1942-12-20 The Case of the Talking Skull

Broadcast December 20th 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. If you have a copy of the script please let me know.

Written by: Jack Hastings, Max Ehrlich and/or Sidney Slon

Announcer: Ken Roberts

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

Music: Elsie Thompson

Synopsis:

With Margot, Lamont and Commissioner Weston in attendance, among some thirty prominent society members, Benton Channing is shot and killed during a séance. Bel-Narma, the recently popular medium who conducts séances with the dead through a talking skull at the center of his table, claims to have had no hand in the murder. Lamont poses as The Shadow to confront Walter Parks, a banker who reveals that Channing had embezzled half a million dollars from his late partner’s firm. Parks worked with Bel-Narma to front an alibi while eliminating the embezzler who would not pay him blackmail. Parks made the skull talk by throwing his voice. Confronted with the truth, Parks fires a Tommy gun around the room, spraying every direction in an effort to kill The Shadow. Commissioner Weston and a detail of men hear the gunshots and break into the séance parlor. Parks, apparently mad, turns on them and bullets are exchanged. Before he dies, Parks confesses the whole plot. As for Lamont, he is lucky to be alive — Margot finds a bullet hole in his hat.