The Black Museum, Vol. 1

Here are twelve episodes of the classic mystery radio show, The Black Museum.

The Black Museum was a weekly radio crime drama produced for the BBC in 1951 and based on real-life cases from the files of Scotland Yard. Orson Welles, who was living in London at the time, was both host and narrator for these dramatized stories based on Scotland Yard’s Black Museum, which housed its collection of murder weapons and various ordinary objects once associated with historical crime cases. Walking through the museum, Welles would pause at one of the exhibits, and his description of an artifact served as a device to lead into a tale of terror or a brutal murder.

In the weekly opening, Welles states: “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…a woman’s shoe, a tiny white box, a quilted robe…all are touched by murder.”

The series aired in the United States in 1952 on the Mutual Network. It was produced by Harry Alan Towers. Ira Marion wrote the scripts, and Sidney Torch composed and conducted the music for the series.

“A Blued .22 Caliber Pistol”, “A Wool Jacket”, “The Canvas Bag”, “An Open-End Wrench”, “The Tan Shoe”, “The Notes”, “The Spotted Bed Sheet”, “An Old Wooden Mallet”, “A Champagne Glass”, “The Small White Boxes”, “The Raincoat”, and “The Gas Receipt”