List $12.95

Adapted for original work of Mary Shelley - Original Old-Time Radio Programs - Fiction - 2 CASSETTES - 3 hours

Publisher, Radio Spirits, Inc. (July 2001)

Original 1932 Radio Broadcast Never Before Released in Complete 3-Hour Program

Eighteen-year-old Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein as her entry in an informal horror-writing competition with her husband, poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron and Dr. John Polidori. Her famous gothic story, often recognized as “the first modern science fiction novel,” went on to become the most famous horror story of all time. Frankenstein was first filmed by Thomas Edison in 1910 and by James Whale in 1931 (with Boris Karloff becoming a major Hollywood star with his portrayal of the monster). Frankenstein 02-20-44 by Mary Shelley. Starring Arthur Vinton (Professor Waldman). Dr. Victor Frankenstein creates a living being from animal parts, but the tortured creature returns and demands a mate for companionship. • Frankenstein 06-07-55 by Mary Shelley, adapted for radio by Antony Ellis (producer/director); Lucien Moraweck (composer); Wilbur Hatch (conductor); Larry Thor (announcer). Starring Stacy Harris (Victor Frankenstein); Herb Butterfield (James); Vivi Jannis (Elizabeth); Barney Phillips (Frankenstein’s monster). A young scientist creates a living creature from the dead, but his creation haunts the village and eventually destroys its maker.

Now for the first time ever released in its complete 3-hour form is the 1932 transcribed horror story Frankenstein. Produced by George Edwards Productions, this 13-part radio adaptation of Mary Shelley's 1817 masterpiece is a true collector's item. Frankenstein's" real birth took place one stormy evening near Geneva in 1816. Author Mary Shelley and her spouse Percy Bysshe Shelley were living in a rented villa with Lord Byron and Claire Clairmont (Mary's stepsister and Byron's sometime mistress) and legend has it that Bryon suggested that all present write a ghost story for amusement. Sometime later, the plot for the story came to Mary in a dream. The finished manuscript of Frankenstein failed to interest a publisher and was finally published anonymously on March 11, 1918 to mixed reviews. The plot involves young student Baron Von Frankenstein, who becomes bored with university life and far surpasses the knowledge of his professors when he discovers the secret of life and determines himself to create a man. Despite the pleadings of family and friends, he is successful in manufacturing a creature—benign and childlike at first—which turns out to be physically disfigured and repugnant to those around him. Reaching out for love and receiving only hatred and disgust, the creature is frightened away and hides in the forests and mountains of rural Switzerland. There he learns to speak and discovers the agonies of physical pain and loneliness. Bitter toward all men, the creature kills William, the younger brother of Baron Frankenstein (in the original story). One day while Baron Frankenstein is hiking through the mountainous Swiss countryside, the creature confronts him and recounts his adventures telling of his great loneliness. The creature demands Baron Frankenstein create a mate for him, promising to live with her in the wilds of South America, and never to be seen again by man. Baron Frankenstein refuses, whereupon the creature threatens to kill all of the Baron's loved ones so he too will know the agony of loneliness. Finally consenting, Baron Frankenstein and his close friend Ernst Clerval depart for England and then to a deserted island in the Orkneys off the coast of Scotland. Baron Frankenstein studies and labors again to create a mate for the monster, but his conscience rebels and he destroys the lifeless woman—much to the anger of the creature. After killing Clerval, the creature swears revenge and returns on Baron Frankenstein's wedding night to strangle his bride. Swearing eternal chase until the monster is destroyed, Baron Frankenstein trails the being, who has since learned to enjoy killing, to the frozen Arctic wastes where the Baron dies from exposure. The body is clamed by the monster who declares his creator is the more hideous for creating a man without love or soul. The monster then carries Baron Frankenstein's body over the ice fields, presumably to perish. This whole story is told by a weak and sometimes delirious Baron Frankenstein, before his death, to Captain Walton of an exploration ship which is frozen in the Arctic ice. Duly noting the Baron's story in his journal, Captain Walton is the vehicle through which the story is told.