Alternately known as ABC Mystery Time, Mystery Time Classics and Mystery Time Classics this series was a limited-run, mystery and suspense show based on short stories from various authors, including Oscar Wilde (Portrait of Dorian Gray) and Nikolai Gogol (Diary of a Madman, The Overcoat).

The show is noteworthy not only for its storylines, but also for the eerie — and slightly camp — pipe organ, which adds to the series’ atmosphere of suspense.

Several episodes featured distinguished actors such as Sir Ralph Richardson ( OTR’s Dr. Watson to Sir John Geilgud’s Sherlock Holmes), Sir Laurence Olivier and Sir Michael Redgrave.

Other familiar radio, television and film personalities starring on the show included Everett Sloane (The Mercury Theater, The Mysterious Traveler, Inner Sanctum Mysteries), Cathleen Cordell (Gaslight) and George O. Petrie (The Honeymooners, Rawhide, 77 Sunset Strip, The Twilight Zone).

Mystery Time was hosted by announcer Don Dowd, who apparently couldn’t decide which “announcer voice” to use throughout the course of the series.

The shows ran from 1957 to 1958. Exact broadcast dates of the 13 existing episodes is uncertain.

xx/xx/xx Death by Proxy
xx/xx/xx Death Walked In
xx/xx/xx Four Fatal Jugglers
xx/xx/xx Four Time Loser
xx/xx/xx Half an Hour
xx/xx/xx Murder in Haste
xx/xx/xx My Adventure in Norfork
xx/xx/xx No One Will Ever Know
xx/xx/xx Picture of Dorian Gray
xx/xx/xx Success Story
xx/xx/xx Suicide Club
xx/xx/xx The Overcoat
xx/xx/xx The Tale

Photo: Portrait of Dorian Gray by kevindooley

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