From Those Were the Days:

1922 - The first debate to be heard on radio was broadcast on WJH in Washington, DC. The two debaters argued about the topic of Daylight Saving Time with the audience acting as the judge.
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“This is Orson Welles, speaking from London…”

When British producer Harry Alan Towers convinced Orson Welles to reprise his role of Harry Lime (a character from the 1949 film The Third Man) in a radio series, The Lives of Harry Lime, he got what might be called a “twofer”—he obtained Welles’ considerable narration talents for a second show called The Black Museum as well. Originally broadcast on “pirate” station Radio Luxembourg in 1951, the program dramatized historical crime cases (much in the manner of Crime Classics) and had Welles ruminating over ordinary objects that had played a significant role in said stories. A sample of Welles’ narration:

The Black Museum…here, in a grim, stone structure on the Thames which houses Scotland Yard…there a warehouse of homicide…a very strange room where everyday objects…of a woman’s shoe, a tiny white box, a quilted robe…all are touched by murder…

Orson would alternately refer to the Museum as a “mausoleum of murder,” “repository of crime” and “gallery of death.” (Cheery place to spend a family vacation, wouldn’t you say? Don’t forget to hit the gift shop.)

Transcriptions of The Black Museum’s fifty-two episodes (all of which are extant today) were later rebroadcast over Mutual Radio from January 1-December 30, 1952—similar to the way The Lives of Harry Lime was also heard on this side of the pond. Things got a little hectic last night at the job, so I only got to listen to one episode—a show entitled “The Raincoat” in which a partially-burned mackintosh (no, not the computer) provides crucial evidence in the brutal murder of an aged wife. I loved listening to The Black Museum, but it may have a lot to do with the fact that I am a self-admitted Welles partisan (“I remain obediently yours…Orson Welles.”).

NBC Radio premiered a similar crime anthology on November 18, 1951—seven episodes before Museum began airing on Mutual—in the form of Whitehall 1212. The two programs were practically identical, only Whitehall was introduced by Chief Superintendent John Davidson, curator of the real “Black Museum” at Scotland Yard, and the show prominently featured an all-British cast. The show was written and directed by Wyllis Cooper, who was responsible for unleashing the twin titans of radio horror, Lights Out and Quiet, Please. (Unfortunately, this series left little room for Cooper to display his considerable creative talents.) As to why two radio series with practically the same premise would run concurrently one can only speculate—but Whitehall 1212’s run of 44 episodes is also extant today, providing the perfect opportunity to compare and contrast—if you’re into the whole high school essay kind of thing.
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