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The Amazing Death Of Mrs. Putnam (Aired January 7, 1941)
A spooky melodramatic organ score punctuated Raymond's many morbid jokes and playful puns. Raymond's closing was an elongated "Pleasant dreaaaaammmmssss!" His tongue-in-cheek style and ghoulish relish of his own tales became the standard for many such horror narrators to follow, from fellow radio hosts like Ernest Chappell (on Cooper's later series, Quiet, Please) and Maurice Tarplin (on The Mysterious Traveler) to EC Comics' Crypt-Keeper in various incarnations of Tales from the Crypt. In interviews, EC publisher Bill Gaines stated that he based EC's three horror hosts not on Raymond but on Old Nancy, host of radio's earlier The Witch's Tale (1931-38). When Johnson left the series in 1945, he was replaced by Paul McGrath, who did not keep the "Raymond" name and was known only as "your host" or "Mr. Host." Beginning in 1945, Lipton Tea sponsored the series, pairing first Raymond and then McGrath with its cheery commercial spokeswoman, Mary Bennett. THIS EPISODE: January 7, 1941. Blue Network. "The Amazing Death Of Mrs. Putnam". Sponsored by: Carter's Little Liver Pill's. The first show of the series. A woman calling the police is shot while she's on the phone. But she was really killed two hours earlier! Raymond Edward Johnson (host), Alan Devitt, House Jameson, Everett Sloane. 25:14. Episode Notes From The Radio Gold Index.