grimes. When the series was rebroadcast during the late 1990s, Brown himself rerecorded the host segments and mimicked Raymond's "Pleasant dreeeeaaams, hmmmmm?" for the familiar closing.
Will Elder
William Elder (born Wolf William Eisenberg; September 22, 1921 – May 15, 2008) was an American illustrator and comic book artist who worked in numerous areas of commercial art but is best known for a frantically funny cartoon style that helped ...
satirized the series in '' Mads fifth issue (June–July 1953) with "Outer Sanctum!" In the opening panels, host Ramon greets the reader: "Come in, I've been waiting for you! I've been waiting for you to fix my squeaking door!... What?... You say you're not the carpenter?... You have come to hear a story?... Very well!"
In the
Three Stooges
The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy team active from 1922 until 1970, best remembered for their 190 short subject films by Columbia Pictures. Their hallmark styles were physical farce and slapstick. Six Stooges appeare ...
short '' The Ghost Talks'', a creaking door prompts Shemp to parody the opening narration of the program, naming it "The Outer Sanctorum."
The opening of an ''Inner Sanctum'' episode was used to open one side of ''The Whole Burbank Catalog'', a 1972
compilation album
A compilation album comprises tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several performers. If by one artist, then generally the tracks were not originally intended for rel ...
in the Warner/Reprise Loss Leaders series from Warner Bros. Records. The announcer's jokey pun in this case concerned an author friend, specializing in best-sellers, who "tried to bury imin one, because all the very best sellers (cellars) have corpses in them." A backwards version of the creaking door sound effect led directly into "Get It On" by T. Rex.
The popular British 60s radio comedy '' Round The Horne'' had occasional sketches that were influenced by the style of the show. Regular cast member Hugh Paddick would introduce the "scary" sketch with the words "Inner Sanctum-um-um-um-um-um..." – pretending to echo! This was accompanied by a warbling, quivering, high pitched tone from a Theremin played by an orchestra member. The sketches nearly always ended in confusion as the plots were deliberately circular and convoluted whilst playing up the "spookiness" of the part.
The 1946
Warner Brothers
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny is an animated cartoon character created in the late 1930s by Leon Schlesinger Productions (later Warner Bros. Cartoons) and voiced originally by Mel Blanc. Bugs is best known for his starring roles in the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merr ...
cartoon '' Racketeer Rabbit'' had Bugs enter an abandoned Victorian house (which was actually the gangsters' hideout) that had a squeaky door. Bugs said as he was entering the house, "Huh? Sounds like Inner Sanctum!"
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...