The Sealed Book Radio Program

Background

As with The Mysterious Traveler that preceded it, The Sealed Book was an anthology of supernatural drama, produced and directed by Jock MacGregor for the Mutual network, and written by the extraordinary team of Robert Arthur and David Kogan. Indeed this same entire team of network, director, and writers were responsible for the entire run of The Mysterious Traveler. Going even further, The Sealed Book reprised 26 of the Arthur/Kogan scripts written for The Mysterious Traveler. And in yet another similarity, Philip Clarke performed as an actor in five of the original Mysterious Traveler episodes.

Where the series' differed was in the 'hook' or novelty intro to each week's new episode. With the Mysterious Traveler, the atmospheric element was the mournful whistle of the train, and Maurice Tarplin's equally exaggerated exposition at the beginning of each episode. With The Sealed Book, each epsisode opened with the sound of the great gong, followed by Philip Clarke's observation that the Keeper of The Book had once again opened the door to the secret vault, within which was contained the 'great sealed book' recording 'all the secrets and mysteries of mankind through the ages.'

At the end of all but the last episode, Clarke would tell listeners to tune in the following week when "the sound of the great gong heralds another strange and exciting tale from... the sealed book."

Keep in mind that even though the 26 scripts of The Sealed Book were derived from The Mysterious Traveler, it's instructive to note that each production used a different cast than that of it's associated production from The Mysterious Traveler. And indeed, some of the production values were a cut above in The Sealed Book, as contrasted with their similar productions from The Mysterious Traveler.

The Sealed Book was very much its own production, despite the extraordinary similarities between the scripts, writers, and director. But it doesn't diminish yet another well-mounted supernatural drama series that has, over the years, found its own loyal following separate and apart from that of The Mysterious Traveler.

Series Derivatives:

OTRisms:

1. Contrary to references from virtually all other sources, Death Laughs Last was not the last episode of the run. Philip Clarke's consultation with the Keeper of The Book at the end of Death Laughs Last clearly states that the following episode will be You Only Die Once.

2. You Only Die Once is one of two The Sealed Book epsiodes that contains a generic next episode reveal. This leaves the impression that further episodes were contemplated, but ultimately abandoned. There was certainly an abundance of further scripts. Arthur and Kogan teamed to create over 400 radio scripts together for The Mysterious Traveler alone.

3. In fact, what appears to be the case, is that the syndicator, Charles Michelson, recorded the transcriptions for The Sealed Book in two sets of thirteen transcriptions. The thirteenth of each set of transcriptions contained a 'generic' tease for the episode to follow. Thus, the two sets could be broadcast in either order--set one or set two, first--and still maintain 'continuity.'

4. In the log that follows, we've elected to employ the only provable run of The Sealed Book that contained announced titles, the W-G-N run as announced in the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison, WI.

5. We stipulate that the first broadcast airing over the Mutual Broadcasting System may well have begun on March 18, 1945, over WOR, Mutual's flagship station. But that run is neither sustainable through newspaper provenances or by any other means presently available. If someone--anyone--can demonstrate otherwise, we stand prepared to change our own findings. We remain skeptical, however, that such a proof exists. As we've discovered in over 300 of these logs, the commercial otr community--and the otr book hawkers that prop them up--have no proof whatsoever to back up most of the rubbish they cite.

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The Sealed Book Series Log

The Sealed Book Program [1950 Rebroadcasts] Log

The Sealed Book Biographies

1950
'Edgar' for Best Radio Drama for Murder by Experts
1953
'Edgar' for Best Radio Mystery Drama for The Mysterious Traveler.

The Valedictorian for his high school graduating class, Arthur had won appointments to both Annapolis and West Point, but declined the appointments, enrolling instead at William and Mary College in 1926. Two years later, he transferred to the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.A. in English.

After a brief stint as editor of one of the Munsey Publications, he returned to the University of Michigan, receiving an M.A. in Journalism in 1932. During 1938 he met and married Susan Smith Cleaveland, a Radio soap opera actress, but by 1940 the couple divorced. He moved Greenwich Village and began writing for pulp magazines. By 1940, he'd published stories in:

• Wonder Stories
• Detective Fiction Weekly
• Mystery
• Illustrated Detective Magazine
• Street & Smith's Detective Story Magazine
• Amazing Stories
• The Shadow
• Street & Smith Mystery Reader
• Detective Tales
• Thrilling Detective
• Double Detective
• Startling Stories
• Collier's
• The Phantom Detective
• Argosy Weekly
• Black Mask

In addition, Arthur worked as a writer and editor for pulp western, fact detective, and screen magazines for Dell Publishing, becoming associate editor of Photo-Story, a ground-breaking picture magazine published by Fawcett Publications. He then conceived and edited Pocket Detective Magazine for Street & Smith, the first pocket-sized, all-fiction magazine, which published several of his stories. .

The Mysterious Traveler also aired as Adventure Into Fear and 26 of its scripts aired as The Sealed Book. From 1948 to 1951 Arthur and Kogan produced Dark Destiny, an early, well-received, television thriller series.

In 1940 he met the woman who would become his second wife, Joan Vaczek, in a class on The Short Story while attending Columbia University. Joan Vaczek was the daughter of a Hungarian diplomat and a budding science-fiction writer in her own right. During the same year that he met his future writing partner, David Kogan, with whom he eventually wrote and produced his first radio show, Dark Destiny (1942). Soon after that the team wrote and produced The Mysterious Traveler (1943), which aired over the Mutual Broadcasting System and eventually won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Mystery Radio Show of the Year for 1952 by The Mystery Writers of America. He'd also won the 'Edgar' for Best Radio Drama for 1950 for Murder By Experts.

Robert Arthur and Joan Vaczek eventually married in December 1946, moved to Connecticut and then New York, where they had two children, Robert Andrew Arthur and Elizabeth Ann Arthur.

1953 brought the end of his relationship with The Mutual Broadcasting System. He and his partner, David Kogan were both active members of The Radio Writers' Guild. The House Commitee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) had 'determined' that The Radio Writers' Guild was a 'Communist front group'.

History has shown that this was simply another of the numerous, shameful union-busting attempts by the HUAC. Their basic aim was to link a growing collective bargaining movement with Communism, so as to benefit the Radio, Television and Film industries by keeping their employees from forming collective-bargaining units--or unions. The Supreme Court of the United States, in 1937, had ruled the 1935 National Labor Relations Act to be constitutional, but when ultra-conservatives came to power during the Cold War years, they determined to find other ways to undermine the collective bargaining provisions of the Act.

The HUAC's naked fear-mongering tactics succeeded for several of the most shameful years in American history. The Committee's sham hearings were eventually brought down by the very industries they were attempting to benefit--Radio and Television.

To its shame, The Mutual Broadcasting System and its radio station WOR, caving under pressure from their affiliates and corporate sponsors, abruptly canceled The Mysterious Traveler and Robert Arthur's career as a Radio Writer effectively ended. The Mysterious Traveler had consistently been rated among the top sixteen most popular Radio programs of the era. Robert Arthur, Jr. had written and produced over five hundred radio scripts for his two shows as well as for Dark Destiny, The Sealed Book, The Shadow, and Nick Carter, Master Detective.

After 1952, Arthur worked as a co-producer for ABC's radio show Mystery Time as well as continuing to write and publish pulp fiction. In 1959, he moved to Hollywood where he worked in television, writing scripts for The Twilight Zone. He also worked as a story editor and script writer for Alfred Hitchcock's long-running Alfred Hitchcock Presents for television. Robert Arthur, Jr. is also credited with writing most of Hitchcock's droll prologues for the Alfred Hitchcock Presents programs.

He moved back to New Jersey in 1962, where he lived with his father's aunt, Margaret Fisher Arthur, until his death in 1969 at the age of 59.

Among pulp fiction fans and Golden Age Radio fans alike, Robert Arthur's stories and scripts remain some of the most rivetting, compelling fiction from the Golden Age. He and his partner, David Kogan, continue to acquire new fans with every passing generation through the enduring magic of Golden Age Radio.

1950
'Edgar' for Best Radio Drama for Murder by Experts
1953
'Edgar' for Best Radio Mystery Drama for The Mysterious Traveler.

Radiography:
1943
The Mysterious Traveler
1945
Adventure into Fear
1945
The Sealed Book
1950
Suspense
1950
The Teller of Tales