Sad news has arrived for Old Time Radio buffs. From The New York Times:
Himan Brown, Developer of Radio Dramas, Dies at 99
By Joseph BergerHiman Brown, who long before there was television created immensely popular radio dramas like “The Adventures of the Thin Man” and “Dick Tracy,” employing an arsenal of beguiling sound effects that terrified or tickled the shows’ many listeners, died on Friday at his home in Manhattan. He was 99.
His granddaughter Melina Brown confirmed the death.
Another of Mr. Brown’s creations was the radio drama “Grand Central Station,” but probably his most memorable was “Inner Sanctum Mysteries,” whose ominous opening of a creaking door and menacing farewell of “pleasant dreams” became signatures not just of the show but also of the heyday of radio itself, when listeners sitting on the family sofa or curled under quilts attached their own fanciful images to the sounds coming out of a box that had no screen….
Here’s an April 1945 episode of Brown’s crowning creation, Inner Sanctum Mysteries:
Inner Sanctum: The Judas Clock
