4/15/2023 0 Comments Sleep no more guideI stayed behind with the security of a radio announcer’s job. Most of them came on to New York, fought the actor’s battle, and made it one way or another. There was the Curtain Club of the University of Texas and Austin’s Little Theatre, and working between them were such aspirants as Zachary Scott, Elaine Anderson Scott, Eli Wallach, Walter Cronkite, Brooks West and Alma Holloway, whom I had sense enough to marry. "Now that I think of it, we had a sort of Golden Age of Drama down in Austin, Texas, during those depressed middle thirties. On the back of the Sleep No More album, Olmsted wrote: See image above this paragraph.) They were later re-released in the 1960s and 70s as a two record set. See photo at top of page), and "Edgar Allan Poe: Tales of Terror" (Vanguard, 1956. They were "Sleep No More! Famous Ghost and Horror Stories" (Vanguard, 9008, 1956. Other trivia: Two records of Olmsted's performances were released in 1956 under the Vanguard label. Trimm" - A convict manages a lucky escape, but still has a barrier to overcome before being truly free: a pair of meddlesome handcuffs. " Three O'clock" - A jealous husband decides to blow up his wife with a time bomb, but he can't predict the events that disrupt his murderous scheme. "The Man and The Snake" - A collector of snakes finds one has escaped beneath his bed, and is unable to move or call for help. " Waxworks" - A reporter agrees to spend the night in a wax museum's chamber of horrors, and becomes hypnotized by one of the characters on display. "The Storm" - A woman is terrorized by strange events within her country home.įor over a dozen more, see. In the moments that remain tonight, and while you're in such a wonderful, sleepless mood, I'd like you to hear the famous poem Edgar Allen Poe wrote about a woman, his wife. The story you heard tonight was written by a woman and was about a woman. So let's let Nelson Olmsted tell us about the woman alone at night, and The Storm." It's a story about a woman, who comes home one night to a big empty house to find a pin point of light, where there should be no light."Īnnouncer: "That sounds chilling. Host: "It's called The Storm, by McKnight Malmar, who, incidentally, is a woman. And, for this evening, well Nelson Olmsted, tell us about this evening's story." Or it can be those terrible fathomless shadows which lie buried deep in the primitive mind of civilized man. It can be a complex and hidden world of horror, lurking in such unholy dimensions as only the dead and the moonstruck can glimpse. The story of terror can be as simple as a sheeted ghost rattling chains. This is Ben Grauer introducing tonight's tale of terror, told by Nelson Olmsted on the National Broadcasting Company's presentation of Sleep No More. Tonight, it may be, you will Sleep No More."Īnnouncer: "Good Evening. In the shadows, there may be moving things. Sink back into your chair and don't look in to the shadows. (He had plenty of practice perfecting the talent during his live performance years of Black Night.) Although the stories were not original ones written specifically for radio as they had been in the Black Chapel and the Black Castle series, Sleep No More is still a fine example of reader's theater and pre-published short stories at their best. (About 1/3rd into the performance, when the main character has just been left alone in the wax museum, you can hear the false start of a sentence recorded over when Olmsted says "The eye- The eyes of doctor Bordet's effigy haunted and tormented him.") Yet even with the advantages that such technology afforded, Olmsted's ability to change voices between distinct characters is impressive. Not only was magnetic tape use becoming commonplace in the 1950s, but one can detect a slight edit at the beginning of one of the sentences during the performance of " Waxworks". Some (if not all) of the readings were pre-recorded. Music and sound effects were added in the background. Olmsted would read classic short stories and perform all the different voices of the characters. Sleep No More began as a fifteen minute series, but in November of 1956, it expanded to 30 minutes ( OTR Cat.com). Sleep No More was the second radio horror series of spoken word tales recited by Nelson Olmsted.
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