Fire in the Sterling Building: The Adventures of Superman (March 4, 1940)

The Adventures of Superman, old-time radio on Stupid Potato

“Fire in the Sterling Building” is an episode of The Adventures of Superman, the old-time radio show, first broadcast March 4, 1940. Listen free on Stupid Potato: no sign-up, no app.

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What happens

Clark Kent, a reporter for the Daily Planet, rushes with the photographer Mike to a fire in the Sterling Tower. Word has come that a girl is trapped on the twentieth floor, and the fire marshal suspects the blaze may have been set deliberately. Kent and Mike set up near the burning building to get photographs, while Kent keeps watch for the editor's calls. As the wall begins to crack, a girl appears at a window high above the street, but the firemen below cannot see her. Kent is left to wonder about her story, and about the man he believes he saw flying from the window, as the episode ends with her being carried to an ambulance and her words unexplained.

Metropolis, during a fire in the Sterling Tower building

Characters: Clark Kent, Mike, Mr. White, Lois Lane, Girl trapped on the twentieth floor

Listen for: The girl's words in the ambulance, and Kent's account of the figure he saw leave the window

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.