Do you remember Alfred Hitchcock's album of ghost stories?

Tales of ghostly pirates, spooky magicians and creepy hitchhikers scared and delighted kids in the Sixties.

Golden Records

Alfred Hitchcock not only mastered the art of moviemaking but also lent his stature to successful shows Alfred Hitchcock Presents then The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. His dry introductions to thrilling stories were a hilarious counterpart to Rod Serling's straightforward demeanor on The Twilight Zone.

But Hitchcock ventured into a third medium in the 1960s: vinyl. Specifically, the master of suspense produced a spoken word album of spooky stories for younger audiences. He recorded an intro and outro for the album as well as small bits between each story. The tales themselves were written and recorded by actor John Allen.

Most are original. The first entry “The Haunted and the Haunters” shares a title with a ghost story written by Victorian author Edward Bulwer-Lytton but the plots are different. In fact, the alternate title for Bulwer-Lytton's story is "Or, the House and the Brain" while on Alfred Hitchcock Presents Ghost Stories for Young People it's officially called "The Haunted and the Haunters (The Pirate's Curse)."

The track "The Open Window" is an adaptation of a short story by macabre author Hector Hugh Munro, who wrote under the name Saki. The rest of the album features tracks about a spooky magician, a creepy hitchhiker, a dastardly dare gone wrong and a mysterious fable called "Jimmy Takes Vanishing Lessons."

While the record was made for kids, the addition of sound effects and music make for a fun and sometimes genuinely unnerving listen for ghost story fans of all ages. Plus, the introductions from Hitchcock himself — which start off with a joke about the unsettling sound of dripping water and turn into Hitch having to contend with a full-blown flood — are funny comic relief.

Do you remember listening to this album as a kid? You can play Hitchcock's introduction below or hear the whole LP here.


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45 Comments

JHP 15 months ago
I was maybe 4th or 5th grade - The Green Ghost - I would take out of the library every week - what brilliance - not me but him
8176morgan 27 months ago
When I was in the third grade, which was back in the year 1968, one day our teacher played the Alfred Hitchcock ghost stories record to our class and I well remember the story about the girl who plays a trick on a rather neurotic man telling him how her aunt expects a couple of people and their dog to return who had disappeared three years ago and low and behold they return because they hadn’t disappeared at all. It frightened the man off. A great story, just loved it as a kid. I also used to watch AHP whenever I got the opportunity and can’t recall seeing an episode back then that I didn’t think was great. A few that I remember seeing were. Malice Domestic, Escape To Sonoita, Don’t Interrupt, and Man From the South.
HalCromwell 29 months ago
When I was young (I'm pushing 70), I read a series of books called Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators. It was about 3 teenage investigators who worked under Hitchcock (think the Hardy Boys and Bossley from Charlies Angles). Does anybody remember those?
KJExpress HalCromwell 29 months ago
Yes! I loved those. I actually found some at a book sale several years ago and bought them. It looks like in later years they modernized the illustrations. But yes, I always liked those sorts of mystery books as a kid. 😄
2103634076 29 months ago
Wasn’t a big fan of horror pictures but in a small town, if one was playing, you went because everyone else did. As a HS soph. I saw the Exorcist. I swear on my Gramma Myrt, at night for 3 months , I drove with my dome light on. I watch the old horror pics but not hack em ups of today. GRUESOME as Myrt would say.
Andybandit 29 months ago
I don't remember the Albert Hitchcock Episodes
8176morgan Andybandit 27 months ago
That's because there weren't any, only Alfred Hitchock Episodes!
JHP 29 months ago
my first fav book was The Green Ghost - I was in ele school at the time
LoveMETV22 29 months ago
Saw a commercial the other day. MeTV will be broadcasting Halloween episodes next weekend.
Of course particular shows that have Halloween based episodes. It shows on SCHEDULE right next to the MeTV logo next Friday- Sunday.
LoveMETV22 LoveMETV22 29 months ago
MeTV just posted the Halloween episodes schedule for next weekend Friday -Sunday/Halloween weekend in the Stories section.
MarkSpeck 29 months ago
Myself, I'm looking for another album he was involved with...Alfred Hitchcock Presents Music to Be Murdered By. I believe it's on the Imperial label, which at the time was home to Fats Domino and Ricky Nelson.
scp MarkSpeck 29 months ago
I just recently bought a collection of Halloween music and it has a segment from that, including the intro by Hitchcock.
AEDC49 29 months ago
I had the original and don't want to make a spoiler for anyone that will check it out so will just give key word "squirrel"! Was amusing to hear for first time then etc!
Mannixishot 29 months ago
I love the Alfred Hitchcock shows.
8176morgan Mannixishot 27 months ago
Me too! Maybe that's why it's shown on MeTv every night - cause we're not the only ones!
MrsPhilHarris 29 months ago
I would have loved to have had that album. It sounds like so much fun.
8176morgan MrsPhilHarris 27 months ago
I believe that's its available to listen to on the internet.
MrsPhilHarris 8176morgan 27 months ago
Yes I believe it is.
Runeshaper 29 months ago
Never knew about Alfred Hitchcock's album of ghost stories...until now! Thanks, MeTV! (-:
KJExpress 29 months ago
I didn't know about this album, but I do remember my elementary school library having some books that featured horror stories with a preface by Alfred Hitchcock. Some of the illustrations even featured his face!

I did have an album called "Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House", or something like that. It featured groans and rattling chains and shrieks. My brother and I would listen to it with the lights out and scare ourselves. 😱👻
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mkzzk KJExpress 29 months ago
The panic that everyone knows about that never actually occurred:
http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2014/04/war-worlds-panic-never-really-happened/
KJExpress mkzzk 29 months ago
Gee, they did a TV show and documentaries about it and everything. I'll check this out later. Link doesn't work on my phone.
kkvegas KJExpress 29 months ago
I had that record and loved it. I made a digital copy of it and then sold it on eBay a few years ago.
KJExpress kkvegas 29 months ago
I was surprised to see it was still out there. I guess it was quite popular back in the day. 😃
Zip 29 months ago
I don't remember that recording, but does anyone remember those cardboard records that used to come on some cereal boxes? I loved those things! We had a trip through a haunted house one and another one that skipped at the end so that when the narrator said, "...And inside that box... WAS A THING!!!!"
We only heard, "Wa..HING!!!" We thought maybe it was just some weird object that was named some weird name. We finally figured it out though.

Boy, I wish I still had some of those cereal records. They weren't very durable though.
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MrsPhilHarris Zip 29 months ago
I do remember them but I don’t think I had any. My parents would only buy certain kinds of cereal. My neighbour had a small collection of cereal box 45s though.
MrsPhilHarris KJExpress 29 months ago
Neither did mine.
Peter_Falk_Fan Catman 29 months ago
I read a lot of Mad magazines when I was a kid. I had one of their square, black record inserts. It would eventually get bent and wouldn't play anymore.
lynngdance Zip 29 months ago
Are you sure it was the record skipping? I mean, I think I saw some kind of strange creature roaming around…
Stoney 29 months ago
This is very cool. Wonder how much one of these would cost on eBay...
Stoney 29 months ago
This comment has been removed.
Stoney stephaniestavr5 29 months ago
Really more of a rhetorical, tongue-in-cheek thing than anything else, but that admittedly gets lost in this format :)
MrsPhilHarris Stoney 29 months ago
I understood you.
Stoney 29 months ago
This comment has been removed.
Stoney stephaniestavr5 29 months ago
I don't think you're stupid. I think it was just a simple misunderstanding that could have happened to anybody. Let's leave it at that. :)
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