Good Evening, Boys and Ghouls: The Way It Was, 31 October

What would be a Halloween without a little shaking, rattling, and rolling from the great beyond as old-time radio has had it? It would be a little on the boring side, that's what it would be. Hence some tricks and treats from four of classic radio's classics.

As the lady with the movies likes to say, pleasant screams . . .

1946: LAZARUS WALKS---A man (Brian Donlevy) legally dead for four minutes revives with uncanny mind-reading ability, but his inability to lie melds to his new power for potential disaster, on tonight's edition of Suspense. (CBS.)

Additional cast: Hans Conreid, Cathy Lewis. Writer: Unknown.

1948: CATHERINE DAILY; OR, SUICIDE OR MURDER?---That's the last question Holliday (Alan Ladd) wants to answer but it's the only question on the mind of his latest correspondent (Betty Lou Gerson), who swears her son, a decorated war veteran, was murdered in a drunken brawl, on tonight's edition of Box 13. (Mutual.)

Kling: Edmund MacDonald. Suzy: Sylvia Packer. Additional cast: Alan Reed, Lurene Tuttle. Writer: Russell Hughes.

1948: CALLING ALL SOULS---On death row for multiple murder in Iowa, Louis (Ernest Chappell, also the narrator) seeks help proving his innocence from the most unlikely sources to be found, even on All Souls' Eve---the victims, on tonight's edition of Quiet, Please. (ABC.)

Delbert: Kermit Murdoch. Paris: Ralph Schoolman Etha: Mary Patton. Music: Albert Berman. Writer: Wyllis Cooper.

1949: A CORPSE FOR HALLOWEEN---A confined maniac decides to burn his way out of his confines with deadly results, on tonight's edition of The Inner Sanctum Mysteries. (CBS.)

Host: House Jameson. Jimmy: Larry Haines. Cavanaugh: Berry Kroger. Additional cast: Mercedes McCambridge. Writer: John Rogert.

PREMIERING TODAY . . .

1896---Ethel Waters (blues singer: American Revue; Command Performance; Jubilee), Chester, Pennsylvania.
1909---Thelma Boardman (actress: Mickey Mouse Theater of the Air; Lux Radio Theater), unknown.
1912---Dale Evans (The Queen of the Cowgirls, as Frances Octabia Smith; actress/singer: The Charlie McCarthy Show; The Roy Rogers Show), Uvalde, Texas.
1922---Barbara Bel Geddes (actress: Ford Theater; Cavalcade of America; Lux Radio Theater), New York City; Illinois Jacquet (jazz saxophonist: One Night Stand; Command Performance; Jubilee), Broussard, Louisiana.
1926---Shirley Dinsdale (actress/ventriloquist: Judy in Wonderland; The Eddie Cantor Show), San Francisco.
1928---Cleo Moore (as Cleouna Moore; actress: Bud's Bandwagon), Baton Rouge.