Valley of the Living Dead, 1-22-1939

Blue Coal is the advertiser. The show opens with an ad. (The quality of this recording is listenable, but there's a tremendous amount of crackling.)

Margo and Lamont are driving in the desert. He says he's been looking for a mountain range, investigating a rumor he had heard about people acting strangely. They stop at a gas station. The gas guy tells Lamont that the road he sees is not very good. The guy talks about the place on the other side of the mountain is owned by a guy and it's a town, but you have to be totally broke to live there.

The guy tells them that eight to nine hundred people live there. The owner put a stop to a mining operation that had been going on there that the people were doing. He demands no money in the town.

Boulders come down the hill and nearly hit their car. Then there's another one. Lamont and Margo realize that there is an electric eye that starts the boulders rolling towards any traffic. Lamont then says they will go in by plane.

Next they are in a plane. They spot the valley. The plane goes lower to a height of 100 feet. He sees the people moving lifelessly. Men are lying in the grass. People aren't talking to each other and no one is paying attention to the plane. They spot a castle. Lamont is flying the plane. The castle has a flag on it and Lamont recognizes the name of the guy.

Lamont and Margo get to the castle. Margo says she feels weak. She starts to faint. Mr. Maxim, the owner of the place, carries her into the house. He says he remembers Lamont. Lamont asks Maxim about the boulders, and he admits that he is doing that on purpose. He wants nothing on the outside world to touch his people.

Margo wakes up, but Maxim tells her she must continue to rest. Then a woman in a wheelchair appears and asks Margo if she's sick. The woman is Maxim's wife. They hear some kind of sound which the woman thinks is her son's voice (even though it sounds like an animal).

Then there's another commercial for Blue Coal.

His son appears. He's in a steel cast of some kind that he says is causing him pain. The boy says he's getting worse. The kid says he'll get the cast off. Meanwhile the Shadow is there and talks to the boy. He takes the cast off the boy. He tells the kid to try to stand and the kid is able to. His father has been lying all along.

'Yours is not the only bondage to be broken tonight,' the Shadow tells the boy.

Lamont and Margo are talking. They go into the village. Lamont calls what the villagers are going through a living death. The villagers are all asleep. They go into a house. Lamont says he will go house by house to 'free them from the bondage in their submission.'

The Shadow hears a guy talking to himself about being soft. The Shadow tells them to go to the mines and start to work. He says Maxim has taken from their freedom. After a while lights go on in the houses, and the people go to the gold mines to start them working.

Lamont and Margo head back to the castle. They enter and the Shadow goes to Maxim's room. Maxim is complaining people claiming they have betrayed him. The Shadow talks to Maxim's wife. He tells the woman to get out of her bed and fight her weakness. The woman manages to get up.

Maxim says the people want freedom apart from him. He complains to his wife that she's standing alone. The Shadow then is heard by Maxim. The Shadow tells Maxim that he felt good in his giving to the people, but he took away their freedom. He adds that Maxim is utterly selfish. Maxim tells the Shadow he will talk to the people and give them their choice of life or death.

Maxim gets to where the people are and he commands the people stop the drills. He says he will always provide for the people. He says the valley is here, and anyone living there has to do what he says. The people aren't buying Maxim's words. Maxim says he will kill the people and he plans to turn a lever to flood the valley and kill all the people.

Maxim talks about corruption of the outside world. The water starts flowing. Cranston appears and helps Maxim turn the wheel so the water stops flowing.

Maxim has been injured somehow. He sees his wife and son walking towards him. Maxim claims he's dying and he is.

Then there's another commercial.

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