36xxxx 087 Sailing For The Magic Island: Magic Island

Magic Island, old-time radio on Stupid Potato

“36xxxx 087 Sailing For The Magic Island” is an episode of Magic Island, the old-time radio show that aired in 1950. Listen free on Stupid Potato: no sign-up, no app.

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What happens

The Gregory party sails from Los Angeles Harbor a second time, bound for the Magic Island in the South Pacific. Joan, a young woman raised on the island, is uneasy about the voyage, and her mother Mrs. Gregory tries to lift her spirits. Jerry, who left home without his father's permission, joins them as Captain Tex Bradford keeps watch from the radio room. Late at night, the captain picks up a faint transmission from a Euclidean submarine commander, who sounds troubled and is calling for help. The message breaks off with a warning that a man named Thales is on board a boat, and the group must work out what she meant.

A ship sailing from Los Angeles Harbor toward the Magic Island in the South Pacific, at night, with the radio room and the ship's deck and cabins.

Characters: Joan, Mrs. Gregory, Jerry Hall, Captain Tex Bradford, Jones, Thales, Commander S1, G47

Listen for: The garbled radio call from the submarine commander, and the realization that the warning that Thales is on board refers to their own boat.

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.