Colin Fleming remains haunted by Black Mass, the 1960s “literate horror radio program” hosted by Erik Bauersfeld:
Any Black Mass fan will tell you that the episodes can be hit or miss, and this is, in large part, a prime selling point for them. Because if you hate one, chances are the next show will be right up your street. The warhorses are here — productions of Poe’s “Tell-Tale Heart” and Lovecraft’s “The Rats in the Walls” — but the most Black Mass-y fare is stuff like a haunted take on Melville’s “Bartleby, the Scrivener,” assorted Ambrose Bierce shows, a generous helping of the perpetually under-read Lord Dunsany, and some Bram Stoker with that author, in Bauersfeld’s intro, said never to have existed at all, the name being but the nom de plume for that mad, over-caffeinated, deadline besotted, midnight oil-burner, Dracula. Ha. And awesome.
So: There’s some suspension of belief at work here, and good Danse Macabre fun going down, but what is going to creep you out — and I have no doubt about this — is Bauersfeld himself. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard anyone so throw themselves into their parts, and I have no problem envisioning the froth around Bauersfeld’s mouth as he disclaims, bemoans, croaks, comes back from the dead, talks like a woman, goes mad, contemplates suicide, manifests, enjoins, scares. Cuts loose, as it were.
Above you can listen to Bauersfeld’s take on Poe’s “The Imp of the Perverse.” Listen to many more episodes here.
