Newsletter October 2026

NEWSLETTER | VOL. 66, October 2026

Welcome to this month’s edition of The Hollywood 360 Newsletter, your place to get all the news on upcoming shows, schedule and interesting facts from your H360 team!

Carl’s Corner

by Carl Amari

Hello everyone. Here’s the Hollywood 360 newsletter, October, 2026 / Vol. 66. As someone on our mailing list, you’ll receive the most current newsletter via email on the first day of every month. If you don’t receive it by the end of the first day of the month, check your spam folder as they can end up there. If it is not in your regular email inbox or in your spam folder, contact me at carlpamari@gmail.com and I’ll forward you a copy. The monthly Hollywood 360 newsletter contains articles from my team and the full month’s detailed schedule of the classic radio shows that will air on Hollywood 360. During the month of October, we’ll celebrate Halloween all month! Here are some of the great “scary” classic radio episodes we’ll offer in October: The Mysterious Traveler, Escape, Suspense, Murder At Midnight, Inner Sanctum, The Shadow, The Whistler, Lights Out!, Quiet Please! and The Sealed Book. We’ll also offer Halloween episodes from non-scary series including Boston Blackie, The Great Gildersleeve, The Jack Benny Program, Grand Marque, The Abbott & Costello Show and The Adv. of Archie Andrews. Some of the actors you’ll hear performing in these broadcasts include: Robert Taylor, Bela Lugosi, John Carradine, Ralph Edwards, Orson Welles, Peter Lorre, Vincent Price, Agnes Moorehead and Richard Widmark. The week of October 17th, we’ll present the most famous episode of Suspense ever presented, “Sorry, Wrong Number” starring Agnes Moorehead (This photo is Ms. Moorehead performing this fascinating episode in the CBS studios. The man is Berne Surrey, the sound effects chief at CBS). Due to its overwhelming popularity, “Sorry, Wrong Number” became the most famous broadcast in the show’s history. It was performed a total of eight times over Suspense’s 20-year run and, in 1948, was adapted into a motion picture starring Barbara Stanwyck. Directed by Anatole Litvak, the film noir classic earned Stanwyck an Academy Award nomination for her performance as Mrs. Stevenson — Burt Lancaster co-starred as her husband. I promise you, you won’t want to miss this 1948 Suspense radio broadcast of “Sorry, Wrong Number.” Stay safe. Blessings, Carl Amari

SORRY, WRONG NUMBER

by Carl Amari

Broadcast on CBS Radio from 1942 to 1962, Suspense was hailed as “radio’s outstanding theater of thrills” and stands as one of the premier drama programs of the Golden Age of Radio. Known for its high production values, cinematic sound design, and an anthology format that featured a different harrowing tale each week, the series regularly attracted Hollywood’s biggest movie stars—including Cary Grant, Orson Welles, and Humphrey Bogart—to play ordinary people thrust into extraordinary, terrifying situations.

Written by Lucille Fletcher, the legendary 1943 episode “Sorry, Wrong Number” centers on Mrs. Stevenson, an affluent, bedridden, and neurotic woman waiting alone in her New York City apartment. While attempting to place a late-night telephone call to her busy husband, a crossed wire accidentally connects her to an ongoing conversation between two men. To her mounting horror, she overhears them plotting the cold-blooded murder of an unidentified woman, scheduled to take place at 11:15 that very night. Compelled to stop the impending crime, she frantically reaches out to the operator, the police, and a hospital, but is repeatedly dismissed or told that nothing can be done without a specific address or concrete evidence.

As the clock ticks closer to the appointed hour, Mrs. Stevenson’s mounting panic escalates as she pieces together chilling clues suggesting she might be intimately connected to the dangerous plot unfolding around her. Left vulnerable in her quiet home with an absent husband and a dismissed maid, she uses her telephone as a frantic lifeline to navigate the terrifying labyrinth of bureaucracy and isolation. The broadcast was repeated on Suspense eight times. It remains a masterclass in psychological tension and acoustic suspense, relying entirely on sound effects and stellar voice acting to build an atmosphere of dread without ever spoiling its final, masterfully executed twists.

$400 VALUE – YOURS FOR ONLY $100 — SPECIAL BLOW-OUT SALE ON 50 AUDIO CDS OF 100 CLASSIC RADIO SHOWS!!!

Each month we order extra audio CD sets for Classic Radio Club members and once or twice per year we offer a blow-out sale on the excess inventory.

You can buy 10 sets (50 audio CDs) with brilliant-sounding classic radio shows for OUR MANUFACTURING COSTS … Just $1 per half-hour classic radio show which is just $2 per audio CD, plus we include 10 storage cases and liner notes (each liner notes booklet is 12 pages and features pictures of the radio stars) that detail every show!

You can receive 100 half-hour classic radio shows on 50 audio CDs for only $100 plus $10 shipping and handling WHILE SUPPLIES LAST. These CD sets won’t last long so order by calling 1-815-900-7535 and leave your name and return phone number and Carl or Lisa will call you back to take your order.

If you are a Classic Radio Club member, we suggest you do not place an order as you will likely receive duplicate classic radio shows from your monthly CD sets. But if you are not a Classic Radio Club member, there are no duplicate shows in the 100 half-hour classic radio shows you will receive.

Order by calling 1-815-900-7535 and leave your name and return phone number and Carl or Lisa will call you back to answer any questions or take your order. Make sure to hurry and order before we run out of excess stock.

PS: If you’d like to learn more about the Classic Radio Club or The Ultimate Classic Radio Collection, visit our brand new website at www.classicradioclub.com

LEND ME YOUR EARS by Lisa Wolf

“Thriller” by Michael Jackson

Watch On YouTube

By the time October rolls around, Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” is everywhere—and for good reason. It has the perfect mix of a great beat, spooky sound effects, and just enough fun to make it a Halloween favorite year after year.

The song was released as a single in 1984, after first appearing on Jackson’s Thriller album in 1982. It had the beat, the creepy sound effects, and the now-famous Vincent Price spoken-word section. But what really made “Thriller” unforgettable was the video.

At nearly 14 minutes long, it was more like a short horror movie than a typical music video. Directed by John Landis, it opens with Michael Jackson and his date watching a scary movie. Before long, Jackson turns into a werewolf, then later becomes a zombie dancing with a whole group of other zombies. The red jacket, the graveyard, and that choreography are all part of pop-culture history now.

At the time, MTV was still relatively new, and “Thriller” helped show just how big a music video could be. People did not just enjoy the song—they wanted to see the video again and again. It had a story, costumes, makeup, special effects, and a dance everyone wanted to learn.

Vincent Price’s contribution is a big part of the fun, too. His voice gives the song an old-fashioned horror-movie feel, and his laugh at the end is still instantly recognizable. It was a perfect match: a legendary actor known for spooky films joining one of the biggest pop stars in the world.

“Thriller” was more than a hit video—it became a piece of American pop-culture history. In 2009, the Library of Congress added it to the National Film Registry, making it the first music video selected for preservation because of its cultural, historical, and artistic importance.

That is why “Thriller” has lasted. It is spooky, but not too scary. It is dramatic, but it also has a sense of fun. More than 40 years later, it is still one of those songs that makes Halloween feel like Halloween.

HOLLYWOOD 360 Broadcast Schedule for October, 2026 (episodes subject to change):

10/3/26

THE JACK BENNY PROGRAM 4/25/54 Jack and the cast hold a seance w/ Jack and all his gang

SUSPENSE 2/2/43 The Doctor Prescribed Death w/ Bela Lugosi

GRAND MARQUE 8/21/47 Haunt Me a House w/ Jim Ameche

THE MYSTERIOUS TRAVELER 4/20/48 Murder in Jazz Time w/ Maurice Tarplin

ESCAPE 8/11/49 Red Wine w/ Willard Waterman

10/10/26

THE GREAT GILDERSLEEVE 4/20/49 Exploring a Haunted House w/ Hal Peary

SUSPENSE 9/2/42 The Hitchhiker w/ Orson Welles

MURDER AT MIDNIGHT 11/25/46 The Creeper w/ Raymond Morgan

INNER SANCTUM MYSTERY 5/22/45 Dead to Rights w/ Berry Kroeger

THE WEIRD CIRCLE 12/5/43 The Great Plague w/ Arnold Moss

10/17/26

BOSTON BLACKIE 10/29/46 Granny’s Witchcraft w/ Dick Kollmar

SUSPENSE 11/18/48 Sorry, Wrong Number w/ Agnes Moorehead

THE SHADOW 3/12/44 Death to the Shadow w/ Bret Morrison

THE WHISTLER 10/22/50 The Wall w/ Jean Tatum

THE HALL OF FANTASY 4/10/47 Man-Sized in Marble w/ Carl Grayson

10/24/26

THE BUD ABBOTT & LOU COSTELLO SHOW 1/13/44 w/ guest, Peter Lorre

ESCAPE 3/17/50 Three Skeleton Key w/ Vincent Price

LIGHTS OUT! 1/26/43 The Projective Mr. Drogen w/ Edgar Barrier

SUSPENSE 12/5/46 The House in Cypress Canyon w/ Robert Taylor

QUIET PLEASE! 3/15/48 Meeting at Ticonderoga w/ Ernest Chappel

10/31/26

SUSPENSE 6/23/49 Ghost Hunt w/ Ralph Edwards

THE ADV. OF ARCHIE ANDREWS 10/30/48 Halloween Party w/ Bob Hastings

MYSTERY HOUSE 1944 The Thirsty Death w/ Bela Lugosi and John Carradine

INNER SANCTUM MYSTERY 9/11/45 The Last Story w/ Richard Widmark

THE SEALED BOOK 4/15/45 Escape By Death w/ Philip Clarke

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