What happens
Ronald Adams drives alone across the United States, leaving his mother behind in Brooklyn. Along the way he keeps seeing the same thin, grey hitchhiker carrying a cheap overnight bag, and the man always appears where Adams least expects him. Adams tries to shake him off, but the sightings grow more frequent and more unsettling as the miles pass. This episode of The Mercury Theatre on the Air, first broadcast on September 2, 1942, is an adaptation of Lucille Fletcher's story, with Orson Welles in the title role. The guide covers only the opening portion of the story.
A solo road journey across the United States, from the East Coast through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas to New Mexico, Route 66 near Gallup.
Characters: Ronald Adams, Mother, The Hitchhiker, Mrs. Swinney
Listen for: The hitchhiker's appearances at the roadside, Adams's growing panic, and the telephone call to his mother's house in Brooklyn.
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.