The Black Museum

Everyday objects, all touched by murder.

The Black Museum

The Black Museum (1952-1954) was a weekly OTR dramatic murder-crime anthology series focusing on The Black Museum, Scotland Yard. Produced in London, England, by Harry Alan Towers. Hosted and narrated by Orson Welles. Ira Marion, writer. Music composer / director, Sidney Torch. Each episode dramatized a crime or murder associated with artifacts in The Black Museum, called by Welles, Scotland Yard's "warehouse of homicide where everyday objects . . . all are touched by murder." The Black Museum is significant because of its association with Orson Welles and for its acknowledgement as the best of four series focused on The Black Museum.

Episodes

Totals

Total Episodes: 51
Surviving Episodes: 51
Inventory of episodes

Exemplary Episodes

A Tan Shoe, Left Foot
E.T. #14, 15 January 1952
A murder aboard a train and a missing payroll.

The Gas Receipt
E.T. #39, 29 January 1952
A receipt for ten gallons of petrol is the clue to a murder of a police constable, shot to death by four bullets.

A Wooden Mallet
E.T. #unknown, 5 February 1952
On Guy Fawkes day, a man's body is found inside a burning car.

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Episode Inventory

Totals

Total episodes: 51
Surviving episodes: 51

Numbering

Because episodes were broadcast in different countries at different times over several years, a definitive numbering of episodes may be impossible. This list follows The Definitive The Black Museum (The Digital Deli Too) and is based on chronology. AFRTS Electrical Transcription (E.T.) numbers are included where known.

  • A Tan Shoe, Left Foot
    E.T. #14, 15 January 1952
    A murder aboard a train and a missing payroll.
  • The Gas Receipt
    E.T. #39, 29 January 1952
    A receipt for ten gallons of petrol is the clue to a murder of a police constable, shot to death by four bullets.
  • A Wooden Mallet
    E.T. #unknown, 5 February 1952
    On Guy Fawkes day, a man's body is found inside a burning car.
  • A Jack Handle
    E. T. #36, 12 February 1952
    An American soldier and a British pub singer in wartime London have a go at robbery and murder.
  • The [Small] White Boxes
    E.T. #28, 19 February 1952
  • The [Spotted] Bed Sheet
    E.T. #19, 26 February 1952
    Natalie Parson disappears while on a cruise ship.
  • A Telegram
    E.T. #unknown, 4 March 1952
    A chauffeur with a taste for murder and a poor ability to spell is tripped up by a telegram and a long string of co-incidences.
  • The .32 Calibre Centre-Fire Bullet
    E.T. #unknown, 11 March 1952
    Three "youngish" men hold up a jewelry store, and commit a murder while doing it.
  • The Bathtub
    E.T. #25, 1 April 1952
    Edward Jones is married. Very married. He has wives all over the place.
  • A Can of Weed Killer
    E.T. #unknown, 8 April 1952
  • A Leather Bag
    E.T. #unknown, 15 April 1952
    Warren King's body is found on a train with five bullets in his head!
  • A [Doctor's] Prescription [for Morphia]
    E.T. #unknown, 22 April 1952
    June Dawson is paralyzed and depressed. She leaves all her fortune to her nurse in a new will.
  • A Bit of Frosted Glass
    E.T. #unknown, 29 April 1952
    AKA "The Glass Shards." A man and his son find an intruder in their apartment. The older man is shot by a small man.
  • A French-English Dictionary
    E.T. #unknown, 6 May 1952
    A British pub owner has been poisoned. Could it have been his wife and her French-speaking lover?
  • A Claw Hammer
    E.T. #unknown, 13 May 1952
    An old lady's handyman demands fifty pounds and kills her when he doesn't get it.
  • Four Small Bottles
    E.T. #unknown, 20 May 1952
    Oscar Stone, an old man with a young wife, is poisoned with chloroform.
  • A Pair of Spectacles
    E.T. #unknown, 27 May 1952
    Miss Daisy Oliver has disappeared en route to visit Mr. Smith, a strange chicken farmer. Her dismembered body is found buried on the chicken farm.
  • A Letter
    E.T. #unknown, 3 June 1952
    A clever forger uses ingenious methods to swindle banks. The unknown criminal seems educated, perhaps too well educated!
  • A Black Gladstone Bag
    E.T. #unknown, 10 June 1952
  • The Pigskin Glove
    E.T. #unknown, 24 June 1952
    Three women are found shot, each killed with only one bullet. A woman's glove leads to the trail of a beautiful woman and a single shot rifle.
  • A Champagne Glass
    E.T. #26, 30 September 1952
  • A Khaki Handkerchief
    E.T. #unknown, 14 October 1952
    Kate Hart and Doris Lyons are found dead in a wood. The handkerchief leads to a member of the army.
  • A Straight Razor
    E.T. #unknown, 14 December 1952
    The chilling story of a little man with a foreign accent who might have been "Jack The Ripper."
  • A Brass Button
    E.T. #8, 10 May 1953
    Janet Morgan, the "Swamp Girl" is found murdered.
  • A Piece of Iron Chain
    E.T. #unknown, 17 May 1953
    A woman has been hearing ghosts, dragging a chain.
  • A Door Key
    E.T. #1, 18 September 1974
    A key is found beside a dead body.
  • A Car Tyre
    E.T. #2, 25 September 1974
    A policeman is murdered when he stops a stolen car.
  • A Brickbat
    E.T. #3, 2 October 1974
    A handyman fancies his employer's wife. The husband is soon found dead.
  • A Jacket [Sleeveless, Unstitched Baby Jacket]
    E.T. #4, 9 October 1974
    Trevor Moon falls in love and proposes to Evie Rose. Shortly after Evie pays an unannounced visit to Trevor's chicken farm, she disappears.
  • A Scarf [Torn and Ragged]
    E.T. #5, 16 October 1974
    AKA "The Yellow Scarf." A man named Pike likes to use his scarf to strangle his victims.
  • A .22 Calibre Pistol
    E.T. #6, 23 October 1974
    AKA "Little Blue 22." Vivian is a woman scorned, and she has a little blue pistol.
  • A Canvas Bag
    E.T. #9, 13 November 1974
    A young lady is swindled by an evil gentleman.
  • An Open End Wrench
    E.T. #10, 20 November 1974
    A woman found dead in a car leads Scotland Yard to uncover a wrench-wielding murderer.
  • A Mandolin String
    E.T. #11, 27 November 1974
    A woman marries twice, and both times her husband falls down a flight of stairs and breaks his neck.
  • A Pink Powder Puff
    E.T. #unknown, 4 December 1974
    Richard William Heisen, a rogue and murderer, tells his criminal history while waiting to be hanged.
  • A [Length of] Sash Cord
    E.T. #13, 11 December 1974
    In Brighton, a man if found murdered near a theatre.
  • Two Scribble Notes
    E.T. #16, date unknown
    AKA "Kilroy Was Here." The famous slogan is found on two notes and a butcher block near murder victims.
  • A Lady's Shoe
    E.T. #22, date unknown
    Elizabeth Marlowe marries a man who is soon revealed as a fortune hunter . . . and a murderer!
  • A Hammerhead
    E.T. #38, date unknown
    Twenty-three women have been murdered and dismembered around the country.
  • A Shopping Bag
    E.T. #unknown, date unknown
    Stanley Haines has murdered five times, but is finally caught because of his faded green shopping bag.
  • A Shilling
    E.T. #unknown, date unknown
    Joey Bart gets out of prison and visits his brother to get his nightclub back. When Dave Bart is found murdered, a coin paves the way to the gallows!
  • A Silencer
    E.T. #unknown, date unknown
    A man moving into a new house is shot and killed by a gun with a silencer. Other murders follow.
  • The Acid Jar
    E.T. #unknown, date unknown
    Mrs. Regan has disappeared. She had an appointment with the charming Mr. Hart, but never kept it. Mr. Hart is a research chemist.
  • An Auto Service Card
    E.T. #unknown, date unknown
    A murderer is trapped by the odometer reading on his victim's car.
  • An Old-Fashioned Leather Trunk
    E.T. #unknown, date unknown
    A trunk is checked at a railroad station containing a dissected body.
  • A Pint Bottle Labeled Meat Juice
    E.T. #unknown, date unknown
    A two-timing woman has almost certainly poisoned her hypochondriacal husband.
  • The Postcard
    E.T. #unknown, date unknown
    A woman named Alice Cortland is found in Alfie Vines' room. Alice was secretly married to Alfie, and her head has been removed!
  • The Sheath Knife
    E.T. #unknown, date unknown
  • A Walking Stick
    E.T. #unknown, date unknown
    The walking stick, once used by Garibaldi, is the clue to the murder of a doctor's wife.
  • Twin Messengers of Death
    AFRTS #21, date unknown
    AKA Two Bullets. The story of two young punks in wartime London.
  • A Raincoat
    AFRTS #34, date unknown
    A man's wife is found murdered. The husband is suspected and found guilty, but reasonable doubt spares him from the death penalty.

Background

Both crime and detective stories were popular Old Time Radio (OTR) genres from the 1940s-1950s. This popularity coincided with rising concerns for emerging criminal activities, especially organized crime, and containment efforts at all levels. The radio drama series The Black Museum was created in response to this interest and focused on a collection of ordinary items used in crimes and murders housed at Scotland Yard, London, England.

The collection began with The Prisoners Property Act of 1869. This act empowered Scotland Yard to retain or store items of prisoners' property for training purposes. In 1874, The Central Prisoners' Property Store was established to house these exhibits. Commissioner Sir Edmund Henderson, other government dignitaries, and a few newspaper reporters visited the Crime Museum, as it came to be called, at Scotland Yard in 1877.

Allegedly, turned away from the visiting party, a reporter from The Observer coined the name, "The Black Museum." The name stuck, but the museum remained closed to the public. It was only used for training police officers. This sense of mystery, along with the reputation of Scotland Yard, and its growing and meticulously cataloged collection of crime items, provided a source of inspiration. From the 1930s through the 1950s hundreds of Scotland Yard's cases were chronicled worldwide in popular crime novels and pulp fiction, as well as four radio series.

The Secrets of Scotland Yard

The first, titled Secrets of Scotland Yard, was possibly produced by Harry Allen Towers, and distributed by his company, Towers of London. During World War II, Towers repackaged and distributed radio broadcasts via electrical transcriptions (ETs; record albums) to British military forces overseas. After the war, he developed a successful career as an independent radio, television, and film producer in London. Towers saw economic opportunities in a radio series focusing on the largely unknown Black Museum collection. A syndicated (commercially sponsored) radio series, he reasoned, could give a hint of these secrets.

The Secrets of Scotland Yard was hosted and narrated by American actor Clive Brook. Percy Hoskins, a crime journalist for London's Daily Express consulted and is credited with writing most of the stories and scripts for the 110 episodes (72 survive). Hoskins later consulted with Wyliss Cooper, who wrote the Whitehall 1212 series for the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) in the United States (see below).

Distribution of Secrets of Scotland Yard was hampered by the state-owned British Broadcasting Corporation's (BBC) ban against commercial broadcasts throughout the British Empire. Towers turned to his wartime network of ET pressing operations and broadcast outlets around the world to distribute his program without violating BBC rules.

Episodes of Secrets of Scotland Yard were produced in 1947. As early as December 1948, they were broadcast by Lourenço Marques Radio (LM Radio), a "pirate" radio station located in the Portuguese colony of Mozambique. South Africa was the intended audience, and Secrets of Scotland Yard was introduced to English-speaking listeners over the next two years (if the entire series of 110 episodes was aired). More information at The Definitive Secrets of Scotland Yard website.

Whitehall 1212

Another radio dramatic series focusing on The Black Museum was Whitehall 1212, written and directed by Wyllis Oswald Cooper (1899-1955) and broadcast by the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), 1951-1952. Cooper was noted for Lights Out (1934) and Quiet, Please! (1947-1948). Percy Hoskins, a crime journalist for London's Daily Express consulted for the series. Each episode was a dramatization of a Scotland Yard case by an all British cast (at Cooper's insistence) and hosted by Chief Superintendent John Davidson, curator of the Black Museum.

Fabian of The Yard

In 1952(?), episodes of Fabian of The Yard, were offered via South African syndication(?). This radio drama series also focused on The Black Museum.

The Black Museum

The Black Museum was also produced, written, and directed by Harry Allen Towers, 1948-1949. For this series, Towers wanted to make radio drama he could sell around the world. So, he contracted Orson Welles.

Welles was a well known American radio actor and director, noted for his many appearances on The March of Time since 1935, his work with The Columbia Workshop on their production of "The Fall of the City" in 1937, and his starring the title role of The Shadow for its 1938 season. On 30 October 1938 he achieved immediate international notoriety for his production, direction, and starring role in "The War of the Worlds" with The Mercury Theatre of the Air. Notoriety brought a sponser, and The Mercury Theatre on the Air was renamed The Campbell Playhouse. Wells remained until 31 March 1940. In 1941, 1942, and again in 1946, Welles starred in "The Hitchhiker," a radio drama written for him by Lucille Fletcher. Later, Welles starred in the The Adventures of Harry Lime (1951-1952).

In 1948-1949, Welles undertook a self-imposed exile in Europe to escape a listless Hollywood career, studio interference with his own creative projects, and potential persecution for his politics in America. In London, England, he met Towers who was interested to produce radio drama. Towers hoped to leverage Welles' creativity and radio drama experience into a successful radio series. Welles needed to raise money for his independent film projects.

A deal was struck. Welles agreed to appear in The Black Museum (fifty-one episodes; 1952-1954) and The Adventures of Harry Lime (fifty-two episodes; 1951-1952 season). Towers also produced The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, a series broadcast on BBC, 2 January-5 June 1955. One episode, "The Final Problem," featured Sir John Gielgud as Holmes, Sir Ralph Richardson as Dr. Watson, and Welles as Professor Moriarty. The series aired Sundays, 2 January-5 June 1955 on BBC.

The Black Museum directly competed with Tower's Secrets of Scotland Yard which had already covered most of Scotland Yard's most famous cases. This competition required a different approach. Welles' creative and acting abilities, along with dramatizations of morbid and gruesome cases, often told from the criminal's point of view, were combined to produce a sensational appeal for the series. This approach was successful and The Black Museum is often cited as the best of the four radio drama series about Scotland Yard's collection of ordinary objects associated with crime and murder.

This is Orson Welles, speaking from London.
(Sound of Big Ben chimes)
The Black Museum . . . a repository of death. Here in the grim stone structure on the Thames which houses Scotland Yard is a warehouse of homicide, where everyday objects . . . [Welles named 3-4 different] . . . all are touched by murder.
(Dramatic music)

Following this opening, Welles described a specific artifact found in The Black Museum. His description led to a dramatization of a true crime or murder. At the conclusion of each episode, Welles entoned . . . Now until we meet again in the same place and I tell you another tale of the Black Museum, I remain, as always, obediently yours.

As he had done with Secrets of Scotland Yard, Towers used broadcast outlets around the world as a way to distribute his program without violating BBC rules. Perhaps the earliest broadcast of The Black Museum was by Radio Luxembourg, a "pirate" radio station, beginning in May 1950. This provided exposure for the series in Europe and England. Order of episodes unknown.

1 January-24 June 1952 and 30 September-30 December 1952
Thirty nine episodes broadcast in the United States via the Mutual Broadcasting System (MBS). Order of episodes unknown.

28 September 1952-28 June 1953
Thirty nine episodes broadcast via Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC). Order of episodes unknown.

An unknown number of episodes were broadcast via Armed Forces Radio and Television Services (AFRTS). Dates of broadcast(s) and order of episodes unknown.

Resources

Inventory of episodes
Radio logs at Jerry Haendiges Vintage Radio Logs website
Episodes at Internet Archive website
The Definitive Black Museum at Digital Deli Too website