Frankenstein

Produced by George Edwards, Frankenstein was a radio series adapted from Mary Shelley’s novel The Modern Prometheus. The story was about Baron Victor Frankenstein, a genius yet mad scientist who thinks that he can create a living man from dead bodies. In total, 13 episodes were recorded until its end in 1932.

Shelley's original story is the inspiration for a thirteen-part 1938 serial from the branch of Transco Syndications. Karloff is featured in air trailers for Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, Son of Frankenstein, and House of Frankenstein, and plays the Monster opposite Santa Claus on It's Time to Smile. Suspense, The Weird Circle, and The Witch's Tale all present versions of the original story.

Mary Shelley created the book on a rainy afternoon in 1816 in Geneva, where she was staying with her husband, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, their friend Lord Byron and Lord Byron's physician, John Polidori. The group, trapped indoors by the inclement weather, passed the time telling and writing ghost stories. The ideas for both Frankenstein, and Polidori's The Vampyre, which was published in 1819, were both born that day.

Although serving as the basis for the Western horror story and the inspiration for numerous movies in the 20th century, the book Frankenstein is much more than pop fiction. The story explores philosophical themes and challenges Romantic ideals about the beauty and goodness of nature.

Mary Shelley led a life nearly as tumultuous as the monster she created. The daughter of free-thinking philosopher William Godwin and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, she lost her mother days after her birth. She clashed with her stepmother and was sent to Scotland to live with foster parents during her early teens, then eloped with the married poet Shelley when she was 17. After Shelley’s wife committed suicide in December of 1816, the couple married but spent much of their time abroad, fleeing Shelley’s creditors. Mary Shelley gave birth to five children, but only one lived to adulthood. 

Mary was only 24 years old when Shelley drowned in a sailing accident; she went on to edit two volumes of his works. Aside from her earnings from writing, she lived on a small stipend from her father-in-law, Lord Shelley, until her surviving son inherited his fortune and title in 1844. She died at the age of 53.