Science Fiction - Sleepy Radio · Various Authors

Superman - Mystery Of The Little Men

March 14, 2026·27 min·2 clips

Police Inspector Henderson shocks Clark and Lois by saying the little men visited him too.

1. "The Adventures of Superman" presents "The Mystery of the Little Men," a comedy-mystery radio episode featuring Clark Kent investigating identical sightings of tiny laughing figures across Metropolis. 2. The episode stars Bud Collier as Superman/Clark Kent and Joan Alexander as Lois Lane, with music by John Garth and narration by Jackson Beck. 3. The episode's core puzzle is whether the twelve-inch men are real or mass hysteria — and why they are appearing exclusively to people connected to the Metropolis Daily Planet. 4. Lois Lane opens the story by calling Clark Kent at midnight, describing three tiny figures in top hats, striped trousers, frock coats, and small umbrellas standing on her twelfth-floor apartment windowsill, laughing with a shrill, spine-chilling sound. 5. The next morning, copy boy Beanie privately tells Kent he thought he had a dream in which he saw three tiny men on his windowsill — a detail Kent recognizes immediately as matching Lois's description exactly. 6. Editor Perry White summons Kent to his office and confesses that he took his first whiskey drink in five years the previous evening and afterward saw three little men on his bedroom windowsill, fearing it was a hallucination caused by the alcohol. 7. Kent assembles Lois, Beanie, and White to compare notes: all three saw the same figures between 8 p.m. and midnight, establishing that the sightings are real events rather than coincidences. 8. When Kent and Lois visit police inspector Henderson to request protective surveillance, Henderson reveals he too woke at 2 a.m. to find the same three tiny men on his windowsill, and he reached for his gun but they disappeared. 9. The pattern shifts when private detective Candy Myers — described as the best in the country — walks into the Daily Planet office and casually mentions that three tiny men woke him at 1 a.m. at the Metropolis Hotel, broadening the sighting circle beyond Daily Planet employees. 10. Kent tells Lois he believes he knows the solution to the mystery but withholds it, proposing a stakeout at Perry White's house that night. 11. The stakeout group — Kent, Lois, White, Beanie, and Henderson — waits in a half-darkened room with a window left open; White falls asleep and snores while denying he was sleeping. 12. The tiny men duly appear at the open window, laughing insanely, as Kent slips out the front door. 13. Superman transforms outside and leaps across the lawn to tackle a human figure hiding behind a bush — the person operating the creatures remotely. 14. The figure turns out to be Candy Myers himself, who admits the entire scheme was an elaborate prank: the "little men" are miniature marmosets he brought back from Brazil, dressed in tiny formal clothes. 15. Myers explains he designed the gag to create a mystery that none of his detective and journalist friends could solve, but Kent (as Superman) was too quick. 16. Inspector Henderson threatens to throw Myers in jail; Myers takes the compliments in stride. 17. The episode's tone is light comic mystery, with rapid banter between White, Lois, Beanie, and Kent providing most of the humor. 18. The format is classic 1940s adventure radio: omniscient narrator, sound effects, sponsor interruptions, and a self-contained mystery resolved within a single episode. 19. Listeners who enjoy classic superhero radio drama with a comedic mystery premise and period banter will appreciate this episode. 20. Listeners seeking action-driven Superman content or significant use of superhero powers will find this episode largely a drawing-room comedy with a brief climactic scene.

As heard by us

A midnight scare turns the Daily Planet into a fast, funny little-men mystery.

Lois Lane waking to eerie midnight laughter gives the piece an immediate jolt, and it settles into familiar serial trouble fast: the Daily Planet, Clark Kent, and a baffling set of little visitors all get pulled toward the same uneasy question.

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A midnight laugh wakes Lois, and Superman's Daily Planet newsroom starts chasing the mystery of the little men.

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