Tuesday, June 4, 2013

The Hitchhiker ~ ☠ ~ Classic Suspense Story

This is one of the eeriest and most effective ghost stories I've ever heard, it still sticks with me today. It's the first hand account of one, "Ron Adams" of a trip from one coast of the American continent to the other, and the singular specter that haunts Ron's foreboding journey along the way.






Starring Orson Welles, and with a particularly eerie composition by Bernard Herrmann evoking an otherworldliness which makes the American landscape feel like the dark side of the moon. I can recall listening to this particular story on audio cassette as a summer evening waned into twilight, as my father worked away on an oil clay head that was to become a monster mask for Halloween.

Settle in for the evening, dim the lights, and enjoy. Won't you? ☠

2 comments:

  1. I just listened to the show. I like listening to old radio shows, "Suspense" included. How cool that we can access so many of them online now. They work as time capsules with the many references and advertisements. This one had a few moments, like the pay phone, gas station service attendant/cheap gas, and war bond commercial at the end.

    Orson Welles was great as usual. I sometimes half joke that he was narrating or starring in just about every radio program during the 1940s. It's really only half a joke! How about that music at the beginning? Of course I associate that with "Alfred Hitchcock Presents". So it was interesting to hear it on a much earlier program. I knew "Funeral March of a Marionette" was an older song, because it's on a few Halloween classical CDs I have. Can you believe it was composed in 1872?

    Good story. It was probably a newer concept back then. I'm thinking of a more modern movie with a similar ending, but I won't mention it and spoil the radio show's ending for anyone who hasn't listened to it yet. :)

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  2. When I was little and my sister and I misbehaved, our parents would restrict television privileges, which meant that we got to spend the evening listening to records instead, and my Dad had a lot of old radio programs on vinyl.

    Thanks for listening, I'm glad you enjoyed it!

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