Episode 354: The Book of Hell

[00:00:17] Speaker A: The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society Podcast welcome to the Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society, a podcast dedicated to suspense, crime and horror stories from the Golden Age of radio. I'm Eric. [00:00:36] Speaker B: I'm Tim. [00:00:37] Speaker C: And I'm Joshua. [00:00:38] Speaker B: We love mysterious old time radio stories, but do they stand the test of time? That's what we're here to find out. [00:00:43] Speaker A: This week we present the Book of Hell from Nightfall, an episode selected by our Patreon supporter, Zachary. [00:00:52] Speaker C: Nightfall was a supernatural horror anthology produced by the Canadian broadcasting corporation between July 1980 and June 1983. Although inspired by the Golden Age of radio, Nightfall took a more modern approach to horror, pushing the boundaries of what was acceptable on Canadian radio at the time. The intense situations, graphic sound effects, and occasional use of strong language led some CBC affiliates to drop the series entirely. [00:01:22] Speaker B: The Book of Hell was written by James Maver Moore, a Canadian writer, actor, director, and television producer known for his pioneering role in Canadian media and theater. Born in Toronto to theater maven Dora Maver Moore, he appeared in his first play at the age of six. While attending the University of Toronto, Moore joined the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as a radio dramatist and actor. He moved to CBC Television in 1952, serving until 1954 as its first chief producer and creating the CBC National News, later known as the National. Moore was also a co founder of the Stratford Festival and wrote several operas and musical comedies. In addition to his creative work, he held leadership roles at the CBC and later taught at York University. [00:02:05] Speaker A: And somewhere during all that, he found the time to write the Book of Hell from Nightfall, first broadcast on the CBC, March 27, 1981. [00:02:16] Speaker C: It's late at night and a chill has set in. You're alone and the only light you see is coming from an antique radio. Listen to the sounds coming from the speaker. Listen to the music and listen to the voices. [00:02:40] Speaker D: In the dream. You are falling, lost in the listening distance as dark locks in nightfall. Good evening. Tonight we'll be a little more literate than usual to give you the inside story of a manuscript they're just dying to get into print. The play from the pen of Mavormore. [00:03:18] Speaker A: Is called the Book of Hell. [00:03:27] Speaker D: I don't care if it's the deepest book since Kafka, Andy, it still won't sell. [00:03:33] Speaker E: I had hoped for more important considerations than sales. [00:03:36] Speaker D: There isn't a publisher in the country who'd touch it. Gordon, the book industry's broke. For God's sake. We're putting chicory in the office. Coffee. [00:03:44] Speaker E: Surely it would sell a few thousand. [00:03:45] Speaker D: Violent sells sex Weird religion. Put them together and you clean up. [00:03:51] Speaker E: Clean up? Odd expression for publishing garbage. [00:03:55] Speaker D: Yeah, find it all in the Bible. [00:03:56] Speaker E: And Dante and Shakespeare. I know. [00:03:59] Speaker D: So get your academic ass off that high horse. [00:04:03] Speaker E: I'm talking about a highly relevant piece of work, Gordon. A penetrating look at Western society that warns us where we're headed. [00:04:09] Speaker D: I can tell you where you're headed. [00:04:10] Speaker E: Agrees with me that it's the out. [00:04:12] Speaker D: You want to work here, you work to my rules, professor, or you go back to the cloister you came from. [00:04:18] Speaker C: Sure, Gordon, sure. [00:04:20] Speaker E: But you are losing one of the most remarkable manuscripts. [00:04:24] Speaker D: Editors are for editing. Presidents are for calling the shots. Now you and Linda better get that straight. [00:04:37] Speaker F: Andy. God, have I got something for us. [00:04:41] Speaker E: Oh, hi, Linda. Just let me get my caffeine chaser. Another clobbering by the boss. [00:04:48] Speaker F: I am flying. Listen, last night. [00:04:53] Speaker E: Let me brace myself. All right, what happened? [00:04:59] Speaker F: I got a manuscript from A.J. yanovsky. [00:05:04] Speaker E: Want a copy? [00:05:05] Speaker F: Love some. [00:05:08] Speaker E: One copy. Black as Gordon's Soul. [00:05:11] Speaker F: Thanks. I read it last night. Andrew, you would not believe. [00:05:16] Speaker E: I didn't know Janowski was still alive. [00:05:18] Speaker F: Hibernating in Mexico. [00:05:21] Speaker E: Long winter? [00:05:22] Speaker F: 12 years. [00:05:25] Speaker E: There were rumors, right? He was on the lam from the drug squad. No, he was murdered. No, he murdered someone. He's a Nazi doctor. And he's the bastard son of Greta Garbo. [00:05:36] Speaker F: Who cares? He's a great writer, Linda. [00:05:40] Speaker E: A.J. janowski was strictly a 60s phenomenon. Who needs that stuff now? All that stream of subconsciousness crap. [00:05:47] Speaker F: That's my time you're knocking, Curly. I was there. [00:05:51] Speaker E: And if he has started writing again, why would he send the manuscript to you? [00:05:57] Speaker F: Cause, fine, I knew him. Yeah, like we met. Hung around in Haight Ashbury. [00:06:03] Speaker E: Oh, cute little California flower children. [00:06:07] Speaker F: He told me once, linda, I'm gonna write the Book of Hell. I'll send it to you. [00:06:13] Speaker E: And 15 years later, he did. [00:06:15] Speaker F: Yeah, an incredible work as a sort of documentary, Eddie. First person stuff. [00:06:20] Speaker E: You mean a rewrite of Dante's Inferno? [00:06:22] Speaker F: Dante had a theological wet dream, for God's sake. Janowski is hard edge. Relentless. [00:06:29] Speaker C: Yeah, great stuff. [00:06:31] Speaker E: Sex, violence and weird religion ought to make a mint. No, no, Gordon will love it. [00:06:36] Speaker F: I want to get Yanofsky on the phone right away. [00:06:39] Speaker E: Put them together and you clean up. Too bad about AJ he used to be honest, at least. [00:06:46] Speaker F: Andrew, you're starting to bore me. Get useful. Here's the number. Put it through for me while I check the mail, huh? [00:06:52] Speaker E: Is this number his agent? [00:06:53] Speaker F: No, his home in Mexico. The manuscript didn't come from an agent. Use the phone in my office. [00:07:00] Speaker D: Oh, well. [00:07:01] Speaker E: Little diversion helps put in the day. I can't believe I'm doing this. I'll be promoted to Linda's assistant faster than I thought. Hello? May I speak to Mr. Yanofsky, please? [00:07:22] Speaker F: Tell him who wants to speak to him. He won't talk to just anybody. [00:07:25] Speaker E: Thanks a lot. I beg your pardon? [00:07:28] Speaker F: Tell him Linda Ross. [00:07:32] Speaker E: I see. No, there isn't. Yeah. Thank you. [00:07:38] Speaker D: Let me talk. [00:07:40] Speaker F: What the hell are you doing? [00:07:41] Speaker E: That was his wife. [00:07:42] Speaker F: Why'd you hang up? [00:07:44] Speaker E: A.J. yanofsky died two years ago. [00:08:03] Speaker D: See, Senoras. [00:08:05] Speaker E: Yes, ladies. [00:08:06] Speaker D: May I serve you? [00:08:07] Speaker F: I'll just have a black coffee, please. [00:08:09] Speaker G: A dos cafe solo, por favor. [00:08:11] Speaker E: Dos coffee solo. [00:08:13] Speaker C: Very good, Ladies. [00:08:14] Speaker D: The coffee is just. [00:08:18] Speaker G: I hope you are enjoying Mexico, Ms. Ross. [00:08:21] Speaker F: I am, thank you, Mrs. Yanofsky. I'm a direct person. [00:08:26] Speaker G: Good. So am I. [00:08:29] Speaker F: Sorry if I seem to pry, but I must know. How did your husband die? [00:08:37] Speaker G: He was eaten away, Ms. Ross, from the inside. When there was more outside than inside. He died in my arms, like kindling wood. [00:08:55] Speaker F: And you told no one? [00:08:58] Speaker G: The doctor? The undertaker? It was his wish. He wanted to keep the mystery. And I have kept it. [00:09:10] Speaker F: You must have loved him very much. [00:09:12] Speaker G: He needed me. Others may have needed him. [00:09:19] Speaker F: I guess I was one of those once. [00:09:23] Speaker G: It means nothing except for a man's vanity. But vanity, you know, means things that are in vain. At the end, he had only me. [00:09:39] Speaker F: Yes? I wanted to ask you. Did he leave any other papers, any notes or sketches? [00:09:48] Speaker G: That was all. He left pieces. He became unable to. He could not put anything together. The drugs, you know, were they sketches. [00:10:01] Speaker F: For some particular work or. [00:10:02] Speaker G: Oh, no. Whatever came into his head. [00:10:06] Speaker F: May I see them? Later. [00:10:09] Speaker G: There's nothing to see. All burnt. He told me. Burn them. [00:10:16] Speaker D: Those coffees are long. [00:10:20] Speaker E: You like something to eat, Senolas? [00:10:22] Speaker D: Ladies. [00:10:23] Speaker G: Estoy el rejimen, senor. [00:10:25] Speaker E: Que bonita, senora. [00:10:27] Speaker F: So there was no book? [00:10:30] Speaker G: No book? [00:10:31] Speaker F: But the typing. You said you recognized his machine. [00:10:35] Speaker G: All typewriters have scars on some of the letters. He's had a crooked awe, like fingerprints. The manuscript is from my husband's typewriter. [00:10:49] Speaker F: Then we're getting warmer. Surely. [00:10:52] Speaker G: But I sold it. I sell everything. So who knows what writer is using it now. [00:10:58] Speaker F: But the handwriting, the corrections, the signature on a letter, could those be faked? [00:11:03] Speaker G: What do you want me to say? That he came back from the dead? [00:11:08] Speaker F: No. I can't easily believe it. [00:11:10] Speaker G: The dead do not rise again. [00:11:12] Speaker F: There are mediums who say that they can take dictation from the spirit world. Have you experienced they take the credit? [00:11:19] Speaker G: No. Forgive me, but such people work for money. [00:11:25] Speaker F: If the Book of hell gets published, Mrs. Yanofsky, the money will come to you. Would you object to that? [00:11:32] Speaker G: I would not personally object, no. But that book will never be published. [00:11:38] Speaker F: Oh, you'd object on behalf of your husband? [00:11:42] Speaker G: Why should I? Obviously he is trying to get it published. [00:11:49] Speaker F: Do you really believe that? [00:11:50] Speaker G: I believe only that life is mysterious. [00:11:56] Speaker F: Why do you think the Book of. [00:11:57] Speaker G: Hell, it will never be published? Because it is probably true. [00:12:12] Speaker D: I don't like the typeface, Pete. And the paper stock looks flimsy. You get what you pay for, Gordon. You used to make better looking books. And you used to have a better class of writers. You want to upgrade the materials? [00:12:28] Speaker C: Fine. [00:12:30] Speaker D: But I'll have to upgrade the price. And we both know I can't afford it. Buckram binding, a thing of the past. Now it's paperbacks. Run off a newsprint. [00:12:40] Speaker E: Hmm. [00:12:44] Speaker D: We go back a long way, Pete. Yeah, sure do. My old man was your dad's printer. I. I hate asking for credit, Pete, but I'm in a bit of a jam. Could you carry me for six months? Sure, Gordon. [00:13:07] Speaker A: No sweat. [00:13:08] Speaker D: All I need is one bestseller. Paperback rights in six figures. Maybe a film option. Yep, just one blockbuster. Where you going to find it? Gordon? [00:13:32] Speaker E: Gordon. [00:13:33] Speaker D: What do you want, Andy? [00:13:35] Speaker E: Linda just phoned from New York. [00:13:36] Speaker D: Yeah? [00:13:37] Speaker E: Not a single major publisher has been offered a janofsky manuscript in 12 years. [00:13:42] Speaker D: What? How many people know about the Book of Hell? [00:13:46] Speaker E: You and me and Linda. [00:13:47] Speaker D: None of the secretaries? [00:13:48] Speaker E: I don't think so. No letters, no calls. [00:13:50] Speaker D: Where's the manuscript now? Did she leave it with you? [00:13:53] Speaker E: No, took it with her. Just ran out, flagged a cab and took her chances. [00:13:57] Speaker D: The minute she gets back, have a photocopy made. No, you better make it yourself. We can't take chances, Gordon. [00:14:05] Speaker E: You sound as if you're going to buy it and you haven't even read it. [00:14:08] Speaker D: You haven't read it either. Why so superior? [00:14:12] Speaker E: The notion of a real Hell went out with a Flat Earth Society. Even the Church calls it a figure of speech. We'd be the laughingstock of the scientific community. [00:14:19] Speaker D: Weird. Religion makes lots of money, remember? [00:14:23] Speaker E: Oh, I just don't follow you. You turn down a major work on the human condition and latch onto a hokey piece of pulp about Hell. [00:14:33] Speaker D: I have an open mind. [00:14:35] Speaker E: You've got an open cash register. [00:14:37] Speaker D: Is anybody in a position to sue us? [00:14:39] Speaker E: What? [00:14:40] Speaker D: Sue? Can anyone stand up in court and call the writer a liar? Call the whole thing a hoax? [00:14:45] Speaker E: If that's all that matters to me. [00:14:46] Speaker D: Now, listen, nobody's to find out about this book. No one. When Linda gets back tomorrow. It's not to be discussed in this office. [00:14:56] Speaker E: Why the massive security? [00:14:57] Speaker D: We'll meet at my place or on a park bench if we have to, but not here. Yanofsky lived his whole life in secrecy. [00:15:04] Speaker E: Enhanced his charisma. I guess. [00:15:06] Speaker D: Secrecy without the media messing things up can buy us three months lead time. The Book of Hell just might be our salvation. [00:15:25] Speaker F: I keep telling you, Gordon, Nanofsky's wife doesn't want a contract. She's not a businesswoman. [00:15:30] Speaker D: A businesswoman, for God's sake, is a contradiction in terms. She's his executor, isn't she? [00:15:36] Speaker F: He didn't leave the book. It's just been written. [00:15:39] Speaker D: Oh, sure. Smuggled out of Hell in a diplomatic pouch. [00:15:42] Speaker F: I can only tell you that's what Mrs. Yanofsky believes. [00:15:45] Speaker D: Well, that settles one thing. I don't have to pay any royalties if there's no copyright. We could even rewrite the damn thing. [00:15:53] Speaker G: What, fake? [00:15:54] Speaker D: The fake. [00:15:55] Speaker F: Not when you've read it, Gordon, you won't. [00:15:57] Speaker D: I've been trying to get my hands on it. Where's Andy with that bloody Xerox? [00:16:01] Speaker F: He should be back any minute from the office. [00:16:02] Speaker D: I want to read it at home tonight. [00:16:04] Speaker F: If this is a fake, it may be harder to explain a hoax than. I mean, there. There are forces beyond. Oh, I don't know what I mean. [00:16:12] Speaker D: So I gather. [00:16:14] Speaker F: His wife made it all seem completely mysterious. [00:16:16] Speaker D: Am I getting you straight? [00:16:18] Speaker F: I need to get away from. Get some perspective. [00:16:21] Speaker D: All this documentary, eyewitness stuff. You trying to tell me there are pens and typewriters in hell? And paper that doesn't burn, and a post office. [00:16:31] Speaker F: The post office even you could believe. [00:16:33] Speaker D: Yeah, probably the model for our mail service. [00:16:37] Speaker F: What I'm trying to say, Gordon, is that the usual marks of a fake are just not there. The Book of Hell isn't even a copy of Janowski's old style. [00:16:45] Speaker D: What about the detective stuff? The machine? [00:16:48] Speaker F: Sure, it's his old typewriter, but God knows who might have picked it up in a flea market. [00:16:52] Speaker D: And the handwriting. [00:16:53] Speaker F: How could Afoni have forged it so meticulously? And why forgery is even less likely. [00:16:59] Speaker D: Come on, Linda. Feminine fantasy isn't going to solve anything. Oh, bull. So let's be logical. Either Yanovsky is still alive. [00:17:06] Speaker F: I've told you, he died in his wife's arms. [00:17:09] Speaker D: Or he's dead, she says. Were there Any witnesses? [00:17:13] Speaker F: I've seen the grave. [00:17:15] Speaker D: You didn't dig him up, though? [00:17:17] Speaker F: No, I didn't dig him up. [00:17:18] Speaker D: Then it's unproven. As the Scots say. But as I started to say, either he's still alive, or it's got to be a fake. [00:17:27] Speaker F: Oh, here he comes. Like Roger Bannister. Andy, don't drop that briefcase. [00:17:32] Speaker E: Listen, I've been all around the park three times. Let's synchronize directions next time. [00:17:37] Speaker D: Sure, sure, sure. Meanwhile, I just want to read the damn manuscript before I bet my life on it. You got the Xerox? [00:17:42] Speaker E: Listen, I couldn't. [00:17:45] Speaker F: Give me the briefcase, Andy. But this is the original. [00:17:52] Speaker D: Where's the copy, for God's sake? [00:17:54] Speaker E: I'm trying to tell you it won't Xerox. [00:18:00] Speaker D: What are you talking about? [00:18:01] Speaker E: I tried it on three different machines, and there's something weird. The sheets all come out blank. [00:18:17] Speaker F: Their knowledge of human anatomy is so complete that the worst tortures on Earth cannot compare with the exquisite pain they inflict. [00:18:24] Speaker E: That's enough. [00:18:25] Speaker D: Okay, okay. Play it back, Andy. That's bloody odd. Check the machine again. There's got to be an. [00:18:38] Speaker E: Yeah, I'll test it. One, two, three. Apple Baker Charlie. Testing. One, two, three, Apple Baker Charlie. Testing. [00:18:58] Speaker D: The Book of Hell won't photograph and it won't record. [00:19:04] Speaker E: Where does that leave us the ink? [00:19:06] Speaker D: Could be a chemical gimmick. Wooden Xerox. But it's your voice reading, Linda. [00:19:11] Speaker F: I didn't take either. So the mystery is, in Yanofsky's words. [00:19:16] Speaker E: There are more things in Heaven and Earth. [00:19:19] Speaker D: Thank you, scholarship Professor. [00:19:21] Speaker F: Maybe if we try it again. [00:19:22] Speaker D: We came all the way out to my place to read the Book of Hell, so let's get on with it. Copies or no copies, pick up where you left off, Linda. [00:19:31] Speaker F: The use of microorganisms first to stimulate the frontal cortex of the brain, then to frustrate neurohormonal responses sets up an alternating swing between hope and despair. One group of microbes arouses expectation in the control center while another renders the receptor muscles unable to comply. These positive and negative forces locked inside care no more about their battleground than ravaging armies on Earth. You are. I am. Their Hiroshima. On my second day in Ward 7. [00:20:09] Speaker D: Go on. [00:20:11] Speaker E: What hideous torture. [00:20:13] Speaker D: Get yourself another whiskey. Go on, Linda. [00:20:18] Speaker F: On my second day in Ward 7, they began the injections. The first injection induced a high far beyond any I had ever experienced on Earth. It was as if I were being carried to the top of a demonic roller coaster and forced to look far below at the twisting track of terrors. The second injection plunged me down into an abyss. I thought frantically of escape, only to realize what a trap I was caught in. There was no escape from this insane cross wiring. I was my own torturer. Shall I go on? [00:20:58] Speaker D: Makes a crazy kind of sense. Like a report from a manhunt. [00:21:02] Speaker E: A ticket on its own terms, if you can accept them. A day, for example is his metaphor. [00:21:07] Speaker D: Metaphors you play with in our world. Look, all he does is talk about physical suffering, mental suffering. [00:21:13] Speaker C: Exactly. [00:21:14] Speaker D: In hell, you don't have a body or a mind. For God's sake, You have a soul, A lost one. [00:21:18] Speaker F: How do you know, Gordon? You're getting awfully metaphysical. [00:21:21] Speaker D: Well, to come back down to earth, I know when I hear a stone nut describing hell from his hacienda in Mexico. He's got one hell of an imagination, that's all. [00:21:32] Speaker E: That is not all, Gordon. Dig deeper. [00:21:35] Speaker D: If he's got a body and a mind, he's not dead. And the last time I heard, you had to be dead to go to hell. [00:21:41] Speaker F: For what it's worth, he explains that well. [00:21:44] Speaker D: I, for one, can't wait to hear it. [00:21:48] Speaker F: I was then confined in a small cubicle made of what appeared to be mirrors. Though I knew I was dead, the excruciating pain contradicted me. Yet, search as I might in the mirrors, there was nothing there. Thus they drive home their most chilling lesson in damnation. If we do not exist, we must invent ourselves. With no body or mind left to torture, the soul must torture itself. By recreating body and mind out of remembered fragments, I was to program my own inferno. [00:22:29] Speaker E: Good God. [00:22:31] Speaker D: Well, he certainly lost his mind. [00:22:33] Speaker F: Listen. In effect, my soul was a monstrous cancer, continually creating within itself the means of my destruction. A lost soul is one that no longer controls its own circuitry. The signal apparatus has been taken over by the enemy, which uses it to destroy me. To destroy you? The sensation is like spontaneous combustion. [00:23:02] Speaker D: I should have taken it off the hook. [00:23:04] Speaker F: Oh, let it ring. [00:23:05] Speaker D: And you take a message, would you? And leave it off the hook. [00:23:08] Speaker E: Yeah, okay, okay, I'll get it. [00:23:09] Speaker D: Go on, Linda. Go on. [00:23:13] Speaker F: It is this control of the circuitry, this ability to send phantom signals to real bodies through their remembered images, like pins stuck in a doll, that gives hell its power. On Earth, hell is not a place, but a system for disrupting the plans of God. [00:23:37] Speaker E: Gordon, that was the police. Our warehouse just went up in flames. [00:23:46] Speaker D: You'll never get near it. Mr. McIntosh, could you save anything? What isn't already burnt Will be. So get that ladder out of there. [00:23:54] Speaker A: Over to the right. [00:23:55] Speaker D: My whole life's work. What a bloody mess. [00:24:00] Speaker F: At least we moved the office downtown, didn't lose everything. [00:24:03] Speaker D: What can we do without stock, without books to sell? [00:24:06] Speaker E: There's insurance, isn't there? [00:24:07] Speaker D: Insurance, Andy? [00:24:08] Speaker F: That's hardly a consolation. [00:24:10] Speaker D: Don't push your luck, Andy. I've been pushing mine reeler in the other way. [00:24:14] Speaker E: Let's go. [00:24:16] Speaker D: Captain. Yes, Mr. McIntosh. Anything I can do for you? Any idea what started it? Well, a little early to tell. Faulty wiring, maybe. No way. Completely rewired last year. [00:24:28] Speaker F: Any sign of arson, Captain? [00:24:30] Speaker D: Well, not so far, but that's unofficial. [00:24:33] Speaker E: There has to be a cause. [00:24:35] Speaker D: Books, you know, soak up moisture, then heat sometimes. Could have been spontaneous combustion. An act of God. [00:24:57] Speaker F: Gordon, you still want to go ahead with the Book of. [00:25:00] Speaker D: I don't know. What else have we got to push. [00:25:04] Speaker E: Half a dozen books in the fall. [00:25:05] Speaker D: List that just might ease us gracefully downhill to bankruptcy. Why should we give up on the one sensational manuscript that might get us back in the race? [00:25:16] Speaker F: You still think the warehouse fire was a coincidence? [00:25:19] Speaker D: Linda, you are a lovely lady, an intelligent person and a great editor. [00:25:24] Speaker F: In that order. [00:25:25] Speaker D: But you will never make me believe in ghosts. [00:25:26] Speaker F: Gordon, you're beginning to protest. [00:25:28] Speaker D: Too much extrasensory perception might be okay if we completely explored the five senses we already know about. [00:25:35] Speaker F: You need a license to preach in this park. [00:25:36] Speaker D: Don't try to convert me to diabolism. [00:25:39] Speaker E: Obviously, the Book of Hell didn't do that. [00:25:41] Speaker D: Not what I've heard so far. I'm the only one who never gets to read it through. Where is it now? [00:25:48] Speaker F: Locked in my office. [00:25:50] Speaker D: Well, let's keep it there. So long as I'm legally clear as publisher, I don't give a damn who wrote it or where it came from. [00:25:56] Speaker E: We sort of gathered that a production. [00:25:58] Speaker D: Like this has to be played very carefully, kept under heavy wraps at just the right moments, and published with all the hype we can muster. [00:26:08] Speaker E: And what about the cold, hard looks in retrospect? [00:26:11] Speaker D: Backlash? [00:26:11] Speaker F: Or maybe just knowing grins all over the media. [00:26:14] Speaker D: By that time, we'll be heavily into foreign sales, translations, film rights, laughing all. [00:26:19] Speaker E: The way to the bank. [00:26:21] Speaker D: By then, even the fire will seem like a godsend, like a brilliant publicity stunt. [00:26:24] Speaker E: Gordon, ever heard of hubris? [00:26:26] Speaker D: Hubris is contempt for God, Professor. I am prepared to show a little contempt for the devil. [00:26:33] Speaker F: That's all very daring, Gordon, but how are you going to print a facsimile of the Book of Hell? If it won't photograph. [00:26:40] Speaker D: That reminds me. Gotta get back to the office and talk to Pete. He'll have to set the whole manuscript in type when it's finally on press. I just hope it'll print. Sure, Gordon. I don't see why not. If you got trouble getting photostats, we could set Linotype and run it off letterpress. I just have to work out the costs. Hold on a sec. Hey, Bill, what's that carton doing on the conveyor belt? It'll wreck the whole run. [00:27:42] Speaker F: You guys want to go somewhere for a cup of coffee? [00:27:44] Speaker D: Oh, I hate chicory. [00:27:46] Speaker E: And I hate funerals. [00:27:47] Speaker F: You didn't have to go to his funeral, did you? [00:27:49] Speaker E: I felt responsible somehow. [00:27:51] Speaker F: You? What about me? The Book of Hell hadn't been sent to me in the first place. [00:27:56] Speaker D: I doubt both of you. It's nobody's fault. These things happen. Something just comes up with your number on it. [00:28:02] Speaker E: So what do we do now? [00:28:05] Speaker D: We can get another printer. Just a matter of booking press time. [00:28:11] Speaker F: Not a word of the book gets out. No one would touch it with a ten foot pole. They'd say it was jinxed. [00:28:16] Speaker E: I hate to rub it in, but I was against it from the start. [00:28:19] Speaker F: Come on, Andy. You blew hot and cold the whole time. [00:28:21] Speaker E: Yeah, I was skeptical at first, sure. But when drastic things began to happen. [00:28:24] Speaker D: Where is the Book of Hell? Is it still locked up in your office? Linda? [00:28:28] Speaker F: It's in my briefcase, Gordon. [00:28:31] Speaker D: I want to see it. [00:28:32] Speaker F: Gordon, please. [00:28:32] Speaker D: I've got to make the decision back at the office. I haven't had the damn book in my hands yet. [00:28:52] Speaker F: Be my guest, Gordon. The Book of Hell, by A.J. yanofsky. [00:28:58] Speaker D: Thanks. Now let's see what a monstrous fake feels like. There's some sort of. Sort of smell. Musty. Something accurate. [00:29:52] Speaker E: Poor Gordon. [00:29:54] Speaker F: Poor Janowski. [00:29:57] Speaker E: Because his book was destroyed because Janowski. [00:30:01] Speaker F: Dared to write it. Can you imagine the ghastly things they'll do to him now? [00:30:09] Speaker E: Linda, we've both read the Book of Hell. We're the only ones who know. What will they do to us? [00:30:38] Speaker C: You have just heard the Book of. [00:30:40] Speaker B: Hell by Maver Moore. [00:30:42] Speaker C: Featured in tonight's cast were Bud Knapp as Gordon, Nonny, Griffin as Linda and Patrick Young as Andy. With lynn Daragon as Mrs. Yanofsky, Hugh Webster as Pete and Alan De Ramis as the fireman and the waiter. Our recording engineer is John Jessup with sound effects by Bill Robinson. Our production assistant is Nina Callahan, and the series story editor is Earl Toppings. Nightfall is produced and directed for cbc Radio by Bill Howell. [00:31:11] Speaker A: That was the book of hell from Nightfall, here on the mysterious old Radio Listening Society podcast once again. I'm Eric. [00:31:19] Speaker B: I'm Tim. [00:31:20] Speaker C: And I'm Joshua. [00:31:21] Speaker A: I'm going to put you on the spot, Tim. Will you pull up our website? I want to know the names of our Nightfall episodes that we have done so far in this podcast. Here's why I want to know. When we do a Nightfall, it seems to me that I go, wow, I can't believe how much I enjoyed that and how much I love that. And now I'm starting to think I like All Nightfalls. I don't think. Has there been one we've done that I was like, no, that was. [00:31:53] Speaker B: I do not think you like All Night Falls. [00:31:55] Speaker C: No, that is not true. You do not like All Night Falls. [00:31:59] Speaker A: Because we're on a streak here, though, right? I've liked them. [00:32:03] Speaker C: I believe so. [00:32:04] Speaker A: But I'm just so curious, I can. [00:32:06] Speaker C: Barely keep track of my own opinions, let alone yours. So we might need opinion assistance, kind of like an admin. You know who. Just keep track of what we think of radio shows. [00:32:18] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:32:18] Speaker B: All right, Here are the Nightfall episodes we've done, in order. [00:32:21] Speaker A: Okay. [00:32:21] Speaker B: The Porch Light. [00:32:22] Speaker A: Loved it. [00:32:23] Speaker B: Really good. Club of Dead Men. You hated it. [00:32:26] Speaker A: I did? [00:32:26] Speaker C: Yep. [00:32:27] Speaker A: Okay. [00:32:28] Speaker B: Assassin Game, I think. [00:32:29] Speaker A: I didn't like that one. [00:32:30] Speaker C: I didn't like that one. [00:32:32] Speaker B: Where do we go from here? [00:32:33] Speaker A: Don't remember it. [00:32:35] Speaker C: I like that one. This is the most exciting podcast we've ever done. It's the closest to, like, a greatest hits flashback episode. [00:32:44] Speaker B: Ringing the changes. [00:32:46] Speaker C: Great. [00:32:46] Speaker B: It's really good. [00:32:47] Speaker C: It's really good. You liked it, too. [00:32:48] Speaker A: Did I? Good. [00:32:49] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:32:50] Speaker B: Signal man, year six. [00:32:51] Speaker A: That was a terrible one, wasn't it? That was the one. [00:32:54] Speaker B: Crazy Faithful. Really good. [00:32:57] Speaker A: Okay. [00:32:58] Speaker B: Dark side of the Mind. [00:32:59] Speaker C: That was the guy who was the child murderer. [00:33:02] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, I like that one. I just heard Child Murder. [00:33:07] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:33:08] Speaker A: Yeah, That's a good Carmilla. Oh, I like that one. [00:33:11] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:33:12] Speaker B: And then Gerald was the last one. [00:33:13] Speaker A: We listened to, and I like that one. [00:33:14] Speaker C: We had more problems with Gerald overall. But you like parts of it and kind of a cure its egg. [00:33:19] Speaker B: Oh, and I've got a recording happening on my schedule right now. [00:33:25] Speaker C: Better turn up that phone and get back to work, so. But you are right that you have an impression that you like that I. [00:33:33] Speaker A: Hate Nightfall is like, in my head, like, Nightfall. Stupid night. And now I'm starting to realize, no, I like more of them than you don't then. I don't. I'VE got to stop with. And I think it's because the first time we ever did a Nightfall in this podcast, I was so enamored with how crazy the music was. It's like, this is terrible. Listen to. [00:33:50] Speaker C: We were so hard on it that we just released it as a bonus episode on Patreon. [00:33:55] Speaker A: Right. [00:33:55] Speaker C: Release it because you're just. [00:33:57] Speaker A: But now two things have happened. Number one, not only do I like this, and I'm starting to realize I think I like Nightfall a lot. Are you ready? I actually have warmed up to the point that I love the music. Like, the music is starting to become awesome. [00:34:15] Speaker B: To me, the music fits this episode very well. Yes, it is a very appropriate music for this. [00:34:22] Speaker A: Was it Or. I don't know. And it's that same weird, crazy high pitched. I can't even describe what they're playing. I. Anyway, my point of this is to Zachary. Thank you for bringing this. Patreon. Zachary. I really enjoyed this a lot. I thought this was so interesting from so many standpoints and well produced and well acted and well directed and just a. To me, a unique story or something. I haven't heard. [00:34:59] Speaker C: No. [00:34:59] Speaker A: I just want to throw that out there. [00:35:01] Speaker C: No, we could do this backwards. Because I will. I will say right now that this is probably right below Porch Light as one of my favorite nightballs. I like this one a lot, so. Because I think this might be an interesting way to put pressure on Tim. [00:35:15] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:35:15] Speaker B: I saw you winding up to say something very superlative about it. I thought, like, no, Porch Light's better. Oh. But if you can say that. [00:35:21] Speaker D: Okay. [00:35:22] Speaker B: I'm on board. [00:35:22] Speaker C: Cool. [00:35:23] Speaker A: I like this better than Porch Light. [00:35:25] Speaker B: Wow. [00:35:26] Speaker A: Yeah. And Porch Light's pretty good. It's got Winter Storm in it. You know me. [00:35:32] Speaker C: They are both great scripts, well produced in my. [00:35:35] Speaker B: I do have criticisms. There are things in here that I got. [00:35:39] Speaker C: Bring it. [00:35:40] Speaker B: Like the 1980s version of patter dialogue of like, hey, I'm just going to establish that I'm a crusty old man and I'm cynical and I got to stop and say, like, two lines about that. And then you got to have some snarky comeback to it. Like, this is how we establish characters. Like, I. That is of its time and feels kind of clunky to me. [00:36:00] Speaker A: So disagree. [00:36:01] Speaker B: Fair enough. [00:36:02] Speaker A: How they establish the character, it's a. [00:36:04] Speaker B: Long way of saying, like, the dialogue in places felt clunky to me. [00:36:07] Speaker C: I find the content perhaps dated, but I don't think the idea of having banter back and forth and a little lively Dialogue between smart co workers who all know each other as dated. [00:36:18] Speaker A: I liked that he yelled, somebody bring me pictures of Spider Man. [00:36:24] Speaker B: But that is the faint criticism versus the adoration of this is what Nightfall does so well, is so inventive. I just loved listening to like, what is going to happen next? I cannot predict this. I don't know what's happening. I'm super invested in finding out the. [00:36:41] Speaker A: Premise of someone dying and being able to send back a manuscript describing what's going on in heaven or hell with. [00:36:52] Speaker B: The implied story of and somehow he got his typewriter into hell. [00:36:56] Speaker A: Yeah, normally I would be, could you please connect those dots? Could you please tell me how that happened? But for some reason in this, it not only doesn't bother me that there's no connective tissue for explanation because that's what makes it spooky for me is where the hell did this come from? And how did he get it there? And I don't know, I just thought it was really specifically. [00:37:18] Speaker B: Seemed very unique. [00:37:20] Speaker A: Yeah, I thought it was really a unique. [00:37:22] Speaker C: For me, it starts right at the top and I don't know why I'm going to keep picking on. Tim's picking on the dialogue. I feel like that episode of Frasier, the one where he has the focus group where everyone loves them except for one guy. [00:37:33] Speaker A: Right. [00:37:34] Speaker C: Just let it go. [00:37:35] Speaker A: Right, right. [00:37:38] Speaker C: But I think that's this great place where that banter back and forth, it's not about anything relevant to the story. It's just establishing these two characters. But what it does also is sort of establish what this script is going to do. It's going to attempt to straddle both of these people's point of view. It's going to provide something that is very much lurid occult horror of this like 70s, early 80s era. And it's incredibly literate and has all these references. It's playing on Dante's Inferno. The character of Janovsky has all sorts of bits and pieces from other literary characters. There's a lot of William S. Burroughs in here. Did that strike you? [00:38:28] Speaker A: No, but I love how this last five minutes been talking. You're just staring at Tim. [00:38:33] Speaker C: Did you recognize the mix of William S. Burroughs? [00:38:36] Speaker A: No, no, but it's. [00:38:37] Speaker C: Well, the name is set up to mirror JD Salinger, who was a reckless. I mean, content wise. It sounds more like Burroughs though, when they're talking about a stream of consciousness random Mexico. And he's talking about all these different weird accusations. Murdered somebody. [00:38:56] Speaker B: Right. [00:38:56] Speaker C: Like Burroughs actually shot his wife in Mexico and fled to The United States. So it was a little reversal, but yeah. So it felt like it was grounded in literary reality because it's in a publishing house too, so. And it just didn't seem as far fetched then because so many of these aspects of Yowski I could see in other real literary figures of the 20th century. [00:39:18] Speaker A: I was really taken by when they started to actually read us the book. First of all, I was really happy that they didn't just talk about it and never gave us excerpts. I was waiting for that to happen, that the books from hell and all that, but they're never going to actually read it. [00:39:35] Speaker B: Content, like, actually delivered like that is fascinating. [00:39:38] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:39:38] Speaker B: Weird. [00:39:39] Speaker A: I loved the content that was actually in the book. [00:39:43] Speaker B: I love hell. [00:39:44] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:39:44] Speaker C: But hell as this combination of like pharmaceutical intervention and existential horror. Yeah. [00:39:51] Speaker A: It was a description of hell that I'd never quite heard anybody do before, of what it would be like to be there. And it was horrifying. But then also, hell isn't there to punish the person for living bad. Hell is there to get in the way of God's plans. That's the purpose of hell. And I was like, oh, that's a fascinating take too. Right. It's not a prison. It's got a totally, totally different. [00:40:19] Speaker C: But it serves both purposes, right. [00:40:20] Speaker A: Sure. [00:40:20] Speaker C: You know, sure. [00:40:22] Speaker A: Slave labor. [00:40:23] Speaker C: It's killing two birds with one. The great line of. Thus they drive home their most chilling lesson in damnation. If we do not exist, we must invent ourselves. I was to program my own Inferno. [00:40:36] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:40:37] Speaker C: I just last year read Dante's Inferno and it's like, of course you did. Holy smokes, that's horrible. And that idea that, like, good luck, Dante, if that's. If that's your hell. [00:40:48] Speaker G: Wow. [00:40:49] Speaker C: But also because my hell is just. [00:40:52] Speaker A: Welcome back Cotter reruns. [00:40:54] Speaker C: Oh, can I come over? [00:40:56] Speaker A: I could get through it. [00:41:01] Speaker C: But there's also another, I think funny literary reference in here because we are all the authors of our own worst nightmare, Our own hell. So this idea of hell seems like a rejoinder to Sartre's no Exit, which proclaimed hell as other people. Because this is Hell is you. Yeah, shut up, Sartre. Hell is you. So I thought that was a great little twist. [00:41:26] Speaker B: I loved the pacing because they. They took their time and hit every beat they wanted to hit. They crammed so much story into this tight little space. [00:41:36] Speaker A: Yes, they did. [00:41:37] Speaker B: At the time it was happening. Why are we spending this time talking to this guy's wife and just sort of lounging around drinking cocktails in Mexico. But it was great and we moved on, we kept going. And then I was really glad that we had that conversation. Put all that expeditional character gas into the engine of this story. [00:41:55] Speaker C: And she has a great line that I think is attached to both the horror and the satire that's going on here of the publishing industry because she says the Book of Hell will never be published because it's probably true. And so it has the implications for the horror side of the story. But it's also saying something about what is regularly published. Yes. And then later that accusation is supported when Gordon the publisher is like, oh, there's no copy. Or we can rewrite it, we can make it even better, you know, and so she's accurate. But then we also see, which I think is a great and unexpected small personal scene. Gordon is not entirely just low brow or avaricious. His publishing house is out of money where he has to go to the printer and ask for credit. [00:42:46] Speaker A: Six months. [00:42:47] Speaker C: I mean, and this is 1981. So this is around the time of a lot of changes in publishing of chain bookstores are opening up that are getting rid of niche booksellers which is affecting the publishing. There's a lot of pressure, mergers of publishing houses, they're getting bigger. And competition from other media. This is when cable's starting and video, home video games and all these other things that are affecting book sales. [00:43:10] Speaker B: So in that same vein of the satire and horror is the idea that he goes a long, long way to get this book published having never read it. [00:43:19] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:43:20] Speaker C: That's another reason that scene is so key when he needs credit from the printer just to get that run of books. I think you might be like that seems like a stretch if you hadn't set up his desperate situation. [00:43:34] Speaker B: It makes his character sympathetic instead of just I have no scruples and I just want money. [00:43:39] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:43:40] Speaker A: The open ended question of this entire story is the author of the Book of Hell is in hell. And I like the, oh my God, what are they going to do to him that he was able to get that out of there. Which I want to see that story. I want to see, you know, how come out the sequel come out and how he got that book out of there and how he wrote it in there and as Tim said, how he got his typewriter. But the fact that only two people were able to read it. We know that you catch on fire if you're not one of those two. We know we can't print it, we know we can't copy it. We Know we can't record us saying it. So there's been some kind of reach from beyond but they can't quite reach fully. So the open ended question is why. [00:44:28] Speaker C: These two, why they were able to read it. [00:44:31] Speaker A: Right, why those. [00:44:32] Speaker C: Well, I think what happened is they were both skeptical of printing it. The decision hadn't really made been made till that moment. Gordon picked it up and said I'm going to print this, let me read this. I, I'm calling the printer where he. Well he does, he calls him and, and starts arranging the pricing for hand setting the type manually, which doesn't go. So I think that's the line that crosses like oh no, the secrets of hell will be revealed. And that's when he bursts into flames. And then it also serves as a warning to the other two. That's how I took it. [00:45:06] Speaker B: I think in terms of games and rules, these infernal pages have some qualities to them that they can't be photocopied. Reading aloud from them can't be recorded. And so the reason that they do not burst into flames is they have been under the protection of only reading from these pages. When the printer hand sets the type and creates a new document, has this text that's a different ball of wax that whoever looks at that text will burst into flames. Presumably this is going to be sent out to the world to catch a lot of people on fire. But if they were to pick up that book and read from it instead of the actual pages that came on, they might also burst into flames. [00:45:49] Speaker C: But doesn't Gordon burst into flames when he finally is touching the same manuscript? [00:45:54] Speaker A: He's touching the original, not the copy. [00:45:57] Speaker B: Oh, I mistook it then. [00:45:58] Speaker A: Yeah, because right before that the print setter, the scene is he's about to run copies and he yells and by the way, this is a question I had. He yells what's that? I don't understand the word doing on the conveyor belt. He yells what's that? And I can't make out the word. [00:46:17] Speaker C: Box or something doing on the conveyor belt. [00:46:19] Speaker A: And then the entire plant blows up. You know, there's something that goes wrong with the printing the entire. And that's later. Then he goes, give me this manuscript. [00:46:27] Speaker C: I don't think they ever received the manuscript. I think that was just one of those actions because that was the print shop they were going to work with. [00:46:34] Speaker A: The premise was that he had set the type. [00:46:38] Speaker C: No, that comes later in the story. [00:46:40] Speaker A: Yeah, pretty sure. [00:46:41] Speaker B: I mean I think they had to set the type just because they couldn't get it. They couldn't get the actual text any other way. [00:46:46] Speaker A: Yeah. So he said they were talking about. [00:46:48] Speaker C: That was their plan to do it. Because they never. The man wasn't the result being hidden from different place from place. And he said, because if they wouldn't say at the end, we're the only ones who read it if it. [00:46:58] Speaker A: Correct. So that print shot blowing up was just preventative by. Hell, yeah. [00:47:05] Speaker C: That's how I read. [00:47:06] Speaker A: Okay. I had it as they had got the typeset set and they were going to start rolling it off the presses and they blew and held that moment. [00:47:15] Speaker C: Where the two of them go, well, this should be enough to stop you and Gordon's like coincidence. [00:47:21] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay. But yes, when Gordon starts on fire. [00:47:26] Speaker B: He is reading the original, getting the logic now. [00:47:29] Speaker C: Right. [00:47:29] Speaker B: Like there. There's no other copy. [00:47:30] Speaker A: Yes. Anyway, point is we've actually made this sound more complicated than it is, but that's our job. The open endedness of some of this usually doesn't work and makes me angry. And there's something about the open endedness of this particular story and the things not being answered and connections not being made makes it more terrifying and spooky and interesting to me. [00:48:00] Speaker B: Always in these cases where if it's clear that the writer left a blank spot deliberately to create mystery versus I just didn't bother connecting these two things. [00:48:11] Speaker A: Right. [00:48:11] Speaker B: You can, you can usually tell if it was right, deliberate or not because. [00:48:15] Speaker A: It comes out in the characters. Like how? I don't know, like they're talking about the connections not being there. So I think that's what makes it okay for us. [00:48:25] Speaker C: I'm not a fan of graphic horror or visceral or shock horror. So much so I love any story that utilizes the horror of the unknown. [00:48:34] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:48:34] Speaker C: And so these missing pieces of the story are to me, where the fear and anxiety comes from. [00:48:40] Speaker A: Correct. [00:48:41] Speaker C: They have the unanswered question at the end, what will they do to us? [00:48:44] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:48:45] Speaker C: And if they said, well, we'll do X, Y and Z, you'd be like, well, that sucks for you, but it wouldn't be scary. [00:48:50] Speaker B: I always like in stories where if there's some unthinkable, unknowable sort of situation, like I'm writing my memoir in hell, I'm typing up some stuff in there. It's behind this filter of some narrator. And in radio it adds another layer where we can't help, I think, but imagine some guy sitting down in hell, whatever that looks like to us, typing away like this really Sucks. I hate it here. [00:49:17] Speaker A: What if that was the book? [00:49:20] Speaker B: I mean, if I send you guys a manuscript from hell, like two stars did not, Would not Hell again. But I think that's. I enjoy that tension between the layers of narration you have to imagine through to imagine it and your drive to. I want to imagine it. I'm compelled to imagine what is happening, even though I'm listening to an audio version of somebody narrating from a typed manuscript. [00:49:50] Speaker A: Right. [00:49:51] Speaker C: The other element that is in here is that Linda knew this writer in Haight Ashbury. And she says specifically he was talking about 15 years ago that he was going to write this book. [00:50:04] Speaker A: Signature. [00:50:05] Speaker C: And then we visit the wife in Mexico who describes how he was eaten away from the inside. And when there was no more outside than inside, he died. So it's this idea that perhaps he maybe had some sort of black magic occult view of hell when alive. Something he was doing that he may have. Maybe this process started before he went. [00:50:30] Speaker A: To hell or a connection or a vision or a knowledge that most humans don't have previous to dying. [00:50:39] Speaker C: Yeah. And perhaps he even wrote this all and she burned it. And he still sent it from hell after dying, you know, like. Because that's the conundrum. Like, well, I burnt all of his writing, but this was written on his typewriter with the crooked O, and that's his handwriting. But you could theorize all day. But yeah, it just has enough little clues here and there that it is fun to try to put it all together. But also it's satisfying not to be able to put it all together. And that's a fine formula to get right. [00:51:09] Speaker A: You said you don't like visceral horror. However, the visceral horror of this piece where he. We can see him in our head starting on fire while he's reading it. Right. [00:51:20] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:51:20] Speaker A: That's very slasher kind of movie. Visceral horror works really well as a radio play instead of actually seeing it happen. By the way, did you imagine the guy, the Nazi from Raiders of the Lost Ark, with his face melting? I did. [00:51:35] Speaker C: I actually did think about the similarities there between, like, he did he just read the owner's manual for the Ark of the Covenant. [00:51:46] Speaker A: Right, right, right. [00:51:48] Speaker C: Yeah. But, yes, it allows you to cut away a. It did cut away itself really fast from that, but gave you just enough to sort of do the cringe imagine. [00:52:01] Speaker A: Right. It's up to you what you see. So when it comes to visceral horror like that, if it's too horrible, gratuitous, your Own fault. [00:52:09] Speaker B: Why'd you think that? [00:52:09] Speaker A: Right, but weirdo. But you can also cut away. I have to do this. And I'm holding up my hand over my eyes. Anytime in a television show, movie, whatever, that someone puts a needle in an arm, I can't watch it. And it's when they say I put a needle in a guy in radio, I don't have it doesn't bother me because I don't have to see it. But, God, stop showing me needles and arms. [00:52:34] Speaker C: What TV shows are you watching? [00:52:35] Speaker B: A lot of stuff on the Diabetes Channel. [00:52:41] Speaker A: I can't stop watching. [00:52:45] Speaker D: Turn it off. [00:52:46] Speaker C: They're going to play the next episode. [00:52:47] Speaker E: Oh, I got to watch it. [00:52:49] Speaker C: Stupid autoplay. I enjoyed the character of Gordon. How they kept you on this roller coaster ride of. He's awful. Oh, I understand his motivations. Sympathetic. Oh, he's awful. Again, you know, a businesswoman is a contradiction in terms. And he had a couple other sex. But it's fun because she's. I'm right here, Gordon. I brought you this book. I'm the protagonist of this story. So, like, the story itself contradicts it. And it also has a really interesting generational gap because clearly, I think Gordon, it's 1981, so he's like a greatest generation. He's like, older. She's a boomer. And then they mention that Andy's younger too, because he rolls his eyes at 60s stuff and hate Ashbury and the fiction of that time. So it's kind of a fun mashup of all these perspectives. I just thought every bit of it was really engaging. And I honestly, I got this suggestion from Zachary and said I thought Nightfall, the Book of Hell. I was like, I'm gonna hate this. It's gonna be. So I just thought it was gonna be just a giant sledgehammer of a show based on that title, and it's just not at all. Oh, did you guys hear that? They used the Nightfall intro music of the Explosion and the. Whatever that electric stick is. They don't do the scream. But when. [00:54:14] Speaker D: Oh, the. [00:54:14] Speaker C: For when the explosion in the press shop is straight from the opening. [00:54:19] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right. Oh, a zub tube. [00:54:23] Speaker C: A zub tube in it. Yeah, it's like straight from the opening. And I don't know if that was just a cute little homage to the opening or they're like, ah, it'll be quicker. [00:54:33] Speaker B: Let's say it's an homage. [00:54:34] Speaker C: It's just Canadians listening. [00:54:36] Speaker A: Right. Well, are we ready to vote? [00:54:39] Speaker B: We voted already. [00:54:40] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:54:40] Speaker A: We really have. But here's my question. I know we all really liked it and we all said the things that we like about it, but classic or not. [00:54:49] Speaker B: Ooh. [00:54:50] Speaker C: Oh. Just the fact that it manages to straddle being this very specific occult horror hell thing and a satire of the publishing industry circa 1981, which should be like, wow, I'm bored already. Yeah. I would call this a classic of Silver Age Canadian radio, for whatever that's worth. I definitely think it's a great piece of radio drama. Does a lot of great things with the medium, as we pointed out, of how it uses narration effectively, how it uses visceral horror, that it makes you imagine it a little and then pulls away. Yeah. [00:55:29] Speaker A: This has a slight combination of Indiana Jones, Da Vinci Code and National Treasure meets occult Whore. And I love all of those things. I'm going to say classic. I would like to hear a longer version of this, to be honest with you. I'd like to see this in a movie or this play out longer when. [00:55:51] Speaker B: You were rattling off films. This corresponds somewhat to me to 9th gate. If that film rings bell, either of you. [00:55:59] Speaker D: All right. [00:55:59] Speaker B: Well, it does. And I might also go for classic. I feel like I'm walking in the classic lobby and. [00:56:08] Speaker D: Okay. [00:56:08] Speaker B: Yeah, I feel okay here with anxiety and need to catch a bus ride home right away. You know, like most places I go, I'm wearing pants. But it is a really good example of Nightfall and a reminder that Nightfall is a really good series. [00:56:25] Speaker C: I'm still hung up on Tim's initial dig, so I just have to share one or two of my. [00:56:29] Speaker A: I'm sorry, Nightfall. [00:56:31] Speaker C: My favorite banter lines. I. And maybe this is because of my experience working in coffee, but the publishing industry is broke, for God's sakes. We're putting chicory in the office coffee. And I don't know why that. That amused me as someone who is. [00:56:45] Speaker A: Chicory is like a. [00:56:46] Speaker C: Had to deal with chicory before coffee, right? [00:56:48] Speaker B: Is that. [00:56:49] Speaker C: Chicory is a plant. It's chicory root, and it's used to basically make coffee go farther. It was popularized. [00:56:57] Speaker A: My favorite song from Mary Poppins. Yeah. [00:57:01] Speaker C: The Depression and the Civil War. That's why it's a famous drink in New Orleans. Because of blockades and stuff, they couldn't get coffee, and so they started cutting it all with chicory. So that is both witty banter and historically significant coffee information. [00:57:20] Speaker A: Chicory is also film noir slang. Tim, tell him stuff, please go. [00:57:25] Speaker B: Visit ghoulishdelights.com that is the home of this podcast. You'll find other episodes there. You'll be able to leave comments, vote in polls, let us know what you think about this. You can also tell me how bad my criticisms are. You can also link to our store and buy some swag like a coffee mug and put some chicory in there. That'd be good. And you'll find a link to our Patreon page. [00:57:49] Speaker C: Yes. Go to patreon.com themorals and become a Patreon a member of the Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society podcast. It is phenomenal to be a part of this organization, let me tell you right now. So just give us some money. You will receive a glass box that you can sit in and realize that hell is you. But no, seriously, you won't. [00:58:16] Speaker A: Okay, good. Because I was going to become a member. [00:58:18] Speaker C: No, just a mysterious manuscript in the mail. [00:58:23] Speaker A: The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society Theater Company performs once a month, if not more than that. And we have for eight, nine years now. And we longer we perform recreations of classical time radio shows and a lot of our own original work on stage. Come see us perform radio drama by going to ghoulish delights.com and there you will see where we're performing, what we're performing, how to get tickets and come see us. If you don't come see us and can't become a Patreon because those ones that you miss, we do get the video and audio recordings out to our Patreons of those live performances. What is coming up next. [00:59:07] Speaker C: Next is your pick, Eric. [00:59:08] Speaker A: Nice. I kind of excited about this. I've had this for a long time on the back burner. We're going back to CBS Radio Mystery Theater. So prepare yourselves for 40 minutes of instead of 30 minutes and we're gonna hear the Fall of the House of Usher. Until then. [00:59:29] Speaker C: Dante had a theological wet dream. Okay, that's fair. That is a little bit of a tough line.