Death Is No Joke: Box 13 (1948)

“Death Is No Joke” is an episode of Box 13, the old-time radio show, first broadcast in 1948. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Dan Holiday arrives at the Trendler estate after receiving a mysterious letter from his friend Alex. A valuable inheritance has brought Bernard Trendler home after 15 years away, and since his arrival, the household has been plagued by increasingly vicious practical jokes that are escalating from harmless pranks to genuinely dangerous incidents.

The Trendler family estate, a wealthy household with multiple rooms including a library and bedrooms.

Characters: Dan Holiday, Alex Jovon, Bernard Trendler, Henry Trendler, Martha Trendler, Ruth, Susie

Listen for: The escalating nature of the practical jokes and hints about who might be behind them; tension between the household members over Bernard's inheritance.

Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.