Now get around while I lose a date and what goes on when it gets laid.

Along about midnight the ghosts and banches get together for a jamboree.

There's ghost with horns and solcer eyes. Some have fangs about this

size, some short and fat, some tall and thin, and some don't even bother to wear their skin.

I'm telling you, brother, it's a fearful sight just to see what goes on

in the night. When the spooks have a... Happy Halloween

radio fans and welcome to the annual Down These Mean Streets Halloween Special.

Don't worry, I'll be back with more radio detectives on Sunday, but tonight the program is dedicated

to getting you in the Halloween spirit with two episodes from Radio's Outstanding Theater of Thrills, Suspense.

Suspense was an old-time radio institution.

It began in the early days of World War II, and it ended almost two years into John F. Kennedy's presidency.

During its two-decade run, it presented the best in mysteries and thrillers with performances from some of

Hollywood's biggest names. Carrie Grant, Joan Crawford, Gregory Peck, Lucille

Ball, and Jack Benny are just a few of the stars who were eager to take a turn at the suspense microphone.

The first episode on our Halloween Bill is from early in the suspense run,

It's the Hitchhiker, originally aired on CBS on September 2nd,

1942. It's got quite a pedigree. The writer is Lucille Fletcher, who also penned the legendary suspense play

Sorry wrong number. The music is by Fletcher's then husband, composer Bernard Herman, a regular collaborator of Alfred Hitchcock

and the star is Orson Wells. We've heard Mr. Wells twice before on the

podcast, first as Sherlock Holmes and then is his

third man film character Harry Lyme. In this episode he plays Ronald Adams

a man on a cross-country drive who finds a suspicious figure dogging his trail.

...