1942-9-27 The Red Room

Broadcast September 27th 1942 on Mutual at 5:30 p.m. EST sponsored by D.L. & W. Coal Company "Blue Coal" and syndicated for the summer by Goodrich Tires

This is a lost episode and no recreation of it has yet been made.

Written by: Max Ehrlich

Announcer: Ken Roberts

Cast: Bill Johnstone (Lamont Cranston/The Shadow) Marjorie Anderson (Margot Lane)

Music: Elsie Thompson

Synopsis:

An amateur zoologist named Norcross imports flesh-eating ants from Brazil, sometimes called “The Red Demons of the Jungles,” and raises them for profit. He orders slabs of beef from local butcher shops to keep the ants at bay in his pit underneath a secret trap door. When his gunmen pick up prominent head bank tellers, the crooks force their victims to reveal all they know about safe combinations, making their bank robberies easy. After disposing of the tellers in the pit of ants, the police assume the missing employees committed the crimes and fled town. Lamont, however, suspects one teller is innocent and sets out to visit every butcher shop in the hopes of tracking down the identity of someone who would use the flesh-eating ants. When Norcross and his men are about to eliminate their latest teller, Martin Goodrich, The Shadow takes over the situation, keeping the gangsters distracted long enough for Commissioner Weston and men to come barging inside to arrest the guilty parties.

Note:

The script for this episode was published in Sanctum Reprint #25 The Gray Ghost & The White Skulls

This episode would later be rewritten as “The Black Pool” broadcast May 4th 1952.