Old Orchard Beach

And historically, he wasn't technically the first to try it.

Back in 1937, a Paramount News photographer named Al Mingalone had tied 32 weather balloons to himself for an aerial filming assignment at Old Orchard Beach in Maine.

When his mooring rope snapped, Mingalone was carried 700 feet into the air until a local clergyman, Father James J. Mullen, chased him down for 13 miles and used a .22 caliber rifle to shoot out two of the balloons, bringing him down safely.

But it was Larry's nineteen eighty-two flight that ignited a global wave of daring imitators.

Yeah, the taxes and everything.

Yeah, like, even out here, like, one of the most, one of the best school districts in all of Maine is Old Orchard Beach, and people only live there half the year because they make so much money over the summer that they have that much money in taxes that, like, it's the best school district in, like, [laughs] all of Southern Maine.

Because...

And it's not that many people, because, like, not a lot of people live there year-round.

Yeah, that was from, I believe, Western Union.

Remember when I got that really bad scam that, um, I rented a house in Old Orchard Beach?

Oh.

Oh, that one was bad.

You heard John Koons as the narrator, Christopher Reiling as David, Philip Hobby as Matt, Rowan Hoyt as the girl, Rob Hoyt as the father, Gabriel Whitman as the boy, and Stacey Ann Strang as the mother.

This production was recorded on location in Old Orchard Beach, Maine, and featured live effects recorded in the field and supplemental effects from SoundDogs.com and original music by Stu Mahon.

Special thanks to Peter and Marge Titcomb for use of their location, to WMPG for their broadcast resources, and to Roger Gregg, David Shin, Richard Fish, and the many instructors at the National Audio Theatre Festival for their kind and productive guidance.

And that was Dark Passenger, one of my first forays into field-recorded audio drama, a production method that leads in a somewhat jagged, bloody line to my working on Lock and Key for Audible, and then from there to the terrifying tales I bring to you today here on Undertow.

Did he, did he know...

Do you think he knew the illegal alien who was on the police department in Old Orchard Beach just a little bit south of the, [laughs] south of, uh, where you were?

And, and you know what, Howie? I believe it because I, I have to say during my time in Maine-

Yeah

What I don't understa- I, I mentioned this last week, I think, when this story first broke when they, they, the ICE came in and arrested a jail guard.

A jail guard.

And this is, like, the second or third one in Maine, and plus the, plus the, the cop with a gun in Old Orchard Beach.

And I s- And they s- And Sheriff Joyce said, "Well, we gave him a lie detector test." A- and number one, there's a reason why lie detectors are not admissible.